Mark Power Why the fall of the Berlin Wall saved my career
How photography can boost your mental wellbeing
JOURNAL MARCH 2018 / VOLUME 158 / NUMBER 3
WWW.RPS.ORG
MILES ALDRIDGE
A MASTER OF COLOUR REIMAGINES GAME OF THRONES
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OPENING SHOT Have I got hues for you
The April edition of the Journal is guest edited by Michael Benson, a founding director of Photo London. Watch out for interviews with Susan Lipper, who is delivering the RPS Lecture at the international photography event, and the fine-art photographer Edward Burtynsky, plus a showcase of emerging talent
VIVID IMAGES INFUSED WITH RICH HUES sit alongside striking archive photography in an issue that showcases the best of both worlds. As he prepares for a headline appearance at The Photography Show, Miles Aldridge explains the role of colour in his work. Months after his arresting shoot of the Game of Thrones cast for the cover of Time magazine, he shares how he plans his shoots using storyboards and sketches. Also renowned for his sexualised images of women often wearing blank expressions and little else, he reveals why his subjects rail against being pigeonholed. Wander into his mesmerising world and make up your own mind. As a major exhibition, Victorian Giants, opens at the National Portrait Gallery, Rose Teanby ARPS pays tribute to the women who helped lay the foundations of the Society. Turn to page 174 for her celebration of these trailblazers. One of them, Julia Margaret Cameron, is celebrated on page 240 as we continue our series showcasing objects from the RPS Collection, now held at the V&A Museum in London. If that whets your appetite for beautiful monochrome images, you can immerse yourself in the world of oceanliner photography on page 192. Society member Ian Wright tells David Clark how a
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discovery led him to explore the forgotten culture of photography on board the grand ocean liners. The subjects of these magical portraits include escape artist Harry Houdini, photographed in 1913, opera singer Enrico Caruso en route to Argentina in 1917, and Fred and Adele Astaire puttin’ on the ritz. The work of Honorary Fellow Mark Power is equally captivating in colour or mono. The Magnum photographer selects his best shots, including Tyne, Sunday 25 July, 1993 – reminiscent of his childhood family holidays – and Warsaw, Poland, April 2005, showing crowds gathered to watch a live broadcast of the funeral of John Paul II. Photography can be so much more than a visual treat. The environmentalist and educator Andrew Scriven argues that the act of taking photographs can lead to a sense of calm. In advance of his Society workshop, he tells Lucy Davies why he found contentment close to home – and how you can add mindfulness to your photography.
KATHLEEN MORGAN Editor
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THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Fenton House, 122 Wells Road Bath BA2 3AH, UK www.rps.org reception@rps.org +44 (0)1225 325733 Incorporated by Royal Charter Patron Her Majesty the Queen President Robert Albright HonFRPS Vice President Del Barrett ARPS Treasurer Derek Trendell ARPS Chief Executive Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS Published on behalf of The Royal Photographic Society by Think Red Tree Business Suites 33 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow G40 4LA thinkpublishing.co.uk EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES Editor Kathleen Morgan kathleen.morgan @thinkpublishing.co.uk 0141 375 0509 Deputy editor Alec Mackenzie Contributing editors David Clark, Fiona McKinlay, Jonathan McIntosh, Gavin Stoker Design Matthew Ball, Andrew Bell Sub-editors Sam Bartlett, Andrew Littlefield Advertising sales Olivia Donoghue olivia.donoghue @thinkpublishing.co.uk 0203 771 7260 Editor-in-chief Clare Harris clare.harris@thinkpublishing.co.uk Group account director John Innes
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Shirley Temple and her parents on board the liner Malolo
Every reasonable endeavour has been made to find and contact the copyright owners of the works included in this newspaper. However, if you believe a copyright work has been included without your permission, please contact the publishers. Views of contributors and advertisers do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Royal Photographic Society or those of the publishers. All material correct at time of going to press. Circulation 11,181 (Jan-Dec 2017) ABC ISSN: 1468-8670
Cover Maisie Williams by Miles Aldridge
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208 In search of mindfulness
184 The hounds getting ready for action by Moira Chalmers LRPS
GETTY IMAGES; MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS; ANDREW SCRIVEN
Š 2018 The Royal Photographic Society. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
MARCH 2018
CONTRIBUTORS
EVERY MONTH
Gemma Padley (PAGE 184)
Padley is an editor and journalist who specialises in photography. She has worked with a wide variety of clients including Getty Images, Magnum Photos, the BBC, Adobe, Photoworks and LensCulture
164 | BIG PICTURE Guardian warrior by Ami Vitale
184 | DISTINCTIONS Moira Chalmers LRPS
167 | IN FOCUS Society news, views and more
228 | MEMBER STORIES Marion Sidebottom LRPS explores Epping Forest
182 | BOOKS Includes Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings and Astrid Kirchherr with the Beatles
240 | THE COLLECTION I Wait by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1872
228
David Clark (PAGE 192)
Freelance journalist and editor David Clark has focused on photography for 20 years, penning articles on iconic images and interviewing many leaders in the field. He has contributed to the Journal since 2015
227 The Journal’s lowdown on five printers to help you do it yourself
FEATURES
THE GUIDE
192 | THE SHIPPING NEWS A photographic treasure trove reveals the glamour and adventure aboard cruise ships in the early 20th century
225 | LATEST KIT Gavin Stoker puts the Panasonic Lumix GH5S through its paces
200 | MILES ALDRIDGE Enter the realm of a colourful and controversial character Gavin Stoker (PAGE 225)
Stoker has written about photography since 1997 and been a deputy editor, editor, and reviewer across such industry-leading publications as What Digital Camera, and Total Digital Photography
226 | MEMBER TEST Andy Finney finds a formidable camera in the Nikon D850
208 | COMING UP FOR AIR Why Andrew Scriven turned from travel photography to make mindfulness a key part of his practice
227 | FIVE OF THE BEST The Journal discovers which photo printers make the best impression, including the Epson D700 and Canon Pixma Pro-10S
216 | THIS BOY’S LIFE Honorary Fellow Mark Power reflects on some of his most remarkable images spanning a 50-year career
232 | EVENTS The next three months of great Society get-togethers and gatherings from the regions and groups
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BIG PICTURE
Guardian warrior As a photographer for National Geographic and an ambassador for Nikon, Ami Vitale has visited 95 countries. Her skill is to look around the edges of a story, beyond the obvious headlines. This image is from her The Guardian Warriors of Northern Kenya project,
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By Ami Vitale
which documents the first community-owned elephant and rhino sanctuary in east Africa, run by the indigenous Samburu community, with whom Vitale has worked for nine years. The sanctuary lies in 975,000 acres of scrubland known as the Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The Samburu people, who once feared elephants and rhinos, now protect them from poaching and the ivory trade. Ami Vitale is speaking at The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham, on 17 March. See photographyshow.com/ speakers/ami-vitale
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PAGE 174
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THE SOCIETY’S FIRST WOMEN MEMBERS CELEBRATED
RACHAEL TALIBART EXCELS IN BLACK AND WHITE
A DYNAMIC DUO JOINS THE RPS WORKSHOP TEAM
IN•FOCUS News, views, exhibitions and competitions
A NEW DAY Brazilian photographer Marcio Cabral has been named International Garden Photographer of the Year for his image Cerrado Sunrise
Blooming marvellous
Society member scoops prize in garden photo competition SIGN UP
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
SIX SOCIETY members were recognised in this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) competition. Carol Casselden LRPS took first place in the Beauty of
Plants category, while Carolyne Barber, David Jordan, Raymond Jones, Ron Tear and Valerie Dennison also had images shortlisted. The overall winning image, titled Cerrado Sunrise,
Why not join this workshop on Friday 13 April? The cost to RPS members is £86. See page 235 for more information on this and other Society workshops
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was taken by the Brazilian photographer Marcio Cabral. Casselden has been photographing gardens for more than 10 years. She had been shortlisted in previous IGPOTY competitions and won first prize in the Beautiful Gardens category in 2015. She was delighted at the news of her latest success. ‘I am thrilled at winning the Beauty of Plants category in this competition,’ she said. Her shot, Through Icy Glass, shows a frosted greenhouse window. Now in its 11th year, the competition attracted 19,000 entries from more than 50 countries. Winning and shortlisted entries will be on show at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, until 11 March, before touring the UK and internationally. A hardback book, IGPOTY Collection 11, is available to buy.
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Visit igpoty.com
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IN FOCUS
NEWS IN BRIEF 3
1. Through Icy Glass, winner, The Beauty of Plants, by Society member Carol Casselden LRPS 2. Through The Garden, winner, Beautiful Gardens, by Nicky Flint 3. Bees at Work by Clay Bolt 4. The Cinnamon Farmer by Suwandi Chandra 5. Dinorwig Pattern by Matthew Holland 4
IT’S SHOWTIME l Speakers for The Photography Show at the NEC, Birmingham, from 17 to 20 March will include documentary photographer Brent Stirton. The South African, named Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 for Memorial to a Species, pictured above, will give a talk on the Super Stage on 18 March at 11am. Joe Cornish HonFRPS, pictured, will appear on the new Great Outdoors Stage on 17 March at 2pm and two exhibitions, the RPS International Images for Science and David Hurn’s Swaps, will also be on display at the show. IPE 161 NOW OPEN l The Society’s International Photography Exhibition 161 is open for entries from members and non-members, with prizes totalling £4,250. The competition closes on 4 April. For more information visit rps.org/ipe161
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PODCAST FOR CHIEF l The Society’s chief executive, Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS, has been interviewed for The Togcast website. The podcast includes discussion on his career, the relevance of the RPS to today’s photographers and the organisation’s challenges and successes in recent years. Download the interview from thetogcast.podbean.com VOL 158 / MARCH 2018 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 169
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IN FOCUS
Society 365 competition The most popular online entries from January’s square-format theme 170
SUPREME CLASS
By Rav Rayet
As a fan of social media – Instagram in particular – when I saw that the theme of the competition was square format I knew I had the
perfect opportunity to get involved. The streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter are a great place to shoot with shadows and light. I noticed I was standing under a flight path so I found a beautiful
intersection and waited patiently. I used a Nikon D750 with a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens at 1/800sec and ISO 100. The image was edited using a combination of both Photoshop and Lightroom.
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BARRY HOFFMAN LRPS
Member, board of trustees, The Royal Photographic Society
VoiceBox Democratic processes PHARE DU FOUR
By Tricia Scott ARPS This shot was captured when sailing the Brittany coast on a 32ft
IN THE BROKEN PLACES
By Phil Lavery ARPS From a series of the same name, this image is a response to the heart attack I had in April 2016. My photographs are usually about finding beauty in forgotten or ignored spaces
sailboat in heavy seas. The lighthouse would be in full view one moment and almost gone the next. Taking hand-held, on a
but here I’m seeking it in the things that have played, and continue to play, a major role in my recovery: namely, my daily meds. I used a Fuji X100S and a Lume Cube as the light source, with med foils and boxes as reflectors and to introduce colour.
Canon EOS 40D at f/8, while trying to stay upright as the boat rocks and rolls, is never an easy task but always an exciting challenge.
ENTER NOW Inspired by these images? Then vote for your favourites and submit your photographs for the next monthly Society competition at rps-365.org
How photography can be a means to change the world I HAVE A CONFESSION TO make: I love photography. I love taking photos, I love looking at photos, I love how photos can change the world. I love talking to photographers and I love that photography has become an incredible democracy in the 21st century. I had the privilege of meeting Jillian Edelstein HonFRPS a while ago and she said to me: ‘Photography is autobiography.’ I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how profoundly true this is. I joined the board of trustees in September, not really having had any prior involvement with the internal machinations of the Society. I have been astounded by the ‘I have been strength of feeling astounded on from members and non-members all sides by alike, who all have the strength robust, often of feeling’ polarised, views on the Society, its purpose and its management. Although I may not be expert in things photographic, I do know a thing or two about being a trustee. And one thing I know is that it isn’t easy. Being a trustee carries a multitude of legal and fiduciary obligations and we are duty bound to manage the charity according to its objects as stated in the royal charter. We are also volunteers with limited time, and that precious time is mainly taken up with finances, strategy and compliance. The objects of the Society are in our royal charter. I urge you have a look with fresh eyes and take immense pride, as I do, in supporting such an influential society and an enjoyable pursuit. Visit rps.org/charter
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WHAT TO SEE THIS MONTH
VICTORIAN GIANTS: THE BIRTH OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY National Portrait Gallery, London 1 MARCH-20 MAY
This look at the
LEWIS CARROLL / NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY; DONALD MACLENNAN; PHILIPPE CHANCEL; MAHTAB HUSSAIN; HIRO / HAMILTONS GALLERY; NIELS ACKERMANN
1 work of Julia
Margaret Cameron, Clementina Hawarden, Lewis Carroll and Oscar Rejlander features many rarely seen prints, including Carroll’s images of his muse Alice Liddell. npg.org.uk
Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll’s muse for Alice in Wonderland, 1858
HIRO Hamiltons Gallery, London UNTIL 23 MARCH
This exhibition
3 gathers
NIELS ACKERMANN: LOOKING FOR LENIN Side Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne UNTIL 25 MARCH
These images of 2 broken statues of Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine are the result of the Swiss photographer’s attempt to document the country’s process of “decommunisation”. amber-online.com
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SHOWING
monochrome and colour images from octogenarian fashion and still-life photographer Hiro (Yasuhiro Wakabayashi), whose work has appeared in magazines including Harper’s Bazaar. hamiltonsgallery.com
YOU GET ME? Impressions Gallery, Bradford UNTIL 24 MARCH
Mahtab Hussain’s
4 images explore
the question of identity among young workingclass British Asian men and boys. The 24 large-scale prints are part of a series of photographs of people Hussein met over a nine-year period. impressions-gallery. com
DONALD MACLELLAN: RETROSPECTIVE Heseltine Gallery, Oxfordshire 7-25 MARCH
This exhibition by the leading Scottish
5 photographer spans 25 years and draws on
projects including Pink Portraits, showing gay and lesbian professionals in the film industry, and Black Power, studies of British black achievers. chenderit.northants.sch.uk
When we were young: photographs of childhood from the National Galleries of Scotland Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 13 May // Into the woods Victoria & Albert Museum, London, until 22 April // Andreas Gursky Hayward Gallery, London, until 22 April // Another kind of life: photography on the margins Barbican, London, until 27 May
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IN FOCUS
The trailblazers
As a major exhibition celebrates Victorian greats, Rose Teanby ARPS reveals the role of female photographers in the Society’s early years
Lady Caroline Kerrison 174
PIONEERS Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty, left, by Julia Margaret Cameron, and Elizabeth Vignoles, pictured in 1861, right
The first female member, elected on 31 January 1853 at the inaugural meeting, was Elizabeth Vignoles née Hodge, wife of eminent civil engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles. Fenton had photographed the construction of a suspension bridge in Kieff, designed by Vignoles for the emperor of Russia, and Elizabeth accompanied her husband on his commission. This was followed by the construction of a railway in Spain from Bilbao to Tudela, again accompanied by Mrs Vignoles. Unfortunately, no record has been located of her photographic work. Five female photographers joined Elizabeth during 1853: Amelia Elizabeth Guppy (1808-1886), Mary Anne Boulton (1829-1912), Catherine Verschoyle (1802-1882), Lady Caroline Kerrison (died 1895) and Jesse Fergus (1794-1863).
