Visual Art Magazine No. 156/2019/Issue 2

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Visual Art Group 2019 Members’ Print Exhibition - part of the Edinburgh International Festival

29 July 2019 - 25 August 2019

10:00 - 17:00

The Photographic Centre, 68 Great King Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom E3 6QU

See more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5lnvp5b

Rollright Visual Art Group Summer Meeting

31 August 2019

10:00 - 16:00

Village Hall, High Street, Long Compton, Warks, United Kingdom, CV36 5JS

Another opportunity for you to show a selection of your work and offer it for general discussion in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

RPS/Non RPS Member £8.00, Ploughman’s Lunch £5.00

Event organiser: Andreas Klatt ARPS (rpsva@klatt.co.uk)

See more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5p8xd42

Visual Art Group

Autumn Weekend

27 September 2019 - 30 September

2019

Mercure Liverpool Atlantic Tower Hotel, Chapel Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom, L3 9AG

This autumn our residential weekend is set for Liverpool. Speakers include Nat Coalson ARPS, Carol Emmas and

Mark Reeves LRPS (both featured in this issue), Mark Snowdon ARPS and Iñaki Hernández-Lasa FRPS. Our base will be the Atlantic Tower Hotel, opposite the Royal Liver Building and overlooking the historic waterfront.

Event organiser: Andreas Klatt ARPS (rpsva@klatt.co.uk)

See more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5ourcep

SW Visual Art Group

A Day with Marianthi Lainas

5 October 2019

10:30 - 16:00

The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey, Devon, United Kingdom, TQ13 9AL

Having spent most of her life living a stone’s throw from the coast, Marianthi’s photographic work is inspired by a strong connection with the sea. She is drawn to those dynamic spaces at the edges of the land; shifting sands, cycles of ebb and flow, unpredictable seas and reflected light. Whether working close to home or further afield in more remote coastal locations, her aim is to simplify this littoral landscape to its essential elements of colour and form. To see a selection of Marianthi’s work, please visit her website: http://marianthilainas.com/ All are welcome at this event, but please book your place with Linda Wevill FRPS by e-mail.

Event organiser: Linda Wevill FRPS (linda.wevill@btinternet.com)

VAG Member £8, RPS Member £10, Non RPS Member £13

See more at: https://tinyurl.com/y3rqw6ah

Rollright Visual Art Group

Autumn Meeting: A day with Sam Gregory

2 November 2019

10:00 - 16:00

Village Hall, High Street, Long Compton, Warks, United Kingdom, CV36 5JS

With classic vistas and dramatic scenes from all around the world, Sam will discuss how sometimes his work steps firmly outside the traditional into extractions of form, energy and flow. This takes the viewer back 250 million years into an unseen and unimaginable landscape. All the while elaborating on just how powerful the process of image making can be for your wellbeing both physically and mentally.

RPS/Non RPS Member £13.00, Ploughman’s Lunch £5.00

Event organiser: Andreas Klatt ARPS (rpsva@klatt.co.uk)

Visual Art Group

2019 Members’ Print Exhibition

6 December – 21 December 2019

10:30 - 17:30

The Point, South Parade, Doncaster, United Kingdom, DN1 2DR

As part of our attempts to generate a higher public profile for our group, this display of the full Members’ Exhibition will visit a northern venue new to the Visual Art Group.

Event organiser: Janie Chapman LRPS (janie.chapman13@btinternet.com)

See more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5n8mvma

Continued on the inside back page.

Andreas Klatt ARPS (Chairman & Editor) visualart@rps.org

David J Wood ARPS (Vice Chair & Programme Secretary) wood.david.j@virgin.net

Jane Chapman LRPS (Honorary Secretary) janie.chapman13@btinternet.com

Andrew Leeming LRPS (Honorary Treasurer) andrewleeming@googlemail.com

Gill Dishart ARPS (Portfolios Secretary) gill@dishart.plus.com

Paul Mitchell FRPS (Co-ordinator of The Stephen H Tyng Foundation) paul@pmd-design.co.uk

Michael Butterworth LRPS (Group Web Editor) visualartweb@rps.org

Eddie Morton ARPS (Exhibition Organiser) eddiemorton@gmail.com

Mark Deutsch LRPS (Membership Secretary) mrkdeutsch@aol.com

John Cavana LRPS (Headline Event Organiser) cavana68@gmail.com

Wendy Meagher (Programme Co-ordinator} wmeagher@gmail.com

CO-OPTED

Robert Herringshaw ARPS (Exhibition Organiser) robertherringshaw@me.com

SUB-GROUP ORGANISERS

Rollright

Andreas Klatt ARPS rpsva@klatt.co.uk

South West

Linda Wevill FRPS linda.wevill@btinternet.com

If you are interested in having or organising a Visual Art Sub-Group in your area, please contact:

Andreas Klatt ARPS visualart@rps.org

VISUAL ART

CONTENTS

NO. 156 / 2019 / ISSUE 2

4. A View from the Chair

4.

