Close to Home - A Film Photography by RPS Women in Photography

Women in Photography Competition

A Film Photography Competition for RPS Women in Photography

Close to Home

A

Film Photography Competition for RPS Women in Photography

The RPS Women in Photography (WIP) Group’s objective is to facilitate the celebration, education and collaboration of female and female-identifying photographers.

We are not a genre. These are our stories. We are the discussion that drives a greater awareness of women photographers past, present and future.

Membership of the WIP group is available exclusively to RPS members. Visit our website for more information about who we are, what we do and how to join.

rps.org/groups/women-in-photography

Close to Home

A Film Photography Competition for RPS Women in Photography

The RPS Women in Photography group partnered with ORWO Film for an exciting project that invited photographers to explore their creativity on the subject of Close to Home. ■

Close to Home brings together a compelling collection of analogue photography from the Royal Photographic Society’s Women in Photography group, created in partnership with ORWO Film. This special competition celebrated the enduring beauty of film and the evocative power of seeing the world through a more deliberate, tactile lens.

At the heart of this project lies a simple but resonant theme—Close to Home. Interpreted in diverse and deeply personal ways, the submitted works offer glimpses into the places, people, and moments that shape our everyday lives. Whether exploring family connections, neighbourhood rituals, or intimate self-reflection, each image is a testament to the emotional depth that analogue photography can convey.

We were honoured to have esteemed analogue photographer Ellen Rogers judge this competition. Known for her distinctive and dreamlike style, Ellen brought sensitivity and insight to the selection process, recognising work that pushed creative boundaries while remaining grounded in authentic experience.

This photobook is not only a celebration of the unique voices within our community, but also a tribute to the timeless magic of film. We hope you enjoy these photographs as much as we do, and that they inspire you to look a little closer at what feels close to home in your own life.

Sue Wright Chair, RPS Women in Photography

WITH THANKS TO:

Ellen Rogers (Judge): ellenjanerogers.com

ORWO Film (Instagram): www.instagram.com/orwofilm

Liz Benjamin (Designer): lizbenjamin.co.uk

B&W winners and runners-up

ANGELA CROSTI

The Moment You Were Gone

Medium Format film - Ilford

Adolescence is a period of self-exploration, of setting boundaries, of asking without giving. It is a moment of bursting emotions and constant battlegrounds. This project speaks about these moments, the transition in becoming a young adult. These are all fleeting instants, playful, poetic and unpredictable. My attention focuses on my first daughter, who is grasping her space and demanding independence. I’m trying to frame the present, to slow its passage down while her life is turning to a different direction and is no longer revolving around us. Photography is helping me to capture these instants; when a moment is just about to erupt and end. instagram.com/angelacrosti_photography

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

I immediately stopped scrolling when I saw this image. The backlit downy fur of the plant gave it a hyperreal quality. Rain or window glaze introduced a sense of separation, reinforced by the title. A bold composition with a delicate subject.

PAULA RAE GIBSON

This Is How I Feel

35mm TMAX

This is an image of myself, a self portrait, but a portrait of feelings, how I was feeling, something internal. instagram.com/paularaegibson

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

Truth be told, I liked the single letter in this image. It serves as a bold anchol to such a fragile apparition.

EMMA DRABBLE

1974 Borderland Dukes Table

HP5/Photogravure Print

I explored the pre 1974 borderland between England and Wales. I walked the boundary line to understand the experiential relationship with place in the year that marks the 50th anniversary of a change in the border. I collected found objects, took analogue photographs using technology from the 1970s and created a physical artistic response to the borderland space. instagram.com/drabbleandco

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

I appreciated how this image was hand-printed. I liked its intentional edges and the belief in the medium format to hold its own history. It felt like a trompe-l’œil, a modern window into the canon of Photo-Secession.

COLOUR

winners and runners-up

JAN BEESLEY

Past Sell By Date

Agfacolour HDC 200 expired 05/2000

These images were taken on an expired film and with an old camera, unused for many years. The subjects are ancient oak trees near my home, distinguished by their thick trunks and rugged bark. Their age enhances their strength and beauty. Initially, I was disappointed by the ‘imperfect’ results of this film, but now I see a slightly odd beauty in them. As we age, our bodies and thought processes change, often making us feel past our ‘sell-by date.’ However, by embracing our imperfections and the wisdom we gain, a new beauty emerges. These imperfect images metaphorically illustrate how our perception evolves as we age learning to embrace imperfection and chance. instagram.com/jan.beesley

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

This image felt honest and unpretentious. It gave me the impression that the photographer aimed solely to convey atmosphere, using whatever means necessary. The strange glow, the ISO, and the pull of magenta and green.