The following year Queen Victoria became the patron, an active royal interest in photography continued by the current patron Queen Elizabeth II, and the Duchess of Cambridge, who was made an honorary member in 2017. I am proud to be one of the 2,420 female UK members of our Society. The Society has given a platform to generations of female photographers over the past 165 years, demonstrating a refreshingly inclusive attitude far ahead of its time. Victorian Giants is at the National Portrait Gallery, 1 March to 20 May. Teanby will lecture on five women who made their mark at the dawn of photography in ‘Who Was Britain’s First Female Photographer?, at the gallery on 3 May. Visit bit.ly/giants_lecture
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY; JOHN VIGNOLES / PRIVATE FAMILY PAPERS
THE NAME JULIA Margaret Cameron resonates with members of the Society – and across the world of photography. Her portraits of prominent Victorians from Darwin to Tennyson earned her a reputation as one of British photography’s trailblazers. It is no surprise that she is among four photographers celebrated in a major exhibition, Victorian Giants, at the National Portrait Gallery. A full decade before Cameron joined the Society in 1864, other pioneering women were among its founding members. In January 1853 women were given a revolutionary new opportunity – equal status with men with the formation of the Photographic Society. Roger Fenton and his colleagues introduced 21 rules governing the new society, with No.9 stipulating that ‘Ladies shall be eligible as members of the Society’. This was ground-breaking in its demonstration of equality towards Victorian women, and in its first year the Photographic Society attracted a membership of 203, including six women.
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ONE TO WATCH
Eva O’Leary The Chicago-born 28-year-old who learned about the world through art Eva O’Leary graduated from Yale University with a masters in fine arts in 2016. She has been shortlisted for the 2018 Hyères Festival photographie grand prix, which will be announced in April. When did you start seriously taking photographs? My parents are painters. I grew up in their studios and learned about the world through art. At 16 I was accepted on a Pennsylvania Governor’s School summer programme for the arts – I chose photography. This experience was so important; kind of a green light for me. What inspires your work?
Making work gives me an excuse to interact with the world in a way that feels meaningful and joyful. Photography lets me study the things that upset me, confuse me, terrify me, all in a really specific and incredible way. Making work gives me a tool to understand human behaviour and pain on a deeper level, and with that, selfishly, I get relief. What are your plans? My main priority is to keep making work. Trying to self-fund projects and afford groceries is difficult, and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Now, I’m working on a few projects, and tentatively starting to put together a book.
Visit evaoleary.com
Korell, 2017
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IN FOCUS
MY PLACE by Paul Gallagher
Vareid, Norway What is your favourite location to photograph? Vareid, facing the Flakstad Mountains on the Lofoten Islands in Norway. What do you find attractive about it? It feels wild, remote and forbidding, but beautiful at the same time. It is often winter when I go and the rock outcrops on the shore are worn into amazing shapes by the mighty Norwegian Sea. There are hundreds of
potential photographs within a few hundred metres. Why do you return there? It has never been the same twice. The light on the mountains changes, the cloud alters the light, the time of day has a huge impact and storms come and go, affecting the waves’ actions. Vareid is like an old friend I visit and learn a little more each time we meet. Lastly, there is never anybody else there. Solitude is bliss for a landscape photographer.
ESSENTIALS Remote cameras in the goal at Wembley Stadium
‘Outstanding’ album could leave the UK Temporary bar on export of Julia Margaret Cameron work MARC ASPLAND HonFRPS ‘An essential part of my huge kit bag as a sports photographer has become a remotely fired camera. Placed where it is impossible to 176
physically be in sports venues, the remote camera offers a unique perspective. Whether clamped more than 100ft up in the roof space of an ice hockey arena or behind the goal at Wembley, by firing them using a wireless triggering system, I can file images to The Times which capture a different view of the action.’
THE UK government has temporarily halted the sale of an album of work by the photographic pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron. The export bar is intended to delay the album’s sale to give time for a UK buyer to be found who will meet the
£3.7m price and prevent it being sold abroad. Images from the Life, also known as the Norman Album, was given by Cameron to her daughter in 1869. Among its 75 images are portraits of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Charles Darwin. Michael Ellis, the arts minister, described the
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TOP SHOT
Wave power
album as having ‘outstanding aesthetic importance and significance to the study of the history of photography’. After a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), a decision on the export licence for the album has been deferred until 5 May. This may be extended until 5 September if a serious intention is made to raise funds to buy it at the asking price. Organisations or people considering buying the album should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200. See page 174
POETIC PORTRAIT Alfred, Lord Tennyson, left, as captured by Julia Margaret Cameron and the Images from the Life album, below
SOCIETY MEMBER Rachael Talibart has won the 2018 Black + White Photographer of the Year award with her image of a turbulent sea at Newhaven in East Sussex. It is titled Nyx, after the Greek goddess of the night, and is part of Talibart’s series of sea photographs, Sirens. ‘I grew up sailing, but never acquired sea legs, so all the images in Sirens were taken from the shore,’ says Talibart. ‘Like most of the others, Nyx was taken from a low angle as I was trying to get into the world of the waves.’ The prize-winning image was shot on a rainy afternoon. ‘There was that lovely light you get when there are passing rain showers and the sky goes really dark,’ she says. ‘For a brief moment the sun broke through the storm clouds and highlighted part of the sea against the dark sky.’ Talibart is exhibiting work with fellow Society members Paul Sanders, Astrid McGechan and Linda Wevill FRPS in the show Vision 9 at the Oxo Gallery, Oxo Tower Wharf, London, from 11-15 April. Sirens is published by Triplekite Books. See rachaeltalibart.com
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IN FOCUS
Dynamic duo join Society team FACE TIME A digital portrait by Clinton Lofthouse, left, and Matt Heafy from Trivium, captured by George Fairbairn for Kerrang! magazine, above
AWARD-WINNING photographers George Fairbairn and Clinton Lofthouse have joined the team of educators giving Society workshops. Fairbairn, an advertising and editorial portrait specialist whose work has featured in Kerrang! and Total Guitar, was born outside Chicago. Now based near Cambridge, he will teach lighting for composites (16 March), an introduction to
Syncrude Oil Refinery by Alan McFetridge, recipient of the TPA/RPS Environmental Awareness Bursary 2017
making composite images (4 May) and an introduction to stop motion (26 May), all in Leigh, Surrey. Lofthouse’s work combines cinematic reality with comic-book fantasy. He will run a beginners’ guide to Photoshop composites at Amersham Studios, Buckinghamshire, later this year. See page 235 for more information
Distinctions success Congratulations to these Society members
Great idea for a project? If you are inspired to pursue a photography project, you could consider applying for one of these Society bursaries. Recipients will also receive £500 worth of equipment from Vanguard, and the opportunity to have a portfolio printed by Metro Imaging. TPA/RPS ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS BURSARY l Two one-year bursaries of £3,000, funded by The Photographic Angle, are offered to support projects that promote environmental awareness. Closing date: 29 May
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JOAN WAKELIN BURSARY l Administered in partnership with The Guardian, it offers £2,000 for the production of a photographic essay on an overseas social documentary issue. Closing date: 18 May
RPS POSTGRADUATE BURSARY l The Society offers £3,500 in support of a postgraduate studying in the UK or abroad. Closing date: 29 June For details visit rps.org/ learning/project-funding
LRPS January 2018 Ann Rosemary Belcher, Avon Robert Carpenter, Berkshire Anthony Richard Cowburn, Eastleigh Tim Evans, Warwickshire Allan James Fisher, Mid Glamorgan Diana Sara Fox Brindle, Norfolk Melanie Jane Goode, Bristol Claire Halas, Kent Robert Howarth, Suffolk Stephen Hyam, London Wendy Irwin, Staffordshire John Jennings, Gloucestershire Will McAllister, Cumbria Helen Moore, Cornwall Priyanshi Nahata, Dubai Edward Simpson, Staffs Cameron Thomson, North Humberside Kyra Wilson, Wiltshire LRPS referrals October 2017 Geraldine MiddletonStewart, Surrey Suzanne Johnson, Bath LRPS October 2017 Donald Simpson, USA Trevor Staff, West Sussex Peter Williams, Horsham
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IN FOCUS OBITUARY
Paris Cafe, 2006
Society mourns loss of a guiding influence Michael Pritchard FRPS remembers Honorary Fellow Bill Wisden MBE WILLIAM WISDEN MBE HonFRPS, better known as Bill, died on 20 January 2018, aged 87. Wisden was one of the Society’s longest-standing members, joining in 1959. He gained his Associate the same year and Fellowship in 1963. He quickly made his mark on the Society, becoming a regular lecturer and active within the Pictorial – now Visual Art – Group.
Brighton Pride, Pink Parade, 2010
Margaret Salisbury, a close friend, said: ‘Surely 39 years of mentoring has to be a record. How many people were picked up, pushed, guided by him we will never know.’ In 1965, one of Wisden’s prints was purchased for the Tyng Collection. He was a selector for the International Print Exhibition several times and sat on the pictorial Distinctions panel. Even greater was his impact on the Society’s
Distinctions through his membership, then being chair, of the Distinctions advisory board. Mike Hallett, a later chair, noted: ‘Bill brought to the Society a clarity and vision that changed it for the better. His wisdom and tenacity improved the way we measure individual photographic achievement … he approached the task with intellectual rigour and common sense. ‘He was completely professional in his dealings, with the expectation that others would be the same. He would listen, question and consider before offering an opinion and never shielded a hidden agenda.’ Roger Reynolds HonFRPS added: ‘Personally, Bill’s passing is a big blow. I have lost not only a good friend but a mentor who I could always rely on. The world of photography has lost a great
Colours of August, 2011
icon, and the RPS and London Salon have lost a momentous figure.’ Wisden was a member of the London Salon of Photography and, from 1954, of the Brighton and Hove Camera Club. He was given an Honorary Fellowship in 1994 and the Society introduced a Fellowship of the Year award in his honour. He received an MBE for services to art in 2011. A memorial exhibition of Wisden’s photography will be held later this year
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IN FOCUS BOOKS A BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER’S DIARY David Tipling
Deep South, Untitled, (Scarred Tree), 1998
REED NEW HOLLAND (£16.99)
One of the UK’s best-known bird photographers, Tipling has amassed a huge library of avian images. This ‘diary’ is actually a chronologically arranged selection of those images, accompanied by the stories behind them. The book’s 250 pages feature an impressive range of species which Tipling has photographed in countries around the world, using a variety of styles and techniques. It’s a great read for any bird photography enthusiast.
IMAGE BUILDING: HOW PHOTOGRAPHY TRANSFORMS ARCHITECTURE Therese Lichtenstein
A bit screwed up
Gain an intriguing insight into the work of Sally Mann
A THOUSAND CROSSINGS Sally Mann ABRAMS (£40)
Sally Mann HonFRPS is one of the most acclaimed fine-art photographers working today. In a career spanning more than 40 years, she has dedicated herself to exploring aspects of the human condition, as well as landscapes of the American south where she lives. Her uncompromising and experimental approach to her art has inevitably caused controversy, most notably with the naked portraits of her children in her 1992 book Immediate Family. Haunting, poetic and intense, her work has a peculiar and sometimes disturbing beauty. A Thousand Crossings, which is published on 6 March, presents images made throughout Mann’s career, many shown for the first time, and features essays by art historians and curators on her life and bodies of work. It is linked to an exhibition of the same name currently on show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. 182
Mann has always used largeformat cameras and for many years has worked with a late 19th-century 10x8 model, creating glass negatives using the wet-plate process. She embraces the resulting characteristics and flaws, from shallow depth of field and under and overexposure to vignetting, lens flare and scratches in the emulsion. The most extreme examples in this book come from her 2000-2003 series on American Civil War battlefields. Mann is quoted as saying: ‘You pray, “please don’t let me screw it up, but just screw it up a little bit, just to make it interesting”.’ Any selection from such a large and disparate oeuvre is bound to be partial. However, by focusing particularly on images linked to the landscape and history of the American south, A Thousand Crossings draws together recurring themes in her work. It gets to the heart of Mann’s inspiration and her development as an artist, and will encourage those intrigued by her distinctive photographs to explore further.
PRESTEL (£29.99)
This copiously illustrated book examines the shifting relationship between architecture and photography throughout the medium’s history. Featuring images by Berenice Abbott, Robert Adams, Thomas Struth HonFRPS and others, it looks at how photography has both celebrated and questioned aspects of the built environment. The text is detailed and insightful.
ASTRID KIRCHHERR WITH THE BEATLES Astrid Kirchherr DAMIANI (£22.50)
A young German artist when she befriended the Beatles in Hamburg in 1960, Kirchherr took their first group photos. She went on to influence their clothing and ‘mop top’ hairstyles and intermittently photographed them until 1964. Her best Beatles images are the early outdoor shots of the babyfaced band with Teddy-boy haircuts – a group of then-unknown Liverpool teenagers on the cusp of international acclaim.
