Insight into Fine Arts Photography

Thursday 28 July 2011

Insight into Fine Arts Photography

Members of the public have an opportunity to look into the complex and often beautiful world of fine arts photography at the Whanganui UCOL Fine Arts Photography exhibition, Photosynthesis 2011, which opens next week at the Federal Hotel Gallery.

Photosynthesis 2011 features creative applications of photography by Whanganui UCOL lecturers, Fine Arts students and other exhibitors, including secondary school students..

The biennial exhibition is coordinated and presented by photography students and staff in the Quay School of Art BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree. Artists and photographers were invited to enter their work, with an emphasis on “using photography outside the normal parameters.”

Photography Senior lecturer and Head of UCOL Fine Arts Photography, Rita Dibert, says a good variety of entries have been received, showcasing a range of techniques. This includes Pinholes, Holga (cheap plastic camera images), and more complicated Cyanotypes, Van Dykes, Gum Bichromates, photo collage, hand-tinted photos, palladium and other hand-coated processes. It also includes digital images “that involve the photographer in the output rather than just downloading from the camera.”

She says the works come in many different forms: “They may not be simply a photograph but will embody an element of photography.” Rita says it is an excellent opportunity for students to exhibit their hard work and also gives the public an opportunity to be amazed at what is possible using both modern and revived old fashioned photographic techniques and processes.

This year the exhibition will include the awarding of prizes to Photography students, donated by the Wellington-based Ronald Woolf Memorial Trust. Juror for the awards will be New Plymouth artist and Arts Coordinator for the South Taranaki District Council, Michaela Stoneman.

The Photosynthesis exhibition is held every two years and opens on Wednesday 3 August at 5.30 pm until 7pm at the Federal Hotel Gallery at the corner of Taupo Quay and Market Place, Quay School of the Arts, Whanganui UCOL. Much of the work is for sale.The exhibition continues through 13 August.
All are welcome.
ends