'OFF THE WALL' EXHIBITION

[spb]

Being pictorial in nature, internal competitions favour images depicting scenery, natural history and people. In the past, club photography was wider. In the 1980s and early 90's I can remember macro and microscope photographs, alternative processes, photojournalist, abstracts and architectural photography. Other branches that we rarely, if ever, see include industrial, scientific, experimental, social commentary, food and drink.

In an attempt to widen our photographic horizons I propose an informal exhibition of prints at the back of the room on a Monday night. No rules, no judges - it will be truly 'Open' but I would expect the subject matter to be outside of the norm for club competition.

Having pitched this to the Digital Group, I already have a dozen names signed up. If you would like to participate please contact me and I'll put you on the list. Everyone's input is welcome.

Cheers, Steve Brabner.

[PatrickHudgell]

Sounds like a great idea Steve. Count me in.
Regards
Patrick Hudgell

[John Harrison]

Excellent Steve, it gives everyone an opportunity to be more experimental without being judged.
Count me in as well.

All the best,
John

[spb]

If you attended APS last night you will have heard Richard Sadler FRPS talking about his photographic philosophy. It wasn't always easy to extract the message from his talk but he was not an enthusiast of inter-club rivalry, believing that everyone should be developing their personal vision. He declared several times that photographers have graduated from being craft-workers to artists and that this is an exciting time for photography with the unlimited possibilities that the technology offers.

Richard is past Chairman of the Contemporary Group of the RPS which has a particular focus on the grouping of images to reflect contemporary life. However, he appeared to be heralding (advocating?) the death of pictorialism. Certainly many of the portfolios on the RPS Contemporary Group website http://www.rpscontemporary.org/portfolios-rpsco.html# would not meet the pictorial criteria for our club competitions!

I didn't know that Richard was coming to the club but I couldn't have asked for a better encouragement for us all to branch out and pursue some original photographic work. What better outlet than the 'Off The Wall' Exhibition?

Cheers, Steve.

[Pirjo]

Sounds as if I missed a good evening, but it was a case of serious overload of photography (and lack of Brownie points too) as I had already attended an Environmental Portrait Workshop in Missenden Abbey on Saturday and a very interesting day of talks in Solihull hosted by RPS Creative Group. The speakers were Bob Moore FRPS, Leigh Preston FRPS and our very own Steve Smith FRPS and it was particularly interesting to see Bob Moore end his talk with some of his very early images to illustrate how styles come and go. He also urged us all to just enjoy taking varied types of images for the sheer enjoyment of it rather than worrying if they are going to be competition or exhibition standard.

Thanks for the link to the Contemporary Group too, I haven’t checked them out for a while.

Check out this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallaportfolio/ She is amazing!

Pirjo

[spb]

The chosen date is January 25th which is a Members Evening in the programme and gives us some time to view and discuss the images. Given that I've had over 30 volunteers, we could have an excellent show but will need to limit the prints to two each to give everyone some wall space.

Hopefully you are already thinking about images that you might show and perhaps you can't wait until January. If so, why not bring your work along to a digital group meeting or to a suitable Monday evening such as 23 Nov, 14 Dec or 11 Jan? Just let me know and I'll make sure that there are display boards available. I really hope that we can make more use of the hall for ad-hoc members' exhibitions throughout the year. It's a shame that competitions have become our only outlet.

Any questions? Please feel free to email me directly or use this forum.

Cheers, Steve.

[spb]

AD-HOC PRINT DISPLAY

Every Monday night (except for print competition nights) one or more print boards will be available for ad-hoc display of your prints. Anything goes - mounted, unmounted, big or small, titled or not.....just bring it along. If you would like to stage a bigger showing, please book this in advance with Janet Osborne-Williams.

Cheers, Steve.

[spb]

Here are the details that I circulated to participants recently;


Thanks for putting your name down to enter something in the Off The Wall Exhibition. I have over 30 participants to date.

ENTRY DETAILS
Up to two prints, mounted or unmounted. Any size up to the usual competition size of 40cm x 50cm.
It would be interesting if you would show your name on the front of the print to encourage discussion.
Just bring them along on the night, but if you are not able to submit something please let me know.

SUBJECT MATTER
There are no rules, but I'd like everyone to embrace the purpose of this event which is to break out of the constricting boundaries of pictorial club photography. Anything goes, but especially subject matter that would be an anathema in a typical club competition. The definition of anathema is 'greatly reviled, loathed or shunned'. Well, that's maybe going a bit far, but I think we can all conceive of images that we like, but are not worth entering into competition because they don't obey the rules, are not easily interpreted or are simply out of fashion. Notice I said "...that we like..." because we should be doing this for pleasure!

SAYING A FEW WORDS
We have the first half of the evening available on the 25th and I would like some of the exhibitors to say a few words about their image(s). If there is the demand, perhaps we can identify a regular outlet for such work in the club and beyond. Perhaps this will enable us to collect some thoughts for the CACC to encourage more diversity in club photography.

If you would be willing to say a few words please let me know.


Any questions? Please come back to me, and don't forget that there is an Off The Wall topic on the APS Message Board

Cheers, Steve.