8th February 2022
What a truly inspiring evening this Tuesday. It was certainly a presentation of 2 halves and both were equally enthralling. Bill Ward our presenter for the evening has many photographic credentials including Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2015. He started his presentation by talking about his background among the ships and shipyards of the North East where he grew up amongst butchers, printers and shipbuilders. He began taking pictures with a little Instamatic from when he was 7years old and the presentation took us through his life. He started acting in his late 20’s /early 30’s after brief periods in advertising and travelling, he then trained at the Bristol Old Vic - one of the most respected drama schools in the UK (amongst the alumni are Olivia Coleman and Jeremy Irons, and of course Bill Ward). This coincided with him picking up a Pentax K20. He gave us a fascinating explanation of his acting work and the effect that job has on his psyche. As an actor he can't always find it easy to “leave” his characters and he explained the 2 sides of himself - the outgoing part which is satisfied through his acting career; and his more reflective side which has found a home through photography which allows him those precious periods of reflection and peace helping him find a balance. The images he showed were eclectic in style - some very minimalist and some, although not exactly busy were less minimal.
One of his loves is water and his book Winter Tide demonstrates his love of this genre and further contributes to his sense of well being. Industrial scapes and his Concrete Project complemented each other well and his architectural photography was interesting - some of these were in Brussels. Another of his projects was London and the West End with some very impressive ICM work going on there. Some of the Scottish scapes and the images from the Isles of Harris and Lewis were also impressive in their colour and emotion.
Bill takes pictures of locations near where he is working so has access to huge sections of the country as he works across the UK - so Devon, Cornwall, Farne Islands, Yorkshire Dales and Lincolnshire were some of the locations he showed us. Another of his projects - a black and white work of Manchester canals was very evocative and reminded me a lot of Brandt.
In the second half Bill showed a different creative side - ICM and Multiple Exposure (up to 10 frames) sometimes together. He expressed this as being more emotionally accurate for him. Some of this work - all abstract - was breathtaking and his project of Bristol Clifton Bridge was extremely exciting I thought. He likes mud as well and some of these images looked as if they had been taken from above - the perspective being so extraordinary. Woods and trees and Cornish surfers were also in the mix. There were some ICM images of murmurations which were absorbing - I would never have thought of "ICM ing" a murmuration but some of Bill's were astounding. He does a lot of his work in camera!!! Yes. He did however say that it would also be possible to use the photoshop blending mode for multiple exposure work and, with a mobile phone it would be possible also with Average Camera Pro - he just doesn’t like being in front of his computer much. Unlike some of us.
Bill has been selected as one of the judges for Landscape Photographer of the Year so we wish him success and enjoyment with that. It looks a good line up of judges this year.
During his presentation Bill did mention how Milton Keynes is a great place to photograph and if you remember in the last Newsletter I had mentioned a Vivian Mayer exhibition which is on there - if anyone would like to join me to go there please let me know and I will try and organise something.
What a truly inspiring evening this Tuesday. It was certainly a presentation of 2 halves and both were equally enthralling. Bill Ward our presenter for the evening has many photographic credentials including Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2015. He started his presentation by talking about his background among the ships and shipyards of the North East where he grew up amongst butchers, printers and shipbuilders. He began taking pictures with a little Instamatic from when he was 7years old and the presentation took us through his life. He started acting in his late 20’s /early 30’s after brief periods in advertising and travelling, he then trained at the Bristol Old Vic - one of the most respected drama schools in the UK (amongst the alumni are Olivia Coleman and Jeremy Irons, and of course Bill Ward). This coincided with him picking up a Pentax K20. He gave us a fascinating explanation of his acting work and the effect that job has on his psyche. As an actor he can't always find it easy to “leave” his characters and he explained the 2 sides of himself - the outgoing part which is satisfied through his acting career; and his more reflective side which has found a home through photography which allows him those precious periods of reflection and peace helping him find a balance. The images he showed were eclectic in style - some very minimalist and some, although not exactly busy were less minimal.
One of his loves is water and his book Winter Tide demonstrates his love of this genre and further contributes to his sense of well being. Industrial scapes and his Concrete Project complemented each other well and his architectural photography was interesting - some of these were in Brussels. Another of his projects was London and the West End with some very impressive ICM work going on there. Some of the Scottish scapes and the images from the Isles of Harris and Lewis were also impressive in their colour and emotion.
Bill takes pictures of locations near where he is working so has access to huge sections of the country as he works across the UK - so Devon, Cornwall, Farne Islands, Yorkshire Dales and Lincolnshire were some of the locations he showed us. Another of his projects - a black and white work of Manchester canals was very evocative and reminded me a lot of Brandt.
In the second half Bill showed a different creative side - ICM and Multiple Exposure (up to 10 frames) sometimes together. He expressed this as being more emotionally accurate for him. Some of this work - all abstract - was breathtaking and his project of Bristol Clifton Bridge was extremely exciting I thought. He likes mud as well and some of these images looked as if they had been taken from above - the perspective being so extraordinary. Woods and trees and Cornish surfers were also in the mix. There were some ICM images of murmurations which were absorbing - I would never have thought of "ICM ing" a murmuration but some of Bill's were astounding. He does a lot of his work in camera!!! Yes. He did however say that it would also be possible to use the photoshop blending mode for multiple exposure work and, with a mobile phone it would be possible also with Average Camera Pro - he just doesn’t like being in front of his computer much. Unlike some of us.
Bill has been selected as one of the judges for Landscape Photographer of the Year so we wish him success and enjoyment with that. It looks a good line up of judges this year.
During his presentation Bill did mention how Milton Keynes is a great place to photograph and if you remember in the last Newsletter I had mentioned a Vivian Mayer exhibition which is on there - if anyone would like to join me to go there please let me know and I will try and organise something.