May 2020 No. 6 And now we also have an About us leaflet which can be downloaded by members from the website and used to promote the group where opportunities arise. Bulk copies can be provided on request. Organisational changes included the departure of longstanding committee members Robert and Jay Charnock FRPS and the arrival of John Cavana ARPS, Robert Herringshaw ARPS and Wendy Meagher LRPS who, along with Janie Chapman LRPS, took immediate responsibility for the exhibition programme, securing a new venue in Doncaster and preparing the 2020 event. Our annually required RPS Volunteer Hours Submission for the Charity Commission makes for tedious reading but does highlight the vast amount and range of work undertaken by the committee, magazine guest editors and other helpers who clocked up nearly 2500 hours between them on behalf of the Visual Art Group membership.
The Members’ Print Exhibition Each year the Visual Art Group delivers a major print exhibition, offering all its members the opportunity to have their work displayed and viewed in gallery conditions. The 2019 exhibition started at the Clocktower Museum in Croydon and was officially opened by Mike Taylor, Chief Operating Officer of The Royal Photographic Society.
LOOKING BACK – LOOKING FORWARD 2019 – 2020 The coronavirus shutdown has given many of us time to reflect and contemplate, and also an opportunity to capture and illustrate much of what has been happening within the RPS Visual Art Group over the last year and a half. During 2019 the Visual Art Group has continued to thrive and develop. Group membership numbered 960 at the end of the year, an increase of 16; places for our residential weekends were snapped up within days; our members’ print exhibition went from strength to strength; and our Visual Art magazine has been highly acclaimed for its aesthetic qualities. We have also established a regular e-Newsletter, and our closed Facebook group of some 550 members has strengthened our social network presence, attracting distinguished photographers, not exclusively from within the RPS, which in turn has lifted the quality of content and activity.
Selected prints then joined the annual exhibition of the Richmond and Twickenham Photographic Society (featuring between 400-500 prints and a continuous PDI display which included work from local students) and went on to the 157th Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography, organised by the Edinburgh Photographic Society for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. With a new venue, our exhibition programme concluded in December. The Point, a contemporary art gallery and home to Doncaster Community Arts, was able to provide us with an impressive finale – a truly Herculean task for the staff who only weeks earlier had suffered heavily in some of the worst flooding the area had experienced in living memory. Feedback from members and the general public was very positive, and despite its proximity to Christmas, some 379 visitors attended. “I got to see the 2019 exhibition at Doncaster, and it was most impressive and inspiring, both from the point of view of the images themselves and the presentation. I hope it was much viewed during the year, it was certainly worth it.”
May 2020 No. 6 We would like to thank all the staff at The Point for their professionalism, friendliness and passion for what they do. Not to forget the RPS Regional Organiser for Yorkshire, Mark Slater, for opening the exhibition and the RPS Regional Organiser for the East Midlands, Stewart Wall ARPS, for his humour and storyboard telling.
A big thank you to everybody concerned with this venture. Fortunately, we have been able to resurrect the exhibition at Patchings Art Centre, and the 2020 event will now run from the 3rd of April to the 9th of May 2021.
The 2020 exhibition programme was also progressing nicely. From 434 submitted prints the three selectors chose 114 pictures, ten of them for special recognition: RPS GOLD MEDAL Winter Dip by Chris Palmer FRPS SELECTOR’S AWARD - Caroline Colegate ARPS Surrender by Roger Ford FRPS SELECTOR’S AWARD - Paul Mitchell FRPS Saltburn by Mark Snowdon ARPS SELECTOR’S AWARD - Marcus Scott-Taggart Homage To Mondrian by Wendy North LRPS HIGHLY COMMENDED Bonsai Reimagined by Christine Adams ARPS Sand Dunes And Grasses by Susan Brown FRPS Man On Stairs by Carol Paes LRPS COMMENDED Where Have All The Tourists Gone? by Michael Longhurst ARPS Saplings by Peter Martin ARPS South Coast Bollard by Wendy Meagher LRPS Every entrant was represented. Congratulations to each and everyone for the high quality of their submitted work. The exhibition was due to be opened at Patchings Art Centre near Calverton (Nottinghamshire), the first of three venues, and run there from the 21st of March until the 4th of May. All the pictures had been mounted and put into our brand-new frames, all publicity and supporting material had been prepared, images had been loaded on to a touchscreen facility to improve accessibility to the collection, and the pictures had been driven to Patchings in their new tougher packing cases. All that remained was the hanging. However, this was the weekend when the world as we knew it changed, and the event had to be cancelled. This was a big disappointment not only for exhibitors and for the Patchings team who had worked so hard but also for the Visual Art Group Exhibition Team who had been challenged to find new galleries after the loss of the Croydon venue, and to build new capacity, storage and logistics processes, following the retirement of much of the previous exhibition team.
