Shoreditch Street Art / John Gough / Canon EOS 6D
I visited the RPS International Photography Exhibition this week and there were a lot of strong images on display. So strong I wished I had taken many of them. A high level of envy on my part, is sufficient criteria for a really stunning image.
The RPS International Photography Exhibition has been held almost every year since 1854. Now in its 160th year, it is the longest running exhibition of its kind in the world.
The RPS describes the exhibition as reflecting, ‘the varying interests and vibrant aesthetics of the photographic medium today, presenting work which demonstrates photographic skill and technique, alongside images exploring ideas and narratives rich in meaning and message. It encompasses single images and series work across all genres. The work is executed in many ways from alternative processes to contemporary approaches’.
The RPS it seems is becoming more and more pompous. A prime candidate for Private Eye / Pseuds Corner.
The Awards
The gold award went to Margaret Mitchell. Her winning entry is here. Her poignant environmental portraits of her sister’s children and others is part of a larger project, In This Place .
‘In This Place’ raises questions about choice—do we have choices in life, or are some predetermined and made for us?
Margaret took pictures of her nephew and two nieces as children, growing up in Stirling for a previous work called Family. More recently Margaret started photographing them again. Her sister’s children are now adults and have kids of their own. However their living conditions are the same, and it appears that the same outcome awaits each child. It is as if there were, some sort of self fulfilling cycle.
The silver award went to R J Kern. From this it is easy the current popularity of the environmental portrait. A glimpse of his exhibition The Unchosen Ones.
The Walk to the Station
The exhibition was at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, which was an excuse to walk the London streets with my camera. The street art is amazing.