Exhibition success

Solitary Shell
Taken on the Isle of Eigg looking out towards the Isle of Rum on the West Coast of Scotland

My local camera club is currently staging it's annual open photography exhibition, which closes this coming Sunday. I entered a number of images some weeks ago and two of the eight I submitted are on display.

'Solitary Shell' - was given a Judges Award in the Members Section whilst 'Too Young to Smoke' was selected for the National Category. There are a number of these event staged around the country during the course of the year but as this was the first time I had entered a National Exhibition, I was very pleased to have had one of my photographs accepted.

Here is one of the images on display.

and finally here is the image which was accepted for the 'Open' section.

Too Young to Smoke
Taken at the Goodwood Revival Meeting in 2012

 

Entries for Open Exhibition - will any be selected?

In about six weeks time my local camera club will be staging its 43rd annual exhibition and in seven days time I will know which of my entries have been selected for display. In essence there are two sections. Firstly one for members only and second an open section for anyone outside of the club who wishes to enter.

I would hope that there would be a reasonable chance that some of my submissions for the members only category will be on show come the 23rd of November when the exhibition is opened to the public. The open section is more of a lottery as I will up against some very capable and experienced photographers.  I have chosen four images for each section and my fate is in the hands of the judges who will consider all the entries next Saturday the 19th October. Last year I went along to witness the judging process and I plan to be there again next weekend.

It's nerve wracking when your own photograph is displayed and rarely do the judges take long to mark the picture out of five. With three judges the maximum mark is fifteen. Twelve or more marks are likely to be needed to secure an entry.

The four images I selected for the open section are:-

.....and the four images for the members section are:-

Trying to decide which photograph went in to which category was quite a challenge in itself but having made up my mind and completed the entry form, I now have to see which ones are selected. With a little good fortune I would like to think that I might get one in the open section, but the standard is very high and whilst my work does well in club competitions I simply do not know how well it will do when competing against some the best images in the country. Well we shall see. Not long to wait now!

All of these images are on my own website - www.alanfrostphotography.co.uk

Sebastiao Salgado - Genesis Exhibition

A week or so ago I was reading in Andy Beel's blog about an exhibition called Genesis by Sebastiao Salgado at the Natural History Museum in London. I had already planned to visit the capital for an ARPS Advisory day in Greenwich, so I thought it would make sense and take this opportunity to see for myself why Andy Beel had described the exhibition as follows - 'This is undoubtedly the most stunning photography exhibition in any genre you will see this year or in this decade.' Having been to see the Ansel Adams exhibition some months earlier I thought that this was a pretty bold statement, but it was fully justified. There are over 200 photographs, all in black and white, which were quite superb.

Genesis Exhibition

On the Natural History Museum website Salgado is quoted as saying - 'Many of us live in cities, cut off completely from the planet. My wish was to experience living with people with real links to nature... For me to back to nature was a huge pleasure. I wished to present the planet in my language, photography. And so came to Genesis.'

Sebastiao Salgado

The 'Genesis' project spans 8 years of Sebastiao Salgado's life and work. During this time he visited 32 countries and some of the wildest and remotest places imaginable; capturing dramatic landscapes, the wildlife and the indigenous people of these unspoilt areas. Salgado is a Brazilian born social documentary photographer and photojournalist. As well as his photography, he has devoted much of his life to the restoration of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, turning a small area into a nature reserve dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education. The reserve is called Instituto Terra.

This exhibition is a 'tour de force'. Incredible images, some printed very large, many of which just take your breath away. It was hard for me to contemplate the fact that these people and places exist on the same planet as I do. Simply click here or on the image below to see examples of his 'Genesis' work and I hope that you will be inspired and motivated to visit the exhibition for yourself.