The 2019 Members’ Print Exhibition at The Point
Residential Weekends Twice a year the Visual Art Group also hosts a residential weekend full of photography and social jollity. February 2019 saw many of us in Old Windsor with speakers including Paul Colley ARPS, a wildlife photographer famed for his underwater work; Derek Reay ARPS, who specialises in environmental portraiture; and speakers and workshop leaders Nathan Barry with his dramatically lit landscapes and Rhiannon Adam who guided her group in street portraits of strangers. Comments on our Facebook page left no doubt: “the wonderful Windsor VAG weekend of listening, looking, exploring, comradeship and of course photography, which is why we were there” “it was great to see old friends and make new friends. Great speakers too.” “a total success”
May 2020 No. 6
Meanwhile Ray Higginbottom blogged: “Rhiannon Adam gave a presentation that had the audience transfixed. Her photography and projects covered both art and social documentary. She spent some time giving us an insight into her colourful history and in particular her project working on the Pitcairn Islands, documenting the isolated community where much of life has been led in the shadow of convicted child rapists. Full of anecdotes and some striking images, both polaroid and medium format film, she wove a dark tale of loneliness, the passing of time and the strange history of the island. It was thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking. Supper was calling and we left to return later to share and discuss some of the group’s projected images. There followed another early night for some, whilst the bar stalwarts discussed the day’s events over a drink or three.”
Liverpool was the setting for the Autumn 2019 residential weekend. Its popular city culture, richness of architecture, maritime history and of course the Mersey, made this a sought-after photography destination. Speakers included • Nat Coalson ARPS, an American photographic artist and graphic designer who illuminated key concepts and techniques for creating stronger images through applied photographic design; • Carol Emmas, a photographic artist and writer whose images and landscapes are found in the patina of oxidised metals, weathered wood and paint, and on sea-washed textures; • Mark Reeves LRPS, who told us about his intimate landscapes in a range of different styles including impressionism (using ICM), abstraction and minimalism; • Mark Snowdon ARPS, who explained his black-andwhite analogue photography with medium and large format cameras; and • Iñaki Hernández-Lasa FRPS, a Spanish photographer from Ireland who demonstrated not only his technical ability but also cohesion and mastery in challenging compositions, use of light, postprocessing and printing techniques - witness his Fellowship panel of the Bilbao Guggenheim (see the March 2020 issue of the RPS Journal for details of Iñaki’s Fellowship panel).
POSTPONED After the hugely successful Merseyside experience our next residential weekend was to have been this April in Stratford-upon-Avon. Yet this event, too, had to be cancelled under the coronavirus restrictions. But it was not all bad news. We managed to reschedule, with the entire weekend programme intact, to 2021 when Stratford will be in the diary again: 24th-28th April. As planned, speakers will include Martin Addison FRPS, Janice Alamanou, Les Forrester ARPS, Verity Milligan and Michael Pritchard FRPS. It speaks for the draw of these events that most of the participants decided not to take a refund but to leave their full payments in our group account, thereby securing their booking for next April. We came to a similar agreement with the Palace Hotel in Buxton where we were planning to hold this year’s autumn weekend. This event has also been moved by a year, to October 2021. Among others you can look forward to Robert Harvey ARPS returning by popular request with a talk and a workshop on photographing England’s national parks.
Rhiannon and her workshop
May 2020 No. 6
THE MAGAZINE OF THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY VISUAL ART GROUP / FOUNDED 1921
VISUAL ART
E-Circles and Print Portfolios Developing our critiquing skills is vital if we want to be able to comment effectively on the work of friends and colleagues. More importantly, it is also an aid to improving our own photography. This takes time and commitment, but the Visual Art Group can help by providing a comfortable framework within which to practice and hone these skills. Our print and email circles operate on a monthly cycle and enable members to post images for comment and feedback in a positive and supporting environment. At the moment, we have some 66 members contributing to either e-Circles or Print Portfolios, and for the first time in memory all the e-Circles are full, with ten members in each. As a result there is now a waiting list. We are always pleased to have new circle members, with new ideas, new experiences and techniques to share. We are grateful to the five e-Circle Secretaries and the two Print Portfolio Secretaries for their work, in some cases over more than twenty years, to Richard Hall and Robert Visick who retired this year, and to our three newest Secretaries, Fred Barrington, Robert Hughes, and Horst Witthüser.
