LIP Central group March 2024 meeting

The theme for the Central group’s March meeting was “Simple/Complex”, with members having
options to use either or both of these elements.

The first images were presented by Austin, who showed images of four mosques in Istanbul with
particular emphasis on their highly-decorated interiors.

Mark followed in a similar vein with interiors of a number of churches, including Our Lord in the Attic
in Amsterdam and St Paul’s, Covent Garden. He contrasted their external simplicity with their
complex stories beneath.

Eve had made a number of flower arrangements and scanned them on her home printer/scanner
with no camera involved. Virtues were extracted from what might have been considered
imperfections in other contexts, such as scanning lines and some blooms showing slight decay.

Pauline presented a series of diptychs set in the Lake District, with deliberate disparity in sizes within
each pair of images. The pairings complemented each other despite differences in subject matter
and scale, such as tumbling water set beside veins within rock, and another stream matched to a
path.

Fred showed pairs of images of industrial columns, brasserie lighting and stairs, establishing
complexity by moving from black and white to colour for each subject.

Janet showed multiple exposures of some complex structures and combinations of items, including
road works, racks of rental bikes and a mirror installation outside the V & A museum.

Andy had recently been to the Scilly isle of Tresco, during which time he had captured some close
views of rocks combined with fallen tree debris and grasses, all of which contributed to natural
complexity and particularly in gloomy lighting.

Edey showed images from a personal project within London’s Brompton Cemetery, moving between
colour and black and white to convey different moods and varying scenes.

Steve presented images taken during Ash Wednesday fiestas in southern Mexico. Each town had its
own colourful dress conventions, although the second alarmingly featured what appeared to be
some real combat rifles.

Nusse showed a lockdown project in which she was driven around while she photographed bridges
through the windscreen, and the people crossing them. These captured a surprising amount of detail
and some occasional awareness and response from the subjects.

Alec had experimented with a photographic crystal ball, initially showing its own reflections which
included reflected textures, along with images of a match dispenser, a column in a Roman villa and a
Venetian church interior.

Jan showed some closeup shots of his grandson on a park’s saddle spinner, capturing the different
body positions and facial angles as he was whirled around.

Julian’s images showed abstract closeups of metal joists photographed with permission on the back
of a truck beside a building site. The moulded holes, shadows and welding lines yielded interesting
patterns.

Heather presented images of her ongoing street photography project with a number of images of
street life in the Shoreditch area, seeking out interesting people and activity outside busy shops.

The group has recently been polled regarding interest in holding an exhibition within the next year;
23 people expressed interest in participating, and their preferences were discussed.

Members of the group will meet on Wednesday 20 th March to visit the Saul Leiter exhibition in
Milton Keynes.

The next meeting will be on April 10 at the Old Diorama Arts Centre, Regent’s Place, 201 Drummond St, London NW1 3FE.