Rattling cages........

 See Pete's videos here: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pete-davis-photography/videos

It appears that my last post has rattled a few cages in the camera club world. Apparently some folks in certain clubs have had apoplectic fits even though I was making general comments and no particular club was mentioned. A case, I suppose of - if the lens cap fits... I probably need to emphasise that when I refer to camera clubs, I am inevitably referring to British clubs, as my experience in speaking to and undertaking masterclasses for photographic organisations and associations in other countries is of a vastly different order to that in the UK. The members of organisations in other countries are primarily interested in improving their photographic understanding  and skill in order to make relevant and significant images and bodies of work. As I outlined in my last post, most members of UK camera clubs seem only interested in collecting pointless competition trophies for single images in spurious and irrelevant 'categories' dreamt up by so-called and self-appointed 'judges'. I don't actually blame, at least initially, the members themselves, as I'm sure many joined a club in the hope that they might gain from the experience. However, the brainwashing and stifling of any notion of contemporary ideas by those who run the clubs and who's own knowledge is severely limited I find disturbing and many club members are consequently, very badly let down. 

'Cynara', a new book in production

As an educator as well as a photographer, I feel a duty and a responsibility to encourage and maintain as high a standard as I can with those that I come into contact with regarding photography. Anything less would be doing a disservice to photography and also to those for whom you may have some responsibility for advising or nurturing. This is why I feel compelled to speak out. No-one with any grain of conscience or sense of caring for photography or education, would seek to 'dumb down' what they impart to others as a way of disguising their own lack of knowledge. Yet sadly, this is exactly what goes on in the majority of British camera clubs. Their refusal to even acknowledge the contemporary world of photography but to try to cling on desperately, like the souls on the 'Raft of the Medusa' to ideas and notions that have long since sunk to the bottom. In my last post I said that their ideas were a generation or two out of date when I was fifteen nearly sixty years ago. It seems that I may have been underestimating this.

'Globe Artichoke No. 44' 2020, from 'Cynara'

Among my large collection of photography books I have 'British Journal of Photography' almanacs from over 100 years ago. They are full of stilted images with flowery and contrived titles and the expressions 'monochrome', pictorial' and 'composition' are littered throughout. I find it quite extraordinary that these outdated ideas still persist in the face of all the many places and opportunities there are to see, experience and understand the world of contemporary photography. An analogy might be like science being taught and judged by a group of flat-earthers and creationists, forcing their views on to individuals with the promise of tawdry prizes in the face of all the contemporary evidence to the contrary. Clearly intimidated by the depth and breadth of photographic knowledge of young educated photographers over their own shallow understanding, they seek to smother anything that they cannot comprehend. 

'Globe artichoke No. 15' 2020, from 'Cynara'

Camera club competitions, in addition to being totally irrelevant to any notion of contemporary photography are not devised to improve or educate, but to temporarily inflate the egos of the recipients and to facilitate the organisers and amateur 'judges' continued stifling and dumbing down of ideas in order to disguise their own lack of knowledge and understanding. As a photographer and educator I find this distasteful. 

The Return of the Curse of the Photography Competition

 Just when you thought that the antics of British camera clubs couldn't get any more ridiculous, information about a competition came across my studio desk recently, which just emphasised how nonsensical the world of the British camera club is. Also how remote it is from the world of contemporary photography. 

Splott, Cardiff, 1969. From a series for a forthcoming book

Amateur photography competitions have always been a bit of a farce but the various categories and 'rules' that accompanied this particular club's annual outing were risible and in contemporary photographic terms, completely irrelevant. The 'prizes' were a series of rather pompously named trophies and fake silver cups, plates and bowls. In addition, laughably, were various tankards, shields and vases! A pair of vases no less, more appropriate for a flower arranging competition I would have thought. All these awarded for the different categories. I kid you not. Now, quite what a photographer is supposed to do with all those is anyone's guess. Although a full tankard of something alcoholic might be an aid to inspiration. Rather like the Poet Laureate receives an annual stipend of a butt of sack to stimulate the muse. However, my guess is that boringly, the camera club tankard will be presented empty. There are also apparently, 'impact trophies'. Now whether these are meant to impart impact themselves, in which case they may be a bit battered by now, or whether they are awarded for 'impact', I couldn't quite figure out. 

