Number 10 - Spring 2018
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
VIEW FROM THE RPS BENELUX CHAPTER ORGANISERS
The number of Chapter members has been steadily increasing over the past year and currently stands at 60. The Netherlands remains the most active country with 33 members, with 15 in Belgium, 6 in France, 3 in Luxembourg, and 1 member in each of Germany, the United Kingdom and Morocco.
The Royal Photographic Society Benelux Chapter Copyright The copyright of photographs and text in this eJournal belong to the author of the article of which they form part, unless otherwise indicated
The Chapter’s success in The Netherlands can be linked to the various activities which have been organized there, including the Rockin’ Rotterdam (RR) photo walks, book and exhibition. The Study Group continues to be a success with some new members joining who were RR public photographers. A number of other RPS Benelux Chapter activities have recently come to their conclusion. The Benelux Chapter Print Exhibition finished in Brussels (B) at the end of November. This exhibition, which was held at the Brussels Free University after previous showings at the RPS Headquarters in Bath (UK) and at the European Patent Office in Rijswijk (NL), included 29 images from 26 Benelux Chapter members. With no further location identified for this exhibition, members who would like to recuperate their prints should contact Janet. More recently, on 24 – 25 February, a very successful Distinction Celebration Weekend with some 25 participants was held in Ghent (B) under the guidance of Ray Spence, FRPS, chair of the Distinctions Committee. Examples of successful LRPS, ARPS and FRPS panels were presented on the first day, while Ray provided his expert advice on the panels that were submitted for the Advisory Day which followed. Further details concerning this event can be found elsewhere in this journal.
Cover photo Simon Roberts HonFRPS
Editor eJournal Armando Jongejan Proof reading Dawn Black Journal Editorial committee Richard Sylvester Eddie Maes (B) Dawn Black (NL) Simon Hauxwell (L) Janet Haines (NL) Webmaster Tony Roe
Based on the recent survey of Chapter member’s interests, the next Chapter event will be a Street Photography Workshop with professional photographer Rens Horn which will be held in Rotterdam on Saturday, 19 May. There will be a maximum of 15 places on this workshop and the cost will be € 28 each. As places are limited, we will offer these to members only up till March 18th. If there are then spare places, we will open the meeting up to non-RPS members. To secure your place, BOOK EARLY with Janet. For more information, see Janet’s e-mail from 1 February. So let us know if you would like a place on this exciting workshop. Information about other meetings and dates will be emailed out to everyone as soon as they are arranged. Also keep an eye on the web site www.rps.org/benelux.
And finally, this is your journal, both by you and for you. Please participate by submitting material to the journal. If you have a doubt concerning what to submit, please see previous issues of the journal for ideas or contact Armando directly. Janet Haines ARPS and Richard Sylvester LRPS PS. Photography & Society is a brand new, two-year master programme offered by the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) starting September, 2018. More information: https:// www.kabk.nl/en/programmes/master/master-photography-society?t
IN THIS ISSUE - SPRING 2018
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SIMON ROBERTS HonFRPS MERRIE ALBION | LANDSCAPE STUDIES OF A SMALL ISLAND
42 MAKERS OF MAGIC Richard Simmons
PREVIEW MONASTIC LIFE A NEW PHOTO BOOK Armando Jongejan FRPS
AND MORE 2
VIEW FROM THE RPS BENELUX CHAPTER ORGANISERS Janet Haines ARPS and Richard Sylvester LRPS
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IN THIS ISSUE
28 EXHIBITIONS Huis Marseille Museum voor Fotografie - Amsterdam
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NINE TIPS HOW TO GET A GOOD AERIAL PICTURE ON YOUR NEXT 30 RISE OF THE PHOTO ROBOTS Sean Goodhart LRPS FLIGHT Jana Teneva
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RPS BENELUX CHAPTER DISTINCTIONS CELEBRATIONS WEEKEND André Bergmans
33 THE BOX THAT UNBOXES Eddie Maes LRPS
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MERRIE ALBION - LANDSCAPE STUDIES OF A SMALL ISLAND
text by Armando Jongejan FRPS and Simon Roberts HonFRPS photos Simon Roberts HonFRPS Motherland and Monastic Life in Scotland Simon Roberts (Brighton - UK -1974) and I met in May 2009 during the RPS Scottish weekend in Dunfermline. This was a weekend with all kind of photographers showing a wide variety of Photography, with Historical, Natural History, Science, Journalism and Pictorial work. Simon was
invited to talk about his photo project Motherland. Between July 2004 and August 2005 Simon travelled across Russia and made his photographs in over 200 locations. We see no cliches, only photographs of an inspiring land: Motherland. I was invited to give a talk on Monastic Life. During the weekend we swapped books - I got his copy of Motherland (2007) and Simon got my book of Een zoektocht (A quest 2004).
