OPS Weekly Newsletter 27 April 2025
- Annual Exhibition: The date of the exhibition has been brought forward to Weds 30 April. Please do hand in your mounted prints by Tuesday 29 April meeting. If you can help with the exhibition set up then please contact Dave Belcher. Note there is a print competition during the exhibition (13 May) so you will need to print two versions of your exhibition image if you enter your exhibition image into the competition.
- Ten Best of the Year: Please start selecting your Ten Best of the Year (2024-25 season) that we will show on 20 May.
- Watch Sean Tucker’s YouTube video on “Is Your Photography Any Good?” He suggests three words that may help you assess how your photography is progressing: Intention – Consistency – Originality. See link below
- Last week’s meeting Tues 22 April: Paul Kilsby, PhD RCA – Unnatural Histories followed by members’ project reviews
Paul spoke about his latest work Unnatural Histories, which were photographs of birds with prey in their beaks which would never occur in the wild. But before getting to this he told a little bit about himself, and what shaped his childhood, so that we could understand why he chose birds and ‘nature’.
He was brought up around the Ilse of Purbeck in Dorset, very close to Poole. He showed an old black and white photograph of his school class, 9-11 year olds, in a primary school near Christchurch in Dorset. Paul was not in the photo as he rarely went to school.
He was the third son of his family and his parents appear to have given up on their parental responsibility of raising children. He was happy to be a feral child. He would go wandering around Purbeck, Studland and Brownsea with his copy of the Observer Book of Birds and spend his time bird spotting. Armed with an apple, a sugar sandwich and a bottle of homemade lemonade, he was joined by a friend whose grandfather had a rowing which they ‘borrowed’ and rowed across Poole Harbour to Brownsea Island. Neither of them could swim.
As he wasn’t going to school he was interviewed by Dr. Liam Hudson for his book CONTRARY IMAGINATIONS: a Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy. The author argued that personality counts for as much as ability in the student’s choice of subject. The author must have Paul an interesting case.
His lack of schooling didn’t hold him back, he passed his 11 plus and went on to get a PhD.
He remained interested in wildlife but his interest also developed in art and the two were coming together. He read John Berger’s book Why Look at Animals which alarmed him. And things are getting worse. According to the World Wildlife Fund humanity has wiped out 60 percent of the animal population since 1970. There has been 73 percent decline in the overall size of the global wildlife population in just 50 years.
Paul told us that we are subject to ever more spectacular TV documentaries about the natural world, and they are ever more beautiful than real life, and in being so they are also deceitful. It is this that his Unnatural Histories was trying to expose.
His photos were of stuffed birds that he had bought from ‘ebay’ and he also bought their ‘unnatural’ prey from various sources. For example he had a stuffed European Kestrel with a Flying Lizard in its beak from Sumatra, Indonesia. The bird and lizard would never naturally encounter each other. He had others too Jackdaw with a Scorpion, a Goldfinch with a Jezebel Butterfly and more and more.
The unnatural pairing enabled him to raise the issues of how we are being sold a lie in the way zoos, circuses, documentaries etc tell us their unnatural stories about the natural world.
In the second half he discussed the images three members showed. Rob F showed six images he had taken on a visit to South Africa, Sandra D showed recent images, colour and monochrome from a recent trip to Marrakesh and Adrian C showed his project of making a photographic Abecedatrium – an alphabet book. But instead of photos of the letters he would take photos of things which make the shape of each letter.
A very different evening but thoroughly fascinating and engaging throughout.
- Next meeting Tues 29 April 19.30: 29 April: The Little Print Show with Jonathan Vaines
This talk comes with artistic approach to photography, stepping out of the club mainstream. Along with individual images we see motivational benefits of working with Projects, Sets and Groups of images. Most of Jonathan’s images are created using “in camera” techniques and the focus of the evening is about “Thinking Inside The Box”. The talk is primarily a print talk but presented via PowerPoint with 60 prints to display in the evening.
- Upcoming meetings
6 May: Brian Worsley – portraits
An outdoor night-time shoot with a model led by Brian Worsley – weather permitting
13 May: Print Competition No. 3
Maximum of two colour and two monochrome. Our judge will be Kathy Chandler
20 May: Ten Best of the Year
Slide show of all our ten best of the year. Each member upload their ten best of the season and together with everyone else’s are shown in a slide show
27 May: Annual General Meeting
- Events photographic in and around Oxford
Microsculpture Exhibition: The insect photography of Levon Biss
The stunning high magnification insect portraits by British photographer Levon Biss were first shown in the Microsculpture exhibition in this Museum in 2016. Since then, the show has toured to 44 cities in 22 countries around the world.
Free – no booking required
Oxford University Museum of Natural History,
Parks Road,
Oxford, OX1 3PW
3 April 2025 – 4 January 2026
https://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/microsculpture?page-5255386=1
Travel Photographer of The Year Exhibition
Banbury Museum and Gallery
Spiceball Park Road
Banbury
Oxfordshire
OX16 2PQ
29th March 2025 – 6th July 2025
Price: Adult: £5.00
Child: £2.50 (Ages 5-18. Under 5’s are free)
Concession: £3.00 (Over 65’s, students, Mill Member and unwaged)
Art Fund Member: £2.50
Photo Oxford Workshops
Join us for an exciting series of alternative photography workshops in March and April to explore the art of cyanotypes, anthotypes, phytograms, botanicograms, chemigrams, caffenol film development, pinhole cameras, photography as performance, and psychogeography.
https://www.photooxford.org/workshops
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.
18 Oct 2024 – 11 May 2025
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/ashmolean-now-bettina-von-zwehl
- General photographic interest
Is Your Photography Any Good?
It can be so confusing, trying to work out how we’re progressing, especially from the varied responses we get to our work. So in this video Sean offers some advice on how to judge for yourself whether your photography is any good.
He suggests three words that may help you assess how your photography is progressing: Intention – Consistency – Originality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id39qt2dhrk
‘I love humans – it gives me the courage to approach them’: the disarming work of Mao Ishikawa
For five decades the Japanese photographer has captured the internal lives of a host of unlikely subjects, from dockers to Black GIs. Now a new show celebrates an artist dedicated to documenting the underdog
Shot from the hip! A street level view of 1970s New York – in pictures
Mark Cohen’s photographs of his daily walks in New York show the world viewed from the height of a child – revealing fresh threats, thrills and perspectives
Celebration of strength at a time of conflict – in pictures
Amid the ongoing war between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Nuba people of South Kordofan region uphold their centuries-old wrestling traditions. Originally designed to build combat skills, it has evolved into a community celebration, uniting ethnic groups. Tariq Zaidi travelled to South Kordofan to capture the enduring custom
Remembering Wildlife reveals winning images for its 10th Anniversary book
Remembering Wildlife, a book series focused on conservation, has revealed the 20 winning photos that will be featured in its forthcoming 10th anniversary edition, 10 Years of Remembering Wildlife. The new book, set for release on October 6th, will be the series’ most ambitious project yet. It’ll bring together images spanning a decade of photographers’ work to raise awareness for endangered species
