A new photography exhibition at Christchurch Library, organised by a group of six local photographers who took part in a short course from AUB Academy, will be open to the public to view for free until 12 July.
The exhibition includes a series of photographs from each contributor curated by Christchurch-based David Perkins. Recently retired, David explains how the exhibition came about:
“I’ve been taking photos for a long time, and now I’m retired, I’ve had the time to go on a photography course at AUB, where I met the other five photographers in this exhibition.
“I wanted to learn about the technicalities of photography and finesse my hobby into something more than that. So, in the autumn of 2024, a group came together to study Digital Photography – Essential Techniques, a 10-week course designed to introduce the key features of Digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) and Mirrorless Cameras, and the essential techniques needed to enable students to develop and improve their standard of photography.
“We were a group from a wide range of backgrounds, of all ages and with a broad range of experience from beginner to more experienced users. The course was brilliant fun, and an unexpected happy outcome was meeting everyone and becoming good friends.”
The course culminated in a final project, with each student capturing 10 images using the techniques learned on the course.
“In the last session, after we’d shown our final projects to each other, our course tutor, Kat Carlin, suggested that we go on to exhibit our work to the public. The idea took hold; we all kept in touch after the course and decided that we would organise a collaborative exhibition to showcase our work.”
The photography exhibition features 60 photos – ten from each photographer – demonstrating their own unique approaches and styles.
David adds: “The amount of work involved in pulling it all together exceeded what any of us had expected” “I led the process and produced an introduction for each section and an overall introduction to the exhibition with the help of Kat who proof-read and made suggestions on content.
“Gary took on the task of preparing the photos for printing and then we met at AUB to get the photos mounted. The AUB technician staff were very helpful in getting us on the road and guiding with the mounting process.
“Aside from conveying a story, photographs can evoke powerful emotions as can be seen from some well-known images. Whoever you are, whatever you want to take pictures of and no matter your camera, good photographs show something, great photographs say something.”
The Photography Exhibition is open now and runs until Saturday 12 July. David is also organising a solo exhibition, 'In Motion', at Hatch Gallery in Christchurch from Saturday 9 August to Thursday 14 August.
The group are also actively looking for more places to exhibit. If you have a suitable space, please get in touch with David.
- Colin Grieve – Street Encounters
- David Perkins – Transport(ed)
- Ben Promitzer – Observations
- Gary Rawlins – Black & White
- Liza Wellsted – Boyhood
- Phil Woodward – Holidays