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Shoreham Air Show, West Sussex Š Simon Roberts
I was impressed by his viewpoint, his way of capturing people and landscapes. His presentation was
not only about photography, but also about the process of creating a coherent body of work. When we first met he was very busy with his next project and photobook We English (2009). He travelled across England in a motorhome between 2007 and 2009 and made photographs of the English people at leisure. Ordinary people in their local environment. He left earlier that weekend, but we emailed every now and then. After that meeting we met a few years later in The Hague and I bought his book Pierdom (2013), which is a photo project about Britain’s Pleasure Piers seen with an historical eye on the architectural buildings and their modern functionality. His photography inspires me and his books are very inspiring to leaf through.
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Recently his new photobook Merrie Albion (2017) is published and I contacted Simon again. It was - as every photobook project - a lot of work. “Merrie Albion has been a roller-coaster of a ride and sucked so much time and energy out of me!” Simon wrote. So it is now time to share his new photo project with the members of our Benelux Chapter. It is an impressive book. He photographed events and
places across Britain that have drawn people together in public, communal experiences. This has often been an implicit theme of his work, the apparent desire for common presence and participation and the need to share a sense of belonging, suggesting something distinctive about the national character and identity.
Photography: Simon Roberts Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing, November 2017 Essays: Introductory essay by David Chandler and contributions from A.L. Kennedy, Alex Vasudevan, Carol Ann Duffy, David Matless, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Ian Jeffrey, Irenosen Okojie, Nikesh Shukla and Tristram Hunt. Price: GBP 45 + shipping Binding: Hardback ISBN: 978-1-911306-19-1 Extent: 152 pages Trim: 340mm x 283mm Photographs: 66 Colour
A form of ‘reporting’ Merrie Albion ranges across several of his projects from the last decade, projects that have explored not only our leisure landscape but also the social and political landscape. The book registers a
distinct shift in approach, and tone, from his work in We English. Roberts has exchanged the element of discovery and revelation evident in his earlier travels through England, for a form of ‘reporting’, in which he responds to subjects and places that are already firmly positioned within the public consciousness – defining locations in England’s recent national story. See next few pages for an impression of the book and photos. Distinctions Panel Members In 2018 Simon and I have been appointed to be Distinction Panel Members of Conceptual and Contemporary Photography for Associate (ARPS) and Fellowship (FRPS), so after nine years our paths cross again.
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Imber Village Open Day, Salisbury Plain Š Simon Roberts
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Beachy Head, Seven Sisters Country Park, East Sussex © Simon Roberts
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Broadstairs Dickens Festival, Isle of Thanet Š Simon Roberts
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Equestrian jumping in Greenwich Park at the London 2012 Olypmic Games Š Simon Roberts
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Goodman Park Polling Station, Slough © Simon Roberts
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Annual Eton College Procession of Boats, River Thames, Windsor Š Simon Roberts
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Diamond Jubilee Celebration, Craven Vale Estate, Brighton Š Simon Roberts
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Eid al-Fitr Celebrations, Jamia Mosque, Bristol Š Simon Roberts
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Prime Minister Theresa May, Downing Street, London Š Simon Roberts
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Grenfell Tower, North Kensington, London Š Simon Roberts
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MAKERS OF MAGIC
text and photos Richard Simmons I like photographs that tell a story My passions include photography, videography, other forms of visual art and music. I enjoy walking in the beautiful alpine region that has been my home for a number of years. I am studying archaeology and history in my spare time and I work in the field of Information Technology. I have never actually decided to specialise in a specific photographic genre. I like photographs that tell a story or that tell us something about the subject. This leaves me a lot of scope for photographic projects of all kinds.
In my family, no-one spent a lot of time taking pictures How many of us remember our first photograph: the image that started us off on a journey? For some, photography became a pastime, for others, a passion or possibly even a profession. Many will agree that photography has become an essential part of our lives.
When I was eight years old, I was given a second-hand Brownie box camera. It was already an antiquated piece of equipment when it came into my hands but I was excited. It was my very first camera and I became a photographer. In my family, no-one spent a lot of time taking pictures. Cameras occasionally appeared at Christmas, at weddings and during holidays. Worn-out, faded photos were stored in biscuit tins and taken out to be shown every few years at family reunions. No-one would actually waste time taking pictures as a hobby. So, I was on my own, left to my own devices and had to work out how to load the rolls of film into my Brownie, how to use the viewfinder, and above all, how to take a picture.