Splott, Cardiff, 1969

A gallery technician was hanging one of my framed prints in a gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland some years ago and it slipped off the rather precarious hanging system the gallery used. The frame slid down the wall and crashed to the floor. The frame fell apart, the glass shattered into a hundred shards but the mounted and matted print remained upright against the wall and undamaged. Now that made quite an impact when it hit the ground, would I get the trophy I wonder?

What was going on in British camera clubs was already a generation or two out of touch with contemporary photographic reality when I began work as a photographer aged 15. In the intervening sixty years they haven't changed one iota but photographic ideas and practice have moved on apace and become even more vibrant, exciting and relevant to today's world. 

The concepts and expressions that camera clubs still use are rooted in the 19th.century. They still waffle on about 'monochrome', 'pictorial' and 'composition'. They also award prizes for 'large' prints and 'small' prints. Really? You get a prize according to size? Sounds more like a vegetable show. Biggest parsnip etc. What is designated 'large' anyway and who decides this? My 'Wildwood' prints exhibited in the USA and European galleries were five feet by four. Is that 'large'? Not compared with my 'Village and Memorial Halls' series which were eight feet wide. Maybe that's 'large'? Well certainly not by comparison with Thomas Struth's (b.1954) work from his 'New Pictures from Paradise' series that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York. They were at least fifteen feet wide. 

Splott, Cardiff, 1969

The sad reality is that the so-called, self-appointed' 'judges' that set these totally arbitrary and nonsensical categories have probably never been to a contemporary photographic exhibition and never set foot in a photography gallery. They only get away with their ignorant bluffing by the fact that it is they who dictate the terms of these competitions that are themselves totally irrelevant to improving standards. In fact, they are designed to suppress innovation and progress in order to make themselves appear clever. In the same way these 'judges' and those who run British camera clubs keep these farcical antics in place to discourage young educated photographers from joining and intimidating them with their knowledge, skills and contemporary ideas. A deliberate suppression of progress.

Splott, Cardiff, 1969

While one can laugh off the ridiculous and irrelevant categories and ludicrous prizes, it is totally unforgivable for amateur 'judges' and the camera club hierarchy to deliberately set out to deny other members the opportunity to advance their own work and be informed about contemporary ideas. If, due to  these folks total lack of understanding, they are intimidated by contemporary ideas and are not up to dealing with them, then maybe they should step aside and allow others with the relevant skills and knowledge to support and encourage the other club members to make the quantum leap from the 19th. into the 21st. century. 

https://www.pete-davis-photography.com/

https://www.instagram.com/petedavisphoto/

Lockdown Books

With a major exhibition postponed until after the lockdown and my teaching the postgraduate students at Aberystwyth University School of Art confined to virtual tutorials and getting about to photograph restricted, I had to do something. Periodically I like to shuffle through my mountains of contact sheets to review older stuff to see if there is anything I have passed over that may be of interest.

One aspect of my work that hasn't been seen a great deal is the urban documentary work that I make when I am travelling about on other projects. I began to assemble, edit and sequence these photographs made over quite a few years and put them together in book form. 'Innocence of Eye' resulted from this. 

https://www.pete-davis-photography.com/innocence-of-eye

A large format 11" x 13" hardback book with approximately 50 images made in several countries. They reflect my fascination with the everyday and sometimes prosaic moments that evolve around us every day. 

Machynlleth, Powys, 1976

 It, along with the other two books will be published when the planned exhibition opens at Ffotogaleri y Gofeb. 

With this exhibition in mind, which will consist of a selection of black and white landscape work from several bodies of work spanning three decades I envisaged a book to accompany this. While there have been exhibition catalogues for almost all of my exhibitions, a substantial collection of this work has not been seen together.

'The Expressive Land' is a large format, 11" x 13" book with approximately 100 images from my work in Wales, England, Ireland and Sardinia. While the flavour of each of those regions is different, the book explores and juxtaposes many of the common themes that occur in my work. Many of the images in the book will feature in the exhibition when it opens. 

https://www.pete-davis-photography.com/the-expressive-land

Another aspect of my work that hasn't been seen much but has been there, in the background for many years is the ongoing series of still life images of plant forms. All the specimens are gathered from my garden at different times of the year as seems appropriate and then either photographed in black and white or colour also as appropriate.

