Photographer profiles listed in alphabetical order
Click on a photographer to see a selection of images
My interest in photography began when I joined the Worcestershire Camera Club and initially worked to produce fine art monochrome pictures, mainly landscape. Having discovered high speed infra-red film, I put this to good use on a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan long before the gardens became famous and produced what has been kindly described as a striking set of woodland pictures.
I gained my ARPS with a set of complex family history montages depicting the history of a cottage in which members of my family had lived for five generations. These pictures have been widely published in photographic and family history magazines. I have also written for Practical Photography and Digital Photo magazines. More recent work consists of a variety of subject matter using digital imaging techniques printed on some of the interesting range of art papers now available.
Together with my husband Martin I was a founder member of Infinity Plus, a group of photographers based in the Midlands and was delighted to be invited to join Eyecon, as fine a group of photographers as one could ever wish to meet and from whom I derive inspiration on all aspects of photography.
I will always remember Eddie Sethna the founder of Eyecon with special affection for his genuine appreciation, interest and encouragement in the early days of digital imaging, particularly when I was striving to produce my ARPS panel.
Abstracts, close-up and impressionism have all been part of my photography since the time I was first inspired to take up photography in my teens. I joined the Worcestershire Camera Club at this time which provided both stimulus and an outlet for my photography. My inspiration comes from everything around me and in particular the natural world. One of my favourite photographers is Freeman Patterson whose writing and photography continues to inspire,
I have always been interested in creating pictures which intrigue, sometimes using close up techniques to explore subjects in depth. In the camera, I use multiple exposures to add textures and continued this process when I started colour printing from slides which gave me the opportunity to combine pictures through multiple printing. I obtained my Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1995 with a set of multiple printed images on Cibachrome paper.
Corel Painter has become a particular focus in recent years and has resulted in the publication of three instructional books on how to use Painter with photographs as the source. My latest book, ‘Painter 11 for Photographers’ was published in 2009.
In 1992 Doreen and I founded ‘Infinity Plus’ an inspirational photographic group that meets monthly to discuss images. Both Infinity Plus and Eyecon provide important forums for the discussion and evaluation of photographs.
I like to work in themes and to present work as a series of panels which explore various aspects of a subject. The panels in this book are typical of those I am currently producing.
Peter Clark FRPS EFIAP/p APSA PPSA
Peter’s interest in serious photography began when he joined Cannock Photographic Society in 1982 and discovered the joys of monochrome. For the past 25 years or so he has specialised exclusively in Landscape photography in both monochrome print and colour slide, in both the British Isles and the South-western United States and has exhibited widely in International Salons since 1987. He has exhibited by invitation in Denmark, France, Germany and Romania with monochrome prints and has an image, 'Time and Tide', in the permanent collection of the Museum in Rheus, Spain.
His philosophy of Pictorial Photography may be summarized as follows : 'A successful pictorial image will stand on it's own without the need for title or explanation and should include one or more of the following elements - impact, drama, mood and atmosphere. In his chosen field of Landscape Photography, which naturally includes Seascapes, he endeavours to meet these criteria by the careful choice of location, subject matter and composition, by the use of dramatic lighting conditions coupled where possible with heavy skies and, in Seascape in particular, by the use of an appropriate shutter speed. In the darkroom, both wet and digital, these elements are enhanced through creative printing or manipulation techniques.'
He gained his FRPS in 1992, EFIAP/p in 2003 and, as a 5* Mono Print Exhibitor of the Photographic Society of America, the PPSA in 2004. In 2006 he was honoured by the PSA with the award of the Associatship for Services to Photography.
In 1996 he was invited to join the Eyecon group and is currently both Chairman and Secretary.
For several years he was privileged to collaborate closely with Eddy Sethna, one of the pioneers of digital imaging and founder of the Eyecon Group, who taught him much of his current knowledge of Photoshop. Together they wrote two well received electronic books on Photoshop and a series of articles for the now defunct Digital Photo Art magazine.