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DISTINCTIONS
Take your inspiration from this story of a recent success
‘I refuse to sit at home and feel sorry for myself’ Moira Chalmers LRPS was drawn to photography after a car crash ended her police career, writes Gemma Padley
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Moira Chalmers in her studio at home RIGHT
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Looking out over Loch Leven
MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS; PAUL STUART
SITTING IN A STUDIO THAT doubles as a gym in an outbuilding at her home in rural West Sussex, Moira Chalmers LRPS is explaining how photography became a key foundation for her. Her life changed suddenly while she was working as an officer in the Metropolitan Police firearms unit 17 years ago. She and two colleagues were responding to a call when their car careered off the road and crashed, leaving Chalmers with a severe spinal injury and a back full of metal. Enduring
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START YOUR JOURNEY Licentiate (LRPS) Applicants must show photographic competence in approach and techniques. There are no restrictions in subject matter at this level
Associate (ARPS) Evidence of a creative ability and personal style, plus complete control of the technical aspects of photography
Fellowship (FRPS) The highest Distinction is given for excellence and a distinguished ability in photography. It is open to Associates of the Society
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What are Society Distinctions? These are standards of achievement offered at three levels. For information visit rps.org/distinctions
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DISTINCTIONS
months of treatment in hospital and intense periods of rehabilitation, Chalmers never fully recovered and was forced to retire from the police. ‘I was desperately trying to get myself well enough to stay in the force, but it wasn’t to be unfortunately,’ says Chalmers. ‘I got worse and ended up having major surgery on my spine. I was in a wheelchair for about four or five years.’ She had wanted to join the police ever since she was a young child, says Chalmers, who lives in the village of Rusper, nestled between Horsham and Dorking. ‘I remember seeing a cartoon on television and this little lad being measured, [and told]: “No, you’re not quite tall enough yet.” That’s always stayed in my head. ‘I’m a bit of an adrenalin 186
junkie – it’s a dangerous job – and I love helping people,’ she adds. ‘It’s not all about making arrests. It was the perfect job for me – I really miss it.’ Since her accident Chalmers has been unable to be as active as she was. A self-confessed fitness fanatic, she used to windsurf, and do judo, taekwondo, bodybuilding and boxing. ‘Fitness was as important to me as my career,’ she says. ‘I even applied for the TV show Gladiators years ago, and passed the extremely challenging fitness test, managing to get down to the last 22 from thousands who had entered. Unfortunately I didn’t make it on to the show due to failing the final stage where I was required to sing on camera. That’s one thing I really can’t do.’ She began taking
MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS
‘I had major surgery on my spine, and was in a wheelchair for four years’
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FACING PAGE, TOP
Hunt near Petworth FACING PAGE, BOTTOM
Dalmatian RIGHT
Twelve-week old German shepherd BELOW
MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS
Aerial panoramic of Glencoe, Scotland
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ABOVE
View from Tower Bridge, London LEFT
Horse friends RIGHT
photographs nearly four years ago, having always enjoyed art. She says: ‘I love gadgets and technology, and am excited by what’s coming next. I’m terrible for buying the latest gear.’ Chalmers’ interest in photography was ignited after she became involved with the Siberian Husky Welfare Association (UK), a charity that rehomes huskies. She has an eightyear-old husky called Ni’cko of her own. Chalmers got talking to a woman who was involved with the charity and mentioned she had a sand school (animal exercise 188
‘I love gadgets and technology, and I’m excited about what’s coming next’ area). Before long, she was holding regular ‘off lead’ sessions on her land (she has 16 acres) where owners could bring their dogs. ‘You can’t let a husky off the lead [in public] because they have a strong prey drive and will go for squirrels and rabbits, or cars, and can get hit by a car quite easily,’ Chalmers explains. ‘I’ve taken it for granted, because Ni’cko can go off lead on my land. But there is a need for people [with huskies] to go somewhere
secure and let their dogs run around. On one occasion we had 22 huskies tearing around the sand school. It got a bit too big, so I had to [run the sessions] on a firstcome first served basis.’ Chalmers recounts how she noticed a couple of owners taking photographs of the dogs as they ran around, and thought it was a great idea. ‘I realised the limitations of my camera straight away because the autofocus was useless and all my photos
were blurred,’ she says. ‘I was getting so frustrated. I had no idea how cameras worked then. So, being into technology and gadgets, I bought a Canon EOS 5D MkIII. I went on YouTube and started watching video tutorials.’ She began taking portraits of the dogs that came to visit, and her images have been used to successfully rehome huskies. ‘I took the husky photos in my studio and sent the edited files to the coordinator who would put them on the charity’s Facebook page,’ she explains. ‘There were all
MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS
Ni’cko eyes half head shot
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DISTINCTIONS
these really awful snapshots and I thought that if there were nice photos the dogs would find homes more easily. I became the charity’s official photographer. I now mainly take photos of friends’ dogs and sometimes kids when the opportunity arises, just for my own enjoyment.’ Ni’cko remains a favourite subject, of course. Chalmers also enjoys photographing landscapes, twinkling cityscapes shot at night, horses, and street scenes, and has dabbled in drone photography. She’s happy switching between colour and monochrome, and dedicates time to learning Photoshop techniques to enable her to be more creative and skilled in the images she takes. ‘I only ever shoot in manual now, and never 190
‘Now I’ve achieved my first Distinction my next aim is an equine ARPS’ thought in a million years I’d use a camera in this mode,’ she says. ‘I don’t like the camera to make the decisions for me – I like to tell it what to do. You have an idea of how you want the photo to come out, so you’ve obviously got to get the right settings to achieve whatever goal you set.’ Chalmers also set her sights on achieving an LRPS Distinction, which she did last summer. Photographers must submit 10 images they feel reflect their ability and demonstrate variety in terms of approach and technique. She’s also a member of Brighton and Hove Camera Club and says being part of the group has
helped her to build confidence and improve her skills in a supportive environment, as well as provide opportunities to meet like-minded people. It was through the club that Chalmers learned about the RPS and its Distinctions. ‘I’m very competitive and as soon as I heard about the LRPS Distinction I knew it would be something to focus on and would help me develop my photography.’ Taking pictures is purely a hobby, says Chalmers, although she would love to do it more seriously. ‘I’m limited by my pain levels. I wouldn’t be able to make a living photographing just once or twice a week, which is all I can manage … But I’m
very stubborn and refuse to just sit at home and feel sorry for myself.’ ‘Now I have finished my first Distinction, my next project is equine photography, possibly for an Associate,’ she continues. ‘I’m keen to teach myself how to photograph horses in a studio-type environment to hopefully achieve some creative images. Fortunately my neighbours have plenty of models for me to practise on.’ ‘I am so proud of my achievement and feel I can now call myself a photographer,’ she adds. ‘I’d recommend anyone wishing to take his or her photography further to apply for an RPS Distinction. It has given me a sense of purpose within my photography and a goal to strive for. I can’t wait to get on and prepare for my Associate level.’
PAUL STUART
Chalmers lives in rural West Sussex, with neighbours who keep horses. She is keen to capture creative equine images in a studio setting
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Boxhill at dusk
Painter on Dartmoor
View of London from Greenwich Park
My five tips for achieving an LRPS A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING Join a good camera club where achieving Society Distinctions is encouraged. A good club will be happy to help you with guidance and advice. My club held a couple of Distinctions evenings during my first year there where they told us all about the process and how to put a successful portfolio together, giving thought for good placement and whether the images form a cohesive set.
MOIRA CHALMERS LRPS; PAUL STUART
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS Learn how to mount your photographs. The first thing assessors see when your portfolio is put up is your presentation. Images
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could be amazing but mounts may be the difference between a pass and a fail. I saw a portfolio fail on the day I was there for this reason.
advises applicants to opt for prints at around A4 size. Large images are not more likely to ‘wow’ the assessors – but good-quality prints will, regardless of size.
QUALITY COUNTS Have confidence in your abilities, and print your images so they look their best. Yes, smaller prints could hide some minor problems but if you examine every photograph down to the last detail you will notice if there are any issues such as banding, oversharpening, sensor dust spots, blown-out highlights etc, and be able to correct them, as all these could mean a fail. The Distinctions department
LEARN FROM OTHERS Take advantage of an advisory day or, like me, go to an RPS day where speakers talk about their successful portfolios and how they achieved their LRPS or higher. They will happily talk to you after their presentation, which I found extremely helpful. It’s really good to see how others have displayed their images and how they chose to mount them. Hopefully from this you will have a better
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BY MOIRA CHALMERS
understanding of what the assessors are looking for. DISTINCTIONS DETAIL View successful portfolios on the RPS website, eg for choice of placement, mounting etc. The site covers in detail all you need to know when applying for a Distinction.
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THE SHIPPING NEWS A chance discovery by Society member IAN WRIGHT has inspired an exploration of photography on board ocean liners WORDS: DAVID CLARK
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I
the photographers – has become a source of fascination. Ian Wright, 71, has had a successful career as a press photographer specialising in celebrity portraits. Starting out on the Northern Echo in the early 1960s, where he photographed emerging pop stars such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, he went on to
‘Trying to find out why she was on the ship became the catalyst … ‘
cover international stories for the Sunday Times. In the latter part of his career he shot portraits for the Radio Times and became professor of journalism at Baylor University, Texas. In recent years, Wright has frequently travelled on board Cunard cruise ships, where he lectures on his career. On one of those journeys, aboard the Queen Mary II in 2016, he and his wife made an intriguing discovery. ‘The ship has a fabulous library and we were going through all the ship books,’ he explains. ‘My wife found one
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N THE DAYS BEFORE commercial passenger aircraft flights were commonplace, long-distance journeys were made at a more leisurely pace, on board ocean liners. The social and cultural impact of this mode of travel is explored in Ocean Liners: Speed and Style, an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, running until Sunday 17 June. For one Society member, the history of photography on board these ships – both the celebrity subjects and
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BELOW RIGHT
FREE SPIRIT Escape artist Harry Houdini on the deck of the Hamburg-based passenger liner SS Imperator, 1913
WINNING SMILE American racing driver Pete DePaolo with his family. DePaolo won the 1925 Indianapolis 500
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CARUSO LINER Opera singer Enrico Caruso aboard the Swedish vessel Saga en route to sing in Argentina, 1917
WARM WELCOME Irish tenor John McCormack meets press photographers after arriving in New York
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BELOW
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which included a photograph of singer Gracie Fields walking along the deck, arm in arm with a young girl named Cecilia Colledge. Trying to find out why she was on the ship became the catalyst for researching other people who had travelled on liners.’ Colledge, it transpired, was 11 years old in 1932 and was crossing the Atlantic to represent Great Britain as an ice skater at the Winter Olympics in New York. Even now, she remains the youngest ever person to have competed in a modern Olympic Games. Since seeing this photograph, Wright has sought out thousands more images of famous ship passengers. Focusing on the period from 1900 onwards, Wright has explored the 196
‘At least 30 reporters and photographers waited daily for famous people and royalty’ Cunard archive and delved into other repositories such as the Bain Collection, held by the US Library of Congress. The photographs he has found include major figures of their era such as entertainer Al Jolson, child actor Shirley Temple, opera singer Enrico Caruso and escapologist Harry Houdini. Others are less familiar now, including tomb raider ‘Count’ Byron de Prorok and Irish tenor John McCormack. Wright has also found images of animal
celebrities on transatlantic voyages, including German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. ‘Agency photographers would be waiting in New York when the liners arrived,’ says Wright. ‘Every day there would be at least 30 photographers and reporters, waiting for famous people and royalty. They took great pride in their appearance and their work.’ The liner companies would tip them off when a famous person was arriving, as these appearances offered photo opportunities for the celebrities and the companies. While the names of these early paparazzi have mostly not been recorded, some pictures survive in which they hold cumbersome Graflex 5x7-inch cameras. In 1929, Cunard began its own
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LEFT
PRIMATE SHIPMATE Consul Peter, a chimpanzee who was popular in Paris music halls, tries a fellow passenger’s cigar RIGHT
LIFT-OFF Alice Vronska and Constantin Alperoff of the Ballet Russes dance company BELOW RIGHT
FULL STEAM AHEAD The SS Berengaria, which was formerly named the Imperator
photography service on board the SS Berengaria, which included a studio and a darkroom. The firm, Ocean Pictures, was set up by photographer Casimir Watkins, who made a deal to do all the official onboard photography. ‘The standard of printing was very high,’ says Wright. ‘One photographer was so particular about getting prints sharp that he filled a bin with ping-pong balls and placed the enlarger base on top of them. Then, when the ship moved, the enlarger stayed upright.’ Among the other historical items Wright has uncovered a newspaper, the London Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, which was published on board liners from 1923 to 1931. In one issue, dated December 1928, VOL 158 / MARCH 2018 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 197
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TALKING POINT The actor, comedian and singer Al Jolson ABOVE
ALL FEET ON DECK Fred and Adele Astaire show off their sea legs LEFT
GOING FOR A SONG Irish tenor John McCormack arrives in the USA with his wife and children
there is a report on the electronic transmission of five pictures from Daventry, Northamptonshire, to a ship, the Aquitania, then located 650 miles out at sea. The paper reported: ‘This is the first time in the history of wireless that pictures have actually been received by a liner at sea.’ Wright is writing a book about the history of photography on board liners up to the present day, illustrated by original images and complemented by the stories about the people in 198
them. So far, he has edited about 200,000 photographs down to around 5,000. ‘This archive highlights the cultural value and heritage of what was happening on board these ships,’ he says. ‘It’s vital that it is remembered.’ Immerse yourself in the culture of the cruise liner in the exhibition Ocean Liners: Speed and Style at the Victoria and Albert Museum. For more information go to bit.ly/oceanliners
A LIFELONG PASSION After beginning his career as a 15-year-old darkroom assistant on The Northern Echo in 1961, Ian Wright was soon photographing emerging pop stars including
The Beatles. He went on to photograph international stories for The Sunday Times and celebrity portraits for the Radio Times. He now lives in Las Vegas, and is a lecturer.
