Lord Lichfield at the National Trust, Mottisfort

Yesterday I went to see the Lord Lichfield exhibition at Mottisfort Abbey National Trust place in Romsey.  Here's the link to their exhibition site:  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont/things-to-see-and-do/events/exhibitions/ .

Talk about being mugged before you even got into the event.  It cost £11.25 to enter the house and gardens if you weren't an NT member and if you felt like gift aiding your entrance fee you had to pay over £12.  That's the first time I've ever had to pay more to gift aid.  It warrants further investigation I think.

Lichfield's pictures were up to his usual stunning standard although I had seen many before.  The images mainly centred on his working life in the 1960s/70s and around 2000+.  Sadly he died in 2005 so we'll never know how he would have fully embraced what the 'naughties' digital age can now offer.

(c) Lord Lichfield Studios

I have often wondered how he would have fared without his royal connections.  Would his natural brilliance at relaxing the subject and getting that one extraordinary picture or would he have had to stay in the ranks of the also rans?  I really liked this image of Cecil Beaton and discussed the set up with my colleague as to who would have had the last word in arranging the scenario.







It was interesting to read that no photography was allowed due to infringement of copyright.  Earlier this month I went on a study day with the OCA to the Saatchi Gallery where there are 12 galleries open to the public.  Photography went on there with people not only snatching pictures of the images with their smart phones but students were also opening using cameras to record the images.  No one stopped them even with gallery staff in the same room.

It was an interesting collection of his most famous images, ones that I would expect him to be proud of but it would have been much better if there had been some of his lesser known and even unseen pictures included in the overcrowded rooms.

Visit to the RPS Travelling Print Exhibition, Taunton

RPS 165^th International Print Exhibition

 Friday March 7^th 2014

The RPS 165^th Print Exhibition came to the end of its stay in Taunton yesterday so I visited it before it closed.  There are 100 prints from over 20 countries; hence its content is truly ‘International’.  Evidently this exhibition is the first to allow images to be submitted in digital format and over 80% were submitted in this way.  I was lucky when I arrived at the museum to view the exhibition, as there was no one else in the room.  Eventually several more people came in and caused a disturbance as they worked their way round discussing the images as they went.

Whilst I didn’t necessarily understand what all the photographers were trying to say with their pictures, I did appreciate approximately three quarters of the images themselves.  What I found more intriguing was those pictures that had an explanation beside them (and not all did) some of the wording was incomprehensible.  Why do people do that?  Is it to big themselves up or do they really believe their ‘hyperbole’?

(c) John Eaton, Watching and Waiting

In my opinion the majority of the exhibition is one of excellence and something to strive for.  For example I enjoyed John Eaton’s ‘Watching and Waiting’ with its areas of symmetry and non symmetry with one person just visible in the bottom right hand corner; this made your eye move around the picture again.

(c) Jane Donnelly 'War Horse'

I also found Jane Donnelly’s ‘War Horse’ extremely imaginative showing how such a large domesticated animal with such immense strength can be so gentle and amenable.   

There were one or two images that had no impact on me at all, there were some that I felt were mere record shots and I wondered why the selection committee included them.  Surely, a picture should be one where the photographer has added something of him or herself to it and not just taken what was in front of them.  The picture by Vinci Weng titled ‘A Wonderful Time’ was intriguing where it was obviously comprised of many images but why had the photographer cut off the majority of people's and animals’ feet?

 

I enjoy pictures that show symmetry and there were several in this classification.  My favourite was the image byMike Mills entitled ‘The Go-Between’.  The shades of grey and black add to the symmetry to me and the punctum is the person captured walking between the two buildings that gives the eye a focal point.

(c) Mike Mills, The Go-Between

All in all, I found this exhibition visually stimulating and it has given me some interesting ideas to move my photography forward into different areas.

RPS 165th Print Exhibition

I'm off to Taunton today to see the RPS 165th  exhibition at the Museum of Somerset.  Should be interesting to see what caught the judges' eyes.  Luckily I live near enough to Exeter, Taunton and Bristol so I can get to see some top rated exhibitions.

Report to follow.

Link to RPS print exhibition website

Itay_Benit_Untitled  Wawona

Book: The Story of Design by Charlotte and Peter Fiell

I've just read a review of this book in The Mail on Sunday which claims that this brilliantly researched history of design classics is perfect for dipping into.  Not being near a decent library to borrow it, I've ordered a good used copy from an Amazon dealer and hope to dip in in the near future.