Newsletter.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Newsletter."

Naomi McDaniel
5 years ago
Views:

1 Newsletter Wishing You & Yours. the happiest of New Years and good health in 2018 and beyond. If you have made any New Year Resolutions then best of luck in keeping to them! 2018 began with a Print Appraisal night on 9th January. It was an excellent and informal evening with Club members discussing how the photographs they had brought along would be assessed in the context of a National or International exhibition. You will know that we had a full hall for the Street Photography of Stephen Cosh on 11th January. The fact that Stephen, like several of our other guest speakers this season, took the time to talk in detail about individual images and what he was seeking to capture really made a positive difference to the evening. Stephen s website, has more of his work plus links to his Flickr and 500px pages. A truly excellent start to the year. The new Club website is settling in well. It is a genuinely modern site which the Club will use to keep everyone up to date on what is happening at F.C.C. The opening Welcome page leads you to various sections but if you then select the Home page you will find a Notice Board with up to date information and a Weekly Roundup of what has been happening recently. You will find the Syllabus under the Information tab and Monthly Competition winning images under the Competitions tab. There are many other interesting features too so please let Brian Taylor know what you think about the site and don t hesitate to include any suggestions. Another piece of news is that, not only have Falkirk C.C. 60th Anniversary calendars been sent to other parts of the U.K., they have made their way around the globe too. Among destinations are the island of Gozo in the mediterranean, the U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand. Please let us know where you sent your calendars.

2 3 From 6. As you know 18th January was the hand-in date for 3 From 6. Due to bad weather that night was cancelled so the hand-in date is extended until 25th January. Many thanks to the members who have already contributed although it would be great if we could get a few more. Club culture is perhaps to photograph specific subjects, for example Landscapes or Sport, so this is certainly something different. We re looking for up to 3x P.D.I. s or Prints which illustrate up to 3 of the 6 themes. It can be up to 3x photographs on one of the themes or, up to 3x photographs illustrating up to 3 different themes. For consistency only, please submit P.D.I. s in the usual 1600 x Prints can, but need not, be mounted as this is not a competition. On 3 From 6 night on 8th February, you can introduce your photographs explaining what motivated you to take the picture and how it reflects the theme or, that can be done on your behalf so don t feel obliged. Just include notes with your contributions if you wish. Themes are: Absence; Barely Visible; Beauty; Confrontation; Light & Shade; Soft & Sharp. Either send them to my personal address or, to the Public Relations address on page 1. Many thanks, Allistair Out and About. The Turner In January exhibition at National Galleries Scotland on The Mound, Edinburgh is an annual event which is always worth visiting. Joseph Mallord William Turner, , was a prolific painter, primarily watercolour but oil too and also a printmaker who influences artists to this day. The interest to photographers is that his use of light to create dramatic effect, his treatment of tones from monochrome to extreme colour and his ability to interpret movement, particularly of the sea and clouds is staggering. This display of 38 paintings extend from small, quite delicate watercolours, some made at the home of his friend Sir Walter Scott near Melrose to dramatic weather conditions on Skye and on to the Doge s Palace in Venice being illuminated by lightning. Entry is free and the exhibition runs until 31st January. Also on a wider art theme, the 2017 BP Portrait Award exhibition is on display at the Scottish National Portrait Galley, Queen St., Edinburgh. Among the exhibits is the genre of portrait painting where the artist seeks an almost photographic realism using a medium of either oil or acrylic. Indeed in some exhibits it s difficult to tell whether it s a painting or a photograph. Look out for a portrait entitled Nikki. The artist utilises, what photographers refer to as, a shallow depth of field. The eyes and face are sharp but the hair at the back of the subjects head is painted out of focus. If you are looking for inspiration for your portrait compositions then you will find it at this exhibition. The exhibition runs until 11th March, entry is free and there is a café too. See more on both these exhibitions at the website of National Galleries Scotland.