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ABOVE LEFT
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SEX, LIVES AND STEREOTYPES He is renowned for his sexualised images of women and stunning use of colour. MILES ALDRIDGE tells Gemma Padley what influences his creative process
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‘It began by wanting to stop people just flicking through magazines’
L
OOK AT MILES ALDRIDGE’S IMAGES, AS beguiling and visually rich as they are, and you can’t help but wonder what goes on in his mind. Like alternative universes, you never quite know what you will encounter – a beautiful seductress or a vision of domestic bliss turned into a nightmare. Each image – meticulously constructed and multi-layered – is a world unto itself where nothing is quite as it seems. The longer you study the British photographer’s images, the more details reveal themselves and yet, paradoxically, the photographs become increasingly unfathomable. This is what makes Aldridge’s work so wonderfully enticing. After studying illustration at Central Saint Martins, Aldridge, the son of acclaimed 1960s graphic designer Alan Aldridge, took to photography. He had tried his hand at shooting music videos, and thought he might follow in his father’s footsteps, but during the early 1990s photographing his girlfriend, an aspiring model, took him in a different direction. He has since forged a career shooting for publications such as Vogue Italia, W, The New York Times and The Face. His work is in the permanent
collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A in London, and the ICP in New York. Drawing still informs Aldridge’s work. He sketches ideas for each shoot, and has a ‘dossier’ for each image full of his drawings, notes and visual references. His process is labour intensive, driven by a habit of collecting and distilling references from sources including cinema, painting, literature and museums. Glance at one Aldridge picture and you will see a reference to religious iconography in the form of a Madonna figure and, in another, a nod to a Federico Fellini or Alfred Hitchcock film, or northern Renaissance painting. ‘I’ve always done projects about things I’m interested in, whether I’ve read or seen it,’ he says. ‘I’ll open an idea and see where I can go with it.’ Research and preparation are integral to his work, and Aldridge, a headline speaker at The Photography Show this month, likens the studio environment to a blank canvas in that it ‘offers so much promise’. Most of his work is done in the studio rather than on location, and it is important to him to create a calm, familiar environment in which he can create. ‘I find studios very sterile so the first thing I’ll do is
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GAME OF THRONES COVER FOR TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 2017 The cover shoot by Aldridge was described in Time as ‘a starkly imagined homage to old Hollywood woven into a heavy tapestry of medievalism’. It included the image of Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark in the HBO series ABOVE
A PERFECT MUM #4
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DINNER PARTY #5
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[construct] a wall of my drawings and reference material,’ he says. ‘When I’m doing a project, I tend to work on it for about two or three weeks beforehand, maybe longer. I’ll do thousands of drawings, possibly, moving things around in my head compositionally, [thinking about] what I need to tell the story in the picture. Then I colour them in.’ Adding colour is just one part of constructing an image, however – first on the page, then in reality. Aldridge gestures to a nearby print of a woman in bed screaming as an example. ‘I had to design the bed, the wallpaper, everything, in advance,’ he says. ‘None of that’s at the studio waiting for me. 204
‘I learned early on that because the work was so infrequent, as a far as commissions were concerned, when you got a call from Vogue or The New York Times, it was much easier if you had a project in mind already,’ he adds. ‘I started to work in a way where I was constantly receiving ideas for projects in my head without being commissioned. It’s a technique that works for me. If I’m reading a book, for example, I’ll have a notepad next to me because it takes just one sentence to start something.’ For a shoot last year of the cast of the television drama Game of Thrones for Time magazine, Aldridge employed his trademark of devising a
ABOVE LEFT (TOP)
UNTITLED (AFTER CATTELAN) #4 , 2016 ABOVE LEFT (LOWER)
RED MARKS #1, 2003
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‘My intention has always been to reflect the world we live in’ wonderfully colourful set. Again, his influences are plain to see, a case in point being the colourful composite image that ended up on the magazine’s cover, which makes more than a passing nod to Renaissance tableaux painting. Colour, is of course, at the heart of it all and he uses it as much as a creative device as he does a medium. Shooting on Kodak Ektar 100 ASA film, Aldridge has said that colour is ‘a trick’ and ‘pretty colours make the message more palatable’. His images possess a sense of malaise and foreboding despite their bold, bright appearance. Does he use colour to lure in the viewer or as a means to disarm?
Colour, it turns out, is just one ingredient of an attempt to stop viewers in their tracks, he explains. ‘It began [by being] an editorial photographer who wanted to stop people flicking through magazines,’ he says. ‘The only way seemed to do something like I’d experienced in cinema with Hitchcock or David Lynch, where you’re shocked by an image. Something like the egg (Red Marks) was a case in point: I thought, ‘Instead of seeing lipstick on a girl’s mouth, again, where else could we see it and talk about colour?’ So I drew this egg with a cigarette in it and lipstick on the end. I did feel that these were more shocking images that would stop people.
ABOVE
THE VAGARIES OF FASHION
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THE COLOURFUL LIFE OF MILES ALDRIDGE The son of illustrator Alan Aldridge, British photographer Miles Aldridge worked briefly
as an illustrator after graduating from Central Saint Martins. His carefully composed
images are developed on storyboard and film, showing his influences of cinema and painting.
‘It’s foolhardy to try to correct all the wrongs of our society with art’ ‘As I’ve grown into a photographer who shows his work in exhibitions, the same desire is there to get people to stop and really look at all the things in each image. A good way to do that is by blocks of colour. Colour is a great way to bring you in and hold your attention, and that’s where you then have a chance to say something provocative.’ And provoke is something his images do. Many of the female subjects have blank expressions and seem trapped or helpless, sexualised, and are often depicted in compromising situations, ready to be consumed in a voyeuristic way. It is difficult not to read these images in light of conversations and news in the media and elsewhere about the representation and treatment of women. What does he think about this with regard to the images he makes? ‘It’s foolhardy to try to correct all the wrongs of our society with art,’ he says carefully, after a pause. 206
‘I don’t think paintings, films, books or photographs should now be made to present a new squeaky world where everything is wonderful, because it’s not. My intention has always been to reflect the world we live in, so if I do an image of a woman screaming over her miserable life it’s because I’ve seen that. ‘My subject has always been how to present interesting, fully formed fictional women that aren’t just cardboard cut-outs of this consumerist idea of happiness. My women are meant to be railing against the pigeonholes they’ve been put into. They’re not happy wives, they’re really unhappy, and furious. That’s the point. To me they’re so much more interesting than someone who’s just pretty.’
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IN SHADOWS I BOOGIE (AFTER MILLER), 2017
Aldridge is speaking at The Photography Show, 20 March, 3-4.30pm. Visit photographyshow.com/ speakers/miles-aldridge and milesaldridge.com
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MINDFULNESS
After falling in love with taking travel images ANDREW SCRIVEN realised contentment lay closer to home. Now he helps others discover mindfulness through photography, writes Lucy Davies
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T WAS A HUMPBACK WHALE THAT altered the course of Andrew Scriven’s life. In 2010, while sailing in the Southern Ocean near the shores of Antarctica, he spotted its distinctive, spindle-shaped form breaking the surface of the water about six metres away. Leaning over the side of the three-mast tea clipper, he took a series of pictures in quick succession. ‘Coming face to face with a whale, you feel something inside,’ he says. ‘It was just the most remarkable thing.’ He’d had the foresight to fit a polarising filter to his lens – to reduce glare from the water – and so captured a beautiful sequence of images in which the whale approaches and then sinks into the deep, each image getting gradually darker before fading to black, ‘a little like a film’, he explains. ‘When I show it to people they think I’ve produced it in Photoshop, but I didn’t. It was a chance moment – I was lucky. You shoot millions of pictures and sometimes you get that one and in a moment, everything changes.’ The photograph won a place in the finals of a National Geographic contest, while the image of
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the clipper above was a finalist in the Sony World Photographer Awards. That, and selling one of his other photographs from the Antarctic trip at Spitalfields Market in London, the following year, persuaded Scriven that he might just be able to make a living taking pictures. Before too long, having quit his job in the City, he was up mountains in the Himalayas, travelling through east Africa, South America, east Asia, Japan – you name it; he and his camera have more than likely been there. It meant, of course, that he was often away from his home in London and for months at a time, moving from one grand adventure to the next. But all of that changed with the birth of his daughter, now five. ‘It altered my perspective in every way,’ he explains. ‘I couldn’t travel; I didn’t want to travel. And the longer I spent with her, the more I realised she was like a teacher. She was so present; she wasn’t thinking about the past, she just wanted my attention here and now. I’ve always struggled with a sort of grass-is-greener-itis, always wanting to be somewhere else. My daughter gave me an anchor. ‘At the same time, I was questioning the environmental impact of my travelling. I studied
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The clipper on which Andrew Scriven sailed to Antarctica lies at anchor LEFT
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A polar bear washes itself in the snow on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway
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Performance artist Maline Casta charges to the top of a disused coal mine in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, as part of the Arctic Action initiative to highlight the impact of global climate change
geography at university and have an interest in sustainability. I was travelling all over the world, burning a lot of fuel, photographing all of these beautiful places, encouraging people to go to them – I mean Antarctica is suddenly on everyone’s bucket list.’ Determined to focus on the here and now, he began with his physical body, looking in the mirror, into his eyes, at his hands, observing every minute detail. He began photographing on a macro scale – the indentations on a tree, a fingerprint. Encouraged by what was happening to him 212
mentally as he did these things, he began reading about mindfulness too – books by Alan Watts and Deepak Chopra. ‘Everything made me realise how much my mind used to wander and how much I wanted to be here.’ When he was asked by Sony in 2015 to speak at The Photography Show in Birmingham, on the urban photography stage, he challenged himself to replicate the feeling of calm he had come to experience in wide open spaces in an urban landscape. He sat in very busy places such as Brixton and Oxford Circus, turned on his camera,
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FIVE WAYS TO ADD MINDFULNESS TO YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY THE BEAUTY OF LIFE Take three photographs 1 every day of something you are grateful for. AWARENESS WALK Take 15-20 minutes each 2 day and go on a walk with no particular purpose other than to observe your surroundings. Look at the houses, the people, the way the light falls on the streets. Click what catches your interest. CAPTURE REFLECTIONS Watch for reflections in 3 puddles, windows, mirrors or sunglasses. LIGHT AND OBJECTS Photograph a simple 4 object such as a telephone box or a lamppost during different times of the day to see how the light plays on the object. PRINT AND ENJOY Be sure to print out your 5 photographs and enjoy them. Put them in a scrapbook or pin them on a photo wall. It can be rewarding just seeing the finished product. Andrew Scriven is running a Society workshop on mindfulness and photography on 15 March. For booking information visit rps.org/scriven
‘It made me realise, suddenly, that photography had always been a form of meditation for me’
closed his eyes and began to meditate. ‘It made me realise, suddenly, that photography had always been a form of meditation for me. I think that’s the case for many other people who are photographing – just by being somewhere, by having a reason to observe, taking your time, making a deep connection with the world around you.’ Last year, Scriven, now 37, began to hone his ideas into a proper practice and now runs courses and Society workshops in ‘mindful photography’ near his home in Amersham. The take-up, he says, has been ‘incredible, from men and women, old
Andrew Scriven
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‘For a lot of people my courses are about breaking traditions they’ve stuck to all their lives. People come away reinvigorated’ and young, professional and amateur’. Designed to recognise ‘the healing power of the mind and the importance of silence’, each day-long course takes participants through a series of meditations and exercises with a camera. The exercises are designed to liberate rather than educate. ‘I’m not teaching people how to use their cameras, or anything they can’t already do. It’s about highlighting things that work for me, teaching them that making little adjustments can reignite your photography. Lots of people who have attended the courses come because they’ve become tired of always seeing the perfect exposure and the perfect shot. I give them the freedom to relax a bit, wave their camera around without looking through the viewfinder, play with the settings, with no real intention other than to be present to the photography and the moment. We go out into woodland, to a lake, we focus on colour and texture, energy and movement. People come away really happy and reinvigorated.’ Scriven’s voice is deep and sonorous, with the resonance of something like a didgeridoo – I can imagine hearing it on one of the meditation apps that have become popular in recent years. A couple of years ago he spent some time with monks, who taught him that any act – walking, cleaning – can be an opportunity and a form of meditation. ‘It’s about focusing completely on what you’re doing. It can be 20 minutes or it can be a few seconds.’ How have the changes he has made to his life affected him? ‘I’m less stressed – I don’t think calm is the right word, though, because I feel way more vibrant. Perhaps I’m more reflective and I certainly think less about where I want to get to or about 214
things that have happened in the past. That brings something like calm.’ And his photography? ‘I take fewer pictures. I focus on details. I play with long exposures. I don’t keep still – for a lot of people my courses are about breaking traditions they’ve stuck to all their lives. Like everyone else I can panic and get distracted and pulled around, but what’s beautiful is that now that’s punctuated by moments in the day where I look at the beautiful light coming through the trees or my daughter smiling, reflections on window panes, and my mind clears, my perspective shifts. ‘We see everything around us based on our eyes and our brain but, with a camera, we have the capacity to change that. We can change the frequency, the shutter speed, and create a different way of looking at things. That can only be healthy.’
ABOVE
A long exposure follows the flow of movement from a rooftop in Delhi BELOW
A long exposure captures an alternative view of Inflated Star and Wooden Star, a sculpture by Frank Stella that stood in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts
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BEST SHOTS
THIS BOY’S LIFE
HIS LOVE OF PHOTOGRAPHY BEGAN WHEN, as a boy, he discovered his father’s homemade enlarger in the attic of the family home. The lure of the contraption, crafted from an upturned flowerpot, a domestic light bulb and a camera lens, proved irresistible. Five decades on, the Magnum photographer Mark Power HonFRPS is renowned for long-term projects that dig deep into the cultural psyche of countries from Poland to the USA. His ongoing project, Good Morning America, dates from 2012 when he began visiting the States under Obama’s presidency. The journey continues as he looks at the social landscape 216
CREDIT SITS IN BOX 4MM DEEP
A childhood introduction to his father’s homemade camera equipment led to a 50-year journey of discovery for Honorary Fellow Mark Power
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TYNE, SUNDAY 25 JULY, 1993
West or south-west 3 or 4, increasing 5 or 6. Showers. Good. From The Shipping Forecast
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bore any resemblance to the landscapes that already existed so clearly in my imagination. This particular picture, made on a rainy Sunday in Scarborough, is reminiscent of childhood family holidays and has
always been important to me, since the project is clearly autobiographical. The project would take me four years to complete. Meanwhile, I finally resigned from teaching last year.
