Visual Art Magazine No. 163/2023/Issue 2

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

COMMITTEE

John Cavana ARPS (Chairman) visualart@rps.org

Carol Paes ARPS (Secretary & Newsletter Editor) visualartsec@rps.org

Barry Barker FRPS (Treasurer) visualarttreasurer@rps.org

Mark Deutsch LRPS (Membership Secretary) visualartmembership@rps.org

Tom Lee FRPS (Exhibitions Lead) tomleephoto@me.com

Michael Butterworth LRPS (Group Web Editor) visualartweb@rps.org

Gill Dishart ARPS (Circles Secretary) gill@dishart.plus.com

Michael Kitchingman LRPS (Residential Weekends Co-ordinator) mike.kitch@outlook.com

Wendy Meagher LRPS (Publications Co-ordinator) wmeagher@gmail.com

Martyn Pearse (Exhibitions Member) martynpearse@gmail.com

Bob Bracher ARPS (Exhibitions Member) rpbracher@yahoo.co.uk

Robert Herringshaw ARPS (Co-ordinator of The Stephen H. Tyng Foundation) robertherringshaw@me.com

Val Glenny (Committee Member) valaglenny@gmail.com

SUB-GROUP ORGANISERS

Rollright

Barry Barker FRPS visualartrollright@rps.org

Northern Mary Crowther ARPS visualartnorth@rps.org

South West

Marija Lees LRPS visualartsouthwest@rps.org

If you are interested in having or organising a Visual Art Sub-Group in your area, please contact:

Mark Deutsch LRPS visualart@rps.org

Front Cover Image: by Marilyn Taylor FRPS

Inside Front Cover Image: by Charlotte Bellamy

VISUAL ART

CONTENTS

NO. 163 / AUTUMN 2023

4. A View from the Chair

John Cavana ARPS

4. Editor’s Comments

Linda Wevill FRPS

5. ‘My’ Surrey

Eddie Hyde FRPS

10. Mystical Mexico

Angela Ford ARPS

14. A Love Affair with Monochrome

Susan Brown FRPS

19. Tulips Reimagined

Charlotte Bellamy

24. Disappearing Tribes of Papua New Guinea – Land of Mystery

Marilyn Taylor FRPS

GUEST EDITOR: Linda Wevill FRPS (lindawevill@gmail.com)

DESIGNER: Jacqui Adams (jacqui@demiurgedesign.co.uk)

Visual Art is The Magazine of the RPS Visual Art Group and is provided as part of the annual subscription of the Group. © 2023 All rights reserved on behalf of the authors. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for such permission must be addressed to the Guest Editor. The Royal Photographic Society, RPS Visual Art Group and the Guest Editor accept no liability for any misuse or breach of copyright by a contributor. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal Photographic Society or of the Visual Art Group.

Printed by Bishops Printers Ltd., Portsmouth PO6 1TR

A View from the Chair

JOHN CAVANA ARPS

I hope you will enjoy finding a nice, quiet place to sit down, relax and read this edition of the Visual Art Magazine. Linda has again assembled and presented us with a wide variety of topics for our pleasure and edification.

Some changes to our Magazine and Monograph production have taken place since the last issue. Paul Mitchell FRPS, who was our excellent designer for several years, has left us for pastures new. We are very pleased to welcome Jacqui Adams of Demiurge Design to replace Paul as our new designer, and I would like to thank John Timbrell ARPS for helping to facilitate this arrangement.

In future, we plan on producing three paper issues of the VA Magazine every

year, one of which will also contain your images from the annual print exhibition. The Visual Art Monograph, previously sent to members as a hard copy, will instead be made available as an online production only. We have made these changes to reduce the ever increasing printing and postage charges. In the same vein, we will in future make the VA Magazine available to our overseas members online only.

I’m happy to report that we now have sub-groups operational in the Central, Northern and South West regions. Please see the Visual Art Group web pages at www.rps.org for more details. These sub-groups are a wonderful addition to visual art. They do require a lot of thought and effort from many people to make them work well and

Editor’s Comments

LINDA WEVILL FRPS

My turn for editing the Visual Art Magazine seems to have come around quite quickly as my last edition was last summer. But, after the pandemic, it’s obviously our ‘getting back to normal’. I am delighted to put together another edition for you and I hope you enjoy the variety of approaches and styles included in this issue.