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A serious photographer was waiting to be born I still have my first image - an extremely low-angle shot of a pet rabbit. Vast expanses of blurry lawn lead the viewer’s eye to a tiny animal, cowering in the top right-hand corner of the frame. My very first subject was barely visible and rather out-of-focus. The picture has a sort of naive aesthetic
quality (which, I admit, was totally accidental) but I like to think that in the mind of that eight-year old boy, a serious photographer was waiting to be born. In those early days it took me several weeks to get through a roll of film and another week or two to get the prints back from the chemists. Then came the long-awaited moment when I could actually contemplate the results. Although I was never told how to frame my subject or to make use of light,
of angles or perspective, I gradually learnt by trial and error and by observing others’ photographs, trying to understand what I liked about them. The learning curve was slow, the process was frustrating but I understood how important it was to be critical of my own efforts, a lesson that served me well. I was given my first reflex camera when I was about 14 years old and soon I had a makeshift darkroom set up in the bathroom of my parent’s house. Every weekend, the bathroom was
requisitioned and, despite vigorous protests from my sisters, art and creativity always won the day. I would eagerly wait for the magical moment when lines and forms would appear from nowhere on a sheet of bromide paper, through the pungent fumes of the development tray. My nostrils still react when I recall those formative evenings, locked away in a small unventilated bathroom. Amateur photographers of my generation no doubt remember that a day’s shoot would come to an abrupt end when you ran out of film, pocket money or both. One had to be cautious and sparing, keeping the last few frames for the really good scenes. We anticipated the film to use by looking at
the day’s weather forecast and exposed each shot carefully, only bracketing when absolutely necessary.
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“You press the button, we do the rest” The move from film to digital, then from dedicated cameras to generic devices that take pictures, combined with the ease at which media can be published on the Internet means, for some, that photography has become too casual an activity. Indeed, anyone can pick up a smartphone, aim it
and shoot as often as they like. Under- and over-exposed pictures are things of the past. Out-offocus images can be corrected to give the so-called professional look. Instagram and Facebook have become virtual photo galleries allowing us to display our work, exchange ideas and receive feedback. In a way, the old Kodak advertising slogan “You press the button, we do the rest” has been taken to a whole new level but fundamentally remains true. George Eastman coined those famous words 130
years ago in 1888. For having invented this concept, should we accuse George Eastman of killing the art of photography or consider him as one of its founding fathers? Today, photography may be easy, but a great photograph is rarely the result of an accident. It doesn’t just happen. It requires feeling, thought and a certain amount of skill and work to produce. Neither the speed with which you can snap, visualise and transform your images, the number of pixels from your sensor nor the focal length of your lens will ever eliminate those requirements. So I believe there is little reason to be wary of change, new habits, technologies, and tendencies. On the contrary, we should embrace them and use them creatively to our advantage. I’m thrilled that taking photos has become easier and more accessible than when I started on my journey into photography. I’m pretty sure that somewhere in the world, an eight-year-old kid with a smartphone is going to become a great photographer and might even, one day, profoundly change the way we look at our society. Today, when I press the view button on my camera, a smile still comes to my face; a thrill still tingles through my body. The emotion is always the same. I become that eight-year-old boy once again. It was then and it still is now … pure magic. More about Richard and his passion: www.richardgeosimmons.com
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NINE TIPS HOW TO GET A GOOD AERIAL PICTURE ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT text and photos by Jana Teneva
Inspiration Maybe some of you know Yann Arthus-Bertrand, my absolute favourite aerial-photography and inspiration guru, however may be some never heard of him. But I am sure that all of you have seen breathtaking, magical or simply impressive aerial pictures and many of you have thought: “if only I
could one day take a picture like this�.
De Kaag - The Netherlands
A few years ago I started slowly but surely and also a bit unconsciously copying a good friend of mine, who is a passionate photographer and gets himself a window seat every single time he can (which is 95% of his flights). So here I am a few flights later, having experienced tons of weird looks, a few empty batteries, scratched windows, funny or less funny neighbours, cloudy skies, shaky flights & other unexpected moments. I am happy to share with you my handful of tips and tricks I have accumulated over the past few years and (of course) flights. Tips 1.
Get that good window seat: This requires that you do check-in early enough and select your
seat well. Make sure there is no wing next to you, which mean you should be somewhere in the first 10 rows or in the back 20-30 rows (in the normal size planes). At www.seatguru.com you may check in advance several details like which seats have more leg room, where exactly the wing is and get feedback from other travellers.
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2.
