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Image © Robin Barr

The theme for our on-line Zoom meeting held 12 May 2021 was “Chasing the Light” . As photographers we are always chasing the light – sunlight or artificial – or the shadow of that light. This was reflected in an interesting and very varied set of images.

Ingrid’s moving images based on last month’s theme of Age included her last photographs of each of her parents, their faces bathed in light as they absorb the life-giving rays of the sun.

Chris featured perhaps one of the brightest source of artificial light – the lighthouse at Dungeness. More accurately, he photographed the Fresnel lens which focuses that light, exploiting its circular arrays of prismatic shapes to create rich abstract patterns of pure refracted light. Another lens, an old condenser lens, was photographed by Anthony, its scratched surface reflecting light as star-bursts. Pure colour and the rhythmical tracks of unknown light sources are orchestrated by Simon via camera movement to create enigmatic patterns and images.

Three contributors chose to photograph plants which all crave the light. Some plants photographed by Eve were well cared for – behind the floor to ceiling glass of the NEO Bankside building – while others less so – one crammed behind a small dirty wired-glass window. Janet’s uplighter provided light to her trailing plants while the light in photos by Alec and Anthony revealed plants nurtured in greenhouses – ‘philodendron’, ‘morning glory’ and sunflowers.

Contributors captured the drama and range of sunlight, whether directly as in Jim’s image of the sun edging out from behind the clouds in Torridon or in Nusse’s tree silhouette with a full sun in a cloudless sky. The sun defines the muscular, mountainous landscape of Norway (Nusse) but also transforms the misty clouds into a ‘light-box’ to uniformly illuminate freshly fallen snow (Tony). Geoff matched the fading evening light with artificial lights of the pubs bars along the River Lee; it is a walk he does every day, noticing something different every time. Frankie, however, finds she has become all too familiar with shadows cast in her house, allowing her to chase the light and the patterns formed on every day objects at different times of day.

There are no shadows without light and many chose to chase the light in this way. Dorota’s olive leaves form blue shadows on a pure white wall. Heather also explores the shadow of leaves on leaves, while the shadows of a steel gate and an abandoned supermarket trolley on institutional green of the wall seem to demand a narrative. Austin photographed into the sun and caught the moment a runner had both feet off the floor – strong shadows on the tarmac surface. Anna’s loves the shadows from outdoor chairs, some leant against and generating intriguing abstract patterns and strong shadows on the surface of a slatted table. Chairs also feature in Steve’s melancholic photograph of the somewhat ironically entitled ‘games room’ where their plastic forms cast long shadows on the distressed vinyl flooring. Robin’s literally poetic images combines text of a poem with his ghostly profile, light spilling sideways into the corridor of his home.

To finish: a quote from Tony Hancock who, when playing the role of a celebrity portrait photographer and asked about his snaps, has the famous repost “Snaps!? I don’t take snaps – I paint with light!”….


Simon Zebu


Chris Burrows


Alec Wyllie


Steve Jones


Jim Paterson


Janet Nabney


Austin Guest


Geoff Titley


Frankie McAllister


Robin Barr


Anna Lerner