Art & Culture
ARTIST AT WORK
No.29: Pauline Rook, By the Backdoor,
photographic print, 36 x 28 cm, £70 (mounted)
P
hotography has been my lifelong passion. I have always found my inspiration in the people, landscapes and occupations of rural South West England. This photograph is a still-life created over many years by the backdoor of a farmhouse. It was limited in tones and not in good light but by using the digital technique of High Dynamic Range, which involves the sandwiching of three different exposures, a wonderful pencil drawing-type effect is created. There is much to look at in the picture, from a very old yoke used to carry buckets, to rat poison! I became an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society after completing a high-level course in applied photography, which was very much darkroom-based. I have now embraced all that the new digital technology 8 | Sherborne Times | April 2021
has to offer, including the above technique. I spend a lot of time wandering in the Blackdown Hills where, hidden away, there are lots of small farms with things to interest a photographer. The majority of the farms and their buildings are all built from a locallygathered stone – called Churt – and are mostly small scale by today’s farming standards but are quite charming and belong to the landscape. My By the Backdoor photograph was taken on one of these old farms. rookphoto.co.uk By the Backdoor is available mounted or framed from the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen Gallery in Wells. Pauline will be showing many of her pictures for Somerset Open Studios in September at her studio in Lopen.
