Art Evolution » Picture Perfect (March 2009)

Picture Perfect (March 2009)

Mist, by Karen Melvin.

The stunning image Mist by Karen Melvin features in the spring edition of Tynedale Life. As part of a three page article the photograph is used to highlight the Hexham Photography Group, who have spent the past twenty years pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with the humble camera.

How would you normally describe your photographs? As holiday snaps or as something emotive, artistic, creative and thoughtful – perhaps influenced by poets and painters?

The majority of us would probably opt for the first description. But there is another side to photography, involving people who see their role behind the lens in a different light – literally as it happens.

For them, an image is a work of art – like a painting – and great care is taken in its creation using subjects, scenery and light in all its subtle hues.

This art of ‘picture making’ is something Colin Dixon has been developing in Hexham for two decades. He set up Hexham Photographic Group 20 years ago and it has been broadening people’s horizons through the camera lens ever since.

Back in the 1980s, Colin felt there weren’t many opportunities for photographers in the North-East. “The Side Gallery had just closed, so the nearest places to exhibit were York and Edinburgh. So I felt there was a demand,” he said. Letters went out to prospective members and Colin – a former architectural photographer who used to teach evening classes in the subject – hosted the first meeting on December 1, 1989.

In those early days, everyone used black and white film and developed their photographs in the darkroom. Today, more members work with digital photography, although traditional methods are still taught.

“The heritage of photography is still represented throughout the group,” said Barrie Dowdeswell, who sits firmly in the traditional camp. “I started with fine art black and white and then worked with a large format camera. Then I got interested with early processing so I decided to go back and start using the techniques where you mix your own chemicals, use watercolour paper and no enlarger. Your work is therefore limited to the size of the negatives.”

There is a renaissance in these older methods, said Barrie, who describes his hobby as a craft. “It is that craft feel in the way the pictures look, using special papers which become part of your picture making. It is a little more painterly, if you like.”

Club member Gill Jones agreed: “There is something wonderful about shutting the darkroom door, turning on the radio and the soft red light and producing something you can really be pleased with.”

However, the wonders of digital photography are also well represented in the group, which states its aims as being ‘educational, leading to a greater understanding of the medium of photography’.

And it has been pushing the boundaries through a series of workshops led by some of the world’s leading photographers. The group’s kudos has attracted the likes of John Blakemore, Paul Hill, Thomas Joshua Cooper and Robin Gillanders.

And it also has members from across the North of England. People turn up on a Friday night from places like Harrogate, Ripon and St Bees on the Cumbrian coast as well as Hexham and the rest of Tynedale.

For Gill, it’s been an eye-opening experience. “Once we started having exhibitions, it changed my way of thinking,” she said. “John Blakemore suggested going into woodland, closing your eyes and sitting there for ten to 15 minutes and opening your eyes again… everything is totally different.”

It’s advice she put into practice when working on her entries for the anniversary exhibition. To celebrate its 20th year, the club are holding an exhibition based on the theme of water, curated by club member John Bradshaw.

An immense amount of thought goes into the exhibitions and members are given two years to put their work together. Gill opted to photograph wells, but one near Flodden Field proved to be more of an emotional experience than she realised.

“I sat down with my eyes shut, like John Blakemore told us to do, and heard battlefield noises. It was a combine harvester with all that metal clanking. I was becoming very emotional, thinking about all the people that were slain. I was almost quaking.”

Gill left without taking any pictures of the well and had to return another day with a different perspective, taking pictures shaped by what she had experienced beforehand.

Barrie’s interests are in still life and he chose water bottles and containers as his subjects. “My work is mostly decided by the light,” he said. “For example, light coming in through the windows, so I think about the setting and how I want to portray things.

“The bottled water is a social commentary on the absurdity of buying bottled water. They’re done as still life portraits and are part-influenced by a famous painter, Morandi, who used very harsh sunlight. I tend to accumulate things that would be useful for still life, like discarded doors which you can prop up and use as a background.”

For Colin, literary influences played a part in his water based photographs. After reading Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie and Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Colin came up with three themes – deep, frozen, and dark. The first idea took him to the Lake District.

“It led me to the deepest man-made lake at Hodge Close Quarry, between Ambleside and Coniston and the deepest lake at Wast water. The dark will be pictures of the sea and the frozen is woodland near Whitfield.”

Whatever the end result, all the photographs in the exhibition will have been nurtured by the club’s guiding hand. “It was a revelation for me after I joined,” said Barrie. “Because the medium is to do with light, you start to understand more about light. Suddenly, a whole new world opened up. I leaned towards a whole new way of looking the world.”

Colin echoed his thoughts: “Today, I think of this idea of picture making because of people like Blakemore. They developed the idea of a picture as a metaphor for inner feelings. Photography can be a way of intensifying an experience of the world, by exploring a notion or a concept.”

Hexham Photography Group’s exhibition, Water, opens at the Queen’s Hall, Hexham on Saturday, March 21st and runs until Saturday, April 25th.

April 14, 2009 7:33pm

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