The theme from our last meeting was our own personal photographic journey – how we reached our current stage of photographic practice and the various points along the way. This turned out to be a very popular topic with a number of new faces turning up to discuss how their photography had progressed over the years and the direction it might take in the future. In some cases there was a gap of many years between early photographs and more recent work whereas others had only recently taken it up seriously. Some had found their photography changing direction after studying for an MA, finding new ways of approaching their work. Later work was largely more project-based and personal (perhaps due to LIP’s influence?!) There was also a definite move from early black and white into more recent colour work, and from analogue to digital and mobile phone cameras, though it was heartening to see that some people were still using film, and continuing to experiment with different cameras, processes and formats.
What came across was that photography is an evolving process – not always moving forward at the same rate. There can be quite lengthy periods of time when we can feel stuck in a rut, making little progress or finding sparse inspiration. That could be a good time to pause and take stock of our achievements so far – in the course of evaluating our work, an idea may crystallise and a new project or fresh direction may emerge.
Edith Templeton
Sue Czapska
Jana Schlenkrich
Hugh Look
Ingrid Newton
Robert Royston
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday 10th October 2012 at 18.45 at the usual venue – The Artworkers Guild, 6 Queens Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AT. This month we will be looking at the use of different formats – landscape, portrait, square, panorama etc. Suggestions for discussion: your personal choice of format and reasons for it; how format may affect your photographs – shaping and altering meaning and mood; suitability or otherwise for particular subject matter. Whether you usually work with a particular format or like to vary the format, if you would like to show examples, please bring along a maximum of 6 images, either on a memory stick or as prints.