Editor’s

5.

Front Cover Image: Still life

by Polina Plotnikova ARPS

14.

15.

22.

23.

29.

30.

Members’ Print Exhibition 2019

GUEST EDITOR: Nicki Gwynn-Jones FRPS (flychick110@googlemail.com)

DESIGNER: Paul Mitchell FRPS (paul@pmd-design.co.uk)

Visual Art is The Magazine of the RPS Visual Art Group and is provided as part of the annual subscription of the Group. © 2019 All rights reserved on behalf of the authors. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for such permission must be addressed to the Editor. The Royal Photographic Society, RPS Visual Art Group and the Editor accept no liability for any misuse or breach of copyright by a contributor. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal Photographic Society or of the Visual Art Group.

Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press, Dorchester. DT1 1HD

Andreas Klatt ARPS

Comments Nicki Gwynn-Jones FRPS

Starting from a Blank Canvas Polina Plotnikova ARPS

Sandbanks at Night, Iceland Tim Rudman FRPS

The Lure of the Far North Marianthi Lainas

Silver Lining Mark Reeves LRPS

Pareidolia Carol Emmas

Bear Island Richard Burdon AFIAP

A View from the Chair

ANDREAS KLATT ARPS

Any motivational speaker worth his or her salt would want us to believe that every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

Take our annual members’ print exhibition. You may have noticed that the current edition of Visual Art magazine has not included the usual entry form for next year’s show. The simple sounding reason is that the 2020 exhibition, should we have one at all, will not open in February. We are rightly proud of our exhibition which for many years was smoothly and efficiently organised by a small team of volunteers who in their commitment to the cause went well beyond the call of

duty. But in the end the need to look after our health must take priority, and so the exhibition team has to be built up from scratch and find a way to understand and master the complexity of this all-year operation. An epidemic of weak knees and nightmares of egg in face broke out. And yet we have to move on. What a wonderful and timely mishap then that a question mark rose over the availability of our traditional opening venues where redevelopment and redecoration could not guarantee that come February we would have access. Have you tried to find exhibition space at short notice for more than a hundred framed prints?

Editor’s Comments

NICKI GWYNN-JONES FRPS

Welcome to another edition of Visual Art. If you are wondering why the overall theme of the magazine has a distinctly arctic flavor I can explain; when Andreas reminded me that the responsibility for the summer issue would be mine I realized that for a six week chunk of prime preparation time I would be abroad visiting family. Knowing that certain things cannot be rushed I felt it prudent to have a draft copy with the long-suffering and ever so patient Paul Mitchell before we left for Australia at the end of February, and so my thoughts were still very much in winter mode!

I have been a huge fan of Polina Plotnikova’s artistry for some years now. I first came across her still life work when she came to talk to the Arena Group - I think it is fair to say that we were all stunned by her uncommon eye for detail and her ability to reference the past in a way that seems fresh and contemporary. She is, of course, well known for her LensBaby images.

Two of our contributors have visited a wilderness that I would dearly love to experience - Greenland. Marianthi Lainas organized her own trip and her otherworldly images of ice and water conjure up the mythical Qalupalik creatures, whose exploits are told by Inuit parents in order to stop their children from straying too near to the dangerous coastlines. Carol Emmas, too, has an unusually sophisticated eye for detail. Her take on paredolia makes for a fascinating read, although I must confess that I was not familiar with the term. She would like to feel that her work straddles both art and photography; I certainly have an affinity with this idea, as I am sure do many who categorise themselves as visual art photographers.

I am always keen to get inside the head of other artists and I felt that asking a small selection of photographers to write about just one image of my choosing would be a great way to do this. And so the idea for the Editor’s Choice feature was born. I am indebted to Tim Rudman, Mark Reeves

We feel that there is no need to rush into this. Time gives us a chance to rethink the entire exhibition programme, the timing, the logistics, the choice of more locations, the display of your pictures to a wider public.

Bear with us. It will be worth waiting for.

Andreas

and Richard Burdon for humouring me, and as you will see, one of the three was not so thrilled with the image that caught my eye!

I am sure you will all be delighted with the usual high standard of accepted work for the annual exhibition - congratulations to all, but especially to the winners. It remains for me to thank everyone involved in the running of the Visual Art group - I cannot imagine a more committed band of volunteers - but special thanks go to Paul Mitchell who does such an incredible job of putting together this magazine for our enjoyment.

Nicki

Starting from a Blank Canvas

POLINA PLOTNIKOVA ARPS

Flowers and still life are my favourite photography subjects; still life in particular is perfect for a perfectionist like me - no one fidgets or makes faces, and no sudden gust of wind or some other quirk of ever-changing weather can spoil your shot. But, by the same token, you cannot count on something interesting that might just happen all of a sudden - everything is down to you - the choices are infinite, and the final result is entirely in your own hands.