On visits to Mexico, with its abundance of colour and culture, Angela Ford takes us to the streets for the celebrations of ‘The Day of the Dead’ festival. We are carried away with the excitement and vitality on reading her account of this cultural event and seeing her personal creative interpretation of the richly colourful scene.

Charlotte Bellamy takes us on her tenyear journey to the tulip fields of Holland and talks about how her photography has evolved as she strives to take different images year after year. She

explains that she attempts to immerse viewers into the experience of seeing the flowers with her and the emotion she felt at the time. She uses different techniques with this goal in mind.

Eddie Hyde has a strong affinity for woodland images and, as he lives in the county with the most trees in England, he is within easy reach of many woodland areas. He finds being amongst trees calming and therapeutic and, in his article, Eddie shares with us his passion and how he searches ‘for order in the chaos’ of this environment. Some of the images shown were part of Eddie’s successful Fellowship submission on the subject.

I saw Marilyn Taylor’s Fellowship submission being assessed at RPS House and I thought it was wonderful, so it is fascinating to hear the background story to these images. Marilyn’s interpretation of the tribal portraits taken from cultural

your enthusiastic support is very much appreciated. The names of the coordinators are shown in the latest VAG Newsletter.

Finally, this will be the last ‘View from the Chair’ from me. I will soon be stepping aside in order to spend more time working on my own photography. It has been my pleasure and privilege to have been your Chairman for the last two years – I enjoyed the challenge very much, and have been supported by a great team. I leave with thanks and appreciation to our three excellent guest editors and to Wendy Meagher LRPS for being the superglue in the middle of all this publication co-ordination.

Best wishes to all, John

events in Papua New Guinea is very creative and shows her personal style. She questions whether these tribes will be around for her grandchildren to see and, as she says, ‘Time will tell’.

Sue Brown’s photographic journey started 44 years ago with black and white film and this love of monochrome continues to this day. She has recently been achieving this with infrared with her Fuji XT2 converted camera. Sue shares with us a variety of her work at the coast and in the woodlands and forests where she explores the beauty and devastation found there.

I would like to thank our new designer, Jacqui, for designing this wonderful issue of the Magazine. Many thanks also to our contributors for sharing with us such a variety of ideas and images. I am sure they are going to inspire and motivate you with your own photography.

Linda

‘My’ Surrey

EDDIE HYDE FRPS

Surrey is not perhaps a destination that many photographers will have on their landscape hit list. There are other far more obvious places to go: the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Lake District, Snowdonia, the other National Parks of England and Wales, East Anglia, Cornwall, and so on.

Surrey is the most wooded county in England, so a liking for woodland photography is fairly essential, as it is difficult to take any sort of view that is devoid of trees and there is no coastline. However, it does offer up a nice range of hills in the shape of the North Downs, which provide extensive views towards the South Downs.

I have titled this article ‘My Surrey’ to reflect that I have by no means explored all the potential of the county. I have tended to concentrate on local woodland and the local high spots, in particular Box Hill, which is a 15-minute drive from home and, therefore, a very convenient location to check out at dawn in the Winter months when the sun rises at a civilised hour.

During the pandemic, the local woodland was my saving grace, providing fresh air, exercise, and a chance to get lost in photography at a time when we needed these things the most. It was a total escape from the trauma the world was experiencing, and I am most grateful to have been able to stay within all the restrictions that applied and still indulge my passion for photography. It did not feel as though taking my camera on my daily exercise was out of line. This meant I relied heavily on Bookham Commons, the woodland surrounding Polesden Lacey, Headley Heath, Box Hill and Leith Hill – all managed by the National Trust.

Of course, Surrey stretches out from the South West of London and incorporates such beauty spots as Bushy Park and Richmond Park. Out towards Hampshire, there is Thursley Common. The towns can provide great architectural photography opportunities too: Guildford, Farnham, Kingston, and Richmond, for example.

Whilst I was taking woodland images from well before the pandemic, it was during this period that the idea of

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putting this type of image together for a Fellowship submission really crystallised. I have included some of the panel images in this article, amongst a broader set, to show Surrey’s potential. Woodland photography can, after all, be practised anywhere in Britain and there are many glorious forests throughout the UK which have their own characteristics.

