Henri Cartier-Bresson

I invite you to join me at Vision & Verb for a little bit of Shugborough history and its famous connection with photography.

Today was a day to remember and re-learn photography techniques. The day was; enjoyable, productive, informative and tiring. I have the notes from the course and my additional notes, written up after I got home. I am pleased with some of my photo results, which were quite different from what I usually achieve in similar situations.

The course also covered aspects of nature and thirds, which reminded me of conversations with a friend of mine.

I had a great day

Thank you Panasonic for the money off offer (plus the software) when I purchased my camera and thank you Paul for such an informative course, I will be joining you on part 2 soon

One of his most famous works Water Rats was controversial and led to him being excommunicated by the local clergy.

Water Rats caused a little comment at the time as it featured naked children, but the image is not erotic. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art. He was, however, excommunicated by his local clergy for displaying it, as they thought it would ‘corrupt’ the opposite sex.

Copies of his work can be purchased from the Sutcliffe Gallery in Whitby which cites the following about his work:

All the sepia photographs you see on this website were taken in and around Whitby by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (Hon. F.R.P.S.) between 1875 and 1910. His large camera was made of mahogany with brass fittings and took ‘whole plate’ glass negatives (6.5″x8.5″).
Photography in Victorian times was not an easy craft to master and people were often content to produce an acceptable image which was sharp and well exposed – but there were a handful of photographers who wanted to lift their pictures into the heady realms of ‘Art’.
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was one of these artists! He became World famous as one of the greatest exponents of pictorial photography, winning over 60 gold, silver and bronze medals from exhibitions in Tokyo, Vienna, France and the U.S.A. as well as Great Britain.
He was made an honorary member of The Royal Photographic Society in 1935, the highest award attainable.

I am very fond of his work, probably because one of my ancestoral lines lived in the Whitby area.  The photographs give me the chance to see where my ancestors lived and worked bringing their world alive for me.  I have four Sutcliffe  photographs on my wall at home:

The post also prompted me to check out her blogs which I found to be full of beautiful poems, photographs and paintings.

I can heartily recommend you take a little time to look at both her book and her blogs, I know I shall be  a frequent visitor from now on

Whilst glancing through my National Trust magazine I spotted a review for a book called Gardens of Wales written by Helena Attlee with photographs by Alex Ramsay. I looks like a must for my bookshelf which will probably lead to a few more gardens being added to my ‘To Visit’ list.  It covers all gardens not just the ones owned by the National Trust.

Elizabethan, Italianate, Victorian, Arts & Crafts, conceptual and cutting-edge, its horticultural delights are as styalistically diverse as they are beautiful. This colourfully photographed book reveals the conoutry’s best gardens, from Trust-owned Powis, Bodnant and Chirk to many lesser-known gems and a few quirky delights, such as the underground garden at Dewstow in Monmouthshire.