My favourite type of still life photography is in a painterly, fine art style and I am definitely inspired by the great artistic images of the past. I have one particular series of photographs shot in the style of the Old Masters; another is a homage to my favourite Impressionist artists, and so on. Note that I do not aim to create an image that pretends to be a painting, but rather, I try to use my knowledge and love of art history when I am visualising my next shot.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Modern technology equips you with some amazing tools that they could never have imagined, but the main task is essentially the same - to draw the viewer in, so that they can share your vision and tune into the emotions that you are trying to convey.

My usual approach to creating a new image means first of all constructing it in my imagination - visualising the composition, the objects I am going to use, the colour scheme, the lighting, the background, etc. In a successful still life image, the placing of every single object must be thought through, and the perfect - often the only possible - place carefully chosen. Above all the successful image will convey your emotions.

I like creating collections of images and have several themes that I am passionate about, but at any given time I do not force myself to stay within the constraints of any particular one. If an interesting image forms in my head I will work on it, regardless of whether it fits into a specific concept.

I am inspired by various things when it comes to different historic periods in art; the Old Masters feed my love for precision and detail, Impressionism inspires me to create mood and atmosphere, Surrealism provokes my imagination into running wild - essentially, I am using my camera the way artists used their brushes.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

So the main challenges for me are to come up with a compelling idea and to visualise it down to the smallest detail. Once that is done, the hard part is over for me. Of course there might be plenty of small hiccups down the line - for instance, the folds of the fabric that I am using are not holding up the way I imagined them, or a piece of fruit does not want to balance on the correct side. All these things require time and attention to get right, but to me this is the fun part. Sometimes the idea of an image pops into my mind almost fully formed, so that the only thing left is to implement it in my studio. Sometimes it is an object, or a texture, or a colour that triggers a chain of thoughts in my head. Then

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

I will spend days, sometimes weeks or even months thinking it through, visualising what the final shot should look like, sourcing objects for a particular set-up until I get exactly the right one - the one that I imagined. Sometimes seeing fresh lemons in a supermarket might remind me of a plate and a knife I have at home, and I start thinking of a way of putting these things together in a still life set up. On one occasion, I spent almost six months looking for a vintage vegetable cutter that I wanted to combine with a few objects I already had.

When it comes to post-processing, I usually know in advance exactly what I am going to do with every single shot, whether it is adding a textured layer or perhaps cropping it into a square format.

As much as I love the power of Photoshop, I do prefer getting my image right “in camera” as much as possible.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Some images in this portfolio were shot with lenses from my favourite Lensbaby family. They were for me truly “love at first sight”- they show me the world in a completely new way when I look through my viewfinder.

Creative focusing and partial blurring are wonderful tools for drawing the viewer’s attention, and the Lensbaby optics allow me to create a translucent, dreamlike quality, which is often exactly how I feel about the things that I photograph.

www.polinaplotnikova.com

Sandbanks at Night, Iceland

TIM RUDMAN FRPS

I photograph by instinct rather than as a result of pre-planned research, my intention always being to capture something of the moment and how it felt, rather than merely to record a scene and what it looked like. I generally previsualise the finished print at the time I make the exposure and then try to recapture that feeling later in the darkroom.

Such moods can be elusive and slippery to catch hold of and pass on visually. Sometimes less is more, and so it was

here. The soft light played tricks with the shallow, still water, isolating the little sandbank in time and space and making it appear to levitate very slightly above the water in this eerie silent world. A brief moment gone, never to return.

This picture is from Tim’s book ‘Iceland. An Uneasy Calm.’

www.iceland-anuneasycalm.com

www.timrudman.com

There is something magical about the Iceland coast late at night in midsummer. It never quite gets dark and the light there has a soft shadow-less quality like a giant, dim soft box.

The Lure of the Far North

MARIANTHI LAINAS

In common with many people who have lived their lives in close proximity to the sea, I experience a slight sense of claustrophobia when inland for more than a few days - a strange feeling that something isn’t quite right in my world - and I am drawn back to the coast.

My home, at the North West tip of the Wirral, is a stone’s throw from the beach. Each day I look out over wide, expansive sands towards the horizon and feel the wind blowing in across the Irish Sea from northern lands. Late autumn and winter herald the arrival of tens of thousands of migratory

birds, the sandbanks and mudflats of the Dee Estuary offering a temporary pit stop on their remarkable journeys south. Travelling vast distances from their summer breeding grounds in Northern Scotland, Iceland and Greenland, their lines of flight connect me to those distant places.

It is the littoral landscape that inspires me photographically and which I feel compelled to explore visually - dynamic areas of coastline encompassing dune systems, the intertidal zone and the nearshore parts of the sea, a place where tides wash over layers of rock laid down through the millennia, and sands are re-sculpted daily by wind and water.

In recent years I have been making my way further and further north, seeking out other seaward-facing communities, feeling a strong need to experience and photograph their coastal edges. And so, in September 2017, and after many months of planning, I arrive

in Ilulissat, a small town in Western Greenland, at 70 degrees north and 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

I have long wished to visit the world’s largest non-continental island; 80% of this vast country is covered in ancient inland ice, an area of around 650,000 square miles, and Greenlanders, all 56,000 of them, spend their lives looking out to sea, forced to live at the rocky edges of the land, a huge, uninhabitable interior at their backs.