Derek began his photographic journey in North Wales around 1980, as a member of the Beaumaris club on Anglesey. A biologist and scientist by profession, photography offered an opportunity to release all those frustrated artistic yearnings lying dormant in the right side of the brain. For many years one of his main interests has been in street photography, in particular at the carnivals and festivals held in many places during the year. His photographs try to convey his feelings or comments evoked by the subject, and often using colour and movement to contribute to the effect. Derek has served as the N. Wales representative on the PAGB, and was elected to the London Salon in 1998. He was a founder member of the Eyecon group
David has had a serious interest in photography since 1971 when he returned from a year working in Japan bringing back a Pentax Spotmatic camera and a desire to make good use of it. He joined Sutton Coldfield Photographic Society and started printing in monochrome, eventually moving to Ciba colour printing from slides. He had an early interest in the possibilities offered by derivative slide images using etch/bleach/dye processes to produce work of a graphic nature and achieved the ARPS distinction in 1989 for a series of slides many of which were produced using ‘derivative’ techniques. Gum bichromate prints and use of pastels for hand tinting have also been of interest.
Since he retired in 1998 he has taken on board the flexibility offered by digital processes and all his prints (and an occasional slide) are now produced from digital files via Photoshop. He is a Past President of both Sutton Coldfield Photographic Society and Croydon Camera Club. After moving to Warwickshire (Harbury) some six years ago he joined Solihull Photographic Society where he is a Past President and currently General Secretary and Exhibition Chairman.
Many of his images have been taken on one or other of his trips to countries including Nepal, India, Tibet, China, Central Asia and, on the other side of the Atlantic, Peru and North America. The images in this book are chosen to show the diversity of landscapes and people in some of these countries.
Irene Froy FRPS EFIAP Hon PAGB
Irene’s photography began over 50 years ago when she was still at school. Using the family Box Brownie she made contact prints in the garden shed and hand-coloured them. Fortunately none have survived! During school holidays Irene worked for the local photographer in her native Pittenweem and when she started work with the AA in Dundee needing to make friends in the city she joined Dundee PS.
She met her husband Gerry on holiday in Dubrovnik and made the move south to Hitchin in 1966 where they both joined Shillington & DCC. Irene was the driving force behind Shillington’s rise and she was also Events Secretary of the East Anglian Federation for 24 years including 2 years as President.
Moving to Shropshire in 2005 they joined Wrekin Arts PC and Smethwick PS. Irene continues to lecture throughout the country and also to demonstrate her digital techniques.
Although Irene’s main interest is in landscape photography she will turn her camera to any subject if the light is right. She loves misty conditions and seems to be fortunate in finding them on most holidays. And a passing storm is always welcome!
Irene loves the French countryside and has published a book - My France. Recent holidays have included Holland, Ireland, Italy and the Hebrides as well as France.
Now with mobility problems Irene’s viewpoints have to be very close to the car but she has proved that you don’t need to walk far to get the images but you do need a co-operative driver which is where Gerry’s support is so vital.
After many years of printing colour in the darkroom from slides, Irene made the move to digital in 1998 - the same year that she was invited to join Eyecon. She loves the greater control and creativity possible with the computer and the pastel style which has become her trademark.
FRPS, EFIAP and MPAGB have been achieved over the years and Irene was elected to membership of the London Salon of Pictorial Photography in 1996. She is also a recipient of the coveted J S Lancaster Medal, HonPAGB, awarded for exceptional service to photography.
Photography proves a wonderful antidote and still-point to the sometimes frenetic world about us.
My photography, whilst not insulating me from the real world, certainly enables me to escape into an alternative universe where much of what I see, manage and process is under my control – here I can select my viewpoint, be representational or as abstract as suits my response to the subject. For example, I can view the world as monochrome or colour, choose an alternate spectrum with infrared, enjoy visions with selective focus or an interesting depth of field, selectively introduce colours, tones or tints, explore the realms of close-up and macro photography, enjoy the abstract nature of pattern and design, merge, interleave and overlay images to create new realms, landscapes and imaginative beings. Above all I seek to communicate something of the essence and joy about what I experience and to encourage an informed response from the viewer.
