alan frost photography

Posts tagged ‘The Oxmarket’

The Image Circle Exhibition opens today

A5 Flyer General Invitation (2 sides)

I am very proud to be a member of The Image Circle, a group of six like minded photographers who got together 18 months ago and today our inaugural exhibition opens to the public at The Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester, West Sussex. The exhibition is on until Sunday 19th November.

All the photographers share an interest in the art and craft of outdoor photography and the exhibition will be an opportunity to view a broad cross section of their combined work. Many of the images on show will represent local wildlife and landscapes as well as other areas of Britain.

The photographers themselves have a wealth of experience spanning several decades and including clients such as the RSPB, South Downs National Park Authority as well commissioned articles for the likes of Outdoor Photography magazine. The have also achieved prestigious awards and accreditations.

Many of the images are the result of personal project work, in particular my own body of work – ‘Still by the Water’ – evocative monochrome prints of Chichester Harbour; Sean Lewis’s wildwood and Dorset coastal imagery and John Dominick’s continuing fascination with the heathlands of West Sussex. Gerry Gavigan is widely travelled and this is reflected in his broad vistas of UK landscapes. The wildlife lover is sure to be enthralled by the images from Matthew Gould as well as the creative imagery of Tony Stevens.

If you live nearby I do hope you will be able to come along.

Exhibition deliberations……..it’s nearly time to make some key decisions

Jetty posts at Dell Quay

It’s now less than four months before my exhibition takes place at The Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester. As a consequence my deliberations are intensifying, as the time is fast approaching when decisions need to be made. I settled on a theme for the exhibition a while ago – all the images would be of Chichester Harbour. I did waiver recently when I thought I might want to display a more eclectic mix but I soon returned to my original intention to show a body of work centered on one topic. I am pleased I have done so, particularly as the subject matter is local to where the exhibition is being staged.

As I am sharing the gallery with five other photographers, allocation of hanging space is all important as this will help me make a number of decisions. Firstly the number of images I will have room to display, secondly their size and finally their placement. I already know that I do not want to hang as many pictures as I first thought. I believe a viewer can quickly be overloaded by too many photographs, so I am of the opinion that a smaller selection of the very best images will prove to be more effective. However this means that my proposed short list will have to shrink even further before the final choice of pictures can be identified for printing and framing. This process is already proving more difficult than I thought, but my deliberations can only continue for so long. Trouble is, I also want to display two sizes. I know the respective measurements but which ones should get star billing?

Choice of photographic paper has been made and soft proofing already undertaken to ensure the quality of each print meets my expectations. I have not out-sourced the printing as I like to maintain complete control, although framing will be done by a local professional.

This image ‘Jetty posts at Dell Quay” is on my short list and very soon I will have decided whether or not it will appear at the exhibition, but in the meantime I would like to share this picture and my ongoing thoughts with you.

As always do click on the image to view and appreciate a larger version.

 

Exhibition – my parameters

Although The Image Circle exhibition does not take place until November, preparing a portfolio of images ready for curation at a later date has to begin now. In fact it started some weeks ago when I decided my theme would concentrate on the landscape and environment of Chichester Harbour. Now, whenever I am out walking in the area, my camera is with me. I am very fortunate, as this is an almost daily occurrence, otherwise our dog complains!

Whilst I have never exhibited my work before, I felt it was important to establish some parameters at an early stage, in order to focus my intentions and concentrate the mind. Over the last week or two these guidelines have become well established and are as follows –

  • All photographs will be taken in the clearly defined area of Chichester Harbour.
  • All the images will be taken using just one camera with one prime lens – the Leica M Monochrom and 50mm f1.4 Summilux lens.
  • I envisage the vast majority will be hand held, as this is my preferred way of working, although I will not rule out using a tripod in certain situations.
  • I doubt that I will be using filters, although shooting wide open in bright conditions, it is obligatory to use a 3 stop neutral density filter to manage the light reaching the sensor and exposing correctly.
  • All the images made will be cropped to square format and be in black white. (I have no choice, it’s a black and white only camera!). I have already established a workflow for processing as I need to present a coherent set of printed images.
  • I have yet to make a final decision but they will almost certainly be toned in Lightroom.
  • The photographs will be printed on Canson Platine Fibre Rag. A 310 GSM archival paper. Without question it’s my favourite paper for this type of work.
  • The size of print, mounting and framing considerations are still in the melting pot but I will write about this in a later post, once my thoughts have come together.

So what are my intentions? Chichester Harbour is a beautiful and intriguing place, with a great deal of variety for image making. By walking the many footpaths that cover the area, a more intimate knowledge of the landscape becomes possible. I see the same locations at different times of the day; the weather and the light is constantly changing and in the months ahead Winter will turn to Spring, followed by Summer and Autumn, all of which will give me plenty of opportunity to capture the area as I see it. It will be my personal view of Chichester Harbour; an intimate portrait of a place I know well but will get to know even better as I explore locations which are less familiar.

The images which form part of this post were all taken very recently in and around one specific location – a small pond on the western side of Fishbourne Creek. One or more may or may not be included in the exhibition, but these and the many others I have made in recent weeks will start to make up a body of work from which a final selection can be made. Curation is a topic in its own right and I will doubtless be writing about this in the future.

 

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To see the work of my fellow exhibitors, do visit and follow our website – 

www.theimagecircle.com

Exciting new challenges in the year ahead – including my first exhibition

There are many reasons why I am looking forward to this year. In early April I have been invited to present an evening talk to my local camera club; something which I have not done before. Later that same month I will be traveling to The RPS Headquarters in Bath with a panel of fifteen images for an assessment in the hope that I will be granted an Associate Distinction of the Royal Photographic Society. And finally towards the end of the year in November, I will be exhibiting my work for the first time.

All of these events come with their own set of challenges and as the year progresses I expect to share my thoughts as I plan and prepare for each one.

Perhaps the most exciting but also the most daunting of the three, is the exhibition, and fortunately I am not alone. There are a total of six photographers who have formed a group called The Image Circle. A WordPress site was published at the end of last year, so do visit that site to find our more about the group and to see the work of the other photographers.

The exhibition is to be held in the main gallery at The Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester, West Sussex, starting on Tuesday 14th November and finishing on Sunday 19th November. The group will be getting together on a regular basis between now and then, as we all have to decide what work to exhibit, how it should be framed and presented, and what can be done to best promote the event as we naturally wish to attract as many visitors as possible.

Although the exhibition is still many months away, I know how quickly the time will pass, so early preparation is key. Perhaps the most important decision for me to make at this stage is what work do I wish to exhibit? Should they be images from my current portfolio or new work which has yet to be taken? Should there be a specific theme? How many pictures do I display and how should the work be framed and hung? Many questions and in my mind some of the answers are becoming a little clearer.

As I write, I have reached a decision to exhibit a new body of work which will be taken in and around Chichester Harbour. It will be my vision, a personal portrait of this rather special Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which is close to where I live. All the photographs will be in monochrome and likely to be square format. The process of making images is already underway and a recent photograph accompanies this post.

Plenty more to consider and do in the weeks and months ahead, but 2017 is certainly a year I am looking forward to with great anticipation.