Have your camera with and on you: I know it sounds funny... but it’s the most important
starting point after getting a window seat! This said, you might be a little bit squeezed, as your toy needs to be with you and quickly accessable. After take-off even put it on your lap - this saves time and hassle trying to get it out and prepare. This can be especially important and handy at take-off
and landing, when scenery changes very quickly.
Leaving Dublin - Ireland
3.
Clean your window and set the camera on manual focus: Often whipping your window will
make a big difference and also help your camera to focus better. If you have forgotten to bring paper tissues with you, simply asks the stewardess or use the one you get with your drink or snack. Up in the air the outside temperature gets to -50oC so when some snow-crystals build up on the window outside, just wait until they defrost on the way back down. If your camera cannot auto-focus through the window, the best solution is to use the manual mode and set on infinite. 4.
Plan a few details (day-time and correct seating side): You will usually see more on flights
during the day so start your tests on them. Of course it is really beautiful to see the sunset up above the clouds, but having a long-haul flight during the day is an amazing experience, as you also get to fly over different countries and areas. When choosing which is the good side of the plane, think
where the sun would be and choose the correct side according to which time of the day you fly. For example, if you are to fly south in the morning, its wiser to get the F-seats as they will not be facing the sun, as it will be the case with the A-seats.
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5.
Colours of your clothes do matter: As surprising as this may sound to you, you should dress in
dark and one-colour tones. If you are flying on a sunny day or it’s clear weather above the clouds and the sun or light is coming right into the plane any colourful piece of clothing will reflect in the window and appear on your pictures so anything from dark blue to black is your best choice. A good
solution is to simply pack a dark scarf or black jacket so you can cover the light areas reflecting in the window. You might need one anyway as the seats next to the windows are often a bit chilly/ chillier than the rest.
Sofia Down Town - Bulgaria
6.
We cannot order or change the weather: It might be sunny at the ground while the flight is
only in clouds or in grey air. Conversely we could also leave rain or foggy land and reach above the clouds for gorgeous sunshine above a fluffy white carpet of clouds. You don’t know what you will get and that’s one of the tricky sides of aerial photography. Be prepared and see what is there. 7.
Incorporate the edges and corners: You might think that the window frame blocks your view
and the plane wing is getting into your picture, but how about you just artistically add them into the picture, like using the window as a frame of your view. 8.
Be curious: You cannot know all the places you will fly over, even if you live close to the airport.
The free app “Flightradar24” will show the next 7 days of your flying route for free (you just need to enter your flight number) then you can zoom in and see above which mountain you passed or which
cities/ rivers/lakes you flew over. 9.
Don’t give up: I can’t tell you how many crappy pictures I have taken before getting a good
shot. But persistence does pay off. The final result depends for sure on a hell of lots of things:
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weather, window glass, light, your skills, the stability of the plane, the route and of course the camera. If you decide you really like and feel challenged by aerial photography, you may also go for private scenic flights, which are usually in small aircraft (usually 4 or 6-seaters) and they fly lower, above specific, especially photogenic areas/landscapes/cities/islands. Or even better: find an open-
cockpit plane or glider), then no messing around looking for window seats or cleaning windows. Just saying, there is always a next level.
Rotterdam Central Station - The Netherlands
Have a nice time Aerial-photography is not one the easiest categories of taking pictures. It is a lot of trial and error(s). I cannot promise that you will get a great or very good aerial shot on your first or second or even third try, but the one thing I can indeed guarantee is that you will have a nice time. Because you will have beautiful landscapes to admire or sunbathing time above the clouds or will fly over cities with the all their lights on in the night or... Being up in the air gives you this very special and different perspective of our colourful and beautiful planet! And every flight you take, is simply another chance to make some (may be fantastic) pictures from above. Some of the pictures of Jana are on her travel blog: http://janaaroundtheworld.blogspot.com
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Gliding Around Toronto - Canada | next page tulip fields
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BERND, HILDA AND THE OTHERS / PHOTOGRAPHY FROM DÜSSELDORF 9 MARCH - 3 JUNE 2018
text with permission of Huis Marseille - Museum voor Fotografie, photography Eddo Hartmann
Keizersgracht 401 1016 EK Amsterdam Tuesday–Sunday, 11–18 hr www.huismarseille.nl/en/info
Düsseldorfer Photoschule In the spring of 2018 Huis Marseille will be devoted to the so-called Düsseldorfer Photoschule, photographers who studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy under Bernd and Hilla Becher or their
successors Thomas Ruff and Andreas Gursky. The photographic vision of Bernd and Hilla Becher was so influential and successful that these photographers – also known as the Becher-Schüler – have left their stamp on contemporary photography from the mid-1970s onwards. Huis Marseille has a considerable collection of photographs from the Dusseldorf school. These will be presented in the exhibition alongside early, mostly unknown work by photographers such as Höfer, Ruff and Struth, as well as more recent work by young and upcoming photographers.
