January 2022 No. 12
WELCOME TO THE FIRST VISUAL ART GROUP NEWSLETTER OF 2022 This edition of your newsletter has an interesting and varied content, we hope you will enjoy reading it. Aindreas Scholz BA (Hons) has given us a thought provoking article on plastic pollution in the oceans. Michael Longhurst FRPS shares his thoughts on gaining his fellowship with images of the Namibian desert. Jose Closs ARPS, always ready to try something new, explains what hallowlights and glorypools are. Her article is accompanied by several wonderful images. We also have the an article on Circles by Robert Hughes LRPS, and we have updates on the Brighton residential weekend, exhibitions and regional meetings.
DISTINCTION SUCCESSES We congratulate the following Visual Art Group members on their recently gained RPS Distinctions: Jane Berrisford
LRPS
Helena Jones Colin Lamb John Nash ARPS Landscape
Martyn Scull
ARPS Photobooks
Francesco Marchetti
FRPS Film
Judith Kimber
FRPS Natural History Victor Wong FRPS Applied & Port.
Colin Trow-Poole
FRPS Landscape
Edward Hyde Stephen Lewis
2022 SPRING RESIDENTIAL WEEKEND The forthcoming residential weekend in Brighton has attracted a lot of interest and many members have already booked their places. It promises to be an excellent weekend with a full programme of events, inspirational speakers and superb coast and city locations.
Workshops and Talks There will be two workshops and various talks during the weekend, the first being a workshop and talk from Paul Mitchell FRPS. Paul is currently the Chair of the Visual Art Distinctions panel and also serves on the Landscape Distinction Panel. His talk and workshop ‘The Seeing Eye’ encourages the participants to look beyond the obvious and explores details, textures, shapes found in nature and man-made objects. He will be taking his group around the less familiar parts of Brighton and his talk will be accompanied by images of his work as always. The second workshop and talk will be conducted by Tony Bramley FRPS . Tony works from his home studio/offices near Colchester in Essex. He has been working as a professional photographer for over twenty five years. In 2016, he started The Light Academy, photography training for one2ones, group training & group workshops. In December 2015 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society for his unique conceptual work on Suprematism within photography. This was followed with the RPS Fellowship of the Year Award in 2016. Tony is a photographer working in a very unique style and his talk ‘The Russians Are Coming’ is his photographic journey that eventually led to him receiving his Fellowship. Tony’s workshop will be centered around ‘Brighton’s Modernist Architecture’ Although known for its Regency architecture, Brighton has a good history of more Modernist works. The workshop will explore some of Brighton’s key modernist buildings including Brighton’s Art Deco and Brutalism period. Many, as expected, are central to the seafront and main town. Time will be allowed also for any Post Modern and Contemporary buildings we pass on the route. In addition, there will be talks from Andy Holliman who will be discussing Abstraction in Photography and Jo Teasdale FRPS who will be giving talks on both of her major projects – ‘My Adopted Family’ and ‘The Factory’ If anyone would like more information please contact me on mike.kitch@outlook.com Mike Kitchingman LRPS
January 2022 No. 12
SEASICK By Aindreas Philip Scholz We return with the sea, the tides we return as often as leaves, as numerous as grass, gentle, insistent, we remember the way … Diane di Prima, Revolutionary Letters Every year 8 million tonnes of plastics enter our oceans. Contrary to the common belief that plastics form vast garbage patches (gyres) in the middle of the oceans, recent scientific research has shown that 99% of marine plastic goes ‘missing’. This is the result of plastics breaking down into particles the size of plankton (nanoplastics), which are then absorbed by marine animals and as a result enter our food chain.
marine life has become the subject of research of several leading scientists who fear that by 2050 there may be more human-made objects than fish in our oceans, or perhaps only plastic left. In response, governments around the world are adapting to the effects of a changing climate and adopting response strategies. One such strategy aims to reduce plastic waste. Currently, the demand for plastic stands at 380m tonnes per year, representing 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (double the emissions of the aviation sector). At this rate, plastic production will account for 15% of global emissions by 2050.
