CARDIFF CAMERA CLUB ANNUAL EXHIBITION | ART REVIEW
The Gate Arts and Community Centre, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff Info:www.thegate.org.uk
The Gate Arts Centre in Roath has been playing host to the area’s best and most exciting photographer’s work that includes fantastic close-ups of our fine-feathered friends. The exhibition is a mix of colour and b&w mostly human and animal portraits and landscapes that showcase the club’s commitment to quality work.
Robbie Tucker’s b&w slightly grainy photo of a young Thoughtful girl and also Zebras At Sunrise show she has a real knack for getting up-close and personal. Her creative use of sunlight streaming through the wild herd captures them intimately, making them seem so serene.
Tony Charles’ (AWPF) portrait of Elliott is a no-fuss, straight-on shot that conveys reality without photo shopping the life out of a face.
Ian Tucker’s shot of a woman in the simple act of Winnowing Barley, with her face obscured, highlightes her colourful clothing against a pale backdrop (although I would have liked the grass not included).
His second imaginative photo combines separate pics of a baby’s and an elderly woman’s face on the hands of a metronome, displaying and ticking down The Passage Of Time. The Busker In The Underpass, by Junior Gibson, conveys a sense of time and place, past and present, using sepia-toned photos of a Victorian-era woman and steam train superimposed on the wall across from the musician.
Anne Phillips’ Monarch Of The Glen shows a lone sheep in Welsh mountains, just as majestic in his own way, as his Scottish namesake.
You half-expect to hear him bleat any minute. Her colour sunset pics are stunning, also. Imants Grindulis’ Roath Park turned a small spot that you may pass every day into a lovely, crisp vision, framing the scene with nothing superfluous. Sunset is a glorious pastel-mix of cotton candy-like sky and clouds and shimmering water and sand.
Switching gears from nature to engineering, I also liked his view from Inside The Sculpture. Continuing along those geometric lines, Vic Chambers showed a sharp eye for detail and composition with his photo choices of a rooftop and a stairwell. His abstract take on Trees In Winter showed two aspects, the organic and the man-made. Stepping back and looking at the picture, the trees are transformed into pieces of shiny steel, the snow making them gleam. Kudos to Danothy Bennett for making you feel as if you’re in the midst of a rain-lashed thriller with Nash Point Storm and Last Light At Dunraven Bay. The small doses of colour are ingenious, especially on the latter, making the act of the sun setting seem like a volcanic eruption. In Nearer My God To Thee a panoramic shot of a cemetery, the silhouettes and shadows of gravestones and memorials against the sky also looked like mourners when observed from a distance.
Is Toby Richards trying to convey the soul rising up to heaven by including a plane’s smoke trail just visible to the side? I don’t know, but it added that little bit extra!
You can get bugged-out examining the various vivid insect prints on display, too. So buzz on over before they take off for good!
words RHONDA LEE REALI