MARK POWER HonFRPS; CHILLI COLES POWER
CREDIT SITS IN BOX 4MM DEEP
The Shipping Forecast coincided with a part-time teaching post at the University of Brighton that began in 1992. I embarked on a quest to visit all 31 sea areas to see if the reality of what I found
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BEST SHOTS
‘We learned a lot, seeing the roots of what would later manifest as the (disastrous) Brexit vote’
218
of the US with familiarity and awe, attempting to find the – obviously fictional – kind of America defined by film and television to anyone raised in Britain in the 1960s and 70s. For an artist whose work appears in internationally significant collections including those of the British Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Power’s path was far from straightforward. Born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, but raised in Leicester,
he studied painting and drawing rather than photography at college before a thirst for travel opened up new horizons. He lived abroad for two years, sustained by a series of jobs including teaching English, television acting and fish farming in Hong Kong; painting cinema murals in Bangkok; and running the camera department of a chemist in Sydney. Documenting his travels with a camera, Power realised he wanted to be a photographer rather than a painter,
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ABOVE
TOP
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, JUNE 2008
GDANSK, POLAND, NOVEMBER 2004
From Destroying the Laboratory for the Sake of the Experiment
One of my most enjoyable – and, I think, most successful – projects was made in with the poet Daniel Cockrill. We travelled around England in search of answers to the rise of nationalism that began to dominate the media in 2006. Most of those questions remained unanswered, but we learned a lot and saw, clearly, the roots of what would later manifest as the (disastrous) Brexit vote.
From The Sound of Two Songs
At first glance this is a pile of discarded industrial tubing in an abandoned factory. Yet I’m interested in history and research places extensively, and thus felt I couldn’t complete a project about Poland without reference to the Nazi atrocities of WW2. This reminds us of images we have seen of the death camps, and expects some work from the viewer. To be honest, most of my work does, although I realise this is a lot to ask in our image-saturated world.
ABOVE
57 EAST. LONDON, FEBRUARY 2005
From 26 Different Endings
The premise was to walk the perimeter of the London A-Z (2003) and make pictures from that edge into the landscape beyond, those places not considered important enough to be included. Taking two years, it became my most conceptual project to date as the things I was able to photograph, and the places I could photograph from, were severely limited. That frustration became an integral part of the work. VOL 158 / MARCH 2018 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 219
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WARSAW, POLAND, APRIL 2005
From The Sound of Two Songs
I joined Magnum in 2002. One of the first projects I became involved with was Eurovisions, 10 member photographers visiting the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004. I was given the task of visiting Poland, by far the largest of the bunch, and for a month I failed miserably to sum up a country I knew little or nothing about. Yet I felt I’d made a decent start if only I could devote more time, so I continued to go back and forth over the next five years, making 25 trips in all. If it can be said I have an iconic image then this is probably it. The crowds are gathered to watch a live broadcast of the funeral of John Paul II, the Polish pope, beamed live from the Vatican.
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BEST SHOTS
‘After years of financially disastrous left-wing political work I faced a stark choice’ and returned to the UK in 1983 determined to launch his career. He worked in the charity and editorial markets for a decade – an obvious highlight was at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 during an accidental but serendipitous trip. A move into teaching in 1992 led to an accomplished career in higher education – and coincided with a shift into longer-term, selfinitiated projects including The Shipping Forecast, inspired by the Radio 4 broadcasts, and The Sound of Two Songs, a journey into contemporary Poland. Since 1997, major commissions from the industrial sector have complemented his selfgenerated projects. They began with a project to document the construction of the Millennium Dome involving more than 100 trips to the North Greenwich peninsula – and resulting in Superstructure, one of Power’s nine books, with his latest, Icebreaker, just published. Until recently professor of photography at the University of Brighton, Power resigned at the end of 2017 to devote himself more fully to his practice. Visit markpower.co.uk 222
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FACING PAGE, TOP
LEFT
ABOVE
ORDERVILLE, UTAH, USA, 12 MAY 2017
BERLIN, WEST GERMANY, NOVEMBER 1989
PUERTO REAL, SPAIN, JULY 2004
From Good Morning America
Since 2012 I’ve been working on my biggest, most ambitious project, making upwards of four visits to America each year. I intend, God willing, to continue until 2022, spanning Obama’s second term, Trump’s (surely) single-presidency debacle, and the beginning of whoever comes next. The US is a vast, complicated place, particularly now, and it would be wrong to suggest the work has a single theme. I’m using the fact that I’m from elsewhere, looking at a landscape (in the broadest sense) both familiar and foreign, to address many issues at once, and this image is indicative of that. A dead cat lies in a polluted river, in a carrier bag bearing the logo ‘Western Family’. It suggests a lot, but at the same time tells us very little.
From Die Mauer ist Weg!
I was in Berlin – entirely by mistake – the night the Wall fell. After several years of well-meaning but financially disastrous left-wing political work I found myself facing a stark choice: to continue as a photographer facing bankruptcy, or retrain to be a carpenter. I reluctantly chose the latter, before a friend gave me a £200 gift and told me to have ‘one last go’. I flew to Berlin on 9 November 1989 with the intention of crossing the border to meet the family of my new partner. They lived in East Berlin and I thought this might make an interesting, and publishable, editorial piece. But the iron curtain would fall that same evening, my career was rescued, and the rest (as they say) is history.
From Airbus A-380
Since 1997, when I began to photograph the construction of the Millennium Dome, I’ve been fortunate to receive a constant flow of commissions from the industrial sector. I always negotiate a position to make pictures of whatever I like while on site, and because of this I see no difference between this work and my own self-initiated projects. I take both equally seriously and enjoy the challenge every bit as much. This image is from one of those commissions: the construction of the Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane ever built, from an initial sketch to the first flight. It was made over a three-year period. Projects like this, in turn, pay for my self-initiated work. Make no mistake – I realise how fortunate I am.
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CALL FOR ENTRIES
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION 161 OPEN SUBMISSION AWARDS AND CASH PRIZES REDUCED ENTRY FEE FOR MEMBERS EXHIBITION TOURS 2018/19 CLOSING DATE: 4 APRIL 2018
© OWEN HARVEY, SANCHEZ
rps.org/ipe161
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EQUIPMENT. ACTIVITIES. WORKSHOPS
MARCH Five of the best Gear spy Member stories Events
LATEST KIT BY GAVIN STOKER
Panasonic Lumix GH5S
The Japanese manufacturer introduces its most video-oriented mirrorless camera yet WHILE FOR SIZE AND handling this ‘S’ update feels near identical to the original GH5 stills and video hybrid, this is more explicitly aimed at photographers who also shoot video. Offering an expected 4K video resolution, and a Four Thirds sensor with ‘just’ 10.28 megapixels, the GH5S
sits alongside its forebear, rather than replacing it. Its apparently modest 10MP resolution is suitable for A4, A3 and even larger photo-quality prints, while promising better results in lower light, due to its chip not being overburdened with pixels. Added creativity comes
via 240fps (10x slow motion) videos, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 aspect ratios for photo and video, plus Raw file burst shooting. With a splash and dustresistant magnesium alloy body, and double SD card slot, the GH5S eschews the jack-of-all-trades approach for a more specific mastery than its predecessor.
Price: From £2,199.99 body only Sensor: 11.93 megapixels Four Thirds-format CMOS Lens: Optional, via Micro Four Thirds mount Display: 3.2 inch free-angle LCD at 1,620K dots, plus EVF at 3,680K dots Weight: 660g, including battery and SD card More: panasonic.co.uk Summary: The GH5S aims to meet the growing demand for high-quality stills plus broadcast-quality 4K output
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THE GUIDE MEMBER TEST
A formidable high-resolution DSLR Nikon’s latest high-speed full-frame model is put through its paces by Andy Finney GO LARGE ‘Resolution is entering medium-format territory’
ON TRIAL Nikon D850 I AM ON THE HUNT FOR A camera I will be happy with to the end of my days – ideally a fullframe DSLR with high quality and innovative features. As a Nikon user I am eager to test the successor to the popular D810.
FEATURES Weighing only 100g more than my D300, the D850 packs a lot into a small package. Some buttons have moved and the built-in flash has gone but the main mechanical difference is a tough articulated screen that allows waist and highangle viewing in live view. The live view feature is easy to use despite occasionally firing at random and capturing shots of my feet. HANDLING Movie mode goes up to 4K but demands a high-speed card and the video is apparently subsampled from the full image rather than shrunk, which risks moiré. Despite this, the quality of images is excellent. You can shoot 8K time-lapse with the intervalometer but you have to make the movie yourself from the resulting stills. HDR is built in and you can focus stack, but again you have to manually process the shots elsewhere. While it is straightforward to link the D850 to a smart device, via Bluetooth and wi-fi, both for shooting and grabbing shots, there is no GPS, which would probably be the only significant thing missing for me. But you can
get this facility from a paired smart device.
ANDY FINNEY In 2014, Finney received the Fenton Medal for his efforts as the Society’s copyright representative and for promoting infrared photography
PERFORMANCE High quality? Definitely. The resolution goes to 8,256 x 5,504 pixels, with impressive dynamic range and lack of noise. This is entering medium-format territory and would allow a 27x18 inch print at 300 dpi. Nikon’s D850 is likely to test the resolution – and get the best – of any lens you put on it. The extra pixels give more scope for cropping and better post-processing to sort out lens distortion if needed. Image processing and autofocus derive from the flagship D5, and its low-light performance is excellent. I was able to shoot indoors at ISO 6400, and even higher, with virtually no artefacts.
High tea taken in Wisbech
VERDICT
This is a formidable camera for professionals and enthusiasts. Given its considerable price tag, though, is it the final camera I’ve been searching for? It certainly deserves serious thought.
GEAR SPY Gavin Stoker keeps his eye on forthcoming releases Lens line-ups lengthen ● Leica ‘M’ and ‘SL’ system users are being offered a choice of new optics. For Leica SLs, the APO-Summicron-SL 75mm f/2 ASPH and APO-Summicron-SL
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90mm f/2 ASPH boast focal lengths obviously catering for portraiture, and are priced at £3,750 and £4,100 respectively. For the likes of the M10 comes the Leica Noctilux-M 75mm
f/1.25 ASPH, again with a focal length that makes it most suitable for portraits. It costs around £10,250. ● For Nikon users shooting wildlife or sports, another lens in the ‘reassuringly
expensive’ bracket, at £10,999, is the powerful AF-S Nikkor 180-400mm f/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR, the first telephoto in the Nikkor line-up with a built-in 1.4x teleconverter.
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5 OF THE BEST THE GUIDE
1
2
4
3
5
Photo printers For DIY fans who want to see the bigger picture 1. CANON PIXMA G REFILLABLE INKJET PRINTERS
Canon’s newest quartet of refillable ink-tank printers offers borderless output and utilises dye colour inks, with a maximum print size of A4. Top dog is the G4510, a four-inone device including a 20-sheet automatic document feeder.
This ‘EcoTank’ photo printer is marketed as an economic, cartridgefree, A3 device. It uses four dye inks – photo black, cyan, magenta and yellow – plus a separate-pigment black ink for documents. It offers borderless photo printing, a built-in SD slot and dual paper trays.
canon.co.uk
epson.co.uk
From £179.99
NIGEL SPENCER ARPS
2. EPSON ET-7750
£599
3. EPSON D700
£2,180
4. CANON PIXMA PRO-10S
5. EPSON SC-P5000
£1,678.80
For those running their own photographic business and requiring to print in a variety of media and formats, the six-colour D700 inkjet boasts a wide colour gamut and sharplooking prints, thanks in part to its micro piezo print head, UltraChrome D6-S ink and 720 x 1,440 dpi resolution.
£699.99
Topping Canon’s A3+ printer range are the Pro-100S, utilising eight dye-based inks, and the Pro-10S, which uses a 10 individual-ink pigment system. The latter, the pricier of the two, promises prints with a high black density and increased longevity.
This 17-inch desktop machine for photo pros replaces the Stylus Pro 4900 and features denser UltraChrome HDX inks, while delivering a wider contrast ratio and optically clearer images. It also has a high-capacity frontpaper cassette, plus a roll-media spindle.
epson.co.uk
canon.co.uk
epson.co.uk
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THE GUIDE MEMBER STORIES
An ancient oak in Barn Hoppitt
Out of the woods During a year-long project Epping Forest has captivated Marion Sidebottom LRPS
228
KEEN TO EXPLORE how photography can generate interest in ancient trees and forested landscapes, Marion Sidebottom LRPS gained funding from Arts Council England. She became the City of London Corporation’s artist in residence at Epping Forest between April 2017 and March 2018. Her exhibition, Ancient Trees and
the People of Epping Forest, is on display at The View visitor centre, Chingford, until 2 April. Here, she reveals the forest’s cultural importance to the local community.
PEOPLE AND PLACES ‘Initially I worked alongside Epping Forest head of conservation Dr Jeremy Dagley photographing trees of cultural, historical and
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BOB BRAINE
Volunteer forest keeper Juliette Harvey with her dog near the Lost Pond
aesthetic significance before they’re affected by environmental changes. The images were exhibited in the forest in July. ‘The latter half of the project involved spending time with people connected to the landscape – from a mycologist, walking groups and naturalists to dog walkers, conservation groups, arborists and a constable
keeper of the forest. I kept audio recordings while exploring with these groups to better understand why Epping Forest means so much to them.’
HIGH TIMES ‘Stretching 12.5 miles from rural Essex to the urban outskirts of London, I was a little overwhelmed at how vast Epping Forest was when I
One of Sidebottom’s favourite trees is this ancient beech at Flagstaff Hill
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THE GUIDE MEMBER STORIES
Conservation arborist Tom Izod climbing, photographed from a cherry picker
A wide selection of enthusiasts enjoy forest activities
The tree canopy at Dulsmead Hollow
started the project. However, I loved being immersed in the forest and losing myself in its sights and sounds. Visiting at different times of day and witnessing how the seasons affected the landscape was fascinating. I was even lucky enough to go 100ft up in the air alongside the conservation arborists – seeing over the whole forest canopy to London was incredible.’
exhibition has been a challenge. Through my images I want to showcase why the forest is so important to so many people. Not only do the trees of Epping Forest hold huge cultural value to the surrounding community, they’re immensely important to the environment and supporting biodiversity. ‘The exhibition may be the culmination of my time as Epping Forest’s artist in residence but my body of work here will be used to create further collections, mixed-media work and a book about my year-long project.’
STORIES OF THE FOREST ‘Part of the criteria of Arts Council England funding is promoting public engagement through my artistic work. 230
‘The audio recordings, documentary photography and background research have inspired me to create multilayered photomontages to illustrate the human connections to Epping Forest. These will be displayed alongside portraits of the people in my tree stories. ‘There will be a slideshow of my work and soundbites from the recordings. I’m creating a project storybook which can be viewed on my website.’