Furthermore, many scientists believe that we have entered a new geological age, the Anthropocene, in which human activity has become the dominant influence on the planet. They argue that such dominance will leave enduring traces, such as future dumping grounds filled with fossilised technological waste (technofossils).
This unrecycled plastic waste and its impact on
During recent visits to the Middle East, I learned about the important challenge these regions face regarding plastic waste, which threatens marine life and pollutes coastal
January 2022 No. 12 areas which are festooned with debris. Exploring the visible, psychological, and ecological impact of plastic waste led me to conceive my project Seasick.
During beach clean-ups I conducted some initial field research and collected marine plastic debris. I then recorded and documented my findings using cyanotype, an alternative photographic process that produces dark-blue prints and which enabled me to use a low-tech method of mass reproduction with a low environmental impact. While the subject matter is not new, I decided to make it more resonant by establishing further conceptual links – for example, by using only seawater to develop my prints. This process allowed me to produce a series of blueprints in which a range of ghostly absences seemingly float in a vast open sea.
In the context of the present COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in single-use of personal protective equipment might result in further unregulated plastic pollution of
our oceans. Through my ‘blueprints’, I wish to hold the viewer’s attention and to help raise questions by inviting us to reflect on our global footprint and to think about the ‘blueprints’ that we, as a species, will leave after us. Aindreas P Scholz
January 2022 No. 12
DUNES OF NAMIBIA - EXTRACTING THE ABSTRACT Or How I shaped an F Panel out of sand By Michael Longhurst FRPS Statement of Intent First contact with the unworldly, wind-sculpted sand dunes of the Namib Desert assaults the senses, visually and emotionally. To tease out their ethereal as well as earthly qualities, I chose a semi-abstract approach. It remains part-literal, however, to preserve the integrity of the whole – the thematic characteristics of grandeur with grace, solidity with fluidity, permanence with fragility.
giant sand dunes of the Namib Desert, where would I? I was also keenly aware that these iconic natural formations are not exactly underdocumented. So what angle was left for me? After some deliberation I settled on a more intimate, closer-focused interpretation than I perceived to be the norm, eschewing the seductiveness of all that horizon-to-horizon magnificence. To keep me true to my intentions, I carried with me just one lens, a 100-400mm. I had two target areas, Sossuvlei, 100 miles inland, and the coast near Walvis Bay where the dunes plunge into the Atlantic. This close to the ocean, the sands are almost white with just the subtlest suggestions of colour, evolving as they flow east through shades of pink to vivid oranges, blacks and purples.
At the ocean’s edge, sea mists play on a pale palette, toying continually with tone and mood. Inland, sun and shadow contrasts become extreme, with razor-sharp delineations separating the dunes into hot and vivid yellows, purples and blacks. To preserve context, there is detail: rippling corrugations; dustings of iron oxide particles; trees, living and semi-fossilised; life, as evidenced by animal and vehicle tracks and, inevitably, people. I have attempted to express in these images my personal interpretation - a perfection on the edge, a metaphor for our planet today.’
My visit to Namibia in 2019, took me to two places I had long wished to visit - one to a part of that country I so much wanted to see, the other to somewhere in my own head. The place in my head was where I stored my ambition to achieve an RPS Fellowship. Since gaining my Associateship in 2015 I had made many a false start and little progress towards this goal. Eventually I confessed to myself that coming up with an idea – hard enough in itself – was only the start of the journey. I had to have a clear idea in advance of the message I wanted my images to convey. My wife and I would soon be heading for Namibia and if I failed to find inspiration among the ultra-photogenic
At Sossusvlei I had a choice Scale the dunes and aim low, or stay low and aim high. To save precious time I opted for the latter. It was now well past dawn and the light would be suitable for my purpose for only a couple more hours. On the coast there was less pressure on time. My formidably patient wife and I had engaged a local guide to take us on a 4x4 rollercoaster ride to where I needed to be. My Statement of Intent says my aim was to achieve a fusion of the abstract and the literal. I had to continually remind myself of the
January 2022 No. 12 exacting standards required of me: cohesion without repetition; individual images to be of stand-alone interest; technical excellence; and the rest… Once home, my first task was to sort my images into Probable, Possible, and Best Forgotten. On the plus side, Enemy Number One was no longer Time. By now I was in full Covid lockdown mode. While I had no shortage of images with lots of lovely swoops, curls and sandy swirls, they were split into two distinct and - I worried perhaps incompatible groups. These were the cool, pale and delicate tones at the coast versus the hot, vivid colours and stark contrasts inland. How to coax them into one cohesive panel?