With Surrey not being such a photography

‘destination’, it does have the advantage of images being less seen than, say, the lone tree at Llyn Padarn or the beaches of Harris.

It becomes easier to get your ‘own’ images. Not that there is anything wrong with taking the view that has been taken thousands of times before. After all, every image is at least slightly

different due to ever-changing light and season. However, it’s always nice to get an image that you can be confident is unique.

One problem that woodland photographers face, is that as we transition from Spring into Summer the dense green foliage and summer sun, when we get it, tend not to make great images. The best way around this, I have found, is to shoot in infrared and convert to black and white. I’m not personally a fan of infrared colour but I do like the monochrome conversions.

There is something very special and relaxing about walking in woodland – a property that I mentioned in my Statement of Intent: Shinrin-Yoku – a term coined by the Japanese which translates as Forest Bathing. It’s about a state of mind really and one which goes very well together with this type of photography. If you can really relax into the environment, it greatly helps to find compositions.

Finally, here is the Statement of Intent that accompanied my Fellowship submission:

I have always had a strong affinity to nature and woodland in particular. The range of sensations within a wood brings a sense of wonder, comfort and peace. In Japan they call it ShinrinYoku, taking in the forest atmosphere or ‘forest bathing’.

I live in Surrey which has the most trees of any county in England. I am within

‘And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.’

JOHN MUIR

easy reach of many of these woodland areas and visit them almost daily, most often in the early morning or late afternoon when the light is at its best. For me, being amongst the trees is calming, invigorating and therapeutic. I love to search for order in the chaos.

My intent is to share with you this experience and to show the beauty to be found in the woods of Surrey. Through a series of moments captured when a combination of the light, season and weather reveal otherwise hidden works of art, I aim to evoke the sense of wellbeing this landscape provides.

I have concentrated on the period from early Autumn through Winter and into the very early Spring when the moods, light, textures, and colours are at their most variable and harmonious and one can still see the wood for the trees.

If you would like to see the complete Fellowship panel of woodland images, see the Galleries section of my website: eddiehydephotography.zenfolio.com

So, I hope I have been able to describe and show some of the beauty and visual art to be found in Surrey and in woodland in general.

Eddie Hyde FRPS

Mystical Mexico

ANGELA FORD ARPS

My pleasure in photography is capturing impressions and moods of people and places, communicating my own interpretation of a scene by exploring different techniques. I am keen to evoke the ambience of a place and the feeling of ‘being there’. Working in colour, monochrome and infrared, the passion for conveying and sharing an idea in a creative way is uppermost in my work.

For me, the enjoyment comes from being out and about with my camera and looking at things in a different way. Visits to Mexico have inspired me to portray the abundance of colour

and culture found in the country. It’s non-stop photography from arrival to departure, observing and catching vital first impressions, as well as the atmosphere of everyday life. By combining some of the many images taken, I hope to convey these sensations.

My last journey took me to Oaxaca, as well as to Mexico City, and the highlight was the celebrations in preparation for The Day of the Dead.

These begin at least two weeks beforehand and continue afterwards in the cemeteries where deceased family members are honoured on All Souls’ Day.

‘Photography is an art of observation … it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.’

ELLIOTT ERWITT

Mexico City is huge and it took a few days to get in tune with the traffic, as well as following the preparations for the festival. Yet colour, especially orange, and excitement flooded the streets and the Mexican people’s vitality and enthusiasm were so infectious that I wanted to grasp all of this at once. What should I choose to concentrate on first?

Hundreds of marigolds were being planted everywhere. Street sellers were selling headdresses and offering face painting, some of the designs being rather sinister. ‘Catrinas’, doll-like skeleton statues, elegantly dressed with large hats and wasp waists, were dotted around both cities.

There was so much happening around me I was becoming swayed by the crowd, but also inspired by their excitement in preparation for the festival.

A parade of ‘Alebrijas’, mystical animals from Mexican Folk Art, filled the streets on another day. These huge papier mâché monsters were decorated with vibrant patterns, a riot of colour but almost impossible to fit the animals into the viewfinder as they towered above me. Some of the brilliantly coloured patterns on the animals provided interesting abstracts and would evoke the colourful procession on the streets at the time.