A YEAR IN REVIEW ‘Condensing a year’s worth of experience into my
MY LIFE Marion Sidebottom LRPS Sidebottom studied at the London School of Photography and Writtle University College before completing an MA in art and design, focusing on tree photography. She joined the Society in April 2015, achieving her Licentiate in June 2016, and is a member of the Creative Group and East Anglia Region. marionsidebottom.co.uk
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THE GUIDE EVENTS
Find details of Society activities over the next three months Welcome to Events, your guide to what’s going on in The Royal Photographic Society community. These listings are arranged by regions, special interest groups, chapters, Society workshops and exhibitions. In this month’s
REGIONS
Meet photographers and view work in your area CENTRAL Mike Sharples ARPS, 07884 657535 mikes.sharples@virgin.net
Winter meeting members’ day Saturday 3 March, 10am-4pm, £8
Winter meeting of the Rollright group Village Hall, High Street, Long Compton, Shipston-onStour CV36 5JS Andreas Klattt, 01608 684848, rpsva@klatt.co.uk EAST ANGLIA Ian Wilson ARPS, 07767 473594 ian@greenmen.org.uk
Ken Lennox HonFRPS Sunday 11 March, 11am-4pm, free
The photojournalist and newspaper picture editor has won many press awards during his career and is probably best known for his work as a royal
photographer, especially with Princess Diana. This event is sponsored by the region Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton CB22 6RN Ian Wilson ARPS, as above
Members’ print and projected image 2018 exhibition Sat 24 March – Mon 2 April, Wed-Sun and Easter Monday, 11am-4pm, free Wingfield Barns, Church Road, Wingfield, Suffolk IP21 5RA Moira Ellice ARPS, 01473 720928, Moira.ellice2011@ btinternet.com
Distinctions advisory day Sunday 8 April, 10.30am-4.30pm, spectators £10
LRPS and ARPS (all categories). Event now full, space for spectators Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6RN Ian Wilson ARPS, as above
Regional exhibition selection and AGM Sunday 13 May, 10.30am-4.30pm
Journal you can find out more about ‘Have I got nudes for you’ – a talk by Tim Pile where you can find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about nude photography but were too afraid to ask (p237 and p239). The event, hosted by DIG
Thames Valley, takes place on Sunday 25 March. Read on for events taking place in the next three months, and for further information on these and even more activities, please visit rps.org/events EMMA WILSON
NG13 9EL Stewart Wall ARPS, as above
Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6RN Ian Wilson ARPS, as above
Advisory day – Fellowship Saturday 12 May, 10am-4pm, £25
EAST MIDLANDS
Whatton Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Whatton in the Vale NG13 9EL Stewart Wall ARPS, as above
Stewart Wall ARPS, 07955 124000 stewart@stewartwall.com
‘Who says it’s visual art’ by Jay Charnock FRPS and ‘iPhoneography to Fellowship: my continuing journey’ by Viveca Koh FRPS Sunday 11 March, 10.30am-4pm, £10
East Midlands advisory day – LRPS and ARPS Sunday 13 May, 10am-4pm £15/£10 spectators
Whatton Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Whatton in the Vale NG13 9EL Stewart Wall ARPS, as above
Presentations on visual art Whatton Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Whatton in the Vale NG13 9EL Stewart Wall ARPS, as above
‘The beauty of the landscape’ and ‘photobook sequencing’ with Marianthi Lainus, plus ‘An introduction to bookmaking’ with Arthur Green Sunday 20 May, 10.30am-4pm, £10 spectators
‘Visions through a viewfinder’ – the photography of Roger Hance FRPS Sunday 22 April, 10.30am-4pm, £10
Roger Hance describes his work covering sports, natural history, landscapes, portraiture and photojournalism Whatton Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Whatton in the Vale
East Anglia Region will hear from photojournalist and royal photographer Ken Lennox HonFRPS on Sunday 11 March
Photobook making has become a very popular part of the craft of photography. These talks focus on developing skills in sequencing images, and an introduction to the craft of book binding and making books Whatton Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Whatton in the Vale NG13 9EL Stewart Wall ARPS, as above EIRE Michael O’Sullivan info@mosullivanphoto.com
LONDON Judy Hicks
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
232
Celebrating London 2017-2018 Until Sunday 30 September Sign up to take part in the region’s capital-wide project Celebrating London Celebrating London team, celebratinglondon@rps.org
CREDIT SITS IN BOX 4MM DEEP
londonro2@rps.org
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EVENTS THE GUIDE
London Region street walk Saturday 10 March, 9.45am-2pm London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
Third meeting of the North London Group Monday 12 March, 7-9pm
Canonbury Tavern, 21 Canonbury Place, London N1 2NS Londonro2@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SW London Group Tuesday 13 March, 7-9pm The Prince of Wales, 138 Upper Richmond Road, Putney SW15 2SP London RO2, londonro2@rps.org
The Bookworm Club Wednesday 21 March, 6.30-9pm
The Crusting Pipe, 27 The Market, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8RD London Bookworms, LondonBookworms@rps.org
Sunday-morning walk with the London Naturally group Sunday 25 March, 10.30am-1pm London Naturally, london_naturally@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SE London Group Tuesday 27 March, 7-9pm Greenwich Gallery, Peyton Place, London SE10 8RS London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
LRPS and ARPS (all five categories) advisory day Thursday 29 March, 10.30am-4.30pm £25/£20/£15 spectators
LRPS will continue to be assessed in the usual way Nikon School of Excellence, 63-64 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SW London Distinctions, 07881 824996, londondist@rps.org
Regional exhibition – An Elizabethan Progress 7 April to 4 May, TuesdayFriday 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm
Heritage Gallery, Queen Anne Court, University of Greenwich,Old Royal Naval College, Park Row Greenwich SE10 9LS Londonro2@rps.org
Regular meeting of the North London Group Monday 9 April, 7-9pm Canonbury Tavern, 21 Canonbury Place, London N1 2NS Londonro2@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SW London Group Tuesday 10 April, 7-9pm The Prince of Wales, 138 Upper Richmond Road, Putney SW15 2SP London RO2, londonro2@rps.org
Resting (unidentified male), Otara, 2012
Vision 9 exhibition April 11-15, 11am-6pm
Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, South Bank, London SE1 9PH Sally@wowpr.co.uk.
London Region street walk Saturday 14 April, 9.45am-2pm
Regular monthly walk for those who enjoy street photography London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
Regular meeting of the Bookworm Group Wednesday 18 April, 6.30-9pm
The Crusting Pipe, 27 The Market, Covent Garden London WC2E 8RD London Bookworms, LondonBookworms@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SE London Group Tuesday 24 April, 7-9pm Greenwich Gallery, Peyton Place, London SE10 8RS London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
A Sunday-morning walk with the London Naturally Group Sunday 29 April, 10.30am-1pm London Naturally London_naturally@rps.org
2017 London Region members’ exhibition Tue 1 to Thu 31 May
Rerun of the 2017 exhibition, this time at the Putney Arts Theatre, SW London, coinciding with the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival For hours of opening, check the website London Region, londonro2@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SW London Group Tuesday 8 May, 7-9pm The Prince of Wales, 138 Upper Richmond Road, Putney SW15 2SP London RO2, londonro2@rps.org
London Region street walk Saturday 12 May,
POSTCARD FROM ...
Auckland A moment of quiet contemplation JUST OFF AUCKLAND’S EXIT 444 is a New Zealand institution. A place where, for four decades now, people have come to buy, sell, laugh and sing. A place where God sits next to paua fritters and plastic guns. In 2012 I began Shades of Otara, a three-year project to document the workers of the Otara Flea Markets. Started in a car park by the Hunua Labour Electorate Committee, the market has become the one of the most diverse in Auckland. My approach was to strip out the colour and noise to reveal the humanity below, and the work draws on themes of identity and place. As a tribute to the workers, its aim is to present the intersection between the everyday and the special, balancing quiet moments of contemplation next to entrepreneurialism. One of the first – and most
SUBMIT
defining – images taken in the series was nearly by accident. Turning after hearing a young boy shouting for his mother, I saw this young man resting on a pile of crates he had just unloaded. There is something balanced about his exhaustion and the girl looking onward, licking an ice cream as if it was a reward for hard work. A key part of the creative process was the Maori concept of koha, ’giving back’ printed photographs as a thank you for leaving an impression. Despite returning to the markets week after week, I never saw the young man again. Sitting on my desk is a copy of Resting, with the words Unidentified Male, Otara 2012, scribbled below. GUY NEEDHAM A member of the New Zealand Chapter, Needham is a travel photographer whose work has appeared in Lonely Planet and Wanderlust
you have an inspirational Postcard? POSTCARD Do Email rpsjournal@thinkpublishing.co.uk
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THE GUIDE EVENTS
Saturday 21 April, 11.30am-3.30pm, £5.50/£7.50 non-members
A day of adventurous travel photography with the two Society Fellows Distington Community Centre, Church Road, Distington, Workington CA14 5TE Carol Palmer, northern@rps.org
Water-movement workshop Sunday 22 April, 9.30am4.30pm, £15/£10 Society members
9.45am-2pm
Regular monthly walk for those who enjoy street photography London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
Regular meeting of the North London Group Monday 14 May, 7-9pm
– new venue Saturday 10 March, 1-4pm See the Contemporary Group for details
Natural history with David Tolliday, followed by AGM Sunday 11 March, 10.30am-3pm
Canonbury Tavern, 21 Canonbury Place, London N1 2NS Londonro2@rps.org
GMP Social and Sports Centre, Mauldeth Road, Hough End, Chorlton, Manchester M21 7SX Brian Smethurst, as above
Regular meeting of the Bookworm Group Wednesday 16 May, 6.30-9pm
Portraiture seminar Sunday 15 April, 10.30am-2pm, £8/£5 Society members
The Crusting Pipe, 27 The Market, Covent Garden London WC2E 8RD London Bookworms, LondonBookworms@rps.org
Regular meeting of the SE London Group Tuesday 22 May, 7-9pm
Greenwich Gallery, Peyton Place, London SE10 8RS London Cave, londoncave@rps.org
A Sunday-morning walk with the London Naturally Group Sunday 27 May, 10.30am-1pm
London Naturally London_naturally@rps.org NORTH WALES northwales@rps.org
Visit to Portmeirion Italianate village Date TBC, please check the website for updates, £6 Portmeirion, Minffordd, Penrhyndeudraeth LL48 6ER northwales@rps.org NORTH WEST Brian Smethurst, 01942 719766 bsmethurst@hotmail.co.uk
Contemporary North West weekend meeting 234
Learn how to capture the beauty of moving water with the Northern Region on Sunday 22 April
Black and white landscapes workshop Sunday 29 April, 10am-6pm
A workshop to help improve your monochrome landscapes Cat Nab car park, Saltburn Bank, Saltburn-by-the-Sea TS12 1NY Mark Reeves, 07968 616551, rps.landscape. events@gmail.com
NORTHERN Carol Palmer ARPS carolmpalmer@btinternet.com
Distinctions at The Photography Show 2018 – ARPS 1:1 advice Sunday 18 March, 10.30am-4.30pm
NORTHERN IRELAND
Islesburgh Community Centre, Lerwick ZE1 0EQ James Frost FRPS, as above
Photoforum Lasswade Sunday 8 April, 10.30am-4.30pm, £12/£10 Society members
An informal day to meet members and receive constructive feedback on work Midlothian Camera Club, 7 Polton Road, Lasswade EH18 1AB James Frost FRPS, as above
DIG Scotland Group meeting Sunday 22 April, 1.30-4.15pm, £5
Second group meeting Parish Church, 12 Keir Street, Bridge of Allan FK9 4NW Dave Hunt, digscotland@rps.org
Fellowship advisory day Sunday 29 April, 10.30am-4pm, £25
Fully booked Edinburgh Photographic Society, 68 Great King Street, Edinburgh EH3 6QU James Frost FRPS, as above
Scottish Region members’ print exhibition 2018/9 – Glenrothes Fri 4 – Thu 24 May, 10.30am-4pm
Rothes Halls, Glenrothes KY7 5NX Donald Stewart, Donaldstewart@aol.com
Richard Corbett, 07805 381429 richard@richardcorbettphotography.com
SOUTH EAST Regional committee
An opportunity for those looking to gain ARPS. A chance to review your potential submission with a panel member (limited places available) The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham B40 1NT Simon Vercoe, 01225 325733, lrps@rps.org
SCOTLAND James Frost FRPS, 01578 730466/07881 856294, james.frost11@btinternet.com
Landscape Group holiday to Lewis and Harris Thu 22 – Thu 29 March, 2.30pm-noon
See the Landscape Group for more details
Licentiate and Associate Distinctions advisory day Sunday 15 April, 10am4pm, see website for costs
‘A journey through Fellowships and beyond’ with James Frost FRPS and Hazel Mason FRPS
Central Lakes photoshoot Saturday 28 April, 9.15am-5pm, £20/£10/free for group members Blea Tarn National Trust car park, near Ambleside, Lake District LA22 9PG Rob Duncalf, lakesphoto@icloud.com
The RPS Northwest annual portrait day Wilmslow Guild, Bourne Street, Wilmslow SK9 5HD Alan Angel FRPS, aandjangel@btinternet.com
Newton Community Hall, Newton, Stocksfield NE43 7LU Carol Palmer, northern@rps.org
The aim of this workshop, for beginner/intermediate photographers, is to introduce you to the techniques used to capture images of moving water Lythe Bank car park, Sandsend, Whitby YO21 3TD Carol Palmer, northern@rps.org
Scotland members’ print exhibition 2018/19 – Lerwick Sat 7 – Sat 21 April, 10.30am-4pm
Scotland members’ exhibition print selection and region AGM Saturday 31 March, 10.30am-4pm, £10 Society members
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