Time to call in an expert. Fortunately for me, the expert par excellence who came to my aid was Fine Art photographer Sue Brown, a double Fellow and highly experienced RPS panel advisor.
The next challenge was to settle on an appropriate category. My favoured option, with which I felt most comfortable, was Visual Arts. But I feared my assessors might consider the panel strayed too near Landscape. I consulted other RPS experts who seemed united on one crucial point. It could be either. So I stuck with Visual Art. But in my choice of images I would put a foot in each camp. If indeed the consensus among my assessors was that my panel was in fact a panel of Landscapes, perhaps I could be reassigned to that category for another assessment at a later date. It was a compromise, and like all compromises, a cop-out. On my Day of Judgement - by Zoom, due to Covid (which meant I had to provide a set of high-quality digital images as well as prints) – my three assessors and their chairman offered nothing but constructive and useful criticism. But as the assessment proceeded it was becoming clear to me from their comments that my panel had not passed muster.
She gently bossed me into rationalising my images – and my thoughts. Somewhere in the process I hit upon a plan to reconcile these two seemingly irreconcilable and tonally clashing sets of images and cajole them into working together towards a greater good. Mine. I would organise them into a central ‘mountain’ of the bold shapes, colours and stark shadows of Sossuvlei, flanked by a muted ‘sea’ of pale, wavelike undulations redolent of their coastal location.
All was not lost. They deemed three images to be of substandard quality or relevance but, crucially, at no point questioned the appropriateness of my chosen category. Instead, the chairman invited me to rework or replace the offending images and resubmit the panel. Downhearted but not discouraged, and comfortable now in my own mind that Visual Art was the right home for my images, I drastically reworked the panel, replacing the three offending images, but also correcting some obvious imbalances
January 2022 No. 12 and generally pushing it further along the semi-abstract road. I also made small but to my mind important tweaks to my Statement of Intent to ensure that everything I said in it was justified in the images. (I cannot overestimate the importance of getting this right.) My resubmission went smoothly. I had noted the assessors’ comments the first time round and taken remedial action. To my relief they voiced their appreciation of my Statement of Intent and how it accurately reflected my choice of images and bold layout.
I had my Fellowship. Mike Longhurst FRPS
January 2022 No. 12
SYMMETRY FROM HALLOWLIGHT By Jose Closs ARPS
Symmetry I have always been fascinated by geometrical
images, symmetry in particular. It’s everywhere you look in nature, but is also fundamental to so much that is man-made. One art form where symmetrical design is common is architecture. Some of the most intricate and beautiful geometric patterns appear in Islamic buildings, while our British churches and cathedrals are exemplars of traditional symmetries, both in terms of their external structure and internally, with their frequently ornate stained glass windows.
I tried to find the words to describe this gloriously evanescent phenomenon for this article. The only suggestion I found was vitreous ombre (glass shadow) which doesn’t roll off the tongue easily. A writer friend suggested ‘dreamstreams, making dust motes into fireflies’. After more more thought and searching, I decided to settle for hallowlight, to describe the beams coming through the windows: and glorypools for the puddles of coloured light where hallowlight settles onto surfaces inside the church. An internet search showed that these words have been used for other purposes, but I think they fit this church light usage well. If there are established words that do this job I’d be delighted to hear them!
Churches and the light from stained glass windows While I love the magical light created in churches by stained glass windows, I find straight record shots of them rather dull (my apologies to anyone who specialises in these). The structure of church windows usually has reflective symmetry along a vertical axis, or rotational as in the Rose Window at York Minster. The actual glass images within the frames are rarely symmetrical, usually depicting bible stories or local benefactors or heroes. However, for me the narrative content of the windows pales into insignificance beside the magic of sunlight shining through them. It is simply the quality of that light that fascinates me. It constantly changes according to time and the weather, slowly moving coloured pools light across walls and floor.