3 History File.Born in Perth on 20th January 1805, the daughter of a house painter, Jessie Mann grew up with a brother and four sisters. They were near neighbours of the Hill family. When her father died in 1839 she and two of her sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, went to live with their brother Alexander who had become a solicitor in Edinburgh and when Alexander married in 1842 they moved to a flat in Leopold Place, not too far from Rock House on Calton Hill where Robert Adamson and David Octavius Hill, now also in Edinburgh, were to set up their photographic studio in Jessie became their assistant, gaining the respect of many including the artist James Nasmyth who in a letter to D.O.H. enquired after the health of the thrice worthy Miss Mann that most skilful and zealous of assistants. The photograph on the left below is thought to be her. She is wearing gloves, probably because her hands had become discoloured by the silver nitrate used in the photographic process. Photography was known as the Black Art because of the stains that chemical left on the skin. It is likely that she was the photographer responsible for those early photographs which feature both D.O.H. and Robert Adamson but there is also a recorded incident of note. On 2nd August 1844, the King of Saxony, Friedrich August II ( ) visited Rock House having learned of Hill & Adamson. They were out at the time and it is generally accepted that it was Jessie Mann who took the photograph, below right, of the King and his companions. The positioning of 6 people and the way in which Jessie has placed, or hidden, their hands to avoid movement during a long exposure is an indicator of her expertise. Following the death of Robert Adamson in 1848 D.O.H.concentrated more on his painting but he remained in touch with Jessie who became Housekeeper to Andrew Balfour who ran a private grammar school in Musselburgh. The year 1862 must have been an emotional roller coaster for Hill. His daughter Charlotte died, as a child she was nicknamed Chatty and her mother was Hill s first wife Ann MacDonald who had died in 1841 leaving D.O.H. a single parent. It was 1862 before he married again, to the distinguished artist and sculptor Amelia Robertson Paton. She would eventually sculpt the bust of D.O.H. which sits on the grave where they both now rest but she also latterly assisted Hill with his painting of the signing of the Deed Of Demission, the document leading to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland which had taken place in That painting took 23 years to complete and although she had died two years before the event, Ann McDonald is featured near the lower left corner. A crest of Amelia Robertson Hill s initials are in the lower front section and in the upper right corner of the painting are three ladies grouped together. Jessie, Elizabeth and Margaret Mann. Jessie died on 12th April 1867 following a stroke and is buried in a family plot in Rosebank Cemetery, not too far from Calton Hill.

Constance Fox Talbot ( 1811-1880 ), also practiced the Calotype process devised by her husband Henry while in 1857 Lady Clementina Hawarden ( 1822-1865 ) who was born on her family estate,

On the Isle Of Wight Julia Margaret Cameron ( 1815-1879 ) achieved even more success by photographing some of the leading figures of her time.

who established great success as photographers.

4 Constance Fox Talbot ( ), also practiced the Calotype process devised by her husband Henry while in 1857 Lady Clementina Hawarden ( ) who was born on her family estate, Cumbernauld in Dunbartonshire, and by then living in Ireland took up photography with great success. On the Isle Of Wight Julia Margaret Cameron ( ) achieved even more success by photographing some of the leading figures of her time. Dorothea Lange ( ), Diane Arbus ( ), Margaret Bourke-White ( ), Lee Miller ( ), Val Wilmer ( b1941 ) and Annie Liebovitz ( b1949 ) are among many other women who established great success as photographers. Julia Shannon ( c c1852 ) is one of the few documented women photographers using the Daguerreotype process although Elizabeth Blackwell ( ) writing during the mid 19th century referred to lady daguerreotypists, possibly in France where that process originated. Jessie Mann followed the Calotype process, used by Hill & Adamson, and from which photography by film which many of us knew evolved. Along with Joseph Niépce, Louis Daguerre, Henry Fox Talbot, D.O. Hill and Robert Adamson, she too, was a pioneer.

5 Loose ends. Hope that you have enjoyed Closing Quips over the past few months. Aristotle, BC, was last months quipee. He believed that the heart recognised sensation and movement while later and among others, an Arab scholar, ibn al-haytham , used a Camera Obscura to help convince people that the eyes and brain had a part to play. The previous month it was Sir Don McCullen, b1935, who said Photography for me is not looking, it s feeling. If you can t feel what you re looking at, then you re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures. The fact that DM was a photographer of War makes that a very revealing quote and also perhaps explains why he produces some of the most emotive Landscape & Still Life photographs we are ever likely to see. Also in Newsletter 8, you won the virtual 5 points for discovering that the connection of the Battle Of Bannockburn painting to photography was that the artist Sir William Allan was President of the Royal Scottish Academy where a certain D.O.Hill was Secretary. After W.A. s death in 1850, D.O.H. curated an exhibition of his friends work which included this painting. Dorothea Lange, , was the photographer who said the camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. A former studio based portraiture photographer she joined the Farm Security Administration documenting the poor and destitute among the farming communities of the western U.S.A. In Newsletter 6 it was Ansel Adams, , who said in photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. AA is considered by many to be the finest Landscape photographer ever! A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you were the words of Henri Cartier Bresson. HCB is considered by many to be the finest photographer ever. Closing Quip. Who said, Which of my photographs is my favourite? The one I m going to take tomorrow. Was it, Imogen Cunningham, Susan Sontag or Annie Liebovitz?

Key verse for the class this year!

Key verse for the class this year! Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Photography can be used anywhere! Family