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Competitions
INTERVIEW
Exhibiting in the East As East Anglia’s first national print exhibition, the Beyond Group National Exhibition, enters its seventh year, we catch up with one of the organisers, Barbie Lindsay, to find out more
national print exhibition has been held in East Anglia. We thought it was time that this was addressed. However, seven years ago, we didn’t have the funds to hold a national print exhibition with all the expenses involved, nor the expertise, so we opted instead for a digital-only exhibition to see if it was feasible. We successfully applied for a lottery grant to purchase a projector and laptop etc. We had lots of help from various British Photographic Exhibition’s member clubs, answering all our questions when we encountered problems. Solihull Photographic Society helped us by including our entry forms with their own to get us off the ground regarding advertising it. 1st Graphic Computers in Ipswich sponsored us and donated a printer for us to produce CD labels. Apart from the fact that there is no other exhibition currently of its kind in East Anglia, we are aiming to produce the best exhibition on the circuit in terms of value. We do not charge people to come and see the exhibition. The exhibition images are on our website for nine months and the sequences can also be downloaded for free. We produce a free catalogue containing images of the award-winning pictures and list the acceptances. Our intention is not to make money out of it but to give the entrants value for money. Beyond Group members also sponsor special theme awards which vary fromyear to year and some are unique in their design – well worth going for. There What makes the Beyond Group National Exhibition unique?
will be an extra award this year for the best print as voted for by the visitors during the exhibition.
ABOVE LEFT Gentoo Losing Balance in Sandstorm, Gold Medal, Graham Jones EFIAPg DPAGB BPE4 TOP RIGHT Ice Dawn, Gold Medal, Jon Martin BPE5 EFIAPb ABOVE RIGHT Sweeping, Gold Medal, Justin Minns
Interview by Megan Croft
What are some of the challenges and rewards of running an exhibition? Ironically our biggest challenge is to get more East Anglianmembers to enter and to physically come and see the exhibition. We even have a special award for the best East Anglian club to try encourage a group entry and perhaps a group visit too. The rewards are enormous, it is such fun to organise and we have all made so many new friends through the exhibition. The Beyond Group is well known and well respected, and this is partly down to the exhibition. It is hard work, and takes up the whole year and not just a few weeks as most people would think. As soon as the exhibition is over we start to organise the next year’s. We have an average overall entry of 3400 images including prints and digital with acceptances at around 700. We normally aim for around 500 digital in total and 200 prints. We are limited by how many digital images can comfortably be viewed during an evening at a camera club and limited to the display area of our exhibition venue regarding the prints. Howare the judges for theBeyondGroupNational Exhibition selected? We always choose two well-qualified judges from the How many entries does the exhibition receive on average each year?
What’s your photographic background? I have been a member of various camera clubs for 23 years and everything that I have learnt has come from being a member of a club. Listening to judge’s comments, analysing the winning images as well as seeking help from more experienced members. Going to see photographic exhibitions was another way I gleaned inspiration and motivation. I have been involved with the running of the exhibition from the beginning but I am only one of a very dedicated hard-working team: we share the various jobs equally. One of my main jobs is to produce a PicturesToExe slide show sequence for the exhibition which can be downloaded for free. Back in the beginning though, I also had the arduous task of writing and printing over 450 CDs. That was before we produced a printed catalogue too. TheBeyondGroupNational Exhibition is now in its seventh year; how did the exhibition come about in the first place? I was a founding member of the Beyond Group and it was always my dream to run a national exhibition within East Anglia. There has never been a national exhibition held in Suffolk as far as I am aware and no Can you tell us about your role in the Group’s National Exhibition?
Photography News | Issue 9
www.photography-news.co.uk
PN09-22-23 (BEYOND GROUP) MChbwc.indd 22
13/06/2014 11:28
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