These images have been building up for many years and again, this period gave an opportunity to review, edit and assemble into a large format 12" x 12" hard back book with over fifty images, both black and white and colour. The images reflect both the beauty and the imperfections of nature on a smaller scale than we usually observe in the wider landscape. 

https://www.pete-davis-photography.com/silentium

The Curse of the Photo Competition

My posts about the ludicrous antics of the typical British amateur camera club have been well received. Possibly one of their 'activities' that has caused the greatest stifling of any improvement in the quality of the work they produce, (I'm not talking about technique but about ideas and contemporary imagery) is the cult of the competition. I have always loathed photo competitions of any sort as they serve no useful purpose other than providing sponsors with cheap advertising, (demanding the copyright of entries for tawdry prizes) and hoodwinking the gullible competitors that winning somehow equates to you being a good photographer. An artificially, temporarily inflated ego does not equate to an improvement in your work. 

'Innocence of Eye' a new book by Pete Davis

You only have to look at the ridiculous divisions, sub divisions and sub, sub divisions of the typical camera club competition list to see that they are existing in a photographic world that, thankfully, passed on in the real world generations ago. 'Best large monochrome pictorial print - with impact'. Yes, unbelievably, they still talk about 'monochrome' and 'pictorial' and what on earth is 'impact?'. Come to think of it, what's a 'pictorial' photograph? The opposite of a non pictorial photograph I suppose. The very term is a throwback to victorian terminologies that have long since been extinct in the real world of photography but they linger on in the Jurassic wildernesses of the British amateur camera club. Presumably then you have the  'Best small monochrome pictorial print - with impact'. and the  'Best large monochrome pictorial print - without impact' etc. etc. At least that way I suppose everyone wins a prize - usually a much coveted (by camera club members) but extremely silly and meaningless  tiny silver cup. Well, not real silver of course.

Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales, 2019

That anyone thinks that this ludicrous charade has anything to do with contemporary photography is laughable. At the same time, British camera clubs wonder why young, educated and visually sophisticated young people stay away from them in their droves. The only glimmer of hope is that in another generation maybe the camera clubs, if they continue to operate as they do today will die out completely. 

We also need to examine the folks who sit in judgement in these competitions, who are they and what are their credentials? Even if we think, and we don't, that there is any value in them. Sadly, some are just opinionated older camera club members who have self-appointed themselves to this role. Their notions of 'good' photography hark back to traditions that died out in the real photography world aeons ago but they still waffle on about things like 'pictorial' and 'composition'. Possibly worse are those who, having bought a few worthless, so-called 'distinctions' from the RPS actually believe in their authority.

Leon, Spain, 2018

Collectively, what British amateur camera club judges know about contemporary photography can be written on the point of a pin. 

The saddest part of all this is not necessarily the pointless antics themselves but the long-term effects. These have been the smothering of any spark or glimmer of hope that anyone in a UK camera club might produce any work of merit within the contemporary photographic world. This would have been stifled by the outdated, narrow and now irrelevant ideas that linger on in British camera clubs. The embarrassing and irrelevant competition culture only serves to perpetuate this sad state of affairs. 

How limited are 'limited editions?'

As someone who sells prints to serious and discerning collectors, the vexed question of 'is this a limited edition' crops up now and again. I say now and again, as most people understand that photography is not a medium that should be a natural home for artificially restricting how many prints of a particular photograph might be printed. As we will see, this is all a bit of a red herring in photographic terms anyway.

Iris No.9, 2018 Platinum print

Limiting how many prints can be made from a particular image came originally from fine art printing such as etchings, lithographs and silk screen prints. In these examples the editions were inherently limited anyway, due to how many prints might be pulled from a screen or etching plate before it began to wear and the image deteriorate. It is also a tradition to deface or destroy the screen or plate so no more can be made. To destroy a negative would, for 99% of photographers be an unthinkable act of creative, photographic and social documentary history vandalism. I don't know one photographer who would ever contemplate such a thing. Most photographers embrace the aspect of the medium which makes it possible, in theory anyway, to make multiple prints over many years from a negative making photography a very 'democratic' medium. How often this actually happens in practice however, is very much another matter. 

