Our November meeting provided a feast of ideas and interpretations.
Dr. Charles Ashton opened the members’ images section of the evening with a topical subject for autumn – the Hindu celebration of Diwali with images from a visit to Hyderabad. Remaining overseas, whilst enjoying a holiday in Portugal Eric Williams pondered his approach to the subject of ‘People’. Remaining upon the Iberian Peninsula, Jenny Rees Mann revealed the art to be discovered within the confines of a Spanish underpass. A little nearer to home, yet across the water, Richard Broomfield went deeper underground into a world of sepulchral chambers and velvet-black shadows of a WWII German hospital and ammunition store upon the island of Guernsey.
In lighter mood, Richard Hadley presented glimpses of The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, whilst Geoff Hicks entertained and kept us guessing, with the eclectic selection of objects to be found within a large manor house. Alex Isaacs also presented a diverse selection of near-related subjects from the recent WCC visit to Diglis Island.
With his eye scouring highways and pavement surfaces, Bob Oakley revealed the casually overlooked, heavy-metal artwork impressed upon inspection covers.
Tessa Mills’ ‘Immersive experience’ compared and contrasted the interplay of light, whether upon a vast beach or during an imaginative son et lumière within the nave of Worcester Cathedral.
Another form of contrast was provided by Gill Haynes through her interpretation of the beautiful Welsh landscapes where, often, just around the corner, the mountains remain scarred and quarried by the once great and lucrative slate industry.
Continuing to discover the darker recesses of many a small church, Clive Haynes presented another selection of work from his evolving series, ‘Behind the Alar’.
Photography is frequently about personal voyages of discovery. However, in common with all arts, the artist/author/photographer occasionally feels stranded upon a plateau, in this respect, Bob Train was pleased to rediscover his ‘mojo’ when visiting and interpreting a large garden in Gloucestershire.
We enjoyed two contrasting ‘Outside Sources’. The first was a successful RPS Associate Contemporary submission. The photographer created a body of work to reveal how his wife’s mind is deteriorating through the stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The images included distortions of perception which when combined with visual uncertainty, expressed a world full of ambiguity and difficult to navigate. (There is no link available for this one unfortunately.)
The second ‘OS’ was ‘Entangled by Justice’ by Andreas Rentsch. Largely but not exclusively, using Polaroid film, “the work is reminiscent of primitive, figurative drawings. The damage being inflicted, by one character upon another, is haunting, radiating with desolation, depravity. But, surprisingly, there are also images where the figures are composed in such a way it might appear aid is being rendered, or conversations being had, or even hands held, as though the figures are dancing”. This is exciting, expressive, and imaginative work at the boundary of what many might consider conventional photography. Here’s the link:
Viewpoint e-book for November. Click on the image below or use this link: Viewpoint
On our CPG Monthly Books page (via WCC Homepage > What’s On > Specialist Groups > Contemporary Group > Monthly Books) there are many back issues of ‘Viewpoint’ to browse and enjoy.
Link: CPG Monthly Books