Making symmetry out of making
January 2022 No. 12
Making symmetry out of hallowlight In order to make the pictures shown here, intentional camera movement was used to capture the light, producing soft lines and light trails. These ICM images were then used to recreate some of the original symmetry of the windows, as well as some imagined symmetry. Six pictures have been selected here from from a wide range of images, with varying amounts of detail and blur. The intention was to emphasise the effect of light alone, by isolating it from distracting surroundings. By darkening the backgrounds, only the captured hallowlight is clearly visible. These new symmetries are both reflective and rotational, in keeping with the original intentions of church architecture. Essentially this simplification of what I saw, abstracting the ethereal light from the physical elements of the church window construction.
These hallow lights were seen in Gargrave Church, Leeds Minster, Pocklington Church, Selby Abbey, Syracuse Cathedral and York Minster. Bragging rights are available for anyone who can work out which is which. Jose Closs ARPS
January 2022 No. 12
WHAT IS A POSTAL PORTFOLIO? By Robert Hughes LRPS The heading asks “What is a Postal Portfolio” which I am often having to explain to non photographers when I am talking about my photographic hobby. In this article I will try to explain what it is all about. In this digital age most people take pictures/ images on their phones and that is where they stay, not to see the light of day, languishing on the hard drives. In the old days we used to take a film to the chemist to be processed and then handed back a pack of postcard sized prints which could be stuck in a family album. The more adventurous photographer who made it their hobby would probably process the film at home, usually the bathroom, and then print the best results which would possibly end up at the local Camera Club print battle or exhibition.
Why prints? Well it completes the circle on creating a picture which no digital screen can replicate. The sheer tactile feel of a print and the tonal value is most rewarding. The range of papers now available for digital inkjet printing is breathtaking with various surfaces to satisfy even the diehard printer. The other advantage is that all members are encouraged to write in the notebook, which can be lively and is a good place to discuss photographic issues and technique. Circle C, the folio of which I am currently the secretary, has a ten day turnaround for each member and the prints are unmounted up to A4 in size, either in Monochrome or Colour. We decided as a group not to vote on the entries but to concentrate our efforts on the crit sheets which I believe everyone finds of benefit to improve one’s photography.
Monty’s Cottage Mark Snowdon ARPS
You may ask where does the postal portfolio fit in? The Postal Portfolios became an alternative for those of us who like to follow our own style and not be dictated to by fads at the camera club. Here one received a pack of fresh prints every 4-8 weeks to comment on and sometimes dependant on the folio, vote on the pictures. This all done in the comfort of one’s own home.
Tavira Church John Cavana ARPS
Postal Portfolios are therefore for those who are passionate about their photography and want to see their photographs in print form.
January 2022 No. 12 The Email Portfolios similarly provide a platform for keen photographers who submit one image monthly by email or Dropbox to their colleagues. Comments by email are similarly valued as comments from friends you never see, but whose photography and expertise you grow to understand and appreciate. Currently there is no waiting list for Print or Email Circles. If you'd like to join a Print or Email Circle, or would like to know more and have a few questions, please contact Gill Dishart on her E-mail Gill@dishart.plus.com. Robert Hughes LRPS
And a vote of thanks to the Circle Secretaries The Secretaries of the print and email groups do a lot of work behind the scenes, to keep the systems running smoothly. You may not know who does what so they are listed here: Print Circle C
David Fiddes LRPS
Print Circle F/B
Robert Hughes LRPS
Email Circle 1
Gill Dishart ARPS
Email Circle 2
Mick Sayer ARPS
Email Circle 3
Horst Witthueser LRPS
Email Circle 4
Anthony Corkhill ARPS
Email Circle 5
Fred Barrington ARPS
Rollright Visual Art Group meeting 27th November 2021 It was a delight to hold our second face to face meeting since the rude interruption of covid-19, and to welcome a trio of creative and entertaining speakers. Linda Wevill FRPS filled the two morning sessions with a varied and eclectic mix of subjects, held firmly together by her distinctive style. Her images are wonderfully subtle, full of light and softness, gentle and atmospheric, diffused and misty. Landscapes, seascapes, mists and water, miniature, minimalist, macro and a rusty wheelbarrow providing abstract pseudo landscapes – all succumbing to her gentle touch. In her presentation she quoted Jonathan Swift - "Vision is the art of seeing