ELI PIMENTEL

The Cauldren

2024 Washi X 100, colour positive film, Leica M-A

Steam bubbles near Grindavik, now a ghost town/ With all its familiar places – playgrounds, schools, cafes and homesabandoned in November 2023 due to volcanic activity. instagram.com/elimpimentel

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

I was drawn into this image, it had the apocalyptic quality of a John Martin painting. The fire tones lead into a warm cloud at the side, and everything felt right, nothing out of place.

ISOBELLA PERKS

22 weeks

Portra 400 120

A self portrait at 22 weeks pregnant with my second child, the final project of my degree and the first image in my new documentation of motherhood.

JUDGE, ELLEN ROGERS COMMENT:

Truth be told, I liked the single letter in this image. It serves as a bold anchol to such a fragile apparition.

SUBMISSIONS

a selection of the submssions to Close to Home

MAURA JAMIESON Light Interiors

Kodak Tri-X

Light Interiors makes the link between past and present and attempts to capture the ephemeral prose and poetry of people’s lives. Working with the physical characteristics of light, the way it is distributed through doors, windows and openings offers an opportunity to be read and interpreted as signs. The home is portrayed as an archive, the artefacts captured are not documents but instead a collection of distilled memories. The fabric of the building provides the backdrop and the unifying link for these projected images, recalling memories, emotions and desires. A child’s birthday party, a hospital scan, a formal portrait, interweaved with the remembered vignettes of daily life that form our perception of home. The undeniable physical journey is referenced in the scans and ultrasound. Over time a woman’s body changes, reorienting her physical purpose and direction in the world. There is a conflicting sense of loss and gain, drawing attention to both the joys, expectations and sorrows that permeate the home. This body of work is a testament that parenthood does not function as an obstacle to making art, but can be an additional material to be mined.

MICHAELA SIMPSON 1-5 Longbenton in Winter Sun, Dawn Commute- Tynemouth, M is for Margaret, Mind the Gap Ilford HP5 plus

The north east’s Metro (est. 1980) is part of the fabric of everyday life connecting communities in Tyneside and Wearside. Tens of millions of journeys are carried out each year north and south of the river between the 60 stations that vary widely in size and character. The large ‘M’ cubes have become one the region’s most iconic symbols. The typography and the way it is used throughout the system was designed in the 1970s by Margaret Calvert OBE. Like all good design, it has stood the test of time. Calvert, is best known for giving British roads their visual identity. My series of 5 images was inspired by the beauty and elegance of the stations closest to my home. They date from 1882 to the 1930s and, as a result, are rather lovely examples of Victorian and Art Deco architecture. I took the images with a 70 year old TLR, my Rollieflex 2.8C using black & white film. The purpose behind this choice was to slow the shooting experience down and to take a much more mindful approach to capturing the beauty of something that passes most of us by in the rush and routine of our daily lives.

ALEXANDRA TCHERKASSOVA

Predestined to Emigration 1 Kodak tmax 400

Some people’s roots are a mix of many nations and cultures, making them different from the start. These individuals exist in a paradox. On one hand, they are rootless, unable to claim any one place in the world as their own. On the other hand, their multifaceted identity makes them citizens of the world. They can find fragments of home in many places, their diversity granting them a universal belonging. This project explores the emotional and psychological experiences of such individuals. The concept of “home” becomes fluid and personal.

VERONICA WHITE Self-portrait: Another Job Rejection, Self-portrait: Mirror Reflection

Ilford HP5 Plus 35mm

In December 2020, I spent two weeks completely alone in my flat. Covid restrictions were in place and most of my friends had left Exeter, so I had minimal human interaction. I was in between jobs, so I spent most of my time crossstitching in front of my laptop as I binge watched Dawson’s Creek. The photos here are a series of self-portraits I shot on 35mm Ilford HP5 Plus, trying to capture the everyday moments of isolation, frustration, and boredom I experienced during this strange time.

ANGELA CROSTI The Moment You Were Gone 3

Medium Format film - Ilford

Adolescence is a period of self-exploration, of setting boundaries, of asking without giving. It is a moment of bursting emotions and constant battlegrounds. This project speaks about these moments, the transition in becoming a young adult. These are all fleeting instants, playful, poetic and unpredictable. My attention focuses on my first daughter, who is grasping her space and demanding independence. I’m trying to frame the present, to slow its passage down while her life is turning to a different direction and is no longer revolving around us. Photography is helping me to capture these instants; when a moment is just about to erupt and end.

