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Image © Edith Templeton

On-line Zoom meeting held 14 April 2021 when the theme was “Age” .

Despite his age, Simon’s father-in-law’s long term memory is in fine fettle. In a short video, he recounts amusing anecdotes in a broad Huntington accent of a certain Ted Linnet – a local character from the village of Sawtry who “never seemed to pay for anything”. An excellent lyrical introduction to this month’s topic “Age” which produced surprisingly few contributions. Anne drew an analogy with nature, the cycle of life, fallen and withered flowers – tragedy and chaos – utilising a “lens baby” shift lens with its narrow depth of field. Edey concentrated on the built environment: the precise age of a building – 1898 – in red brick on a flank wall and the timeless bonding of yellow and red London stock bricks. The layering of a fading sign for “Cliff’s Corner” on a derelict building reveals a ghostly incarnation of past lives. Janet exploited “joiner photography”, combined with hand drawings, to create both transparency and opacity reflecting the layering and history of buildings – from the elaboration of Leamington Spa Town Hall to the solidity of Pas de Calais. One of Sukhy’s images showed a former ballroom dancer denying the reality of his age and holding a photograph of himself as a young man. In Sukhy’s arresting, wide angled portrait of an old rag and bone man from Streatham, the reality of this man’s tough life is all too clearly etched on his face.

Others contributed from their Own Projects. Austin extended the theme of Text and Images from the topical – a young woman exercising in front of “I can’t breathe” painted on a hoarding – to the 1960s – Jimi Hendrix’s hand written lyrics for Vodoo Chile in the flat in Brook Street where he once lived. Steve has been exploring roadside and urban memorials. Why here and not in graveyards? Maybe, like martyrs, they are commemorated at their points of death. Sue Czapska has been photographing the Turneresque ever changing light of the Jurassic coast to which she hopes to return soon, while Alec showed poplars, some sunlit and others silhouetted against an evening sky. Frankie hopes not to take any more photographs of her “closed for business” series which is coming to a natural conclusion as restrictions lift. Eve had a series of images of people with artefacts that are precious to them, from a mudlarker’s blue and white china to the Dean of Southwark’s Christ sculpture. Alan is investigating One Tree Hill, in Honor Oak Park in terms of ‘psycho-geography’ – a location where John Betjeman describes the view as “better than from Parliament Hill”. Robin is exploring his new environment in Hebden Bridge, looking for the geometric connection between the industrial and the layered roofs of terraced houses.


Janet Nabney


Frankie McAllister


Sue Czapska


Steve Jones


Robin Barr


Austin Guest


Alan Larsen


Edith Templeton


Mechthild Belton


Alec Wyllie


Anna Lerner