Strings of brightly coloured perforated paper flags, ‘papel picado’, adorned the streets in Oaxaca signifying the fragility of life but also providing easy passage for the returning souls, according to legend.

‘Ofrendas’, or altars, were everywhere in both cities. Offerings were placed to honour the souls of loved ones in preparation for the Day of the Dead. Every ofrenda was bright and colourful, containing personal elements from the family members as a welcome.

Mexicans see this festival as a celebration of the lives of those who are deceased and are anxious to provide their favourite food and drink, as well as traditional items such as sugar skulls, candles and flowers.

The ofrendas were so vibrant, each one with its own identity and

Some showed the character of those departed with a great deal of humour. Others were less flamboyant but always included the traditional items. Skulls were around every corner, peeping from windows and balconies.

A very large procession of catrinas from all over Mexico took place in Mexico City. Colour and flamboyance were everywhere, and I wanted to communicate this through my images.

fascinating to photograph, that they became a daily pursuit for me.

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Marigolds are the flower of the festival and they were everywhere I looked. The scent is supposed to attract the souls to the ofrendas.

In order to highlight the importance of marigolds, I wanted to seize the glow of orange and yellow which, for me, was THE colour on the streets, together with the traditional purple

and black. I imagined a combination of these colours as backgrounds and textures in the postproduction of my images to recreate the atmosphere.

I joined the crowds with my headdress of orange, purple and black flowers and, of course, my camera.

I immediately became part of the scene with people talking and smiling

at me and eager to pose for photos! Like many other people in the crowd, I was swept along with the excitement and colour of the event, and maybe the resulting images were not quite what I thought I would have at the end of the two-week celebrations, but that is the joy of photography. Out and about with my camera, observing and taking in my surroundings, whether in the peace of the countryside or in a crowded festival.

In Mexico, my camera guaranteed conversations with local people who were genuinely interested in what I was photographing. It helped me to understand the importance of the celebrations and how I would try to convey the amazing atmosphere that I had experienced on such a richly cultural and enjoyable photo encounter.

Angela Ford ARPS www.angelafordimages.com

A Love Affair with Monochrome

SUSAN BROWN FRPS

It is hardly surprising I have a love of monochrome images. My photographic journey started 44 years ago, the first 22 of which were solely in the darkroom using black and white film. Years in the darkroom enabled me to see in tones rather than in colour. In 2003, I moved from city to coast and darkroom to digital. Rarely do I process anything digitally in a way that was not possible to achieve in the darkroom, e.g., adjust exposure, crop, burn and dodge, etc. I often sepia toned darkroom prints so I tend to add a

warm tone to my digital prints to retain the appearance of my darkroom work.

Photography is, however, not the ‘how’ but the ‘why’. It’s all about light, communication, evoking a response, sometimes a narrative but often purely exploring beauty as we personally see it. Photography is not about competition or latest trends but enjoying the moment, taking images of what inspires and pleases you. If liked by others, then that is a bonus.

I often take images in colour with a preconceived purpose of changing it to monochrome. Depending on conditions, I try to carefully compose an image to visually translate an emotion, feeling or sense of place.

My first two images were taken in very windy conditions; the message in each is totally different. ‘Dreaming on the Edge’ (p.14) is a long exposure,

carefully thought out and time taken. A young man alone in a swimming pool transfixed, gazing at the emerging morning light. The image appears calm, peaceful. ‘Watching the Storm’ (p.15) is totally different. It was a spontaneous shot taken without a tripod, and a high ISO in very poor light. It has noise and camera shake, quality is poor. Does that matter?

To me it doesn’t; it was a captured moment in time. A young girl with perhaps her grandfather having just left a train, they stand under the railway bridge for shelter, she holds her trousers up, sea washes around her legs whilst she watches the spectacle of a storm. He is taking a photograph; you can just see the flash firing. The image is lively, a sense of danger and there is a narrative.