This arctic edge-land is a place of high contrast - barren rocks juxtaposed against expanses of white ice, sunlit icebergs on a matt black sea - a landscape of few mid-tones and challenging to photograph. Accessibility is an issue; with no connecting roads between settlements travel is only possible by plane, boat or dog sled. If exploring on foot there are few marked trails and the frequent sea fogs are disorientating.

Although I am deeply rooted in my own coastal landscape, perhaps inevitably, I have always felt a sense of alignment with other wild places that are at the far edges of the land.

Each day I sail out with local fishermen to photograph the ice from the vantage point of the sea, grappling with the practical issues of making images from a moving boat and in waters that are not always comfortably calm. I am also challenged by the difficulty of trying to interpret unfamiliar landscapes in a short period of time and in a meaningful way. Over the years, I have found that it can help to read a lot about a place before travelling, and in the months that precede my trip ‘Arctic Dreams’ by Barry

Lopez and Gretel Ehrlich’s ‘This Cold Heaven’ are my constant companions. Lopez’s book in particular is a classic - his descriptions of wild landscapes are sublime and I am sure that they have influenced my own perceptions of the ice. To my eye, the icebergs are indeed, as Lopez observes, ‘creatures of pale light’, and I choose to emphasise whiteness and empty spaces in some of my images, symbolic perhaps of a fragile environment that may disappear.

It is the icebergs I have come to see. Calved from the western glaciers of the Greenlandic icecap they become temporarily grounded in the shallow waters of the Ilulissat icefjord.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Through Ehrlich’s writings I learn about Inuit mythologies, tales of good and bad spirits which serve as precautions against the dangers posed by the harsh arctic environment.

I am reminded of this folklore as I journey north by fishing boat to visit a remote Inuit settlement. There are blue skies overhead and the Greenlandic icecap is clearly visible a kilometre away inland. As we sail close to the rocky foreshore, we are at the very edges of the littoral zone.

Looking down over the side of the boat into the black Arctic

The story of the other-worldly Qalupalik is told by Inuit parents to prevent children from wandering too close to the dangerous Arctic shorelines. These sea-dwelling creatures with long hair and green skin hide beneath the surface

of the freezing waters and carry away unsuspecting children who play alone on the beach or near breaking ice. I point my camera down into the dark swell, following the scarves of turquoise meltwater. Shadows absorb light, black swallows white. It is easy to imagine that there may indeed be unearthly beings below the surface.... I need to work quickly in the freezing temperatures. In spite of the blue skies, it is considerably colder out on the water than on dry land, and boat and ice are passing each other at some speed. Over the next few hours, as the light sinks into the black

sea, I am mesmerised as large fragments of drifting sea ice slice through the water, reaching far below the surface into a mysterious third dimension.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

waters, a small series emerges - a nod to the mythical Qalupalik. All too soon it is time to return home and I find it difficult to adjust to life back on the gentler shores of the Wirral. My head is still many hundreds of miles away and somehow I need to draw a line under my Arctic experience. Over the past few years I have been learning various bookbinding techniques, making handcrafted books as an alternative way of presenting my work - a way of showing images that would never be printed for exhibition or for my own wall, but that may combine to tell a narrative.. And so the ‘Qalupalik’ images are brought to life in the shape of a small leporello-bound book, housed in a frosted ‘ice’ presentation case. My little bit of the Arctic in a box, something to take down from my bookshelf occasionally, an object to hold, memories to treasure. A copy currently resides in the Ilulissat Kunstmuseum and it seems somehow fitting that the images have found their way back to the place where they were created.

I, too, long to return - perhaps I shall follow the birds even further north next time...

www.marianthilainas.com

Silver Lining

MARK REEVES LRPS

I am attracted to botanical gardens by the magnificent range of leaves, petals, stalks, trunks, seed pods and shadows that can be an endless source of material for abstract imagery, which is where my main photographic interests lie. And, of course, gardens continually change from week to week, so it is impossible to visit and not find something new to photograph.

I know many photographers who research their locations before they go anywhere, in order to be confident that they will be there at the right time of the day or the most appropriate season, or that the weather will cooperate, and also to know

what they might want to photograph when they arrive. Not me. I show up at a location and walk around looking for inspiration as I go. I try to remain open to as many creative opportunities as possible but find that the things which usually attract my interest are simple graphic lines and shapes, and translucent things such as back-lighting and water drops, and the barely there - cobwebs and dandelion seeds.

This image, which I call Silver Lining, features a plant (Google tells me it might be pickerel weed) growing in one of the several ponds at the Ness Botanical Gardens on the Wirral. It was taken

into the sun during the late afternoon, with sunlight passing through the pale rims of the large geometric leaves and picking up the fine hairs surrounding the bud. The plant itself is green but I was lucky enough to find some red background which made the subsequent mono conversion relatively easy.

