OPS Weekly Newsletter 7 September 2025
- Our first projected digital image competition is on 16 September and the Take 5 competition is on 30 September so please start selecting your images.
- We also have print exhibitions and competitions coming up so please let Dave Belcher know how many mount boards you want so he can put in an order for them.
- On Monday and Tuesday it is St Giles Fair so plenty of opportunities for getting some shots.
- Last week’s meeting Tues 2 Sept: Phil Joyce – Why Look at Animals? And Show & Tell post summer
We welcomed new members Matthew and Kevin and welcomed Uwe back after he missed a great deal of last season’s programme.
Phil started his talk with a little history of his interest in looking at animals which started while he was a young child on family outings to Bristol zoo. He loved the excitement of seeing animals and he showed photographs taken on a Kodak Instamatic in the 1960s. These showed terrible conditions in the zoos for the animals. Concrete flooring in the animal enclosures, little stimulation for the animals etc. Zoo have come a long way since then.
He then moved on to the ‘Pentax years’ of the 1980s with 50mm lens and a three times converter, then a 70-210mm zoom lens and then a 500mm mirror lens. By now he was photographing animals as objects and shapes that were caught in the light with backgrounds displaying creamy bokeh.
Then in 2005 he went digital with a Canon camera and was able to get much closer to the animals, using the animals graphically, not just pictures of animals using the light.
But it wasn’t just the animals, it was also the environment they were in, or being seen from. He was also interested in capturing how the zoo was set up, the signs, the posters, the buildings.
The time of day and the season was important – spring and autumn – as the sun would low in the sky, especially when the zookeepers were telling everyone it was closing time.
Lots of great shots of abstracts of animals, rather than the whole animal, quirky moments, such as three ostriches, multiple exposures, visitors appearing to interact with the animals or wearing clothes that made a link with the animals. The visitors were also part of the photographic event. You can see Phil’s excellent photo book on Visitors here: https://www.blurb.com/books/10111519-visitors
Besides the ‘environmental’ shots Phil also showed close up portraits of the animals which didn’t show their artificial settings.
He had great shots of a polar bear underwater thanks to a large glass window. He also had a shot looking down at the zoo thanks to a cable car ride above the animals.
It wasn’t just animals and visitors in zoos. Phil recreated the Victorian and Edwardian era of animal photography, heavily processed to give that aged feel. He also branched out to stuffed animals and the way people and stuffed animal appear to be interacting at the Natural History Museum in Oxford.
During Covid when he couldn’t get out to the zoos Phil took photos of toy animals. No need to go to Africa and it was an interesting diversion to keep him amused.
The road to FRPS: Phil had decided it was time to apply for a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. He has seen the work of photojournalist Britta Jashinski who had a powerful black and white ‘anti-zoo’ photographic book. Phil thought he would use the same style of photographs but instead of being ‘anti-zoo’ they would be ‘pro-zoo’.
Phil had to write a ‘statement of intent’ giving his rationale for the use of the images. The assessors didn’t award Phil an FRPS and in their rejection statement they obviously did not read Phil’s ‘statement of intent’ closely enough.
As the French philosopher Roland Barthes pithily put it ‘a photograph is a message without a code’ – in other words what a photograph communicates ‘is in the eye of the beholder’. That ‘statement of intent’ was the ‘code’.
Undeterred Phil resubmitted his application using different, but similar images, and re-wording his ‘statement of intent’ so that it was abundantly clear what the message was and on the second attempt reason prevailed and he was awarded his FRPS.
After the break we had seven members showing recent images: Ron showed images of art galleries, John Boteler show recent shots of the coast, John Bull showed the before and after of his incredibly creative warped images, Sandra showed the beginnings of a project about a small village/town in Italy, Willie showed images of places taken from the same view point but decades before and after and how they could be merged, Phil W showed wild life shots of deer and hares near where he lives and Les showed us images in the fast lane – on four wheels, two wheels and two wings.
A great kick off for the new season. Many thanks to Phil and everyone who showed their images.
- Next meeting 19.30, Tues 9 Sept: Photography Through The Seasons with Daniel Trim
Several time winner of the British Wildlife Photography Awards, Daniel loves most aspect of wildlife photography from macro with insects, flowers or fungi to birds and mammals but generally he is a huge fan of urban wildlife. Often working close to his home in Hertfordshire, Daniel particularly enjoys the opportunities to be creative with the manmade features, light, etc. which he uses to show how wildlife can thrive in built up areas.
We are looking forward to welcoming Daniel back to OPS with this talk based around where his mind (and Camera) go at different times of the year as the seasons change and different spectacles come round in the UK.
Visitors welcome: £5 on the door.
- Upcoming meetings in September
16 Sept: Digital Image Competition no 1. Our judge will be Colin Mill
23 Sept: What Makes a Photographic Project with Philippa James
30 Sept: Take 5 Competition
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
Message from Ania Ready:
I’m writing to share a couple of things with you, and I’d be grateful if you could also forward this on to the members of OPS.
Firstly, I’ll be running a workshop at Modern Art Oxford on Saturday 20th September on funding creative ideas (such as photobooks, exhibitions, and events), including how to make use of crowdfunding platforms. I remember that several OPS members were either working on or planning publications, so I thought this might be of particular interest. You can find more information and booking details here: https://fienta.com/crowdfunding-creative-ideas-for-artists-by-ania-ready
I’d also 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.
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
https://www.lou-taylor.com/
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
https://www.hsm.ox.ac.uk/
- General photographic interest
Workshops from the Royal Photographic Society
Whether you’re diving into photography for the first time or honing your skills, there is a range of online and in-person workshops run by the RPS.
https://events.rps.org/en/?category=Workshops&keywords=RPS
‘I never hold back’: Sally Mann on her controversial family photos and becoming a writer
The celebrated US photographer was catapulted into America’s culture wars with her photobook Immediate Family. Now she’s written a book of ‘how not-to’ advice for artists
Draining the sea: fishing in crisis in south-east Asia – in pictures
Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia are beautiful tourist destinations, but off their coasts is a darker hidden reality, where overfishing and unregulated catches are rife and fishers face exploitation and loss of income. The freelance photojournalist Nicole Tung spent nine months reporting in south-east Asia and was this week awarded laureate of the 15th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Awards
Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year 2025 winners – in pictures
A painterly, macro view of a cauliflower soft coral by Ross Gudgeon has taken out top prize in the Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year competition. ‘This is an exceptional photograph that skews perception and leaves us questioning reality,” the judges said. ‘Giving us a unique perspective on coral. There’s nothing fake here, but still we ponder, is this nature or a painting?’ An exhibition is on now at the South Australian Museum
‘I bunked off school aged 14 to see Bob Marley – and became his photographer’
On a chilly morning in 1973, a 14-year-old Dennis Morris made a decision that would change his life forever.
“Bob Marley was coming over to do his first tour of England and I decided I wanted to photograph him, so I bunked off school to go to the club where he was doing the first date in London.
“As he walked towards me, I said ‘can I take your picture?’ and he said ‘yeah man, come in’.”