I enjoy sharing my work with audiences during talks about my work. Appreciation and interpretation by a perceptive audience, whether at a small gathering such as at an Eyecon meeting, via an Internet forum or at a larger event, is one of the joys of our art.
I frequently choose to express myself through thematically-related panels of prints and topic-related books.
Typically I work with a combination of ‘mode’ (a general approach or method) and ‘theme’ (topic or subject). The examples in these pages illustrate some work from recent modes and themes, notably, infrared photography, ‘Primal Energies’, ‘Hulks’, ‘City of Glass’, etc.
Photography is part of me; even when not carrying a camera, I constantly see pictures and imagine ‘the frame’ and a final version of the scene, all by means of the ‘virtual camera’ in my head.
Photography is both the devil that drives and a constant point of sanity in an increasingly manic world.
During his formative years, David worked almost exclusively from colour negative film, as he could obtain greater subtlety in tone and mutation of colour using this medium than with transparencies. As the digital revolution changed things so radically, however, the creative opportunities soon became apparent, and like most other photographers, he has converted completely.
It is not until this later stage in life that David has decided to embark upon a formal course of arts training and hopes that, in time, he can somehow combine the medium of photography with the more conventional forms of art.
PETER REES is one of the original members of the Eyecon Group and recalls well the early digital dabblings of some of the darkroom afficionados in the group, all of whom have now become highly proficient in digital techniques. Back then, another of the founder members, the late Barrie Thomas, was hugely influential, and Peter remembers the buzz he felt when Barrie’s digital Fellowship panel (the first ever) was passed round the group members. A whole new creative world to be explored !
Like many others of his generation, Peter was introduced to photography via a Brownie 127, a Christmas gift from his parents in the early 1950’s.
He discovered the world of club photography in the Sixties, and as he moved jobs he joined clubs in areas as diverse as Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Isle of Arran, Mid Argyll, Carlisle, North Wales and Shropshire. He is currently a member, and past Chairman, of Wrekin Arts Photographic Club in Wellington, Shropshire, where he has been a member for 15 years.
His photographic “roots” are in darkroom printing, and in 2000 he was awarded an RPS Fellowship in Printing, for a panel of monochrome images. He has now fully embraced the creative opportunities afforded by digital imaging, but admits to a certain nostalgia for the “aromas” of the darkroom, and the blood, sweat and tears, and the huge sense of achievement, that were part and parcel of printing “the old way”.
Peter has not specialised in any one area of photography, and over the years has worked happily on landscapes, portraits, still life, abstract, figure studies, photo-travel and photo-journalism. For some 30 years he has lectured and judged at club level throughout Britain, and he has exhibited widely throughout the world, having gained many awards.
The late Eddy Sethna FRPS AFIAP
I started photography at the age of fifty as a
form of therapy for the stresses of my occupation as a Consultant Psychiatrist.
Photography has become a very important part of my life ever since.
Some four years ago I started digital imaging not knowing anything about
computers whatsoever. I feel that with digital imaging I "make" images rather
than just "take" them and I am more able to put my ideas, fantasies, emotions
and feelings into my images. Of all the interests and hobbies I have had in my
life, I have not enjoyed anything more than digital imaging.
I now exclusively use digital imaging for producing all my pictures. I prefer
not to use filters as that does not illustrate my creativity. What I like to do
most is to produce images which are not highly manipulated and look more like
the images I used to produce before I started digital imaging.
It’s a funny old game this photography, with almost as many different styles as there are photographers. Since becoming involved in photography in 1986 I have certainly learnt that there are no absolutes, no rules that can’t be broken, no styles that can’t be tried for those who wish to express themselves photographically. This book of pictures by the Eyecon Group, a body of like-minded people, who seem to be able to produce a decidedly unalike body of work, will I am sure reflect this fact.
Perhaps this is to some extent reflected in my own dichotomy of interest; I love traditional style monochrome yet also enjoy exploring the creative and artistic possibilities of digital photography. I have been much influenced by the photo-secessionists of the late nineteenth century but there are a number of modern photographers whose creativity and artistry is a constant spur to me. I see no conflict in this; it is just different sides of me seeking expression.