As for my kit…the most useful piece of equipment I have is a foam rollmat. It enables me to get down on the ground even in the most unpleasant conditions, in order to discover the endless possibilities that plants present.

www.markreevesphotography.co.uk

Pareidolia

CAROL EMMAS

Even though we are not aware of it, our brains are constantly working to make sense of everything around us, from the people we know, to the items we own, to the landscapes either that we recognise or that are new to us. Most of what we see in our everyday lives is based on information being factual, but the way I approach my work is through the so-called Type 1 Error, or the false positive; in other words, I try to find landscapes where none really exist. The term for

this is pareidolia, derived from the Greek words para (resembling) and eidola (apparition). The Rorschach test is a prime example of how our eyes can perceive different images where no specific image is present. Looking at and studying textures close-up and in depth has always fascinated me - I like to search beyond what is obvious and look towards the unknown and unfathomable and the half real, half imagined. The possibility of what I can do artistically

with the likes of rusting metal or peeling paint excites me and continues to drive me forward to look for the sometimes seemingly impossible.

I didn’t know what the word art meant, but when he told me it immediately became my favourite word and to this day it remains so. I was never able to translate the vision in my head onto canvas in a way that I found satisfactory, but through the camera I found that I could - there is something that I prefer about the camera being the conduit between me and the end result, a symbiotic relationship between the mechanical and the intuitive that I enjoy. There is no more fulfilling a job for me than to go out with my camera and look for visual treasures.

What I find most fascinating is how something that forms naturally can recreate itself in its own image, such as frost on windows, or how the play on perspective enables drone photography of rivers and tributaries to take on the look of trees and landscapes. The wonder of fractal geometry means that I can create images akin to drone pictures, but through a macro lens.

From the age of seven I wanted to be an artist. I recall drawing a horse and my father saying ’You’re really good at art’.

There is a staggering amount of beauty in the world but sometimes it prefers to remain hidden - this is the beauty I search for. I have always preferred the less obvious; my ‘Woodland’ series is taken from the side of an old oil drum, the textures created from years of being subjected to the elements; the ‘On Deck’ series (large works at 86 x 86 cm) from a scraping of bodyfiller on the side of a trailer, but that now resembles Patrick Heron-like coastal images. Somehow, I have been able to feed found patterns into my own nostalgia for the sea, the shore

and my years of sailing around the Mediterranean and Ionian coasts. Although I use digital processing, I prefer the images to remain as close to the initial shot as possible. I am quite evangelical about never changing the base image or cloning unless absolutely necessary, although an image that maybe hiding beneath thousands of imperfections can take weeks to uncover, usually by taking out one tiny dot at a time. In such cases, I’ll listen to minimalist, repetitive or experimental instrumental music such as Richard

Skelton, hoping that the images will absorb his natural-world vibe. Neither do I ever add anything to the imagesI’ve tried to experiment in this way, but feel that any level of tampering ruins the purity of the image. Occasionally, however, I will add something painterly with a brush if I feel that it will add something without detracting from the image. I see myself more as a restoration artist trying to conserve and preserve what nature has given me.

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

I am currently studying for a Master of Research in Art and Design at John Moores University in Liverpool. My written and practice-based research is centred on the abstract, nonrepresentational photograph in order to

help discover how this is perceived and where it might sit in a curatorial space. As a lover of abstract expressionism I find myself moving more towards abstraction. Some people prefer my older, more representative and literal landscapes to the stripped back style that I currently favour. Oddly enough it is easier for me to find a landscape from a found texture than it is to find an abstract form that translates, however I have never liked the easy road - I need to keep shaking it up and developing my style in order to progress. I would like to see my abstract forms cover large walls and stretch several metres in length and height, similar to large art canvases, but as photography

can be a very expensive pastime, I suspect I may have to wait a while.

“I had a dream, in which I was a strange dealer, a dealer in looks or appearances. I collected and distributed them, and in the dream I had just discovered a secret. I discovered it on my own, no help. The secret was to get inside whatever I was looking at - get inside it.”

John Berger www.carolemmas.com

My ultimate aim is to straddle the photography/art gap - in reality I don’t quite fit in the photographic arena, as I am sure is the case for many visual art photographers.

Bear Island

RICHARD BURDON AFIAP

As photographers I am sure that we all spend time agonizing over where we are and where we wish to be with our photography. I know I have been doing this a lot of late, as I find myself more and more drawn to subtle images and far less inclined to shoot bold saturated images.

And so it was when I visited Bear Island on a trip to East Greenland in the late summer of 2018. I had heard that the rock formations would be interesting so I had in mind an image with a bold foreground, but I

just couldn’t find a composition that worked to my satisfaction. I decided to move to a different location, however as I packed up my tripod the sunrise suddenly lit up the mountains beautifully. I rushed back to the water’s edge, hurriedly set up, and shot a few frames before the light faded, but I came away with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment.

