Another Ealing LIP meeting, another wonderful evening! When we meet, whatever else we do you hope people will come and share photos and talk about them. This month did not disappoint. Here's a selection below of photos people shared. We also heard how some of the Unlocked workshops with community groups had gone so far which was very moving. 

[Reflection by Dorota Boisot]

[Arrested Bride by Edmond Terakopian]

The penultimate protestor to be taken off the open top 'wedding bus' was dressed as a bride and had her hand glued to the glass on the bus’s front door. She was arrested and put in the back of a Police van’s secure prisoner cell. Extinction Rebellion protestors block off the southern end of London Bridge. London, UK. August 31, 2021. 

[Pee Wee Ellis at the Barbican by Ray Malcolm]

[Hanwell Hootie by Robin Segulem]

[Sussex Downs by Frankie McAllister]

[Shoofly colour burn by Ray Higginbottom]

Photo: Edmond Terakopian

There is an article on London's tallest outdoor photography exhibition in Amateur Photography magazine. Of course that exhibition is ours - Unlocked! Group members Edmond Terakopian and Jonny Baker are interviewed about it in which they relate how it came about,  the curation process and working with Ealing Police to get permission for it. 

We made it! Thank you so much to everyone who supported our crowdfunding campaign for Unlocked. Amazingly we have reached our target so Unlocked is going to happen. Thank you to everyone who donated and especially two sponsors FujiFilm and Gogar Services who weighed in with generous support. We are now working to line up printing and installing of images in time for BEAT 2021 which runs over the weekends of 11/12 and 18/19 September 2021. The images will of course be available to see at any time once up as they will be on the exterior of Ealing Police Station and will be left up we hope for a few months. We’ll be having an opening on the afternoon of that first weekend - details to follow. 

As a group we have planned an exhibition as part of BEAT 2021. Given all the uncertainties due to Covid we had been exploring outdoor options for exhibiting and through a series of connections have ended up with Ealing Police Station agreeing we can use the front of their building as a canvas for our next exhibition! It is huge so will have quite an impact. The exhibition is called  ‘UNLOCKED – looking back, looking forward’ and is a reflection on the strange times we find ourselves in, the things we have noticed over the past year and our hopes for the future. 

Of course it is going to be more costly to pull off so we are in the process of raising funds for it. On contacting Ealing Council they now have their own crowdfunding page for community initiatives and projects and steered us in that direction. As part of that they will consider backing a project but like to see a group raising funds and demonstrating commitment themselves. So whilst we hadn't anticipated it this means we have ended up with a local crowdfunding page for Unlocked. Do go and have a look and if you'd like to support the group then do pledge. We are 10% of the way there at the time of writing this post.

The concept of negative space was the photography challenge for November’s meeting, set by Melissa Meigh. The brief that the group had to respond to was

Negative Space: the space within, between, and around objects. It defines the links between objects or defines their limits. A ghost of the silhouette.

Melissa kicked off the session by showing images mostly of light and shadow, with very little depiction of a tangible object, and how the light can become the focus with shadow surrounding.

Dorota Biosot’s images were architecturally focused. They showed how reflection can play with the subject of negative space, and how shadow, rather than object, can become the main topic.

Chris Bellinger shared photos of how important image cropping can determine what is negative space; sharing photographs of how a focused subject off-centre surrounded by background can make the subject pop!

Frankie McAllister displayed images that were shadow-heavy, directing your focus to the boldness of the remaining lit subject. Some of her photographs were reminiscent of Chiaroscuro paintings.

Jonny Baker presented a spectrum of themes on negative space; ghosts of silhouettes, the prominence of textures, tiny subjects, minimalist images, in an assortment of colour and black and white.

Post Production was the theme of October's session, interpreted by Sean McDonnell and Ray Higginbottom in two distinctive ways. 

Sean took Chris Dorley-Brown's work The Corners as a starting point to look at photo manipulation, its motivations and consequences, Taking examples from the origins of photography to the present, Sean raised questions about the use of post production in documentary photography and photojournalism.

Ray took us on a personal journey, showing the group the evolution of his work from darkroom montages to triptychs and intricate digital post production techniques. He discussed the early influences of Gilbert Garcin and Robert Tuschman and also referenced the work of Maggie Taylor. To round off a fascinating talk Ray gave a live Photoshop tutorial showing how he combined a landscape at Dungeness with other photographs and textures drawn from his archive to create a unique final image.

Frankie McAllister then shared some of her atmospheric images created during lockdown.

Further information:

Hopper Meditations and Once Upon a Time in Kazimierz by Richard Tuschman

Contemporary Trends in Photography by Eileen Rafferty Photography  

Award winning photographer and Ealing LIP member Edward Terakopian is happy to announce a new project with OPEN Ealing. He’ll be doing a series of eight workshops over several weekends on various photographic and video topics. All bookings can be made via the links below.

THE TALK
The series starts with a talk about Edmond's career and how he has been documenting the COVID 19 lockdown. To see more details and book your spot, either for the limited seating (20 places) or online stream (200 places), see 31 Years Of Photography; Photojournalism and Beyond.

THE WORKSHOPS

Click on the links below to book for any of the workshops. They are in person with social distancing so are limited to 10 places for each.

PHOTOGRAPHY: A MARRIAGE OF THE TECHNICAL AND THE ARTISTIC. Sunday 12 July, 2020.
DAILY LIFE AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY. Saturday 18 July, 2020.
TRAVEL AND LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY. Sunday July 19, 2020.
IMAGE EDITING AND PROCESSING. Saturday 25 July, 2020.
IPHONEOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY WITH SMARTPHONES. Sunday 26 July, 2020.
PHOTOJOURNALISM. Saturday 1 August, 2020.
SHOOTING VIDEO WITH MIRRORLESS CAMERAS AND DSLRS. Sunday 2 August, 2020.
STILL LIFE. Saturday 8 August, 2020.

The sale of Ali Moosavi’s photograph, Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame, this week has benefitted Ealing based charity BEfriend. The charity matches friendly and reliable volunteers with people who have become lonely and socially isolated. Volunteers provide company and companionship and help those they befriend feel engaged with the world again, either through bringing hope and warmth in with them or by helping people get out. During recent months their services have been even more important and they have extra pressures in delivering the required help in a safe way.