OPS Weekly Newsletter 28 September 2025
- Our first Exhibition of the season commences at Oxford Westgate Library Wednesday 1st October. Please hand in your mounted prints for the exhibition to OPS by Tuesday 30th September.
- Last week’s meeting Tues 23 Sept: What Makes a Photographic Project with Philippa James
Philippa gave us a fascinating glimpse of the highs and lows of a successful photographic project, and was keen to emphasise that her project journey was not a blueprint – every project is different. She did though have some very good instructional pointers.
It first starts with what she called ‘an itch’. This ‘itch’ will be personal to you, something that is unresolved.
For Philippa it was moving to Oxford shortly after becoming a mother. She showed the first image Google comes up with when searching for Oxford. A shot of Radcliffe Camera taken from the spire of University Church of St Mary the Virgin. The image speaks of a place of ‘hopes and dreams’, but for Philippa Oxford was anything but this – a crazy city full of so many contradictions.
This was Philippa’s ‘itch’.
First, she had to create an initial idea. She was a keen follower of the work of Brandon Stanton who has a very long and successful photographic project called Humans of New York. He began photographing people of the streets of New York. He would have a conversation with the people he photographed and eventually “these conversations became the focal point of the work itself.”
Philippa thought she would do the same in Oxford. To do this she needed to do some creative research. This stage can be very difficult as you try to get to grips with how you are going to research your idea. She decided she would meet people on the street but talk to them in their home, then take their portrait.
The start of the project was very messy, she had the idea of Women of Oxford and would do the portraits and interviews in her subjects’ homes. Her first person was Jane who told her incredible stories of her life.
Philippa is a wedding photographer and is used to telling people where to stand or sit. Usually where the light is best. To find out where the best light is, a simple tip is to walk around the room and use the palm of your hand and ‘capture’ the light.
She also needed a ‘technique’ to capture people’s stories. She developed a set of 10 questions she would each person. All well and good, but Philippa could not get the project together and suffered from ‘imposter syndrome’.
For four years the project was put on hold until a chance meeting with Tess Taylor, one of the founders of the social enterprise the Tap Social Movement. Tess was very supportive of the project and said that the Tap Social will hold a launch exhibition of the project at their venue in Botley.
The Women of Oxford exhibition would feature 100 women and would launch in three months’ time. Philippa had to get another 90 photos in 90 days. The pressure was on.
She stopped her commercial work and would photograph two, sometimes three, women a day and do the interviews. Each shoot would take one to two hours, but there was one that lasted four and a half hours.
The Tap Social did all the publicity. The project was going very well, then was hit by social media hate campaign when it was revealed that one of the women photographed was a trans-woman.
This was very stressful, but the day came when the exhibition was launched, on International Women’s Day 8 March 2020 when 500 people came to its opening – just in time, as Covid was about to strike.
A very positive and inspiring tale of a rough and rocky road to a successful ending.
- Next meeting 19.30, Tues 30 Sept: Take 5
An evening when everyone in the room gets to see everybody’s five favourite recent images and scores each image shown.
- Upcoming meetings in September and October
- 7 Oct: Projects, Zines and Photobooks with Stewart Wall
- 8 Oct at 10.00: Street Photography Workshop with Stewart Hall – please book your place on OPS website here: https://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/opsevent/workshop-the-ops-high-streets-of-oxford/
- 14 Oct: Exploring Creative Perspectives: My Photographic Journey, Tim Simmons plus show and tell
- 18 Oct at 11.00: OPS meet up – Matriculation Day in Oxford
- 21 Oct: Print Competition no. 1. Judge Kevin Day
- 28 Oct: On These Magic Shores, Tamsyn Warde
You can see the programme up to the end of the year here and download it: https://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/programme-download/
- Photographic events in and around Oxford
Photo Oxford
Photo Oxford opens in a month’s time and we are delighted to announce the full programme for the Opening Day, 25 October.
See details below:
https://mailchi.mp/photooxford/zsu8u7h122-12867158?e=591e9fec01
A Photographic Life ‘Live’ 2025!