The irony is that this has proved to be a very popular image, but I have no love for it, only a feeling of an opportunity missed. Maybe I am being

too hard on myself, but for me this image feels rushed and generic and lacks compositional input - there’s no feeling of personal connection.

Fortunately, I did do some more scouting for locations and the light made a comeback, so I was able to come away with an image that I was happy with after all, but I still can’t love the original image.

www.rjbphotographic.co.uk

Deep in Thought John Lewis

John Lewis LRPS

This is not my typical genre of photography or processed in my style. I usually spend little time processing my images and they are normally not soft but have strong colours and lots of detail. I have struggled lately to enjoy my photography and had given up club competitions. Last year I attended a workshop in Hammerwood Park with Tim Pile and the model Lulu. I had photographed nudes in the past but this was the first time on location. It was totally outside my comfort zone but I needed to try something different. This was one of the last pictures of the day, using light coming through the window on the left. I loved the pose and the setting but the area was very untidy. The carpet was stained and ripped in places especially around the skirting board, so this had to be dealt with in Photoshop to obtain a nice even colour and look like new. Because the light was low the walls looked grey and the model’s skin was dark. There was a grey post supporting the steps directly below her feet, so that had to go. It still didn’t look right so I used two white layers to lighten the walls, statue and stairs, carefully masking out the model. Lulu was now too dark so I added another white layer, masking out the background so she could now blend in better with the background but I masked out her lips to leave a little colour.

I left it at this for a few days. Going back to the image I decided that Lulu needed to be softer so I created another white layer, masked out her hair, eyes and lips to draw attention to her face and, with careful dodging and burning, brought back the statue from the wall.

Escalator Blur John Timbrell ARPS

EDDIE MORTON ARPS AWARD

I enjoy photographing people inside art galleries and museums and I often spend time in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. A current project is capturing movement using a slow shutter speed such as people on escalators. Having a stationary object or person in the picture emphasises the movement. I was standing on the first floor of the NPG with my camera with a shutter speed of 1 second waiting for a suitable group of people to appear on the escalator. One

did and luckily a man stopped at the top of the stairs so providing the stationary object and completing the picture. There was an agonising wait for the person in the red coat to reach the right position on the escalator before the man moved. Fortunately he didn’t. As is often the case, our photography needs us to be lucky sometimes.

Eddie Morton ARPS

I’m sure my selection of John Timbrell’s picture will be a controversial choice,

being part colour and monochrome. The picture received a strong reaction from the other selectors.

I enjoyed the strong diagonal of the escalator with the mystery of where are the people going. Bottom right is the man on the step, again what is he doing!`

All the elements of the photograph hold together well, with no unwanted distractions.

John Timbrell ARPS

High Moorland Lynda Maudie-Small ARPS

GILLIAN MORGAN ARPS AWARD

I have lived adjacent to Bodmin Moor for almost thirty years and have taken hundreds of photographs of all aspects of the moorland. However recently someone asked me what do the moors mean to me? What represents the character and unique atmosphere of the high moors? I am a minimalist person and to answer this I wanted to take a photograph that encompassed the essence of the moors as simply as possible. To me, the high moorlands mean the vast open and often barren spaces, just occasionally punctuated by the ruins of the Victorian mine buildings with the only signs of life being the sheep, there in all seasons and all weathers.

Having found the photograph I wanted in my folders, I gave it the high key treatment to create the sense of barren space and suggest a day when the moors are enveloped in mist – a common event. A few gorse bushes were removed and I had a picture that I feel epitomises the bleakness of the high moorlands.

This delightful little image caught my eye early on in the selection process. It is simplicity itself but beautifully composed and printed. It conveys the feeling of isolation and bleakness, with the ruined building and sheep perfectly positioned within the frame. There is just enough detail in the grass to set the scene and give a very pleasing result.

Lynda Maudie-Small ARPS

Gillian Morgan ARPS

Horseboy Freckles Roger Ford

MICKI ASTON AWARD

Roger Ford FRPS

I was at the last day of the Appleby Horse Fair when it stopped raining and I saw the boy with the red hair and sailor suit in gentle soft light. I framed the shot to bring out the textures and the boy’s freckles.

Micki Aston

We were only given the option of choosing our personal favourites from the remaining images after the images that were awarded the Highly Commended, Commended, and our Gold Medal winning image were withdrawn from the selection process.

My personal favourite from those remaining images was chosen by me because I kept going back to look at it again and again. The boy’s face is arresting in its intensity, and I really enjoy the way the author has placed the boy far right in the image, yet with his head turning slightly towards us. I love his freckles and his lick of wayward hair. For me, the author has cropped the horses at the correct amputation point for this

image, and the whole feeling here is of Irish horse owners? Or maybe horse trainers? The boy gives us the feeling that he is very used to being amongst horses. I also like the horse’s tail framing the left hand side of the image. One could argue that the boy is cropped a little tight on his head, but even that, for me, adds a very compelling dynamic.