CHRISTINA OSBORNE Home, Even the Cars Show Modesty! Ilford Pan F

Our Dubai house was built in a traditional style feature wind towers (Barjeel) for cooling. The rooms face into a central courtyard, an architectural reference to The Garden of Paradise. The design ensured the modesty of the inhabitants, particularly the women and children.

AMY LAWRENCE End of Summer Fomapan 100

This image captures a fleeting moment of peace in our garden at the end of the long summer holiday.

JAN BEESLEY Beside the Seaside 4 Ilford FP4 Plus 125

I have always lived within striking distance of the sea and spent much of my childhood on the beach. Despite indifferent weather and cold seas, the British seaside has its own peculiar charm and nostalgia. As a nation we are determined to enjoy ourselves here, stripping off our inhibitions as well as our clothes at the slightest hint of sunshine, we plunge into the cold sea telling everyone; “come on in - the water’s lovely!”. Different rules seem to apply by the seaside - we feel free to enjoy the simplest of pleasures without irony. A place close to my heart and where I feel at home.

ALLYSON KLEIN Paris in the Winter, Tourist Attraction Ilford 400 (I think??? It was an old roll)

I took my two girls to Paris at the winter-break last year. As we wandered around the city, I noticed all of the different shapes there than we have in Northern Ireland. We got very lucky and, though it was chilly, the sun shone almost every day. The Louvre is a huge tourist attraction in Paris but neither I nor my kids really wanted to go inside but we did want to walk around the area. The structure is instantly recognisable and when I saw it through the entry way, I loved the way it stood out, framed by the doorway and the silhouettes of tourists.

A large print from the expired film. Through the developing process, the film’s emulsion started dissolving. The film’s decay created unexpected textures, fragmenting the forest into something both familiar and otherworldly. I wasn’t sure if anything would develop, but the results exceeded my expectations, capturing the essence of experimentation and the beauty of unpredictability.

PAULA RAE GIBSON The World You Are Apart Of 3 35 tmax

This is an image of my daughter, taken in Mexico, life was tough for me at the time as I was grieving the death of her dad, she was too but without consciously knowing so. I call this image Hope as well, as it gave me. she gave me the hope I needed that life would be OK.

CREWE Feathers of Hope 120 Portra 800

A new life requires a death of some kind. What we let go of, is a way of being in the world that we have outgrown. All the participants have experienced violence within the home. See more at https://www.allie-crewe.uk/feathersofhope

CHLOE SASTRY Promenade 4 Kodak Gold 400

I am fascinated by our English seaside promenades and how people endure and behave in this narrow, liminal space between the land behind them and the sea in front of them. I want to look beyond the usual pretty ‘picture postcard’ views and capture a more authentic, unguarded portrait of the place where many feel so very much at home.

This is a photo of Celia (on her bicycle) who looks after the gardens at Kelmscott Manor (William Morris’s earthly paradise). The film emulsion is quite unpredictable and the contrast extreme but I love how the dark shadows emphasise the greens and oranges and the reflection in the puddles of the grey sky overhead.

The country park near my home is bursting with mushrooms when the leaves fall off the trees. Every surface is teeming with life. Autumn is my favourite time of year.

ALICE DANIEL To Journey Home

There’s a warmth to feeling close to home, often most pronounced to me from afar. In travel and distance we search for similarities to home, in what binds us to people from further away lands. I took these pictures on one of my first trips abroad after the pandemic. I was travelling home from Sweden, with my very first roll of film, in my very first film camera. After so many years of longing to travel, at last the breath of fresh air had come. A wish, denied for so many months, finally granted. As I board with others, returning home or travelling, I realise home is felt where there’s adventure and movement. You find comfort remembering the warmth of home, always awaiting your return.

We exist both inside and outside our thoughts and sometimes it can be hard to distinguish which is which.

SUE WRIGHT

Lada Riva Ladies in Red Square 1986 1986 Kodak film, Olympus trip 35

A day in Moscow before boarding the Chinese Trans Siberian Express for a 6 day journey to China via Mongolia. I wondered what the occasion was for these women to line up for their photo to be taken, in their fur hats and big boots

QIAN LI By the Sea 3 and 2

Kodak Pro Image 100 35mm

Home is a place of comfort, warmth, and belonging. However, home isn’t confined to four walls and a roof. It’s a feeling, a state of being, a sanctuary for a person’s soul. And for me, For me, that feeling often resides by the sea. This photo series is a visual exploration of that feeling, a testament to the profound peace I find in the company of the seaside. I’ve captured its boundless blue, its fine golden sand, its tranquility that pervades even amidst the occasional visitor. The exotic beauty of the sea can often feel distant and unattainable. Yet, through the lens of peace, it transforms into something familiar, something close to home.