Iris No.8, 2018 Platinum print

When I print a new photograph for the first time I might make two or three prints at the time and unless they are destined for exhibition somewhere right away, are stored in my archival print boxes for possible future exhibition or sale. In all the years that I have been selling original, archival gelatin / silver and platinum prints, (over fifty), through galleries, directly to collectors and public art collections, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of one particular image that I have made more than four or five prints of for sale. This just happens to be a feature of much photographic print sales, it's extremely rare for any photographer to sell that many copies of a particular image. So-called 'limited editions' don't get much more limited than that!

Artichoke No. 3, 2017 Platinum print

It's true however, that some galleries make a point of or even force the photographers whose work they handle to stipulate that prints are part of an 'edition'. Here we discover that this is a bit of an artificial ruse to inflate the price, (not the value, they are two different things) of the prints. Firstly, serious professional galleries know their client base and the relative demand for individual photographer's work very well indeed. An 'edition' then - and this applies to all galleries selling paper-based artwork, will be set at a number that can reasonably be expected to sell, plus a few more 'just in case'. This can be five, ten, twenty five, 100, whatever. Yes, the 'edition' might truly be 'limited' but in reality the gallery will ensure that it's in line with expected sales, so in effect, not limited at all. In the unlikely event of a so-called 'limited edition' selling out, the gallery will more than likely re-issue the same image in another form or size and call this yet another 'edition'. Not illegal, not really 'sharp practice' and it would only apply to a tiny minority of photographic works but it does underline the nonsense of so-called 'limited editions'. Even then, the total numbers of photographic prints made is tiny as compared with other works on paper.

Globe Artichoke No. 2, 2017 Platinum print

When you see something described as a 'limited edition' you do need to take this with a pinch of salt. However, when you buy an original, hand-made, archival silver / gelatin or platinum print from a reputable gallery or photographer, you can be certain that it will be a very special artefact which may even have been especially printed to order for you and not a mass-produced item. Also, as a hand-made print produced in a darkroom, even if there happens to be more than one or two in circulation, you can pretty much guarantee that there will be subtle differences in each print making them all truly individual.


http://www.pete-davis-photography.com/
Pete's original prints can be seen and purchased at Ffotogallery Y Gofeb 
https://www.ffotogaleriygofeb.co.uk/

To Sign, or not to Sign, That is the Question....

On a photography forum recently, someone asked what pen he might use for signing the front border of his prints that are for sale. Now I have an aversion to signing the front of my photographic prints as I consider that it completely spoils the aesthetic of the presentation of a fine print, even though I know it can, if you wish, be covered by the mat when mounted properly. However, I do recognise that for serious work and serious collectors, the authentication and subsequent traceable provenance of the work is important. It may not matter that much if you are just buying a low-cost digital inkjet print for mainly decorative purposes. You know the things I mean; ultra wide-angle, over filtered and over photo-shopped sunsets etc. These also tend to be the worst offenders for the flamboyant signature in the bottom right hand corner of the white border. 

Morvan, France, 2018

When we are dealing with 'artworks' that might, in the future, retain or hopefully gain in value and become 'collectable' within a particular market, it is important that the work and the artist are clearly identifiable and the object has impeachable provenance. Painters sign their work, most usually on completion of the work using the same paint as for the main work so in future years the signature can be identified as not only being by the artist but made at the same time as the painting. If a sculptor is making an edition of bronzes from one of their works they will almost always sign the clay model that is the basis for the subsequent moulds and plaster investments to make the finished bronzes. In that way the signature or makers mark is transferred to each cast. Printmakers who made 'editions' will sign and date each one with the edition number and quantity, 3/25, 15/250 or whatever the edition maybe. Each edition will be logged with the artist or gallery and traceable, plus many printmakers have a unique embossed stamp that can be used on a blank border of a print. 

Dijon, France, 2018

Over the years I have sold many prints and continue to do so to serious collectors of my work. Prints that I made many years ago, due to my long career of producing work have become 'collectable'. Therefore it's very important that these prints are clearly identifiable as being not just my photograph but printed by me. (Important for many collectors). At the same time I loath the scrawl across the front border which is less authentication and more 'celebrity' autograph. Just having a signature on a photographic print provides little other relevant information. Serious collectors require a number of pieces of information and I ensure that these are on each print before it goes out. 

