Reflections..............

Almost every time I am asked to give a lecture somewhere or other, I think that among my archive of talks there must be one that will fit the bill with a little tweaking. Inevitably however, I usually end up making up a whole new talk, re-ordering and changing the slides about and adding new ones. That's because in reality, no two talks and no two audiences are ever quite alike. I'm giving a lecture at a college tomorrow and have been getting it all together today in readiness.

It's a good thing as it forces me to re-think my work in relation to a variety of possible responses from differing audiences. It also allows me the opportunity to reflect on my various bodies of work and maybe discover things about them, and myself, that I had missed. I also try to think about the questions that might be asked after the lecture. There are all the usual suspects such as 'what is your favourite body of work?" Answer; 'the one I'm working on now'. 'Why?' Comes the inevitable follow up question, followed by my inevitable answer, 'because it's the one I'm working on now!' Speaking of which, this is part of one I'm working on now!

Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion, Wales

Another favourite is 'why did you change from black and white, (or if it happens to be an amateur camera club member asking, 'monochrome') to colour?' My stock answer is 'because the dealer sent the wrong film'! 

The camera club member probably snuck in to the lecture by stealth as I don't give talks to camera clubs any more. I used to, I really did. I really tried very hard to engage them and attempt to broaden their horizons a little and get them to appreciate a wider range of photography than the usual diet of club competitions. It never seemed to work though, eyes glaze over, total lack of real interest in photography, only club type activities and 'we know what we like'. Sadly these people are also exploited by the Royal Photographic Society that amazingly and unbelievably is still selling its worthless 'distinctions' to gullible amateurs. 

College and university students however usually manage to surprise me with their mature and relevant questions and usually they relate to their own experiences and internal debates about the future direction of their work. The beauty of the college / university experience for young people is they can, if they approach their studies in the right way, be exposed to a broad range of photography and photographers during their years of study. If they are wise they will take on board all the various attitudes, styles, experiences and opinions expressed then sift and edit as necessary. Some people are dogmatic about their ideas and appear to be authoritative and dismiss everything else. The wiser students keep their counsel, listen and absorb all, then retain and use what may be appropriate to them. Over many years the best students I have had the privilege to teach and the ones that have been the most successful, fit that category. 

The typical camera club member, sadly has been so conditioned by the culture that exists there and the 'rules' that seem to abound that most of the wonderful world of photography is lost to them.

Langdale, Cumbria. From 'Northern Light

Some years ago my 'Northern Light' exhibition opened in a major municipal gallery organised by the regional arts council. The morning following the opening I had to be in the gallery to give some interviews etc. to radio and newspaper. As we were doing this a member of the public wandered in. On giving him a second look I spotted his camera club tie. He then went from frame to frame, not really looking at the photographs but appearing to measure things off within the images with a pencil pulled from his top pocket. Clearly, image after image didn't satisfy whatever it was that he was measuring and he gave a a sad sigh after he moved on from each frame. Finally after being seemingly disappointed with every image in the exhibition, he stood in the middle of the gallery, gave one last look around, one last deep, sad sigh, shook his head and left. 

I was busy with the interviews all this time and it was only after he had left and the interviews finished that I realised what he was doing. He was measuring off 'thirds'. There is apparently, although I have never seen it anywhere, a camera club rule book that dictates that photographs have to conform to a mystical 'rule of thirds'. Presumably if they don't you are thrown out of the camera club and have wander in the wilderness for all of eternity. Obviously none of mine conformed to this, hence his bitter disappointment with my images and whole exhibition. 

I was given some very fine advice when I was about sixteen - by someone who's opinion I trusted - never to join a camera club. It stood me in good stead and I followed my own advice to listen to all advice, then edit that information and to look and absorb every aspect of photography and take heed of those who impress you with their life, their dedication to photography and their images. Also don't read the rule book! If it even exists.