More recently a lot of my monochrome work is achieved with infrared. A few years ago, I decided to convert my Fuji XT2, as I rarely used the camera. It is so much easier using infrared digitally than it was with film. It may seem strange to some that I prefer Winter when the trees are naked, their dark skeletons uninhibited by leaves –graphic and engaging.

I enjoy exploring woodlands and forests. I see in them beauty,

devastation and surprises. The fragility of trees is apparent. Diseases such as Ash dieback, exposure to storms (more severe now with climate change), and humans threaten their very existence. When it is windy, trees can be heard creaking; occasionally one falls, blocking pathways, and the echoes and sounds of more trees falling can be heard in the distance, especially when deep in a dark forest. Trees that survive all the assaults thrown at them have such character, some bearing scars from surviving rigours of nature.

I sometimes get totally lost in forests (my husband now has a tracker on me); it is so easy to follow the light and go where your instincts dictate.

One of the surprises has been swamps that I have come across by chance. Black quagmires, dank and heavy with mud bound by dead vegetation, pine needles floating on the surface, and new growth hanging from dead branches like a scene from Tolkien. These swamps are best left undisturbed to prevent release of a putrid smell. Visually the swamps are eerie, primeval and graphic with perfect reflections. At the edges, sometimes there are signs

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of new life: under the water, plant life emerges with small flowers.

Very recently, on a visit to North Somerset to see the salt marshes, I was captivated by the petrified forests and individual dead trees. This is a dynamic, constantly-changing area flooded by a rising sea level which has breached the protective ridge of shingle and, therefore, changed its habitat. At low tide, the remains of what was once a forest are visible – an eerie, strange landscape of petrified trees.

Other dead trees can also be found, killed by later salt flooding at higher tide levels. This is a great subject for infrared in Summer, as trees appear stark against blue skies that render as dark tones enhanced by the occasional white clouds.

Finally, I cannot ignore my love of the coast, so I will finish where I started – beside the sea. There are many opportunities in monochrome. The shutter speed becomes of paramount importance as it can change the dynamics totally. I enjoy 1/3 and 1/6 of a second to show the movement of water, but, equally, very long exposures to remove all detail in water so that anything static becomes the focus of attention.

I do also enjoy colour photography; it can have such beauty, but I think I shall always have a nostalgic love of monochrome.

www.susanbrownphotography.co.uk Instagram: susanibrownphotography

Tulips Reimagined

CHARLOTTE BELLAMY

My first visit to the world-famous Keukenhof bulb gardens was the same experience – I must have taken a thousand photos of absolutely everything. The colours, shapes, lines, contrasts and beauty were just breathtaking. During the last ten years I must have visited the tulip fields over 40 times, and Keukenhof on average twice a year.

Ten years on, I still find as much pleasure from tulip photography. So, how is it that I still enjoy my visits to the tulips every year, and how is it that I maintain a fresh approach to photographing this subject?

In truth, I get bored quite quickly making the same images of something. I like to challenge myself and that is why my photography of the tulips has developed

and become quite experimental at times. I am now always looking for a new way to portray what I am seeing – I now look to try and immerse viewers of my images into the experience of seeing the flowers with me.

If you have ever wondered how to return to the same subject or location time after time, and still create fresh and new images, I hope some of these ideas offer you inspiration.

The beauty, detail and an exact representation – My first couple of years, I was new to landscape photography. I was inspired and influenced by the Dutch masters. The land is open, and elements of farmsteads and trees within the landscape only just punctuate the sky-

The first time I saw a field of tulips in Holland, I was in awe. I was like a kid in a candy shop – I simply could not stop taking photos, I couldn’t bear to think I might miss something.

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line. So, this is what I tried to capture. I concentrated on the technical aspects of my image creation – balance, interest, leading lines, exposure and depicting what was in front of me.

ICM – However, over time, I felt that creating images that represented what I was seeing was offering me nothing new. I wanted to portray the feelings of what I saw as well. In a bed of multicolour, I wanted to portray the

mayhem and energy and madness of how it all worked together. In the gardens, I wanted to depict what I saw as a tapestry of patches of colour, light and shade and design.

There is no obvious direction to move the camera, so experimentation is essential. But, by identifying the ideas I want to try and portray before I start, I find that I can tailor my ICM movements and shutter speed better.