Precision and comparability Bernd Becher (1931–2007) was professor of photography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1976 to 1996. Until his arrival the academy had been associated principally with painting and sculpture, and with such famous artists as Joseph Beuys, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. As an artist couple Bernd and Hilla Becher became known for their impressive and coherent oeuvre of photographs of industrial and functional architecture, including water towers, lime kilns, mine shafts, factory buildings and framework houses. In photographing these constructions they strived
for precision and comparability, placing each object in the centre of the frame and at eye height. They presented their photographs in ‘typologies’, series of images of the same type of object. The Bechers greatly admired the work of August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzsch, representatives of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), an influential movement in German art that arose during the 1920s. A new concept Bernd and Hilla Becher’s formal and conceptual approach was enthusiastically adopted by their students, who included Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth. These added their own visions, and chose themes that were strongly culturally determined such as different types of architecture, cityscapes, (man-made) landscapes, (group) portraits and interiors. Where the Bechers had worked consistently in black and white and in fairly small formats, their students Moved to colour and to large, monumental formats. Like their masters, they worked in an investigative, slow, and documentary way that was often compared to the working methods of 19th-century photographers using large plate cameras and tripods. While the work of Bernd and Hilla was linked in the 1970s to conceptual art and to movements such as Minimal Art, their students’ work was cited in discussions about traditions in painting.
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Experiment Despite the formal principles to which many of the Becher-Schüler adhered, they were not afraid to experiment. Andreas Gursky experiments with digital techniques and Thomas Ruff makes frequent use of ‘useful’ and ‘found’ photography – images taken from existing sources such as astronomical
photographs, infra-red photographs, press photographs and pornography. Elger Esser and Jörg Sasse also combine their own photos with other photographs they find and process. Younger photographers such as Anna Vogel and Louisa Clement, who studied under Ruff and Gursky in Dusseldorf, experiment freely with the digital possibilities of photography. Clement even makes her photos with a smartphone. What links all the Becher-Schüler is their serial, conceptual, and consistent working methods.
Participating photographers Bernd & Hilla Becher, Boris Becker, Laurenz Berges, Frank Breuer, Louisa Clement, Elger Esser, Claudia Fährenkemper, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Christof Klute, Simone Nieweg, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Martina Sauter, Thomas Struth, and Anna Vogel. Publication The exhibition will be accompanied by a booklet designed by Bart de Haas and with texts by Barbara
Hofmann-Johnson, Saskia Asser, and Nicky van Banning. More information
www.huismarseille.nl/en/tentoonstelling/bernd-hilla-and-the-others/
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RISE OF THE PHOTO ROBOTS by Sean Goodhart LRPS
Are we witnessing the rise of the robot and the death of originality? Technology called “artificial intelligence”, sometimes also known as “machine learning” or “neural networks”, is finding its way in to photography. My professional background is in process automation in the chemical process industries; I started my career in academia working on “adaptive control” where the automation
system automatically modified itself as process conditions changed. The mathematics I used back then is similar to that used in machine learning, hence my interest in how this technology is moving in to my other interests – notably Photography. I use both Google’s Snapseed (on my mobile devices) and Adobe’s Lightroom (on both my mobile and desktop computers) and welcome the help that the auto-fix tools provide in getting raw images ready for fine adjustments to my taste. I’ve also found the ability of Lightroom CC to “find all cats” in my library of pictures useful (ok, it’s not just for cats, it can also find chairs ¹) when creating collections of themed images. Artificial intelligence is currently finding uses in photography for image enhancement, image searching, recovering lost details, creating enlarged images and even in evaluating the aesthetics of images. In the following sections I’ve summarised my understanding of what’s already available. Image Enhancement Snapseed’s “Tune Image” filter and the Auto tool in Lightroom CC both automatically adjust the tonality of an image. Artificial intelligence is behind these image enhancement tools, Adobe says their Auto tool “uses Adobe Sensei technology to intelligently apply adjustments based on a photo's light and colour characteristics.” Adobe also says that Sensei re-creates elements in photos where they didn’t exist by studying nearby pixels - I’ve no clear experience of this but a similar capability is certainly demonstrated by the Let’s Enhance tool discussed below. Image Tagging and Searching If you’re not rigorously applying tags to images as you create them searching for images in one’s libraries is difficult. Image recognition has been worked on for many years in academia and industry and is now finding consumer applications. Adobe’s Sensei tool uses the power of machine learning to identify objects in images and automatically adds searchable words to photos, plus it recognizes faces so you can find all your pictures of a specific person quickly. It’s rather slick and has certainly helped me out, speeding up searches from thousands of images. For more information on using Adobe Sensei for image tagging see http://www.adobe.com/uk/sensei.html.
