We were treated to an extensive viewing of work in progress by Tim Butcher at this meeting. His ongoing ‘precarious work’ project combines interviews and photographic portraits which are co-curated with their subjects and forms part of a university research project. Various spin-off discussions were begun, such as GDPR and ethics, as well as more practical considerations.

Sam Tanner showed and talked us through the extensive work needed to produce a print he was happy with from his image taken from the London Eye.

Tony had brought in his dedicated paper pre-exposing (flashing) device for us to look at, and I enquired whether anyone had tried pre-exposing film. No one had.

Don also showed some prints, and then Ted showed us his recent experiments with Van Dyke printing, using found negatives made into larger inter-negs on acetate. He also brought in some cyanotypes. He described how going through negatives he may have rejected previously, he was able to find ones which were well suited to these historical processes.

Jo brought in her cyanotypes worked up to A3 size and combined with physical objects to produce hybrid photograms, and discussed how using different papers can have an effect on the resulting image colour. She also showed us a number of lith prints.

Chiara had brought in her prints of Romanian and Bulgarian Winter Festivals, printed on Russian fibre-based paper.

Finally, Ian described how he’d spotted David Bailey photographing in Oxford Street on Boxing Day. I found it strangely reassuring to know he’s still working at the age (at that date) of 81.

The next meeting is on Monday 10 February at 6.30pm. Anyone interested in coming along is asked to contact Ted Kinsey at tedkins@gmail.com Roberto Arendse