OPS Weekly Newsletter 17 November 2024
- Please start thinking about your entries to our second Projected Digital Image competition which takes place on 10 December. Upload them to the usual place – PhotoContestPro
- Last week’s meeting Tues 12 November: Sorrow, Dawn Rogers
This was an extremely moving presentation. Not surprising given that the subject matter was Dawn’s grieving process of losing her brother Geoff, who was in his early 20s when he died. The timing made the evening poignant as the anniversary of his death was the day before.
The presentation was split into two halves. The first have was the preparation for her photographic book Sorrow and the second half dedicated to the creation of the book.
During Covid Dawn had made the decision to do a ‘Masters’ degree course in photography at Falmouth University and the book was the fulfilment of the course. She read and read many books and thought deeply about the grieving process and photography.
She was drawn to the work of the French philosopher Roland Barthes, whose seminal work, Camera Lucida, was written while grieving for his mother. Finding an old photograph of his mother was the inspiration for Barthes to write the book.
She was also drawn to a book called Photographs Not Taken, ‘a collection of essays by photographers about moments that never became a picture. Conceived and edited by Will Steacy, each photographer was asked to abandon the camera and, instead, use words to recreate the image that never made it through their lens.’
Dawn used a Christmas Eve episode as a child with her father and Geoff as her moment when a ‘photograph was not taken’. She and Geoff decorated the Christmas tree together and she recreated what happened in words on that Christmas Eve and read them out to us.
She became interested Robert MacFarland views on landscapes and quoted him “We tend to think of landscapes as affecting us most strongly when we are in them or on them, when they offer us the primary sensations of touch and sight. But there are also the landscapes we bear with us in absentia, those places that live on in memory long after they have withdrawn in actuality, and such places — retreated to most often when we are most remote from them — are among the most important landscapes we possess.”
There were not many photographs of Geoff and Dawn decided that using the landscape where she and Geoff had grown up would enable her to tell his story, and her way of telling the story. The area they grew up in was Dorset and the county is known, in part, for its rocks and stones which she saw as a good metaphor – worn, weathered and heavy. She was also drawn to ‘hag stones’. These are stones that have holes through them and in folklore have magical properties.
While she was doing all this background work she was also learning how to make books and she had many extremely creative examples with her which could be seen as precursors to her book Sorrow.
The book itself is a series of photographs, some archival, but the others of the landscape and seascapes, the seascapes acting as pauses in the ‘narrative’. It looks like an exercise book and is a facsimile of Geoff’s school exercise book with ink blots that appeared in the original.
The text that accompanies the photographs was an inspired choice. Dawn obtained a copy of Geoff’s death certificate and used the text in the certificate as the words that accompany the images. There is a card to accompany the book that explains the story.
A truly moving evening and an inspiring one.
- Next Tuesday’s meeting 12 November at 19.30: Out of Africa with Helen and Keith
Helen and Keith will dazzle us with images of their recent trips to Zambia and Kenya
- Upcoming meetings for 2024
Tues 26 November at 19.30: Wildlife for all Seasons with Robert Harvey
Exciting wildlife photographs do not require overseas travel! Featuring owls, kingfishers, puffins, hares, otters, seals and deer, this talk shows how, when and where to make striking images of iconic British species in the wild.
https://www.naturalworldphotography.net/wildlife-for-all-seasons
Tues 3 December at 19.30: Intimate Landscapes with Adrain Cubitt
Intimate Landscapes: What’s it all about?
Tues 10 December at 19.30: Projected Digital Images No. 2
Our judge with be Colin Mill
Tues 17 December at 19.30: Julian Elliot Mongolia – from landscapes to eagle hunters
His talk will take us on a journey across Mongolia from the famous Steppe landscape to the eagle hunters of the Altai region in western Mongolia.
- Programme Secretary vacancy
We have a full and varied programme for you this season thanks to the hard work and excellent choices by Les. Unfortunately, due to unexpected changes in Les’s work commitments he cannot continue in the role and we need someone to step forward to start the planning and booking of speakers for next season’s programme. Please do contact me or any other committee member if you are interested in taking on the role.
- Events photographic in and around Oxford
Bettina von Zwehl: The Flood
This exhibition will feature photographs by London-based artist, Bettina von Zwehl (b. 1971). Von Zwehl’s aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and practices.
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/ashmolean-now-bettina-von-zwehl
Windrush Years: Portraits of a generation who rebuilt Britain
Sat 9 – Sat 30 Nov 2024
Fusion Arts
15 Park End St
OX1 1HH
1-6pm (Thursdays – Saturdays only)
This exhibition brings together portrait photographs which have been collected as part of a community archiving project led by The Oxfordshire Community Education Group. The images reflect the lives created as the Windrush generation arrived and settled in Oxford, making critical contributions to the life of the city through their work.
https://fusion-arts.org/whats-on/windrush-years-portraits-of-a-generation-who-rebuilt-britain
Visions of Psychedelics
By Eddie Jacobs and Adam Isfendiyar
Monday 25 Nov – Sunday 1 December
Opening Times
11am-4pm
Venue
Season pop-up venue, 33-35 Little Clarendon Street Oxford
Tickets
FREE, Just drop in
https://oxfordculturalprogramme.org.uk/event/visions-of-psychedelics/
- General photographic interest
Royal Photographic Society awards 2024 – in pictures
The recipients of the Royal Photographic Society awards have been announced for 2024. New categories have been introduced to better reflect the international photography community and the society’s evolving focus and role. Ingrid Pollard was awarded the RPS centenary medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the art of photography
It’s a sitter! Taylor Wessing photo portrait prize winners – in pictures
A Saigon cheerleader, a goal-hanging dad and a 90-year-old party princess make up the subjects of this year’s most forward-thinking portraiture award
‘So many photographers said, do not touch this subject of your daughter’: Magdalena Wywrot’s grainy, gothic take on childhood
Inspired by her own ‘crazy’ youth and literary heroes such as Kafka, the impressionistic images that the Polish photographer made of her daughter growing up are intimate and bleakly beautiful
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/nov/17/photographer-magdalena-wywrot-pestka-daughter
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic review – every image contains some kind of magic
Saatchi Gallery, London
The Wedge Collection, one of the world’s most prominent private assemblages of Black portrait photography – or indeed of any photography – lands in London
‘You never knew what to expect!’ London street markets – in pictures
Paul Trevor’s new book, Market Day, captures the lively, chaotic energy of London’s Sunday markets, showcasing a contrast between vibrant market activity and the rundown, pre-gentrification East End