¹ The RPS Contemporary SIG have had a lot of chairs images posted to our Facebook group in the last months – so many that a project has been set up with a view to a potential photobook on chairs. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/196330364268873/
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Geotaging adds location information to your images and is very useful if you want to remember where you took an image. In 2016 Google announced an artificially intelligent algorithm which could find the location of any image. Their researchers trained software using a database of ~90 million geotagged images so it could determine the location where each image was taken using only the
image itself. Validating the software with more than 2 million images from Flickr the developers found it could resolve 4% to specific streets, 10% to a city, 28% identified the country and 48% identified the continent. Google’s software to identify location of images is described in https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600889/google-unveils-neural-network-with-superhumanability-to-determine-the-location-of-almost/ The researchers created an online game that presents a random image from Google Street View and asks the player to pinpoint its location on a map of the world, see www.geoguessr.com. Recovering Image Detail My first digital cameras were limited in their capabilities and had very low resolution, I bought my first when 1 megapixel was a breakthrough for consumer cameras. Creating large printed images from such files was impossible. A company called Let’s Enhance, based in Estonia (https:// letsenhance.io/), have recently created an artificial intelligent algorithm for enlarging images. So far this is only available for small image files up to 5 megapixels. I’ve tested Let’s Enhance’s 4x Upscale tool on images where standard 4x enlargement in Photoshop leaves blocky artefacts whereas Let’s Enhance results in smooth edges and (mostly) believable retention of detail. (In my tests fine details were lost in some places, leaving a painterly effect in part of the image.) Evaluating Image Aesthetics Google recently announced a project “NIMA: Neural Image Assessment” which has been trained in assessing both image technical quality and subjective image aesthetics. The NIMA tool scores images based on an Aesthetic Visual Analysis (AVA) database developed by researchers at the Computer Vision Center of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) and Xerox Research Centre Europe (France). Tests apparently show NIMA scores images similarly to human judges using the same criteria. Datasets used for aesthetic analysis are usually obtained from on-line communities of photography amateurs; clearly collecting data this way is an inexpensive way to obtain aesthetic judgments from multiple individuals. The researchers who produced AVA found the scale of training data and the aesthetic quality of the images input are significantly important for creating good training sets for image assessment. Researchers typically consider photographic rules and practices such as the golden ratio, the rule of thirds and colour harmonies. The AVA developers consider their dataset an improvement because it includes “photographic styles” such as complementary colours, high dynamic range, long exposure, motion blur, negative image, shallow depth of field, soft focus and vanishing point. Figure 1 shows an image from the Google Research Blog, containing images from on-line communities used for AVA algorithm development. The scores from the artificial intelligence and the human judges are similar.
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For more information see the Project NIMA paper at https://research.googleblog.com/2017/12/ introducing-nima-neural-image-assessment.html and the AVA database in a paper at http:// refbase.cvc.uab.es/files/MMP2012a.pdf. The Google Research Blog mentions NIMA’s future use in intelligent photo editing tools so it’s likely
we’ll see this finding its way on to our editing platforms in the next years.
Figure 1 - Computer and human scores on test images
Concluding Remarks Automation of image enhancements is clearly useful and has found wide application already (there’s millions of users of Snapseed and Lightroom CC). The image recognition technology is already in our hands and proving reasonably accurate. The location prediction artificial intelligence does not yet appear in today’s tools, accuracy is perhaps too low but likely to be improving rapidly. The ability of Let’s Enhance’s artificial intelligence to guess where pixels should be and create enlarged images is already impressive and may be a technology that finds its way in to every-day photo editing tools soon. Artificial intelligent evaluation of aesthetics is based on massive sets of on-line shared images - using very common styles as the basis. One fear I and many others may have is this: will automation with artificial intelligence in our editing tools lead to uniformity in photography? In some on-line forums I’ve seen people asking for NIMA capability built-in to their cameras… Are we witnessing the rise of the robot and the death of originality? What isn’t mentioned in the Google NIMA paper is if the researchers have considered sequences of images – as we know, particularly in the RPS Contemporary Group, a single image might be weak but as a sequence might present a strong story. I wonder how the NIMA algorithm would score Alec Soth’s images in Sleeping by the Mississippi? https://photoqbookshop.nl/product/alec-soth-sleepingby-the-mississippi/
THE BOX THAT UNBOXES
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by Eddie Maes LRPS
It has been almost accidentally that I started collecting historical and classic cameras, back in 1970. It has been an ongoing passion, and the usability of an ancient camera, however elaborate (and sometimes absolutely
“crafty”) it may be, is certainly one of the rewarding aspects. From 1899 through 1913 The No.2 Flexo Kodak is an early box camera that derives almost directly from the original Kodak box (1888), that was good for 100 exposures, and had to be sent back to
the manufacturer for development and a reload of film. [A] Very rapidly however, user reloadable box cameras
A. © Eddie Maes
appeared, and rollfilm on a spool could simply be obtained at the drugstore or photographic supplier. This camera model was produced from 1899 through 1913. The camera uses nr. 101 rollfilm, which was the
earliest size of celluloid rollfilm with paper backing, good for square 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch negatives. It had already been used in a few earlier Kodak box cameras. It is however the system of opening the camera for loading the film that is absolutely unusual. A small latch in the round front viewfinder window unlocks the front panel of the body, which is hinged at te bottom and drops forward.