A foray into macro – I have never owned a macro lens so I didn’t really know what I was missing. However, on borrowing and experimenting with one, I suddenly found I was immersed into a world of petals and softness and my eyes were focused on the tiniest detail. The need for precision was astounding, and the ability to focus on things you would probably never even notice, was a wonderful experience.

Backgrounds suddenly

of utmost importance, as did the decision regarding the depth of field. I even had to use a tripod. Black and white – Last year I arrived at the fields with a determination to push the boundaries a bit and try something a bit unconventional: photograph in black and white.

I still find it insanely difficult to create ICM flower images that look like those I have in my mind.

became

I’d been studying black and white photography with my mentor, and had developed a greater awareness of what made a good B&W image

So, I put my new-found knowledge into practice. I shot in B&W to help the visualisation process. I looked for lines, contrasts, light and shape. Colour was no longer important, rather the tones within each colour I now noticed. I loved photographing the white tulips, because these appeared iridescent at times, as the light filtered through their delicate petals.

Multiple exposures – This year I have been experimenting with multiple exposures, attempting to create a more impressionistic and slightly abstract result with my images. It’s all about representing the colour and shapes and again, like the ICM, creating images that portray the feeling of movement, energy, vibrancy and beauty.

A different perspective – When a tulip field stretches out in front of you as far as the eye can see, it seems logical and obvious to try and represent this. But I have found so many more interesting compositions to play with.

With each one, I consider the story I want to tell. Laying down between two lines of tulips, and shooting along the tram lines, you see the fields as a small mouse might.

I love to use a wide-angle lens and photograph upwards from under the tulips to represent their reach for the sky. I was lucky enough to take an air balloon trip over the tulips a few years ago, and was captivated by the dynamic lines of the fields below. The one that stands out – After years of guiding guests to the tulip fields,

the one thing I am always asked is how do I figure out where to put my point of focus. For me, it is actually quite simple – I look for a point of difference or contrast.

I love photographing the fallen petals on the ground – with movement, they can look like an oil painting.

Charlotte runs small, friendly photographic tours to the tulip fields and Keukenhof every year and, if you are interested, her contact details are as follows:

www.charlottebellamy.com

charlotte@charlottebellamy.com

These offer wonderful focus points within a sea of colour. I love to use a shallow depth of field around 4-5.6 to throw foreground and background out of focus, and make the unique really stand out.

Capturing a story – Last but not least. Tulip fields have a story. They are fields of beautiful flowers, but, at the end of the day, they are a crop. Planted purely for the harvest of bulbs. As a result, in the first week of May, you see these beautiful flowers beheaded en masse. It’s a sad sight to see, but offers more photographic opportunities to show further the beauty, even in death and decay. Playing with ICM movements,

I still love playing huntthe-odd-tulip out in the fields – that yellow in a sea of blue, the tulip that raises its head above the rest.

Disappearing Tribes of Papua New Guinea – Land of Mystery

MARILYN TAYLOR FRPS

I’ve always loved meeting and photographing tribal people, each with their own language, customs and folklore, but Papua New Guinea was very special. Visiting PNG in July 2018 was an exciting adventure, if a little scary at times.

Theirs is a rapidly vanishing world but, with a series of Summer festivals, the local authorities encourage tribes to stay intimately connected with their culture and traditions. The villages are quite isolated within the rugged volcanic landscape and dress, face and body painting, language and weaponry vary throughout the islands.

This panel of tribal portraits was built from photographs taken from the Asaro cultural events, the Kinavai Ceremony, and the

Kokopo Mask Festival in 2018; the Goroka Show in 2019, and the Paiya Village Show and the Mount Hagen Show in 2022. Talking to the villagers was not difficult – they all know some Pidgin English. One young girl, who took us on a walk around their village, was the daughter of an airline pilot. Her English was impeccable.

At the Asaro Cultural Village, just outside Goroka, there were lots of opportunities to take good photographs at close quarters. The performances of the Mud Men and Cannibals were very effective. My most favourite image is probably the Asaro Mud Man with the bamboo fingers. The other men (from 2019) are far more colourful with their faces painted and their luxurious feathers, but the Mud Man was one of the

first photos I took in 2018. He crept up behind the group and put his hands around us. We all nearly had a heart attack! I can’t look at that image without remembering that moment.