HIGHLY COMMENDED GLOOMY SANDWICH

FRED BARRINGTON ARPS

The main architecture is a museum of Ocean and Surf in Biarritz, designed by Steven Hull.

I was attracted by the strong directional shadows and diagonals leading to the bench at the back. The strong shadows with the white architecture presented challenges in keeping details in both the shadows and the highlights.

HIGHLY COMMENDED SOLITARY PURSUIT

MICHAEL LONGHURST ARPS

I came across this scene in a September mid-afternoon on the promenade at Sao Jacinto, a pleasant seaside town on the Atlantic-facing west coast of Portugal in a region prone to sea fogs. The twin structures, the symbolism of which was lost on me, flanking the lone angler formed merely a small corner of an oversized and visually jarring monument, far too big for its surroundings, to a deceased local person presumably of some importance.

HIGHLY COMMENDED BOY ON A TRAIN

ANDREW WOOD ARPS

This is a candid shot which was taken at an historical re-enactment event which takes place every year on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway celebrating ‘Wartime in the Cotswolds’. You cannot really plan these sort of photo shoots very much. It is more a question of seeing the image and reacting quickly enough to capture what you see. Street photography, in fact.

COMMENDED TWISTING THE LIGHT MARILYN TAYLOR ARPS

This image has been quite successful for me, but hasn’t always been presented like this.

The bird is an egret, I think, and it was flying overhead when I was on holiday on the beach north of Mombasa. Shot against an unusually white sky, with a bridge camera. The background was shot in Kerala, amongst the tea plantations, quite late in the afternoon, with the sun going down.

COMMENDED AGE GAP

JOHN HOSKINS

I had seen this as a possible image when using the station, so went back with my camera. Frequent trains made it difficult to capture a suitable scene but I was lucky to find the young couple and the old lady, looking towards each other, although not necessarily at exactly the same time! The contrast between their ages gave me the title. Minimal editing was needed. Edited in Color Efex Pro using Bleach Bypass. Handheld at f4 at 1/20. ISO 1000.

COMMENDED BREAKWATER MARTIN RIDOUT LRPS

This photograph was taken on the Norfolk coast in 2018, and will be included in a panel I am working on with a view to achieving my ARPS.

Although in rough weather the Norfolk coast is subject to terrible sea erosion, in calm weather it seems very docile, and the colours of sky, sea and sand together are very appealing to me.

A small amount of processing was added in Photoshop to slightly increase saturation and to smooth out the fine detail in the sea and sand thus enhancing the calmness of the scene.

