Visit to the MA Exhibition

On Saturday I visited the Exhibition at the University here in Plymouth. It was both inspirational and enjoyable. I wanted to view the work by the MA Students, not only because I am interested in keeping abreast with the work they do, and because I want to continue my own studies to achieve an MA but also as inspiration for my research for our own Exhibition that will open on March 13th 2012. To state the obvious, visiting Galleries and Exhibitions is part of my personal enjoyment as well.

The work I saw that I was most impressed with was that of Zdenek Boucek and Sarah Adney. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any reference to information for either photographer,

Boucek's submission to the University Gallery appeared highly influenced by the work of the Formalists; it reminded  in particular of the work of Frederick H Evans (1853 – 1943).

Frederick Evans retired from bookselling in 1898 to devote all of his time to photographing the cathedrals of England and France. He was a fastidious man, a purist, often spending weeks studying the light in a cathedral at various times of day. In Evans’s view, light represented spiritual enlightenment. One of my favourite images by Evans is A Sea of Steps, Wells Cathedral (1903). Each time I see it, I am in awe of his work. I have often tried to capture the light in chrurches but as yet have not had any great success.

Boucek's images of a Cathedral reminded me of the strong lines of Evan's work, though they did not have the same spiritual emotion attached to them. Shot in Black and White, they are strong and majestic images showing the contrast in the light and shadows.  But I sensed that the images were about the beauty of shape and form. There was not an Artist Statement or any clues as to why Boucek had shot these images. I would have liked to have read more about his work.

A Sea of Steps by Frederick H Evans courtesy of http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/196923/Frederick-H-Evans

Sarah Adney's work is more contemporary. They are images superimposed or edited to seem dreamlike. The only way I can describe her images are to imagine that there is a picture on the television which is under white noise but colourful white noise.  I liked these very much but again there was no information to follow up on, and no description of the work. I did take an image on my mobile phone but as I don't have permission to upload it, I will suggest that the MA work is well worth a viewing.

Tuesday 17th Jan 2012

I returned to the Peninsula Gallery today ... I shot some images on my mobile just to show the work of Sarah Adney and  Zdenek Boucek