Influences and Inspiration
The President introduced Brian Bower FRPS, our speaker on Tuesday 13th January, as an ex-President of the Club (twice), an ex-President of the RPS (and two terms as their Treasurer), author of numerous magazine articles and books on photography, a photographer since the mid 1950's, and a Leica Man.
Brian proposed to make the evening a little different to the normal one; explaining the inspiration and influences over the years on his photography. He didn’t intend to talk about PhotoShop, or any of the other paraphernalia of Digital photography, but he did refer to Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson Early photographers who greatly influenced photography. Adams was a musician and a photographer , noted for his landscapes and his “Zone system” for correct exposures.
Cartier-Bresson was a master of candid photography or “Street Photography and an early adapter of the 35mm format.
As a lad Brian hankered after a Rolleiflex medium format camera, and after his Army service acquired a new one. With a direct vision rangefinder camera Brian felt you could always see the image – the camera effectively putting a frame around the selected part. Inspiration comes from everywhere; magazines, art exhibitions and other photographers. But impressionist artists have always engaged Brian. He showed us numerous examples of artists work, from Monet and Renoir to Constable and Lowry. We saw the artist’s works and then photographic attempts by Brian to similarly capture the mood and feeling in Photography, both artists and photographer concerned to capture the effects of Light.
After the interval Brian spoke more about his cameras, passing one around. Photography was primarily for one’s own enjoyment, though a little competition amongst friends helped heighten and spur the process. Such competition had encouraged him along the route of ARPS and FRPS (which he got for an AV sequence).
Brian concluded with an AV show of his recent trip to America with Dorothy and Tony Redford,
Tony proposed the Vote of Thanks. They had both been colleagues at the Club for many years. More than that they had both originated from Swinton and had attended the same school though not at the same time. Members had counted 28 times that Brian had mentioned Leica. Commenting upon the friendly competitive element to photography Tony recalled the time in America when he had crept from his bed to capture a Sunrise, only to discover that Brian had done likewise, both in secret. He was pleased that they had managed to drag Brian into the digital age, though Brian protested that his new Leica Digital Camera had been the main force. As ever, Brian had produced a well planned thought-provoking presentation which we had all enjoyed.