Photography News 06

12

Camera clubs

The members of Smethwick Photographic Society were going for gold when they took to Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter to each shoot it in their own style. Kaz Diller explains what they got up to and shows us their exhibition- worthy images GROUP CHALLENGE The JewelleryQuarter

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT St Paul’s – The West Door at Dawn by Paul Cutland; Gas Welding by Maria Ollis; The Big Peg by Mike Williams; Warstone Lane Cemetery by Terry O’Connor; Stamping Ground by Graham Hales.

monochrome negatives, before scouting the area to find the original locations, which I re-photographed digitally. My portfolio comprises pairs of images – the original monochrome photograph and a colour print taken from virtually the identical location 40 years later. It was really interesting to see just how much the area had changed, or in some cases remained the same, over this period. Paul Cutland chose to photograph St Paul’s Church in the Jewellery Quarter. This was built in 1777 and became the church of the city’s manufacturers and merchants, and is set in a beautiful Georgian square. Paul was particularly interested in the effect of light on the building and its surroundings. He photographed the church from before dawn to after sunset to show how lighting affected his subject and his pictures were taken over a six-month period. Maria Ollis enjoys capturing moments as they happen. She doesn’t restrict her photography to any particular subject, genre or style. She says that she is still experimenting and always will. Maria decided to focus on the human aspect of the Jewellery Quarter. She spent some time in a family-run jewellery workshop where she photographed many aspects of modern-day jewellery manufacture and repair. In her portfolio, Maria has illustrated some traditional manufacturing methods that are still in use today together with photographs of modern machinery and current manufacturing techniques.

Words by Kaz Diller

Birmingham was once described as the first manufacturing town in the world. Its distinctive economic model comprised thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of highly skilled trades, one such trade being jewellery manufacture. This activity was concentrated in a small part of the city, which became known as the Jewellery Quarter. Six members from Smethwick Photographic Society worked together on a project to photograph the JewelleryQuarter. Smethwick is one of the largest –andprobably the friendliest –photographicsocieties in the country. The society truly encompasses all aspects of photography, encouraging all members to develop their photographic craft and vision. Each photographer working on the project focused on a different aspect of the Jewellery Quarter. As a team we agreed to a loose project framework, with individuals photographing the area and then meeting up again to discuss the project over a few drinks, reviewing our work and obtaining constructive feedback from each other. I decided to take a historical approach to the subject. I had originally photographed the Jewellery Quarter in the 1970s and I was interested to see what changes had taken place there over the last 40 years. I scanned and digitally remastered my old

As a teamwe agreed to a loose project framework, with individuals photographing the area and then meeting up again to discuss the project over drinks

Photography News | Issue 6

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