From the Regions MEMBERS’ PRINT EXHIBITION 2020
VISUAL ART The magazine of the Visual Art Group Issued three times a year, including a monograph dedicated to the work of one photographer, Visual Art is at the pinnacle of what the group offers to its members. Three guest editors – Nicki Gwynn-Jones FRPS, Ray Higginbottom ARPS and Linda Wevill FRPS – take it in turn to prepare the next issue. They are supported by Paul Mitchell FRPS who gives the publication its much admired professional look. Each issue spans the wide spectrum of approach and style that shows the diversity of what is visual art today. The magazine is only available in print form and for group members only. The latest issue is a special edition to cover this year’s Members’ Print Exhibition. Previously it would have been covered in the next summer edition of Visual Art, but we decided to give it separate prominence, making up for the loss of the physical displays that had been planned for 2020. If you have not yet received your copy, it should be with you very soon.
The Visual Art Group currently has two subgroups providing events and meetings for both members and non-members closer to home and tailored to local needs. The South West Visual Art Group meets in Bovey Tracey, Devon, whilst in central England the Rollright Visual Art Group is based in Long Compton, Warwickshire. Meetings are planned by both on a quarterly basis for an attendance of some fifty photographers and regularly attended by an enthusiastic following at all levels, keen and interested to learn, share their images, and socialise in a friendly and non-competitive environment. Meetings are a mixture of show-and-tell members’ days and speaker/training days.
Legacies Our sincere thanks go to the family of Rozina Elizabeth Grant and John Edward Grant LRPS for a generous legacy of £1,000 to the Visual Art Group. Having lived in Wiltshire to the age of 96 and 92 respectively, they both sadly died in December 2018, within two weeks of each other. This kind bequest has gone towards much needed equipment and frames for our continuing exhibition programme.
May 2020 No. 6 LOOKING FORWARD The postponement and cancellation of our events have meant that we have been unable to hold our AGM this April as required. We will of course notify the group of a new date. Until then most of the committee have agreed to continue in their existing roles. We are grateful for this and hope that we can continue to deliver a high-quality programme as circumstances begin to get back to normality. We do have plans well into 2021 including: •
The official opening of the 2020 Members’ Print Exhibition at Patchings Art Centre has been rescheduled, and the event will now run from the 3rd of April to the 9th of May 2021.
•
The residential spring weekend in Stratford-uponAvon has been rescheduled from this April, with the entire programme intact. It is now set for the 24th – 28th of April 2021 .
•
The residential autumn weekend in Buxton has been moved by a year and a week. It is now set for the 8th – 11th of October with much the same programme as had been planned for this year.
•
The 2021 Members’ Print Exhibition will open at the Heseltine Gallery in Oxfordshire – the dates have yet to be confirmed.
•
On Saturday, the 19th of June 2021, the VAG Ashmolean Lecture at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is to be given by one of the world’s leading architectural and fine art photographers, Julia Anna Gospodarou, the originator of (en)Visionography.
Obviously, these dates are subject to change; up-todate information on this and many other aspects of our activities can be found on our website: https://rps.org/groups/visual-art/
Useful Committee Contacts Chairman: Andreas Klatt ARPS visualart@rps.org Secretary: Janie Chapman LRPS visualartsec@rps.org Membership Secretary: Mark Deutsch LRPS mrkdeutsch@aol.com Web editor: Michael Butterworth LRPS visualartweb@rps.org Exhibition lead: Wendy Meagher LRPS wmeagher@gmail.com Circles: Gill Dishart ARPS gill@dishart.plus.com
Inspection of the latest Tyng acquisition
The Tyng The Stephen H. Tyng Foundation was established in 1927 by Stephen H. Tyng FRPS, an American philanthropist, to purchase pictorial photographs of outstanding merit, to be selected by the (formerly Pictorial, but now) Visual Art special interest group of the Royal Photographic Society, for the RPS and held in its Permanent Collection. The Foundation is a charitable trust, responsible for the investment of Mr. Tyng’s endowment and for the disbursement of the income arising in pursuit of its objective. The trust is managed by trustees appointed by the VAG committee. Selectors for the acquisitions to be made from the Foundation’s income are also appointed by the VAG committee. Ownership of The RPS’s Permanent Collection was passed to the Science Museum Group in 2003 and transferred to its National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. The collection was then transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2017. Michael Pritchard FRPS, Director of Education and Public Affairs at the RPS, will give a talk at the Stratford weekend on the nature and accessibility of the Tyng collection. We will also devote a monograph to the Tyng. The V&A has started a comprehensive process of cataloguing and digitising the collection, and limited access may be given by appointment. Picture credits John Cavana ARPS, Janie Chapman LRPS, Michael Kitchingman, Andrew Leeming LRPS, Wendy Meagher LRPS