MEMBERS’ PRINT EXHIBITION 2019 | ACCEPTED

DREAMS • SANDRINE AIM LRPS

HEADPHONES • VIC ATTFIELD FRPS

A STUDY OF FORM AND LIGHT • JACK BATES FRPS

SHADOW LIGHT • PAUL BATHER ARPS

CARAMEL WATER WITH SAND PATTERN • PHIL BREW

NATIONAL GALLERY • QUENTIN BALL ARPS

TURKISH HAZELNUTS • JACK BATES FRPS

BASKET OF SEEDS • KERRY BLAKENEY-WILLIAMS

ORBITAL GREY • ROBERT BRACHER ARPS

AUTUMN COLOURS, OAK LEAVES • MIKE BRINDLE LRPS

ENGLISH SUMMER • STEVE BUNCE ARPS

SERVITUDE • CAROLINE BRIGGS LRPS

THE JOURNEY HOME • DIANE FOX BRINDLE LRPS

EVENING LIGHT - PORTH NANVEN • DEREK BRITTON LRPS

CIRCLES • MICHAEL BUTTERWORTH LRPS

FIGURES IN THE MIZZLE • JOHN CAVANA LRPS

FLYING CORNFLOWER • ANTHONY CHAPMAN ARPS

REFLECTED REALITY • LORRAINE CLIFTON

DECAY • STEPHEN COLLINSON LRPS

PREDATOR (PETALS OF DENDROBIUM) • BARRY DALE

ONE • MIEKE DOUGLAS

LUSKENTYRE SANDS • GUY DAVIES ARPS

OUT OF THE SHADOWS • BARRY DAY ARPS

TABLE, CHAIRS, SHADOWS • PETER DISHART

CLOSED CAFE, OBERNAI • DAVID FELLS LRPS

TOUCHING HANDS • GILL DISHART ARPS

URBAN SPREAD • LINDA DUNCALF ARPS

MEMBERS’ PRINT EXHIBITION 2019 | ACCEPTED

FLOODED FIELDS, COTSWOLDS • DIANE FIFIELD ARPS

PLUS TWO • DOROTHY FLINT ARPS

SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES • TERRY HOLLANDS LRPS

KIM • ROBERT HUGHES LRPS

THE HUSSARS WIDOW • ROGER FORD FRPS

THE OUTSIDER • ANGELA FORD ARPS

PRIESTS • HOWARD FISHER LRPS

FLOWER IMPRESSION • DEREK JONES LRPS

JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN • ANDREAS KLATT ARPS

RUSTED LILY • JOHN MARSHALL LRPS

FLY PAST OVER BIG BEN • JOHN KELLY LRPS

ON EDGE • ANTHONY LONG

MORNING COFFEE • SUSI LUARD ARPS

LIGHT & SHADE AT THE MOSQUE • LYNDA MORRIS LRPS

HEADING HOME IN THE MIST • MIKE PARMEE ARPS

AN ANGLE ON THE LANDSCAPE • KAY REEVE FRPS

AGED OAK, WISTMAN’S WOOD • DAVID REES

DARK MATTER 3 • SARAH NEWTON

VULTURE TREE • JANE MURPHY LRPS

TIMELESS EASTBOURNE • GILL PEACHY LRPS

POM POM DAHLIAS • BARRY ROBERTS ARPS

TOMB STONES • ALAN SANDER

PORTLAND BILL • BARRY SENIOR HonFRPS

SHELTERING FROM THE RAIN • HELEN SHEPPARD ARPS

CHERRY BLOSSOM SYLLABUB • SIMON SIMPSON

SPIKY BOOTS • MARGARET BALL ARPS

TWO-FACED • KATHY CHANTLER ARPS

LUNCH • JAY CHARNOCK FRPS

BY THE HOT BUFFET • TERRY DAY LRPS

LADY IN WHITE • ROBERT CHARNOCK

LIGHT AND SHADE • JANIE CHAPMAN LRPS

AUTUMN TREES • BEN GORMAN ARPS

THREE LADIES • ALAN GRISTWOOD ARPS

YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER • CAROLE LEWIS ARPS

SOUL OF ST WILLIAM’S PARISH • GREG LAMBERT ARPS

BRIGHTON STATION • GERALD KITIYAKARA LRPS

THE WASTELAND • RAY HIGGINBOTTOM ARPS

HAIR • TIM LAWSON ARPS

ACROSS TIME • VAL THOMAS L RPS

GRASSES AT SEILEBOST • LINDA WEVILL FRPS

ST MEILYRS CHURCH, LLYSYFRAM • GERALD THOMPSON LRPS

INTERCEPTORS • JACK ROSE FRPS

BEHIND GLASS • DAVID WOOD ARPS

LAVONY SHEBA’S STYLE • MICHAEL WOODMAN

CURLED • JOHN WIDDOWS FRPS

TUNNEL VISION • ROGER WOTTON ARPS

LINES OF TREES • LINDA WEVILL FRPS

RAILWAY LINES - LONDON TO PLYMOUTH JOHN WIDDOWS FRPS

FIRST CLASS • MARTYN SMITH LRPS

WOODLAND • TREVOR SMITHERS ARPS

SWANNERY • ROMNEY TANSLEY ARPS

SOLO GANNET • CLIFF SPOONER LRPS

ASPEN IN FALL • ANNA STEVENSON ARPS

CLEVEDON PIER • ANNA STEVENSON ARPS

WISTERIA • KIRSTEEN TITCHENER

MOORINGS MOSAIC, CLEY • DAVID TOWNSHEND ARPS

BLUE IN BLUE • EILEEN WILKINSON ARPS

MIA • BRIAN WIMBORNE

INDUSTRY • BARON WOODS FRPS

MIKEA BEACH, MADAGASCAR • MARK DEUTSCH LRPS

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Rollright Visual Art Group

Winter Meeting

22 February 2020

10:00 - 16:00

Village Hall, High Street, Long Compton, Warks, United Kingdom, CV36 5JS

Another opportunity for you to show a selection of your work and offer it for general discussion in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

RPS/Non RPS Member £8.00, Ploughman’s Lunch £5.00

Event organiser: Andreas Klatt ARPS (rpsva@klatt.co.uk)

(Continued)

Visual Art Group

2020 Spring Weekend with AGM

24 April - 27 April 2020

Crown Plaza Hotel, Bridgefoot, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom, CV37 6YR

Our 2020 Spring Weekend will take us to the birthplace of Shakespeare. Speakers confirmed so far include Martin Addison FRPS, Michael Pritchard FRPS and Verity Milligan. Our base will be the Crown Plaza Hotel, set on the River Avon and within walking distance to local attractions and historical sites. This event will become bookable at the end of October.

Event organiser: Andreas Klatt ARPS (rpsva@klatt.co.uk)

POSTAL AND EMAIL PORTFOLIOS

Get even better value from your membership of the Visual Art Group: join a circle. Email Circles are free to join, while Print circles will cost you no more than postage. Meet new people keen to share their experience, to ask questions and to comment on your photographs. Get a different angle on your work from people who are neither fellow club members, nor your family! Members range from new recruits to very experienced photographers, from people who just want to enjoy their photography with new friends, to people working towards distinctions. There are print and email circles and we’d welcome a few more members.

To join or ask for more information, just email Gill Dishart ARPS (Gill@dishart.plus.com)

http://rps.org/special-interest-groups/visual-art