Once this done, the left, back and right parts of the body can be completely removed as one piece that folds open
B. © Eddie Maes
freely [B] . This leaves the whole film chamber easily accessible for loading. The feeding spool is simply kept in place by a thin steel axis that lodges in two grooves in the wood.
The take-up spool (visible in the illustration) has to be carefully installed with an assembly that screws together and includes the winding key on top of the body. [C] Reassembling the outer parts of the camera so that there are no light leaks, and sides and back are well kept in place by the front panel is probably the most tricky part of the loading operation. C. © Eddie Maes
The image of the rear interior shows the square film window, with rollers to lead the film. The square piece of
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black cardboard is not an original camera part, but just a home made mask in which a single piece of sheet film, cut to size, can be loaded in order to be able to take one exposure with the camera (the size 101 film being long
obsolete, obviously). [D] The illustration was taken this way, using Agfapan Professional 400 4x5 inch sheetfilm. Of course, it involves loading and unloading the camera in the darkroom for every exposure. When the front panel is dropped down the complete shutter and aperture mechanism becomes visible [E].
The rotary shutter (left side) is simply driven by a steel spring; it is seen here in the open position for time exposure. Aperture can be chosen (right side) by moving
D. © Eddie Maes
one of three openings of different size into the light path. The small lens of the angular viewfinder is visible top middle.
The partial top view of the camera shows all the controls of the camera. Leftmost the small pull-up lever to set different aperture sizes, middle lever for I (instantaneous) or T (time) exposure, and right the shutter release. [F] None of these controls carry any inscription, the user was supposed to be knowledgeable about the handling. The camera did come with a 48 page manual, though,
covering it's correct use, but also negative development and contact printing of positives. You may find this and
E. © Eddie Maes
many other manuals at the “orphancameras” website, where they are made available as pdf copies. Although the negative format is square, the viewfinder is circular, and composing the image must be rather
approximate. The photograph of the Brussels University administration building (architect Renaat Braem, 1975) had indeed to be taken twice, in the first attempt the top of the building was missing, only the next day (after a passage in the darkroom to reload) the composition was satisfactory. F. © Eddie Maes
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Š Eddie Maes - photo made with the No.2 Flexo Kodak - Brussels University administration building (architect Renaat Braem, 1975)
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RPS BENELUX CHAPTER DISTINCTIONS CELEBRATIONS WEEKEND text by André Bergmans The Chapter The RPS Benelux Chapter shows a healthy growth in the number of members. Over the last few years the number of members doubled to more than 60 today. As a central point of contact for RPS members in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, we cover quite a geographical area but also
four (official) languages: Dutch/Flemish, French/Walloon, German/ Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch) and let’s not forget the Frisian language in the Netherlands. Our members have more than ten different nationalities so we are a true multi-cultural group. One of the core activities is preparing for distinctions, for which we have monthly meetings with a core group. We had the honour and the pleasure to have a Chapter Distinctions Celebrations Weekend in Ghent (Belgium).
photo André Bergmans
The city Ghent is a city in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe. It is a port and university city. Needless to say that it’s richness still shows today by the number of churches, impressive buildings and merchant houses. Participants of the Celebrations Weekend took the opportunity during breaks to make quite a few images. The city can be reached easily from the UK as well and is especially interesting in combination with a visit to nearby Brugge/Bruges
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The venue We were extremely fortunate to be able to use the venue of patrons of the arts Mrs Meesen en Mr Liedts. It is a purpose built meeting room of superb quality in her restored property in old Ghent where they organise many cultural events. They run a large Foundation called the "Liedts-Meesen
Foundation" in which art is very well present. Take a look at www. zebrastraat.be, if you need you can change the language to English in the right/under corner.
