Thursday 12th April
It’s been a really full on week for photography, with the PAGB Group on Monday, Print Group on Tuesday, the first of what we hope will be an ongoing collaboration with Bognor Regis Camera Club with the Eamonn McCabe lecture on Wednesday (see the separate post), the Focus Exhibition at the Assembly Room all week (if you haven’t seen it yet, do go, some splendid work from our CCC friends and like minded photographers) and a very fine meeting on Thursday with Paul Mitchell.
We have had an quite extraordinary number of changes to the programme this year which has kept Glyn Edmunds, our Programme Secretary, on his toes. There are many reasons why our speakers and judges have to pull out, family matters, ill health – tragically in the case of Richard Walton, or moving away, but it has been a real challenge this year. So it’s congratulations to Glyn for finding first rate replacements.
Paul Mitchell was with us last night in place of Sue Brown, another member of Arena, as is our own Janey Devine and Leigh Preston who was with us last week (and who is also exhibiting with the Focus Group). Paul holds his FRPS and serves on the fine art distinctions panel, as well as being a generous adviser for potential RPS award candidates and workshop leader. With the breadth of genres we find in photography there will always be some work that speaks to each of us more than others and I readily confess Paul’s work really connected with me. He makes beautiful landscapes, somehow intimate interpretations from across the UK – his fear of flying is such that he will not travel far – with a deceptive simplicity that makes even complex subjects clean and clear. His landscapes have been widely recognised, with success in the Landscape Photographer of the Year, the International Garden Photographer of the Year and Outdoor Photographer of the Year. He also shared how he plans for a shoot, coupling a careful degree of forethought with an ability to spot an expected opportunity, and presented his work under thoughtful categories, such as leading lines, golden hour, and excellent tips and ideas about locations along the way. And I’m very pleased to say that Glyn has confirmed Paul will be our Print Panel judge next year.
Paul Mitchell, FRPS