My name and copyright symbol, vital. The title of the work, the date the photograph was taken and the date the print was made. (For some collectors a print made closer to the time that the original photograph was taken becomes more 'collectable'. This applies mainly to 'vintage' work). I also include the negative number as in future years this will be traceable within my archive and support the provenance. All this information is written within my stamp on the reverse of the print. I then also sign in a space within that stamp. So all the information to authenticate that print is provided but in a way that does not interfere with the aesthetic of the image. A fine print should never be mounted in a way that makes it permanently attached to a mount so this information should always be accessible. I also keep a record in my archive of every print sold to further support the provenance and authenticity. The flamboyant scrawl across the front of a print spoils the aesthetic of a fine print and serves no really useful purpose other than inflating the ego of the photographer.

The return of the curse of the camera club

'The return of the curse of the camera club' sounds like the title to a bad horror movie. However, a horror movie is usually bad fiction while the typical British camera club is, unfortunately, all too much bad fact.  This post is the sequel to a horror story I related here in an earlier blog post. (see 14/11/2015).

That post resulted in a large number of views and many messages agreeing with my assessment of the British camera club world. Please note that I say British, my many experiences of speaking to and conducting workshops for, photographic groups in other parts of Europe and the USA are very different. 

Mechelen, Belgium, 2016

I have been involved in a number of exhibitions in north Wales over the last year which resulted in several organisations asking me to speak at their meetings. In addition, the spin off from my retrospective exhibition also resulted in a number of speaking engagements to groups who wanted to hear the big talk I gave at the National Library of Wales as part of that. None of these were camera clubs, just organisations that have an interest in art, culture and history generally. The talks were all well received. Over thirty years as a university lecturer has given me the skills to deliver quite a decent talk. 

Helsinki, Finland, 2016

I have ended up giving the same talk, one about the history of 19th. century photography in north Wales three times in a fairly short period, including twice in a month in the same town. So, when the local camera club contacted me and asked me to give the same talk to them I had to think about it. After all, they had the opportunity, twice in one month to attend the talk at other societies meetings as they are open to all and did I really want to give the same talk, in the same small town, all over again? So, despite my long-standing aversion to and refusal to talk to camera clubs, I relented but offered instead to give my 'big talk' about six decades of my work and if they agreed to that, I would give the history talk to them at a later date. An offer you couldn't refuse one would have thought, two talks for the price of one. (Actually, probably no price at all as I tend to speak for free to societies that I think are genuinely interested and worthy and just charge my usual fees to larger institutions). 

Rievaulx Abbey, north Yorkshire, 2016

In my e mail to them offering to talk I also suggested they might want to visit an exhibition in a gallery only twenty minutes from their town by a prominent, long standing, (Welsh) member of Magnum. The gallery is run by one of my ex-students and she had pulled off a coup for north Wales in getting the work there. I only mentioned it because this was the camera club who have told me in the past that they don't bother to go to see exhibitions unless they are very local. As they hadn't seen this then, even twenty minutes away is obviously too far for them. Knowing that British camera clubs are also blinkered as to what goes on in the real photography world I suggested visits to the National Library of Wales to see their fine and important photography collection and a visit to Cardiff to see David Hurn's 'Swaps' exhibition where they can see the prints he has collected from some of the worlds greatest documentary photographers. My suggestions were obviously a bit too radical for them and they suspected that my talk might be about photography, not cameras or technique. They were not having any of that, oh dear me no and they refused my offer. 

Betws y coed, Conwy, north Wales, 2015

Rather like the woman in the photograph opposite, they sit in their meeting rooms with their heads buried in the club rule book and their eyes blinkered to all the real, great photography that surrounds them. All very sad and yet predictable I'm afraid and another example of the strange attitudes that seem to pervade British camera clubs. As I have said here before, I do try, I do offer to encourage, enthuse and educate but when they are clearly not really interested in photography, only playing with cameras and gimmicky effects, such as producing grotesque, over-photoshopped sunsets etc., there's little I can do. Just don't say I didn't offer.