Meeting 23 February – An Evening with John Tilsley

On Tuesday we welcomed John Tilsley back to our club.

John is a highly respected local photographer and judge and we were looking forward to seeing some of his latest work. We were not disappointed!

The photographs John showed us were black and white prints produced in his darkroom during the last six years. He explained some of the techniques he used to produce the effects he wanted but he stressed to us that the process of production was not as important as the image it produced.

He showed us a range of subjects including deserted post boxes in England, churchyard scenes,  landscapes in New Zealand and architectural shots in Paris.

John seems to have a unique vision in his photography – he told us that it was important to give your own impression of a place and of seeing something simple and making a picture out of it.

Perhaps the most exciting photos he showed us were taken with a Hassleblad Xpan camera which enabled him to take panoramic shots.  We saw some stunning landscapes in this format where he illustrated his point that we should look for something different and don’t take what everyone else takes.  John’s vertical landscape shots were a superb example of this, best exemplified by the images of monumental buildings in Paris. His seemingly simple images were often deceptively complex compositions where the people in the images were used to illustrate the scale of the buildings and their often indifferent attitude to their built environment.

After the meeting several members of the club claimed they were going to throw away their cameras because they couldn’t possibly attain John’s high standard!

Thanks, John, for a very inspiring and revelatory evening. And come back again soon…