Thelma Hulbert Gallery

I'm lucky enough to live near Honiton, Devon, where there is the Thelma Hulbert Gallery which put on exhibitions and talks about art, artists, photographers, etc.  At the moment the gallery is showning
Beyond the Lens exhibitionby Roger Mayne photography from 11 March 2017 to 22 April 2017.
I plan to view this exhibition and the rest of the gallery next week (w/c 27 March) and will write it up here after I've been.

Publicity blurb from the gallery:

Roger Mayne (1929 – 2014) famously documented the children and young residents of Southam Street in West London in the 1950's and 60's.  These photographs led to him becoming one of Britain’s most important post-war photographers. His exhibitions have included the V&A and National Portrait Gallery, London.

The photographs on display at THG are taken by Mayne from the 1950's to the 1970's and were hung in a barn at Mayne’s home in Lyme Regis, Dorset. From London street scenes to exotic landscapes, they are crudely mounted photographs shown in their fragile state. They were originally shown at the Arnolfini, Bristol in 1974.

Photobox The Essential Collection

Photobox The Essential Collection; pub Thames & Hudson, published in Italy in 2009, paperback edition printed in English 2016.

A comprehensive and slightly quirky set of photographic genres which includes "women" but not "men" and no "street". The biographies on each of the photographers are a little uninteresting and repetitive but generally well written and informative. Photo reproduction is of good quality.  There are many of the usual images well-known and easily available but I particularly liked the picture from Martin Parr who is well known for his quirky pictures taken in Latvia in 1999 of a person sheltering from the rain.

Altogether an interesting set of images which should be dipped into rather than taken in all in one go.

Book Review: Mastering Portrait Photography

Mastering Portrait Photography, Paul Wilkinson & Sarah Plater; Ammonite Press, 2015

This book is a must for anyone who wants to improve and is written simply.  Using few but well chosen words in explanation, it combines the expectation and excitement of studio photography with somewhat advanced photography. It builds an explanation stage upon stage, and following each stage I have reverted back to basics even going through my manual again.  This has surprisingly filled in many gaps in my knowledge and has encouraged me to check again what my camera is capable of and finding new limits by activating some of the functions I left on auto even though I shoot almost extensively with aperture priority. It has removed my fear of lighting and explained things so simply that I now feel in control of my studio sessions to a much greater degree.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Whatever You think, Think the Opposite

Title: Whatever You think, Think the Opposite; 
Author:  Paul Arden
Publisher: Penguin; 01 edition (2 Mar. 2006)
ISBN-10: 0141025719
  

Essential tips for people who do a creative job. We all know how difficult it is to struggle in front of a blank page if we don't know what to do. Creativity has no automatic button to push but this book will give you some clever advice and will tell you some short stories that will let you think positively.

I like the comparison between 'Steady Eddie' and 'Reckless Erica', there is a lesson there for taking the 'safe' route.  Some of the tips are a little obtuse or obscure, i.e. 'Bread. You know it makes sandwiches.'  I loved it!

RPS 159th Print Exhibition - Taunton

I went to the RPS Print Exhibition 159 yesterday as it toured the provinces.  It was displayed in the Museum of Somerset building with all 100 prints on display.  My main criticism was that all the eclectic images, and they were so diverse, were displayed with reflective glass.  I was looking at one row of prints only to find that the row on the opposite row were reflected in the image I was studying. I could also see the reflection of anyone who was studying those images.

You can see from the above image how bad it was.  Each of the 100 images had the same problem.  Luckily I went when it wasn't very busy but if there were large numbers of viewers it could spoil it for everyone.

On the other hand I found that, for once, I could agree with the Gold Medal image of Alice by Carolyn Mendelsohn which was quite delightful.  I very often can't understand why such a picture would be awarded a winning place but this one is entrancing.

Carolyn MendelsohnCarolyne

Carolyn Mendelsohn

(c) Alice by Carolyn Mendelsohn

There were the inevitable pictures that I found quite incomprehensible and I found I was in accordance with the photographers who had accompanied me to Taunton.

Here's a couple of prints from the 'also ran' images which I could enjoy.  About 10% were completely incomprehensible.

On the whole I enjoyed the visit as I was also able to visit the Sisters in Song being exhibited in the Rebellion basement gallery.

This was interesting as a photographer called Cecil Sharp went round the county taking pictures of Women Folk Singers.  Cecil, a London-based music teacher, began collecting Somerset folk songs in August 1903. This exhibition tells the story of the Somerset women who provided Sharp with hundreds of folks songs. It includes a selection of photographs provided by the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Jane Bown; Exposure

 

 Product details

Publisher: Guardian Books; First Edition edition (22 Oct. 2009)
ISBN-10: 0852651414

This is a superb book with some wonderful portraits, all in black and white, taken over the past 50 years of a whole host of famous and now not so famous faces. I requested this book from my local library due to cost and really appreciated and enjoyed this well presented book. A great selection of the work from this very talented but modest photographer.  

I only heard of Jane when my work was compared to hers when I was working on Level 1 People & Place and have since followed her work with interest.  Such a modest woman who just gets on with the job and comes up with brilliant portraits.

RPS Travelling Print Exhibition 159

As a member of the RPS I've had an invitation to the opening of the Travelling Exhibition to be held at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton.  It runs from 14 Jan - 11 March 2017.

I don't think I'll make it to the private view as that's in the evening and it's more than an hour's drive from Lyme Regis but I'll certainly visit it during the day.  Three members of my camera club and I have been travelling round during the summer to catch as many open studios, etc, in the localities nearby.  We'll probably go together at a mutually convenient date to check it out and see what else the museum has on show.

 

OCA Study Day - Tate Modern

I've had to cut back on taking part in the OCA study days as it costs so much in time and money to travel up to London.  The journey takes approximately 3 hours and costs approximately £40-50.  Also there are too few photography based workshops to make it worthwhile.

The one visit that interests me greatly on April 22nd at the Tate Modern in London is that of The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection.  It costs £10 to take part but looks like it could be very interesting.  

I've already put my name down and paid the booking fee.  Let's hope the weather co-operates and railway workers don't decide to hold a strike that day.

Catch up

It's been a lean time for photographic exhibitions around this part of Dorset and East Devon for the past few of months but I've found one or two that could be very interesting.

The first one, on February 7th 2017, is a presentation about a Dorset photographer, Helen Muspratt (1907-2001).  Helen was born in India in 1907 and travelled to England to settle in Swanage, Dorset.  The family were frequently photographed by Constance Ellis in Guildford who inspired Helen to take up photography as a career. The artistic community in Purbeck, who included the retired head of the Glasgow School of Art, Fra Newbery encouraged Helen to study photography at the Regent’s Street Polytechnic.  She based herself mainly in Oxford and was well known for her portrait photography.

Triple self portrait, solarised c 1932 (Helen Muspratt)

This illustrated talk is given by her daughter, Jessica Sutcliffe who has just published a book about her mother's work - Face: Shape and Angle.