what is invisible to others.". Her photographs made visible what many of us fail to see. Robert Friel ARPS took the early afternoon slot beginning with an intriguing response to the restrictions of the past twenty months. Obliged to travel into London for work, he used his iPhone to record not just what he saw, but how he felt as the year moved from the vibrant positive moods of spring and summer, through the muted colours of autumn, to the darker and more challenging times as the days shortened. Two extended projects completed his presentation – ‘The Pond at the end of the Road’ – an essay on an unprepossessing village duck pond; and ‘Water Worlds’ – a study of a blue bucket, a yellow hosepipe, ICM and a fantastic imagination – both sets revealing beauty in most unlikely places. For eclecticism, Martin Addison FRPS would be difficult to outdo. His AVs covered an incredible range of subjects and techniques, architecture, abstract impressionism, a dog’s eye view of Tewkesbury, a surrealist psychedelic interpretation of ‘Lucy’ (in the Sky with Diamonds) and many more. An extraordinary creative body of work.
Looking forward to 2022 The first meeting will be slightly later than normal - on March 19th. It will be a members' day so I hope that many of you will bring images, prints or Pdis, along to share. We are always interested to see your exhibition work, projects, RPS distinction panels - indeed anything and everything photographic. This is your day so please make the most of it. The Long Compton Village Hall is booked for all our meetings in 2022, reverting to the normal schedule - the last Saturday of the usual months. You may wish to mark your diaries and calendars and save the date - May 28th, August 27th and November 26th. I hope that we will have guest speakers for the May and November meetings, the August meeting will again be a member day and the programme will probably continue to alternate. The Rollright VAG is part of the RPS Visual Art special interest group, but is not limited to RPS members. If you know of anyone who might be interested in what we have to offer, please encourage them to come along. Barry Barker FRPS
January 2022 No. 12
MAGAZINES AND EXHIBITIONS A new year and new beginnings. Something for you all to look forward to: the 2021 Members’ Square Images prints are now set to be printed in the Visual Art Magazine, and should be reaching your postboxes by mid-February. I can tell you that it looks fabulous – you will be proud to own a copy. All thanks to Paul Mitchell FRPS for his impeccable design and getting it through to production. All VAG members are eligible for a free copy; you are welcome to extra copies at £5 each + p&p.
Useful Committee Contacts Chairman: John Cavana ARPS visualart@rps.org Secretary: Carol Paes ARPS visualartsec@rps.org Treasurer and Membership Secretary: Mark Deutsch LRPS visualarttreasurer@rps.org Circles Secretary: Gill Dishart ARPS Gill@dishart.plus.com Exhibitions: Wendy Meagher LRPS
To showcase these beautiful images we are looking into several exhibition venues. Watch this space for further developments.
wmeagher@gmail.com
It is hoped that restrictions will be lifted so that we can be free to attend exhibitions around the country. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Mike.kitch@outlook.com
Wendy Meagher LRPS
Residential weekends: Mike Kitchingman
Rollright sub-group: Barry Barker visualartrollright@rps.org Northern sub-group: Mary Crowther
2022 AGM The AGM will be held in the same way as it was held in 2020 and 2021. In April, Carol Paes will send you the officers’ reports and nomination forms so that you have time to consider the documents and ask questions before receiving the voting forms later in the month. It is planned that the AGM formalities will be concluded during April so that results can be announced at the end of that month. John Cavana ARPS
ARTICLES FOR FUTURE EDITIONS Many thanks to the contributors to this newsletter. We are always looking for new material and will warmly welcome any contributions you would like to make. New techniques, personal stories, distinction successes etc., the list is long. If you have something you would like to share please contact Carol Paes, who will be editing future editions. Carol’s email address is visualartsec@rps.org The next issue of the newsletter is scheduled for publication in April 2022.
visualartnorth@rps.org