September's meeting had been devoted to opening our BEAT 2023 exhibition Blondin so it was good to get back to sharing and discussing new work from a number of members for our October meeting.

Ray Higginbottom led off with a new selection of prints of landscape work from a recent trip to Norfolk. We then welcomed Mark Fisher who joined the meeting after seeing our last BEAT show and he shared some of his work from a recent trip to Norfolk too. Robin Segulem's prints then transported us to Cumbria, from the streets of Barrow-in-Furness to the Lake District Fells. Angelika Berndt took us to Austria to admire a new set of documentary images from a bodypainting festival. Following that, the Arles photo festival itself was the subject of Richard Baker's work with his take on the curation and display of the exhibitions there. Anshuman Acharya added to the global perspective of the evening with a range of photographs from Japan, India, Vietnam and Australia.

[Both images above by Robin Segulem]

[Both images above by Richard Baker]

[Both images above by Anshuman Acharya]

We had a chat about BEAT and the private view in particular. The slackline display was a hit and prompted us to think of combining with other performers or artists on any future projects too.

We then followed up on an idea Arun Misra had suggested for our topic calendar at the start of the year - stories behind some famous photographs. Dorota Boisot showed some portraits she had made in the spirit of a photograph of the Hollywood star Rita Hayworth. Sean McDonnell then shared a selection of images and stories from photographers including Louis Daguerre, Diane Arbus and Sebastião Salgado.

We also had a brief discussion on ideas for next month's meeting, including AI, and will be sharing details in advance of that.

Thanks in conclusion to Robert Vaas for hosting the meeting at Questors Theatre while our regular venue was unavailable!