The infinite variety of styles being promulgated means there is always something new to be discovered, which is a joy but also a challenge as it means reaching out to understand other people’s pictures.
Anne Sutcliffe took up photography in around 1984 as an antidote to the stresses of the NHS. The introduction of autofocus by Minolta in 1986 provided a tremendous boost because Anne was very short sighted and struggled with manual focus but the advent of digital manipulation and printing revolutionized her photography. Having previously been mainly a transparency worker who entered the darkroom with reluctance, the transition to digital imaging provided an endless source of pleasure and inspiration. After nine years of experimentation and development, she eventually developed her own style and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2003. This led to several new opportunities, in particular invitations to become a member of Eyecon and the London Salon of Photography.
Anne finds it difficult to put into words exactly what her ‘style’ is. Others have described her work as pastel or pale and interesting. They also comment that she sees pictures in places that others would pass by without a glance. The latter is certainly true. She is best known for her ever-expanding series of pictures of lady’s public conveniences and for the fact that many of her pictures include a dog. Anne never passes by the opportunity for a photograph and takes landscapes, natural history and travel photographs. However, since around 2001, Anne has concentrated on making alternative images in familiar locations such as Cuba, taking perverse pleasure in the fact that nobody can guess the location. All her pictures are extensively manipulated in the interests of simplification and creativity although she prefers that the manipulations should be so subtle that they do not dominate the final image. Limited desaturation and digital airbrushing are her favourite techniques.
For Tony Thomas his interest in photography began at the age of 13 with the advent of his first camera, a Coronet, bought with paper round money to take pictures at scout camps. The interest blossomed when he joined Wrekin Arts Photographic Club in 1980. Always keen on cars his first interest was rally car photography and while following rallies he realised that the landscape was beckoning. His passion for landscape photography grew over the years and although he works in all mediums,
monochrome prints are his favourite, his preference being infrared and lith printing.
He began in the darkroom producing colour prints but soon discovered that with monochrome he could create more mood and feeling. Although he is now working with digital printing the darkroom is still his first love and he refers to himself as a dinosaur because he is one of a diminishing group still working in the dark. He derived great pleasure from being invited to join Eyecon and draws lots of inspiration from the discussions within the group.
Trees hold a great fascination for him especially in winter when the shape can be seen and he feels the weather is never too bad to take a photograph. Holidays on the island of Crete opened up a whole new world and olive trees stirred something in him. It is not unknown for him to spend several hours in an olive grove shooting from all angles. An ample supply of peeling paint and old ladies in black makes for a perfect location. Tony’s love affair with Crete and the Cretan people is evident in his book “Real Crete Through My Lens”. He achieved EFIAP in 2002 .He now takes pictures that please himself.
I suppose if you want to do a biography of yourself, you must go back to the beginning and yes I did buy a box brownie from Woolworths for 6d. which was around 3 weeks pocket money - I still have some of the pictures.
Moving forward to the early 1980's, I was fortunate to be invited to Hong Kong for a holiday, it was for this that I purchased a Canon AE1 and armed with 27 rolls of film I set off on my journey. It was not until 1992 when Sue (now my wife) bought me a Jessops start up dark room kit and a book on how to build one that the passion for this wonderful hobby started to take hold.
In 1993 I joined Smethwick Photographic Society and Aston & Erdington. My one ambition was to become a serious photographer.
I became President of Smethwick Photographic Society in 1999/2000 during which I played a major part in the acquisition and renovation of the 'Old School House' now the Clubroom for Smethwick. In 2006/2007 I took on the role again in more favourable circumstances.
Despite all the PSA & FIAP medals which I have received over the years, the highlight for me has to be the invitation to become a member of the London Salon.
I tour extensively throughout the UK and Ireland giving lectures and judging competitions which I enjoy.
My main interest throughout the years has been monochrome work, with the successful series of pictures created by me for my website ‘my monochrome world by jambo habari’.
Recently I have ventured into the mysterious world of ‘Colour’ creating hand tinted and toned prints digitally, which I suppose from a mono workers point of view is what we all did in the old darkroom.