This is what is amazing about photography – you don’t just see the photo years later – you are transported back to that wooden seat, sitting in the misty jungle, trying to focus on the amazing men in front of me, and these sharp pieces of wood come into my peripheral vision. By the way, we were all perfectly safe.

Later that day, the Cannibals were excellent, creeping around with that slow walk similar to chameleons. The two main actors had string tied tightly

around their faces – across their noses and across their lower lips. It must have been incredibly uncomfortable, especially when they took it off.

At Kinavai, the ceremony was held on

the beach, with canoe-like boats packed with tribesmen, and two men dressed as spirits, with traditional headdresses and lots of leaves. At the Mask Festival later the same day, there were many groups of dancers and choirs. They were accompanied by tribesmen wearing increasingly complicated headdresses and masks.

But, although the trip to Papua New Guinea was interesting in July 2018, we had not seen any tribespeople with painted faces, as I had expected, and wanted to see, so I searched for a travel company that arranged trips to the Goroka or Mt Hagen shows in August and September. Luckily I found one and the Goroka Show was everything I had expected, with over 120 different singsing groups performing on both days. For the first four hours, international visitors could enter the stadium and walk around freely. The groups came in one after another, so as to perform before the government VIPs. But there was lots of practising, as well as performances, going on all the time, so the noise level, which had been quite

quiet at 8am, became incredibly loud by midday, when the locals packed the showground. It was a great party.

When I realised that I had the makings of a Visual Art or, maybe Contemporary, panel, I went back to Mt Hagen in August 2022 just for the three days of the festival, for a few more shots.

This extra trip also brought an opportunity to see the villagers getting ready for the show on the main arena. It included mock fighting using shields, bows and arrows, and traditional marriage - exchanging pigs, money and other valuables. There were also several groups who were mourners. Their ‘make-up’ was amazing - not the colourful primary colours that the other tribes wore – it was mostly white clay,

For me, it was all about their costumes, their make-up and their weapons or tools. What I hadn’t expected was how friendly they would be.

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but with some black. Performers were decorated with headdress/wig, plumes of Birds-of-Paradise, body ornaments and grass skirts, face decorations with clay, charcoal and other traditional paints. The day ended with a local cuisine called ‘MuMu’, prepared in an underground oven covered with hot stones, leaves and vegetables. Photographing these tribes performing was straightforward as they were all happy to pose for the camera, especially when you showed them the photos and had a chat with them.

Preparing the photos for an exhibition or an assessment by the RPS was more difficult, as the background in nearly all the photos was incredibly busy. Less is more, as they say. I tried lots of different

techniques and spent hours extracting the main people from the chaotic background of the festivals.

I truly worry about how long these tribes will be able to continue their traditional sing-sing celebrations. Like many other ethnic communities throughout the world, the people generally wear modern clothing and their ancient way of life has been disrupted by the inflow of technology. Luckily, their government encourages villages to preserve their culture in the annual celebratory Summer festivals. The panel of portraits is, of course, silent, missing the sheer onslaught of sound – the singing, the clapping, the drumming and the whistles.

Will my grandchildren be able to meet the Huli Wigmen, the Asaro Mudmen or the Simbai Warriors? Or will they have disappeared forever? Time will tell. To share those celebrations was an absolute privilege.

Marilyn Taylor FRPS www.taylormadeimagery.co.uk

My ears were ringing every afternoon. But the images alone can still evoke the deep passion and vividness of the festivals and the tribes’ commitment to sustaining and celebrating their identities.

POSTAL AND EMAIL PORTFOLIOS

Get even better value from your membership of the Visual Art Group: join a circle. Email circles are free to join, while print circles will cost you no more than postage. Meet new people keen to share their experience, to ask questions and to comment on your photographs. Get a different angle on your work from people who are neither fellow club members, nor your family! Members range from new recruits to very experienced photographers, from people who just want to enjoy their photography with new friends, to people working towards distinctions.

There are print and email circles and we’d welcome a few more members. Join a circle.

To join or ask for more information, just email Gill Dishart ARPS (gill@dishart.plus.com).

https://rps.org/groups/visual-art/