Fine Art Photography Exhibition Celebrating International Gold Awards
On 22nd March, as a celebration of reaching 10 Gold Awards in international competitions with The Societies of Photographers, I put on my first solo fine art photography exhibition. I’ve taken part in various international exhibitions before (listed here) as well as some locally. However, this was the first time that only my work would be on display. The venue was St George’s Works in Norwich. Weeks of preparation led up to the final event with Barbara from Breed Events handling the organising. Having Barbara on board kept my stress levels down and freed me up to concentrate on getting the presentation of the images themselves just as I wanted them. I used various different fine art papers to bring out the best in each of the images and chose a contemporary black frame with a double mount (black and white) from Norwich Framing Centre.
As you will see below, the double mounting and the black frame provided a contemporary yet also classic look. That way the prints would look at home anywhere. They were displayed on heavy duty music stands. Not only did this enable us to place the pictures around the room and not just on the walls, it also was a nod back toward my previous career as a professional musician. The centrepiece of the exhibition was an enormous acrylic print of the Pavilion Theatre on Cromer Pier. This dramatic image took on a whole new dimension at that size and certainly drew plenty of interest. It remains one of my favourite images and besides winning a Gold award it has featured in several exhibitions around the world.
On the day, work started early in the afternoon preparing the space for the evening. I created a timelapse video of setting up for the exhibition:
One of my students, Abby Campling, kindly agreed to do the event photography for me. This is a role I would normally undertake but on this occasion there were other things to occupy me! Abby did a great job and the event photos here were all supplied by her. Please do visit her website for the full gallery of event photos. Here is a selection of Abby’s images:
It was good to see many familiar faces and also to meet new people. The evening provided a good opportunity for business networking as well, bringing together people from various networks that I attend. I enjoyed being able to talk to a wide variety of people from fellow photographers to art lovers and more. The slightly daunting part of the evening involved me being interviewed by Barbara to tell my story about how I became a photographer and my journey from there. It is always a bit emotional speaking about how I lost my former career due to nerve damage caused by MS. However, it was also wonderful to celebrate the rapid journey to success in the world of photography.
Here is a timelapse video that I created of the exhibition itself:
It was a lovely evening marking a real milestone in my photography career. I hope to put on another exhibition in future presenting more of my fine art photography and more of my award-winning images. A big thank you to everyone who came along and all who offered their support in the build up whether in person or via social media. Please do take a look at the gallery pages.
© Joe Lenton, April 2018
Event Photos © Abby Campling, 2018