Oxford Brookes University
Sunday 26th October
A new episode of the A Photographic Life podcast has been posted every Wednesday by Grant Scott without fail since 13th June 2018 and now we would like to invite all of our listeners and readers to a special day of all new photography related conversation, discussion and chat! We hope it will be an opportunity to meet fellow photographic travellers, share opinions, ideas and make new friends. All the conversations will be recorded so if you are unable to attend no problem, you will be able to catch up on these at a later date wherever you get your podcasts.
The event will take place at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford on Sunday 26th October 2025 in the NHBB Building on the Headington Campus. Admission is free but registration is required https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-photographic-live-live-2025-tickets-1693780716719?aff=oddtdtcreator
Photo Oxford: Open Call Winners’ Exhibition
5 September-5 October 2025
Modern Art Oxford
30 Pembroke Street
Oxford
OX1 1BP
Photo Oxford, Oxford’s biennial photo festival, returns for its fifth edition in 2025. This year the theme for the festival will be Truth and we will explore what this huge word means within the context of photography.
What happens when photographers challenge their medium’s relationship to reality? What truths lie beneath the surface? Photo Oxford 2025 invites you to look closer and find your own truths in photography.
https://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/photo-oxford-open-call-winners-exhibition
Message from Ania Ready: I’d like to warmly invite you to visit an exhibition currently on at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock (I’m sure many will remember it from previous OPS exhibitions). The show, entitled Life Lines, is in the upstairs gallery and features strong photographic elements. It responds to the encounter between British soldier Arthur Tyler and Holocaust survivor Naomi Kaplan Warren during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and his role in helping her reconnect with family in the US. The permanent exhibition downstairs also includes material about the camp and the days of its liberation – a powerful but harrowing display.
https://www.sofo.org.uk/lifelines/
The exhibition is on until 5th October.
Developing Us: Photography, Family and Feeling Photography Exhibition
A daughter’s journey through her father’s photos — exploring loss, legacy, and emotional repair.
Old Museum Shop,
Oxford Town Hall,
St Aldate’s,
Oxford
OX1 1BX
29-30 Sept 8.30-18.00
Artist Aliki Braine In Conversation – a Photo Oxford event
Explore Dutch and Flemish still-life painting through dialogue with contemporary photography.
Ashmolean Museum
Sat 25th October 2-3pm £20
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/artist-aliki-braine-in-conversation
Camera and Photography family drop in History of Science Museum
Discover the history of photography in this drop-in family event at the History of Science Museum.
1-3pm/Free/Wed 29th Oct
History of Science Museum
Old Ashmolean Building
Broad Street Oxford
- General photographic interest
Prix Pictet 2025 – photography prize captures a world battered by storms
V&A South Kensington, London
From the terrifying scale of natural disaster to endangered plankton in the Atlantic, this year’s finalists all document the tempest engulfing the globe
From Vegas to the valleys: Inside the world’s biggest Elvis festival – in pictures
More than 40,000 Elvis fans flocked to Porthcawl, south Wales, for the world’s biggest gathering of its kind, with tribute acts and dazzling scenes captured by Rick Findler
‘I fell in a deep puddle running from police’: photographing London’s underground raves
Away from the light and glamour of mainstream clubbing, Yushy spent three years recording a shadowy parallel scene: one built on mutual trust and secret group chats
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/sep/24/photographing-london-underground-raves
The role of the photographer is not just to take photos
Our emerging photographer series aims to shed a light on up-and-coming talent. Photographers are offered a platform to share their work with a wider audience through the AP channels, with the scope of furthering their careers. We also get an insight into their inspirations, the camera gear used and future aspirations, as well as the journey taken into photography – which doesn’t have to be the most traditional route!
The 2025 Astrophotography contest reveals dramatic scenes of cosmic wonders
The 2025 Astrophotography Prize winners have been announced, highlighting spectacular images of celestial objects and phenomena. The global contest is dedicated to education and “raising the standard of astrophotography for all entrants,” and offers a unique judging and scoring system.
