Simplicity

daVid RUTTeR FRPS

It is well over a year since my work found favour and was awarded Fellowship status, so it is with the benefit of hindsight that I reflect and provide a few words to describe more about my Fellowship work and beyond. It is well documented that you cannot force creativity, and certainly cannot plan to find a subject of sufficient interest and quality for a distinction award from the Royal Photographic Society. It is the combination of persistence, experimentation, enthusiasm and pure luck that subject matter will suddenly appear ‘before your very eyes’, and it is an almost scary manifestation when an idea emerges to dominate your photographic world. Indeed, this was the case for me when I was in the studio back in 2020 and was tormenting A4 sheets of paper to see what I could conjure up, and yet, within just a few shots of curvy paper in subdued light, I knew I had a subject which so enamoured me that I was compelled to put something together.

There were days in the shooting where ideas came thick and fast and I ‘found’ images relatively easily, but then came the days – many, many days – when the creative drought would strike. All I could do was continue along the creative path finding those lines, finding those shadows, moving my paper, moving my lights until ‘eureka’ moments would happen and then I’d be off again like a greyhound from the trap – well, for a few frames anyway.

Then came the panel arrangement which was developed with as much personal detachment as possible as I filled my 21 boxes, but then relinquished favourite images because they just did not line up exactly or did not blend nor assist the overall spirit of the panel intention. This had to be done time and time again but, as I rejected each image in turn, I then had a starting idea of what the replacement image was trying to achieve in that panel position.

This was certainly no walk in the park, creating specific images with a relatively limited subject material, so I guess that is where the ‘persistence’ I mentioned earlier came in.