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An
illustrated talk by author and photographer, Mr Ken
Holland from Teignmouth was most enthusiastically enjoyed
by members of the Ivybridge & District Camera Club
on Tuesday 13th March.
Mr Holland ARPS
DPAGB is also a well-respected photographic judge and
lecturer but on this occasion he chose to eschew the
judging aspect of club activities and talk about ‘looking
at pictures’.
His talk paid scant
deference to the technical processes of capturing an
image such as exposure, shutter speeds etc., preferring
to explore what it is that photographers achieve with
their imagery and how they can make the viewer ‘see’
either the image they have in mind or ‘feel’
the location or situation where the image was taken.
“‘Communication’ was a major element
in photography,” he said, “and a photograph
could be understood in any language.” But photographers
still had to learn how to communicate.
Mr Holland took
us back to basics reminding us that the word photography
means ‘writing or painting with light’ and
used his talk to explore why we take photographs and
how we expect people to view them. Beginning to tread
on dangerous territory he argued that the more complicated
modern cameras became, the further photographers became
focussed on taking technically ‘perfect’
images rather than better expressing themselves photographically.
Moving further into
adversarial mode Mr Holland argued whether a judge was
always right to consider sharpness, exposure, impact,
etc. above the intention of the photographer and showed
examples to prove his points. Members did not always
agree with some of these arguments, especially as he
avoided some of the ‘real life’ issues such
as how a judge marks one image as better than another.
Moving on, Mr Holland
explored how groups of photographs can sometimes communicate
better than a single image but he showed us how small
changes could turn a simple image into one that ‘communicated’
better.
Mr Holland finished
by discussing sources of inspiration and recommending
reading matter and exhibitions.
The evening was
much enjoyed by all and members showed their thanks
in the time-honoured way.
The next club evening
is a Merit Open competition on March 27th judged by
Mr Eric Cawsey of Plymouth. Visitors are welcome to
all events.
The club is running
a month-long exhibition of photographs at the South
Brent Old School Centre for all of March. Entry is free
and there is a self-service coffee bar where you can
relax and rest your feet! Our programme, members’
photographs and much more are all available elsewhere
on this website.
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