Beyond Colour Exhibition

Winter approaches and the world around us desaturates as autumn’s last flourish of colour is replaced by shortened days and darkening skies.  Some of us meet this deepening gloom headlong by submerging ourselves in a riot of colour as we light up our lives with preparations for winter festivals, fashions and the cultural scene which so often goes into high gear as the winter sets in. Outside though, a new world reveals itself as distracting colour falls away to reveal shapes and textures removed from the distraction of the spectrum, instead showing us a new spectrum, that of form and feel. It’s almost a form of mindfulness to stand behind a camera and look at your world purely in abstract monochrome and consider why is something a particular shape. Is it graceful, or brutal? Is it rough or steel spun like silk fibres? Why does one tree have smooth bark, and another shed it in flakes?  And how do these things change in the light and time of day. A camera can capture it all. 

My first solo exhibition, Beyond Colour, will run until the end of November this year and is about challenging visitors to pick up a camera and go for a walk. Some of the photos were taken in far flung locations, others in Enfield, where the exhibition is located, using a range of equipment including phones, professional digital kit and even vintage film cameras from the 1940’s. The one thing they all have in common is that these photos are an act of meditation which visitors, indeed anyone, is invited to join. Maybe you’ll see a tree on your walk that you’ll return to throughout the year and photograph it changing, or that building you wondered about every time you walked past it but never stopped. What would it look like if you stopped and crouched down low and looked up?  Photography is for everyone, and with any equipment. And in my day job in the health service part of my work is involved in supporting people to improve their physical and mental wellbeing by finding ways of being more active. What better than going for a walk with a camera, improve your cardiovascular fitness while improving your mood and your mind. What's not to like? 

If you find yourself in Enfield do come along. The pictures have been beautifully printed by Duncan and his team at SilverPan Film Labs who have made them look exquisite. But most importantly of all, if you come along, take a few pictures on your walk and email them to the submission address, info@cliffdocherty.com. You could find them on the exhibition web gallery next to your name. We'd love to see your work. Copyright, of course, remains your own.