Join in the selection of the Scotland members’ exhibition for 2018 Bridge of Allan church hall, Keir Street, Bridge of Allan FK9 4NW James Frost FRPS, as above
southeast@rps.org
South East Region advisory day – LRPS only Saturday 3 March, 10am-4.30pm, £20/£15/£10 spectators
The Kings Centre, 27 Edison Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6PT Paul Connor LRPS, 07803 795634, rpssussexarearep@ gmail.com
South East Documentary Group meeting Sunday 25 March, 10am-1pm See the Documentary Group for more details
DIG South East: capture to print
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WORKSHOPS Hear from the experts and hone your skills
Movement photography Sat 3 March, 10am-4.30pm £95/Society members £71 Bath HQ
Developing personal projects and storytelling with Ben Cherry Thu 8 March, 10am-5pm
£120/Society members £90 Amersham
Creative techniques in Photoshop Fri 9 March, 10am-4.30pm £115/Society members £86 Amersham
Exhibition-quality digital printing Sat 10 March, 10am-4.30pm
£115/Society members £86 Chester
Duo Dance: classic and contemporary lighting Sat 10 March, 10am-5pm
£150/Society members £112 Leigh
Shooting for stock Mon 12 March, 10.30am-4.30pm
£65/Society members £48 Bath HQ
Introduction to mindfulness, meditation and how this links to photography Thu 15 March, 10am-4.30pm £105/Society members £78 Amersham
Lighting for composites Fri 16 March, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Leigh
Photographing landscape, whatever the weather, with Tony Worobiec FRPS Sun 18 March, 10.30am-4pm
£55/Society members £41 Newton
Studio lighting with a male model Sat 24 March
£85/Society members £63 Bath HQ
Two-day studio portraiture workshop Sat 24 – Sun 25 March, 10am-5pm
£170/Society members £127 Lacock
Introduction to Photoshop Sun 25 March, 10am-5pm £95/Society members £71 Bath HQ
Child portrait photography Sun 8 April, 10am-5pm
£120/Society members £90 Amersham
Shooting modern architecture Fri 13 April, 10am-4.30pm £99/Society members £74 Nottingham
Street photography – Spitalfields Market Fri 13 April, 10am-4.30pm £115/Society members £86 London
Introduction to Lightroom Sat 14 April, 10am-4.30pm £95/Society members £71 Bath HQ
Two-day wedding workshop Sat 14 – Sun 15 April, 10am-5pm
£170/Society members £127 Lacock
Printing with Lightroom Sun 15 April, 10am-4pm £95/Society members £71 Bath HQ
Learning from history – photographing plants and gardens Sat 21 April, 10am-4.30pm £55/Society members £41 Bath HQ
Art-nude photography Sat 21 April, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Lacock
Art figure painting with light Sat 21 April, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Surrey
£125/Society members £93 Leigh
Running your own photographic business Mon 23 April, 10am-4pm
Introduction to your digital camera Sat 24 March, 10am-5pm
Portraiture photography and getting the most
£190/Society members £142 Bath HQ
from your subject Thu 26 April, 9.30am-5pm £115/Society members £86 Amersham
Environmental portraiture Sat 28 April, 9am-5.30pm
£120/Society members £90 Derbyshire
Camera phone Sat 28 April, 10am-4.30pm
£55/Society members £41 Bath HQ
Classic dance lighting Sat 28 April, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Leigh
Photographing landscape, whatever the weather, with Tony Worobiec FRPS Sun 29 April, 10.30am-4.30pm
£55/Society members £41 Bath HQ
The art of creative living – creating a personal blueprint for success Tuesday 24 April, 10am-4.30pm
£120/£90 Society members Amersham
Portraiture photography and getting the most from your subject Thursday 26 April, 9.30am-5pm
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
£125/£93 Society members Surrey
Introduction to the creative eye Saturday 5 May, 10am-4.30pm
£95/Society members £71 Bath HQ
Still-life photography Saturday 12 May, 10am-2.30pm £105/Society members £78 Chester
Macro and art photography Wednesday 16 May, 10am-4.30pm
£55/Society members £41 Amersham
Product photography Friday 18 May, 10am-5pm £155/£116 Society members Colerne
Two-day Photoshop workshop Sat 19 – Sun 20 May, 10am-5pm
£165/Society members £123 Bath HQ
Peakland journey Saturday 26 May, 9am-5.30pm
£115/ Society members £86 Amersham
£120/£90 Society members Hartington
Environmental portraiture Saturday 28 April, 9am-5.30pm
Professional Photoshop retouching Saturday 26 May, 10am-4.30pm
£120/Society members £90 Derbyshire
Camera phone Saturday 28 April, 10am-4.30pm
£55/Society members £41 Bath HQ
Classic dance lighting Saturday 28 April, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Surrey
Photographing landscape, whatever the weather, with Tony Worobiec FRPS Sunday 29 April, 10.30am-4.30pm
£55/Society members £41 Bath HQ
Introduction to making composite images Friday 4 May, 10am-5pm
£105/£78 Society members Chester
Introduction to stop motion Saturday 26 May, 10am-5pm
£125/Society members £93 Surrey
Two-day studio portraiture workshop Sat 26 – Sun 27 May, 10am-5pm, £170/£127 Society members Lacock
Creative techniques in Photoshop Wednesday 30 May, 10am-4.30pm
£115/£86 Society members Amersham
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Join the Southern Region on a photowalk along Old Basing Canal on 24 April
Thatcham RG18 0TN Bhupinder Ghatahora, ghatahora@hotmail.com
DIG Southern: ‘Documentary photography – celebrating British life today’ by Janey Devine FRPS Sunday 11 March, 10.30am-4pm, £8/£6 group members See DIG Southern for more details
Special access to Stonehenge, dawn shoot – fully booked Sunday 25 March, 6-7.30am Sunday 8 April, 10am-3.30pm, £12/ £9 Society members/ £3 DIG members
See the DI Group for more details
Guildford and St Martha’s Sunday 8 April, 10am-4.30pm See the Landscape Group for details SOUTH WALES southwales@rps.org
SOUTH WEST Mick Medley, 01626 824865/07980 073808, rpsswregion@gmail.com
RPS South West Group Cornwall exhibition Sat 17 March – Mon 7 May
Chi an Bobel Conference Centre, Heartlands, Robinson’s Shaft, Dundance Lane, Pool, Redruth TR15 3QY Vivien Howse, 07884 168446, vivien.k.howse@gmail.com
Meeting of the West Cornwall Group Wednesday 21 March, 7-9pm The Copper Rooms,
Heartlands, Robinson Shaft, Dundance Lane, Pool, Redruth TR15 3QY Vivien Howse ARPS, 01326221939, vivien.k.howse@gmail.com
Canis’s two lectures will be ‘Passion projects’ and ‘Nature in miniature’ The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9NG Linda Wevill FRPS, linda.wevill@btinternet.com
Field trip to Mount Edgcumbe Saturday 14 April, 10am-4pm, £2/free to Society members
A day out photographing
CHINA SHANGTUF
BENELUX
CHINA QUANZHOU
CANADA
webadmin@rps.org
CHINA BEIJING
Yan Li, yanli88@yahoo.com
CHINA CHONGQING CHINA WESTERN
Wei Han (Richard), oolongcha@hotmail.com
236
Guo Jing, shangtuf@yahoo.com.cn
For Licentiate and Associate. See website for costs The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9AL Martin Howse, 01326 221939, martin.g.howse@gmail.com
Southern Region Distinctions advisory day – LRPS and ARPS Sunday 13 May, 10am-4pm £20/£15/£10 spectators
Bi-monthly meeting of the West Cornwall Group Wednesday 16 May, 7-9pm The Copper Rooms, Heartlands, Robinson Shaft, Dundance Lane, Pool, Redruth TR15 3QY Vivien Howse ARPS, 01326 221939, vivien.k.howse@gmail.com
Northwood House and Park, Ward Avenue, Cowes, Isle of Wight PO31 8AZ Paul Cox ARPS, as above THAMES VALLEY
Mark Buckley-Sharp ARPS, 020 8907 5874,
SOUTHERN
mark.buckley-sharp@tiscali.co.uk
Paul Cox ARPS, 07748 115057 southern@rps.org
GO TO
Living Rainforest photowalk Saturday 3 March, 10.30am-2pm
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
The Living Rainforest, Hampstead Norreys,
shansangwan@yahoo. com.hk
INDIA
Xiaoling Wang, hgudsh@163.com
Rajen Nandwana, rajennandwana @gmail.com
Mohammed Arfan Asif ARPS, dubai@rps.org
Agatha Bunanta ARPS, agathabunanta @gmail.com
DUBAI
GERMANY
Chris Renk, germany@rps.org
HONG KONG
Join a photowalk along the canal and around Old Basing House and the local village Old Basing Canal and House, The Street, Old Basing, Basingstoke RG24 7BH Bhupinder Ghatahora, ghatahora@hotmail.com
DIG Thames Valley: ‘Have I got nudes for you’ and ‘Journey to my Fellowship’ Sunday 25 March, 10am-3.30pm, £15/£12/£8 group members See the DI Group for more details
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY MEMBERS AROUND THE WORLD
AUSTRALIA
Richard Sylvester LRPS, Benelux@rps.org
Old Basing Canal and House photowalk Tuesday 24 April, 10am-2pm
Distinctions advisory day Sunday 22 April, 10.30am-4pm
A day with Ben Cherry, lectures and techniques The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9AL Mick Medley, as above
OVERSEAS CHAPTERS Elaine Herbert ARPS, eherbert@alphalink.com.au
Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, Mount Edgcumbe, Torpoint PL10 1HS Mick Medley, as above
Ben Cherry talks Sunday 25 March, 10.30am-4pm, £20/ £15 Society members
A day with Robert Canis Saturday 7 April, 10.30am-4pm, £10/£8/ £5 group members
See the Landscape Group for more details
Shan Sang Wan FRPS,
INDONESIA
ITALY
Olivio Argenti FRPS, cirps@olivioargenti.it
JAPAN TOKYO Yoshio Miyake,
yoshio-raps@nifty.com
MALAYSIA
Michael Chong ARPS, michaelcsc1985 @gmail.com
MALTA
Ruben Buhagiar, info@rubenbuhagiar.com
NEW ZEALAND
Mark Berger, rps@moothall.co.nz
SINGAPORE
Steven Yee Pui Chung FRPS, peacock@ sandvengroup.com
SRI LANKA
Romesh de Silva, romesh@access.lk
SWISS CHAPTER
Richard Tucker ARPS, tucker42@bluewin.ch
TAIWAN
Joanie Fan Hui Ling ARPS, djpassionfoto @gmail.com
USA ATLANTIC CHAPTER USA PACIFIC CHAPTER
Jeff Barton, rps@vadis.net
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DIG Thames Valley presentations and the Len Deeley Memorial Trophy PDI competition Sunday 22 April, 10am-3.30pm, £15/£12/ £8 group members
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
See the DI Group for more details
New Brookhouse Club, 221 Barnsley Road, Sandal, Wakefield WF1 5NU
Members’ day – Ian Day FRPS Saturday 21 April, 10.30am-4.30pm, £10/£5 Society members A little over three decades since he developed his first images in a makeshift dark room under the stairs of the family home, The Yorkshire Post’s Ian Day was named a Fellow of the Society in 2015 New Brookhouse Club, 221 Barnsley Road, Sandal, Wakefield WF1 5NU
WESTERN David Norfolk ARPS, 07771 515273 western@rps.org
Provisional meetings, all at RPS HQ
Show and tell 18 March Richard Olpin LRPS 8 April John Law ARPS talk on VR 6 May
Members’ day and regional AGM Saturday 21 April, 10.30am-4.30pm £10/£5 Society members
Richard Olpin LRPS Sunday 22 April, 9.30am-1pm, £5
New Brookhouse Club, 221 Barnsley Road, Sandal, Wakefield WF1 5NU
Olpin will give an insight into how to be more creative photographers, plus a members’ show and tell The Parish Room, Highnam Community Centre, Newent Road, Highnam GL2 8DG
Self-help group Saturday 19 May, 10.30am-2pm, £7/£3 Society members
Members’ monthly meeting: John Law ARPS talk on virtual reality Sunday 6 May, 10am-12.30pm
Self-help group/cafe session VJs Art Bar, YORK, Finkle Street, York YO1 8RW Robert Helliwell ARPS, 01904 500231, bobhelliwell@clara.co.uk
This will include a demonstration of the immersive HTC VIVE with 360º video Fenton House, 122 Wells Road, Bath BA2 3AH John Law ARPS, Western@rps.org
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
YORKSHIRE Mary Crowther ARPS, 07921 237962 photobox50@gmail.com
Explore more aspects of photography and digital imaging
Facebook: bit.ly/RPSYorkshire
Contemporary Group North East Saturday 17 March, 1.30-5pm, £3
ANALOGUE David Healey ARPS, 07968 746211 analogue@rps.org
See the Contemporary Group for details
facebook.com/groups/rpsanalogue/
AGM and photographer’s talk Saturday 21 April, 10am-5pm
The group’s annual general meeting, plus an analogue photographer talking about their work (speaker TBC). Light refreshments will be available but we would encourage members to bring packed lunches. The Victoria & Albert Museum – Seminar Room 3, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL Stephen Godfrey, 07812 605837, analogueevents@rps.org ARCHAEOLOGY AND HERITAGE Mike Sasse, 01892 531179 mike.sasse@btinternet.com
AUDIO VISUAL Howard Bagshaw ARPS, 01889 881503 howard.bagshaw@ntlworld.com
AV Distinctions free advisory day Saturday 3 March, 11am-4.30pm
Witcombe and Bentham Village Hall, Pillcroft Road, Witcombe, Gloucester GL3 4TB Martin Fry FRPS, 014582 857964, frycorner@btinternet.com CONTEMPORARY
group’s members Central Buildings, 13 Bull Ring, Third Floor, Suite 4, Wakefield WF1 1HB Patricia A Ruddle, 07572 124290, patriciaruddle@ btinternet.com
South East Documentary Group meeting Sunday 25 March, 10am-1pm
Guest speaker Graham Sergeant FRPS will show some of his award-winning AV presentations, and discuss how to use AV effectively to present documentary photography. Afterwards is a review of members’ work – prints or DPI Tangmere Village Hall, Malcolm Road, Tangmere PO20 2HS Janey Devine, docse@rps.org
A day with Bill Jackson and Chloe Dewe Mathews Saturday 12 May, 10am-4pm, £30 group members
Regent’s University London, Room T106, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS Avril Harris, avrilrharris@blueyonder.co.uk THE CREATIVE EYE GROUP
Peter Ellis LRPS, 07770 837977
Barry Freeman ARPS
wordsnpicsltd@gmail.com
creativechair@rps.org
Contemporary North West weekend meeting – new venue Saturday 10 March, 1-4pm
Members’ print and projected image 2018 exhibition Sat 24 March – Mon 2 April, Wed-Sun and Easter Monday, 11am-4pm, free
Samlesbury War Memorial Hall, Cuerdale Lane, Samlesbury, Preston PR5 0UY Alan Cameron, 07825 271344, alan.cameron@me.com
Contemporary Group North East Saturday 17 March, 1.30-5pm Regular meeting of the
Wingfield Barns, Church Road, Wingfield, Suffolk IP21 5RA Moira Ellice ARPS, 01473 720928, Moira. ellice2011@btinternet.com
Members’ 2018 exhibition of prints and projected images
Advisory day Saturday 31 March, 10.30am-4.30pm £20/£15/£10 spectators
Distinctions advisory day for Licentiate Distinctions (LRPS) New Brookhouse Club, 221 Barnsley Road, Sandal, Wakefield WF1 5NU
Members’ day – Carolyn Mendelsohn Saturday 21 April, 10.30am-4.30pm, £10/£5 Society members
The award-winning portrait photographer and artist is known for her compelling portraits, her personal series and lifestyle work
The Contemporary group will spend a day with speakers Chloe Dewe Mathews and Bill Jackson on 12 May
