Editor’s Comments

Ray higginBoTToM aRPS

It’s been a long frustrating journey to reach this point in editing the latest edition of the Visual Art Magazine. I’m so much aware of the volatile, violent and climatic events that surround our everyday lives and the dramatic images in newspapers and on our TV screens that we cannot escape from. However, I continue to be inspired and uplifted by the imagery that I see every day and I hope this issue will do the same for you.

I first discovered the work of Fran Forman through my love of Edward Hopper. Her imagery evokes all the feelings I get from looking at Hopper’s paintings. As Fran says, she is aware of the ‘sense of alienation, of expectations and ambiguous relationships, a disquiet within each domestic scene’.

John Bermingham’s dark and disturbing visions of the future came into my life during Covid, when a photographer was unable to do a presentation at my camera club and recommended John. He discussed and showed the work from his Associateship of The Irish Photographic Federation. His ‘images frequently come from a place of trauma and despair’ and are a very powerful statement that will make you stop and think.

Sarah Jarrett calls herself a visual storyteller. Her work is a mixture of photography, painting and collage, a bright and colourful world of the ‘surreal, strange and bizarre’. She says the subject of our ‘relationship with nature and the natural world’, especially flowers and plants, remains an intrinsic part of her practice.

Sometimes, people have expressed some confusion about what visual art really is in the context of RPS photography. We do have a definition, which is shown on the RPS website and is worth repeating here: Visual art photography can be defined as showing evidence of a personal vision or style which should convey a sense of design, emotion, mood or some meaning which encourages the viewer to look beyond the subject.

Sit back, enjoy the Magazine, and I wish you all a very happy festive season and a rewarding New Year.

With best wishes

John

Paul Caponigro’s love affair with the Antarctica is a constant in his life. An internationally collected visual artist, published author and poet, his images convey the beauty and fragility of one of the most hostile and remote places on Earth. He says: ‘You go as a tourist, and return as an ambassador.’

Partly based in Abu dhabi, Anthony Lamb creates stark and minimalist images of the remote wilderness and the solitary nature of the desert. He states that the digital darkroom allows him to satisfy his artistic vision by subtle adjustments to colour and light. His photographs convey a sense of calmness, a simplicity within the frame, that provides us with a glimpse of his love for wild and uninhabited places.

Ray