Distinctions Celebrations Weekend with Ray Spence FRPS - photo AndrĂŠ Bergmans
Ray Spence FRPS Reviewing images is an art in itself and Ray Spence is a master in that art. Amongst many other things his curriculum shows a background in lecturing and Ray really demonstrated that as well. He is Chair of the Distinctions Advisory Board, Moderator for the Distinctions Panels and Member of the Fellowship Board. Without his valuable guidance the weekend would have looked differently. The celebration day 1 This is what we came for; this is what is what it was all about and the stage was for Ray Spence FRPS.
Starting on day one with selected and diverse and successful L, A and F panels made us a bit concerned about our own work that would be presented and reviewed on Sunday. So a lot to contemplate on during evening dinner.
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Socializing For dinner a very remarkable venue had been selected and even a more remarkable concept: the Holy Food Market, the hottest culinary destination in town. Why Holy? Holy because it is breathing new life into a historic 17th century chapel. With fifteen stalls of international culinary options to
choose from you almost cannot go wrong. A nice hangout for us to chat with each other and mentally prepare for the next day.
Holy Food Market - photo André Bergmans
The celebration day 2 But next day we were not disappointed by the work that was shown by the group, the feedback that was given and the way it was given. Some of us were pleasantly surprised as they were further than they thought they were. Quite a few of us had to take a deep breath as the road still ahead was longer than expected. We were promised honest and robust feedback and that’s what Ray Spence FRPS gave us in a professional, to-the-point and concise way. As the French say: Chapeau! We started with the L-panels that were previewed by John. R. Simpson ARPS and Ray took the challenge to review first and then read the written preview by John. In most cases we found a
stunning confirmation of opinions. About my personal L… still some work to do but we will get there. It confirms: Also L is not easy, but achievable for those who take their hobby seriously and appreciate the journey as a journey.
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After lunch in a nearby café the group started with A-panels. It got toucher as the standard are really much higher. No debates on technical quality as that is assumed to be there by definition. We are talking content now related to the statement of intent. So here bigger joy in some cases but maybe also bigger disappointment. And this is why doing this in a group is very beneficial. There were a few F-panels in the end. Some photographers that took a long journey, sometimes for years. Needless to say that the group was impressed by this work but also by the increased level of feedback. The level of feedback increases with the level of the work presented so we were really listening to ‘the next level’. Absorbing and digesting all this might take a while.
The photos and a statement - photo Carol Olerud
A big thank you! … to all that contributed to the success of this weekend. Janet Haines and Richard Sylvester for planning and organising. Didier Verriest to make the many arrangements. Mrs Meesen en Mr Liedts for their hospitality and last but not least Ray and John for guiding our journey.
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Mrs Meesen en Mr Liedts - photo Richard Sylvester LRPS
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photos Carol Olerud
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MONASTIC LIFE - A NEW PHOTO BOOK text and photos by Armando Jongejan FRPS
In June 2018 Armando Jongejan FRPS will be publish a new photo book and the RPS Benelux Chapter get a sneak preview of some of the images within the book. The incentive to create a new body
In May 2016 Armando was invited by Abbot Gerard Mathijsen to record the changes within the walls of the St. Adelbert Abbey in Egmond-Binnen (NL). In 2004 he published his first photo book about this abbey: A Quest. Brother Gerard then wrote in his foreword 'Nobody knows whether we are dealing with a final phase or with a new beginning.' The incentive to create a new body of work about the Sint Adelbert Abbey was simple and yet also unexpected - the fifteen hundred photo books from A Quest were sold out. Additionally, several new brothers had entered the Abbey; as Brother Gerard emailed Armando: "The abbey is doing well.
Actually above expectations! The house is too small for the aspirants! Who would have thought that?" Available from 2nd June 2018 Since that moment Armando has been busy working in and around the abbey with his camera, having visited about fifty more times. This new photo book will be available from 2nd June 2018. Pages 42
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the Claustrum from top row to bottom row, from left to right open air service at the Adelbert Field Religious vows in the Chapterhouse Brother Michael in the Kitchen Brothers Steve and Nol in a Convent Cell Easter Vigil in the Cloister Church
Š Armando Jongejan
Photography Essay Publisher Design Printing Binding ISBN Extent Trim Edition Photographs
Armando Jongejan Charles van Leeuwen Sint Adelbertabdij, June 2018 Mariska Bijl, Wilco Art Books, Amsterdam Wilco, Amersfoort Hardback 978-90-819944-3-9 120 pages 300mm x 300mm 2.000 135 black and white printed in duotone
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Š Armando Jongejan
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Š Armando Jongejan