Arena Seminar Report 2008
For many of us, the Arena Seminar is the highlight of the photographic year. This year again confirmed the seminar to be probably the premier event in the UK for the dedicated photographer to learn and discuss the art of photography.
Held this year in the Riviera Hotel in Bournemouth, everyone approved of the quality of the food and service at meal times and the suitability of the facilities for the weekend. We all took advantage of the bar, some used the swimming pool and many others made their way down to the sea front to make some pictures of their own.
The lectures kicked off with an inspiring talk by our own Dave Mason on his style of street photography. Rich in colour and strong on design, the images are often surreal, contradictory and immediate.
Mark powers gave a moving presentation, which started with his earliest childhood photographic images, through his development as a photographer, to his current work as a member of Magnum. His lecture finished with some moving work that revisited his early family archive, as stills and a movie installation. Mark’s talk was a fascinating discussion on his approach to building projects of work, getting modern documentary work published, and the workings of Magnum.
Whereas Mark Power’s work has taken him to many far-flung places, Jem Southam’s work is largely made close to his home in Exeter. His work is contemplative, often with pictures made at the same location over differing seasons and year. The images are quiet, highly detailed and demand careful inspection. Whilst the street photographer might attempt to be as inconspicuous as possible, for Jem the reverse is true. A tall man himself, he showed us his huge 10X8 camera and the massive, oversized tripod that he mounts it on. So large, in fact, that he needs a step ladder in order to reach the camera and frame the image! From these very large negatives he is able to get very large, high resolution scans and then from these very large, highly detailed images that are suitable for large display in galleries. Jem brought one of these prints to the seminar, which generated a great deal of interest when we given the opportunity to inspect it.
With the days lectures done, the seminar then broke into three workshops. The Landscape workshop was lead by Jem Southam, personal projects by Branka, and Street Photography by Dave Mason. The evening ‘Show-and-Tell’ print critique saw work displayed by guests to the seminar, after which it was time for a well deserved drink and sleep after long and stimulating day.
The Sunday session kicked off with a presentation from Arena’s Tony and Eva Worobiec. Following on from their successful book ‘Ghosts in the Wilderness’ they have returned to the American Midwest to work on their new title ‘Icons of the Highway’, and the lecture presented work from this recent project. Iconic diners, cinemas, bars and other building are rapidly disappearing from US towns, and Tony and Eva have managed to capture the neon-lit beauty of these places in the twilight hours of dawn and dusk.
Branka Jukic returned to Arena for her second, highly popular lecture. In contrast to the extraordinary detail of Jem’s work, her images are highly evocative, emotional images of people and creatures that use blur and grain to great effect. A master monochrome printer, her prints have a dark luminosity that give a sense of mystery, peace and calm. More recently, she has started producing colour work characterised by a sumptuous but subdued palette. Her current work is also explores memory and a revisiting of her homeland of Croatia.
The final presentation came on Sunday afternoon from London-based professional David Scheinmann. A successful commercial photographer, David’s talents spread into many areas of visual art. One of the pioneers of digital imaging in the early nineties, his work covered many genres of photography as well as that of film-making. In addition to his many inspiring pictures we were treated to some clips of his moving image work.
As usual, the print raffle was very popular, with many guests going home with a quality print to hang on their wall. And your scribe counts himself as the luckiest recipient, winning a beautiful monochrome print kindly donated by Branka Jukic.
The feedback we have received about the seminar has been unanimously positive. The programme was very strong, and the facilities at the Riviera were much more comfortable than we had at Ufton Court for previous seminars. Planning has already started for next year's seminar. Please keep checking back for more more details!
Thanks to Dave Mason for most of the pictures. Do you have any pictures from the event that you would like to share with us? Please send me an email with your photos to graham.dew@arenaphotographers.com and I will add them to the article. Thanks!