© Sebastiao Salgado

As a very keen black and white photographer, I was also interested in how the images were presented, their overall look, how they were processed and printed, and not just to be taken in by the subject matter. The photographs exhibited quite a lot of grain which lead me to think that he worked with film and not digitally. I am no expert and have never developed or printed a roll of film in my life but this seemed to be a reasonable assumption. I decided to undertake some research and found out that Salgado used a black and white film called Kodak Tri X 400, which was first introduced back in the 1950s. More recently though he has switched to the digital environment but to maintain the film like look of his photographs, he uses software called DxO Film pack. There is a testimonial by Salagdo on the DxO website supporting his use of the product. I found this discovery most interesting and it got me think about my own work.

The Collectors Limited Edition Genesis book

I mentioned earlier that my very reason for visiting London was to attend an ARPS advisory day, as I am still intent on working on a project which would result in a panel of work to give me an Associateship Distinction with the Royal Photographic Society. The combination of the two events gave me some inspiration. Could I prepare a body of work based on the Goodwood Revival, a annual historic motor racing event, and process the images to give them the classical look of black and white photographs of the 1950s and 60s? The event itself is a throw back to this period. So if my images were to reflect this fact, and I tried to emulate the look and feel of the photography of the period, there might be a harmony between the subject matter and the panel of work. I will be going to the Revival Meeting in September and in the meantime I will be giving this idea further consideration. I have already downloaded the trial version of the DxO Film Pack software and I know I will be 'blogging' about this in due course.

The Exhibition at the Natural History Museum

Enough of my aspirations and back to the 'Genesis' exhibition. Dont miss it! The Natural History Museum has played host to the world premiere of this remarkable exhibition which runs until the 8th September. Do note you need to book online in advance.

Kenna, LPOTY and London

Two trips to London in one week and this time to specifically go to a couple of exhibitions that I wanted to visit. For the first time in seven years the world famous photographer Michael Kenna was holding a retrospective exhibition of his work at Chris Beetles Gallery in Piccadilly, London.

Like many other amateur photographers I had always admired Kenna's work. I guess he has inspired me with his square format, black and white images, often reduced to very simple and quite beautiful compositions, full of mood and atmosphere. Having looked at many of his images on a computer screen it was a real treat to actually see his signed limited edition prints. There were fifty on display including some of what must be his finest works. Seeing them for 'real' and I could fully appreciate the quality of the printing and the superb and at times subtle tones. Amateurs like me have a tendency to over sharpen their images but it was clear from Kenna's work that whilst they were pin sharp and full of detail, they had not been over sharpened, but what do you expect from a master photographer who has been practising his fine art for many, many years? It was a superb exhibition and well worth the trip to the capital.

First exhibition

Its sounds rather grand, it wasn't at all really, but on Saturday 11th August I staged my first and modest exhibition of photographs at the Bizarre Bazaar in the grounds of Fishbourne Church, near Chichester. Any profits (I should be so lucky) would be donated to The St Peter Project (A new church hall for Fishbourne and the wider community - www.stpeterproject.org). I gave a lot of thought to the images I wanted to include. I felt the work should have a broad appeal but also showcase my eclectic tastes. The only thing I did want to do was major on black and white, as this is my preferred style at the moment. The only two prints which were in colour were deliberately chosen as these directly related to Fishbourne Church, so were more likely to appeal to those attending the event.

Prior to the event I built a large stand or easel which would display eleven 20" x 16" framed prints, in landscape and portrait format. On the evening before I was still cuttings mounts and framing. I shouldn't have left it until the last minute but having only recently returned from a week's photography course at West Dean, time was limited.

As well as receiving a number of favourable comments,  I was delighted to sell five prints which was five times as many as I had expected. Its strange to think that people have now parted with their hard earned money to display my work on their wall at home.  As and when opportunities arise it has certainly given me the confidence to stage other exhibitions of my work.....particularly if the profits can go to a good cause. It has also made me realise that I need to press on with my own website which will incorporate this blog.

Below are the images I displayed. 

Firstly four landscapes.

Sand Waves on the Isle of Eigg
Nikon D90 10-24mm @ 10mm f11 6 seconds ISO 100