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Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 3DA Alan Bousfield ARPS, digthamesvalley@rps.org
DIG Scotland Group meeting Sunday 22 April, 1.30-4.15pm
Parish Church, 12 Keir Street, Bridge of Allan FK9 4NW Dave Hunt, digscotland@rps.org
Thu 3 – Fri 18 May (open on Thursday evenings and Saturday 12 May from 9am-5pm)
Smethwick Photographic Society Clubrooms, The Old School House, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 2AS Judith Parry ARPS, 01214 274224, Judith.parry@ blueyonder.co.uk
Creative Group 2018 members’ day Sunday 20 May, 10am-4pm, £15/£10 Society members
Whittlesford Memorial Hall, Mill Lane, Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire CB22 4NE David Ryland ARPS, 01953 853040, creative. eventorganiser@rps.org DIGITAL IMAGING Janet Haines digchair@rps.org
Digital Imaging Group AGM and print exhibition selection Sunday 4 March, 10am-4pm, see website for costs The AGM of DIG, together with the selection of prints for the exhibition, followed by an informative talk Smethwick Photographic Society, Old School House, Churchbridge, Oldbury B69 2AS Janet Davies, digsecretary@rps.org
DIG Southern: ‘Documentary photography – celebrating British life today’ by Janey Devine FRPS Sunday 11 March, 10.30am-4pm, £8/£6 group members
Devine will look at classic documentary images, and how these sit alongside other types of photography such as street, photojournalism, travel etc. Her images cover various aspects of British life Greyfriars Community 238
Centre, 44 Christchurch Road, Ringwood BH24 1DW Barry Senior HonFRPS, 01425 471489, digsouthern@rps.org
DIG Thames Valley: ‘Have I got nudes for you‘ and ‘Journey to my Fellowship’ with Tim Pile Sunday 25 March, 10am-3.30pm, £15/£12/£8 group members
Celebrated photographer Tim Flach HonFRPS will present images taken from his latest book, Endangered, to the Medical Group on 20 April
Everything you ever wanted to know about nudes but were afraid to ask. Pile will describe his approach to panel-based Distinctions and give an insight into the planning and practical aspects of his work Woosehill Community Hall, Emmview Close, Woosehill, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 3DA Alan Bousfield ARPS, digthamesvalley@rps.org
Foxton Village Hall and Sports Pavilion, 2 Hardman Road, Foxton CB22 6RN Mark Gillett, 07984 518959, digeastern@rps.org
DIG Thames Valley Matt Parry: ‘Travel photography – building a portfolio, technique, ethics and workflow’ Sunday 20 May, 10am-3.30pm, £15/£12/ £10/£8 group members
Parry will discuss what it takes to be a good travel photographer, the process involved for making a compelling travel image and how this can be applied to a variety of other applications Woosehill Community Hall, Emmview Close, Woosehill, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 3DA Alan Bousfield ARPS, digthamesvalley@rps.org
DIG South East: capture to print Sunday 8 April, 10am-3.30pm, £12/£9 Society members/£3 DIG members
DOCUMENTARY Mo Connelly LRPS, 01590 641849 dvj@rps.org
John Herlinger will talk about the dark art of colour management and how to get the most from your printer, while Margaret Salisbury FRPS will explain how to choose the right paper for the image and show some of her award-winning work Madginford Hall, Egremont Road, Bearsted, Maidstone ME15 8LH digsetreasurer@rps.org
HISTORICAL Monica Thorp monicathorp@thorpmilngavie.plus.com
Historical Group visit to Liverpool Friday 16 March, 10.45am-4pm
Visit The Hardmans’ House, a time-capsule photographic studio, and Liverpool Maritime Museum. The day will include a guided tour of Hardman house and a talk from the curator of photographs at the Maritime Museum The Hardmans’ House, 59 Rodney Street, Liverpool L1 9ER Gilly Read, readgilly@hotmail.com
DIG Thames Valley: presentations and the Len Deeley Memorial Trophy PDI competition Sunday 22 April, 10am-3.30pm, £15/£12/ £8 group members
With a variety of short talks from attendees, this is your chance to tell us what you are doing. Followed by the annual PDI competition Woosehill Community Hall, Emmview Close, Woosehill,
DIG Eastern: how to create your own digital books – with Michael Eleftheriades Sunday 29 April, noon-4.30pm, £15/£10/ £8 group members
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
Historical Group AGM Saturday 14 April, 11.30am12.15pm
V&A Seminar Room 5, Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
Janine Freeston, janinefreeston@aol.com
Historical Group afternoon lecture Saturday 14 April, 1.30-3.30pm, £5
An expert on an aspect of the history of photography presents an illustrated lecture on their specific field of interest V&A Seminar Room 5, Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL Janine Freeston, janinefreeston@aol.com IMAGING SCIENCE Gary Evans gary@garysevans.com
LANDSCAPE Mark Reeves LRPS, 07968 616551 rps.landscape.events@gmail.com
Landscape Group holiday to Lewis and Harris Thursday 22 March, 2.30pm-noon, see website for costs A chance to photograph on Lewis and Harris with the benefit of a local guide Lewis and Harris, Cabarfeidh Hotel, Stornoway HS1 2EU Tim Parish, TBC, timp.parish@gmail.com
Special access Stonehenge dawn shoot – fully booked Sunday 25 March, 6-7.30am Another opportunity for a rare dawn shoot at Stonehenge – but with a difference Stonehenge, just off the A303, near Amesbury SP4 7DE Jim Souper, 07922 169843, landscapenews@rps.org
Guildford and St Martha’s Sunday 8 April, 10am-4.30pm, £20/£10/ free group members An opportunity to combine some urban landscape photography with some farreaching rural views Tunsgate Arch, Guildford GU1 3AA Paul Graber, 07971 885905, paul.graber@ntlworld.com
Central Lakes photoshoot Saturday 28 April, 9.15am-5pm, £20/£10/free group members
Visit some iconic locations in the Lake District National Park Blea Tarn National Trust car park, near Ambleside, Lake District LA22 9PG Rob Duncalf, lakesphoto@icloud.com
Black and white landscapes workshop Sunday 29 April, 10am-6pm
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EVENTS THE GUIDE
A workshop to help improve monochrome landscapes Cat Nab car park, Saltburn Bank, Saltburn-by-the-Sea TS12 1NY Mark Reeves LRPS, as above
Beyond visible light – a workshop on infrared landscapes with Simon Weir Saturday 19 May, 10am-6.30pm, £60/£50/ £40 group members
A practical hands-on introduction to infrared landscape photography Smethwick Photographic Society, The Old School House, Churchbridge, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 2AS Mark Reeves LRPS, as above MEDICAL Dr Afzal Ansary ASIS FRPS, 07970 403672, afzalansary@aol.com
Endangered: an evening with Tim Flach HonFRPS Friday, 20 April 2018, 6.30-7pm, £15 Society/IMI members’ early-bird tickets (until 11 March)/ £20 thereafter Flach will sign copies of his latest book, Endangered, at a discounted price of £30 Tim Flach Studio, 58 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3QR Dr Afzal Ansary ASIS FRPS, as above NATURE
meeting, spring meeting and annual exhibition opening Smethwick Photographic Society Clubrooms, The Old Schoolhouse, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 2AS Duncan Locke LRPS, duncan. locke@btinternet.com TRAVEL Keith Pointon LRPS, 01588 640592 bagpoint@aol.com
Grand tour of northern India Thu 12 – Thu 26 April, £2,465 Highlights include an evening trip along the Ganges to witness the Ganga Aarti ceremony in Varanasi, a visit to Bishnoi tribal villages and a wildlife park at Rathambore Starts in New Delhi travel@rps.org
Springboard 2018 and AGM Saturday 12 May, 9am-4pm
Springboard, the Travel Group’s premier annual event Runnymede Hotel, Windsor Road, Egham TW20 0AG, travel@rps.org
The road to Santiago 19-27 July, £2,340
Journey from the High Pyrenees to the most westerly point in Spain along the route taken by travellers and pilgrims through the centuries Starts in Santiago, northern Spain Colin Howard, colin.howard@mac.com
Kevin Elsby FRPS wildlife@greenbee.net
Nature Group AGM, spring meeting and exhibition Saturday 21 April, 10am-4.30pm
The 42nd annual general
VISUAL ART Viveca Koh FRPS, 07956 517524 viveca.koh@gmail.com
Visual Art Group 2018 members’ print exhibition Until Saturday 10 March, 10am-4pm
Exhibition of all the selected images from members of the Visual Art Group Croydon Clocktower Museum, Katherine Street, Croydon CR9 1ET
GO TO
rps.org/events for the latest event updates
A day with Robert Canis Saturday 7 April, 10.30am-4pm
RPS International Images for Science exhibition
This touring exhibition features stunning images with a scientific story
Worcester: Until Thu 22 Mar, 8.30am-10pm
From Kent, Canis will show his work and give two lectures – ‘Passion projects’ and ‘Nature in miniature’ The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9NG Linda Wevill FRPS, linda. wevill@btinternet.com
The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD
Derry: Until Fri 9 Mar
Millennium Forum, Newmarket Street, Derry/ Londonderry BT48 6EB
Visual Art Group spring weekend with AGM – fully booked Fri 20 – Mon 23 April, 9am-9pm
The Big Bang Fair: Wed 14 – Sat 17 March
The National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Halls, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1NT info@thebigbangfair.co.uk
The residential spring weekend will be in Alnwick (Northumberland). The region is famous for its rich history, brought to life in architectural treasures and great natural beauty The White Swan Hotel, Bondgate Within, Alnwick NE66 1TD Andreas Klatt ARPS, 01608 684848, visualart@rps.org
The Photography Show: Sat 17 – Tue 20 March, 10am-5pm The National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Halls, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1NT thephotographyshow@ futurenet.com
EXHIBITIONS
Edinburgh: Sat 31 March – Sun 15 April
Sally Smart ARPS, exhibitions assistant
City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE 0131 529 3993, customer. care@edinburgh.gov.uk
01225 325724, sally@rps.org
RPS International Photography Exhibition 160 – Aberystwyth Until Saturday 10 March
RPS International Photography Exhibition 160 – Barnsley Sat 28 April – Sat 9 June
Showcase of a diverse range of images selected from a worldwide open call Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus, Brick Lane, Aberystwyth SY23 3DE
The Civic, Hanson Street, Barnsley S70 2HZ
PATRONAGE
Naked ambition
Salons/exhibitions with RPS-approved patronage
DIG Thames Valley welcomes Tim Clark to the stage to describe his journey to a successful Irish Photographic Federation (FIPF) Fellowship. Clark will also share his passion for nude photography and tips for capturing stunning shots on location, including how to utilise natural light, working with models and other aspects of the photography process, including image processing. The event is on Sunday 25 March, 10am-3.30pm.
22 Gran Tour delle Colline, Trofeo Colline del Chianti Closing date: 5 March grantourdellecolline.it RPS 2018/23-26
German International DVF-Photocup 2018 Salon Niedersachsen Closing date: 18 March germanphotocup.de RPS 2018/16
Cheltenham International Salon of Photography Closing date: 2 April cheltenhamcameraclub. co.uk RPS 2018/18
VOL 158 / MARCH 2018 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 239
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THE COLLECTION
I Wait by Julia Margaret Cameron The story behind an angelic shot is explained by Erika Lederman, cataloguer at the V&A
VISIT The RPS Collection is at the V&A Museum, London
Rachel Gurney
IN THIS YEAR 1872
IN 1872 ENGLISH photographer Julia Margaret Cameron wrote to Henry Cole, the founding director of South Kensington Museum – now the V&A – about ‘my latest and I think almost my best photographs’. While Cameron was not known for modesty, her declaration is also a reflection of the confidence of a seasoned artist. She had been exhibiting her work for more than eight years, taking her first photographs at the age of 48 after receiving a camera as a gift from her daughter and son-in-law in December 1863. She joined the Photographic Society in 1864, one of the first female members – read more on page 174 – and was frequently written about in the photographic press. In this image, Cameron has posed her grandniece Rachel Gurney as an angel, complete with swan’s wings and diaphanous wisps of heavenly clouds. A frequent model for Cameron, Gurney was the granddaughter of her sister Sara Prinsep, whose London home, Little Holland House, was a gathering place for artists such as G F Watts and Edward Burne-Jones, and the art critic John Ruskin. Children were a natural
Queen
subject for Cameron, the mother of six, and at least five additional adopted, children. As subjects, she cajoled and directed them in elaborate narratives that bestowed upon them an angelic beauty and upheld the prevailing Victorian conceptions of childhood. Here, Gurney’s direct gaze and slight pout suggest innocence – or possibly helplessness under the direction of what Gurney’s sister Laura, also a frequent model, described as the ‘ungentle hand’ of ‘Aunt Julia’. The cloudy mist is achieved through a deposit of soot on the back of the negative. This is just one of more than 700 works by Cameron in the RPS Collection at the V&A. Alongside its existing Cameron holding of more than 200 works, many acquired directly from her, researchers have access to the largest assemblage of her images in one institution. Cameron’s photographs, as well as her lens and an autobiographical manuscript fragment of Annals of My Glass House, are available to view in the V&A prints and drawing study room. The first phase of the V&A Photography Centre will open in October. See p174
Chambers
1 Victoria
4 English
opens the Albert Memorial in memory of her husband Prince Albert.
Dictionary is first published by
brothers William and, pictured below, Robert Chambers
James
Whistler exhibits Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother at the Royal Academy.
240
The
3 Licensing
Act makes it an offence to be drunk in public
while in charge of a horse, a cow, a steam engine, or a carriage.
ALAMY
2 McNeill
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