10th Joe Sheridan Start To Finish

​Joe Sheridan delivered his talk, Start To Finish, to CCC members on 10th September. Joe is the President of Washington Camera Club. He has been a photographer for many years and has also pursued his hobby down the academic route, resulting in him acquiring an FDA (Foundation Degree in Arts) and a BA (Hons) in Photography. In 2015 he was accepted by the Royal Photographic Society as a prestigious ARPS member.
 
Joe explained that his hobby had taken him into many genres of photography, including Portrait, Family, Documentation, Street, Landscape, Natural History and others. Joe's talk, Start To Finish, was about the way he had started and finished his project to prepare for a critical photography exhibition for his degree course.   
 
When Joe had the opportunity to study part-time for a photography degree at Sunderland University (this was alongside his self-employed day job), he recalled his love of the work produced by the 17th century Dutch Golden Age painter, Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer is famous for his use of light and composition, so transforming ordinary rooms into scenes of extraordinary concentration. Joe told us about the many early morning visits he made to Beamish Museum in an effort to eventually produce photographs which were heavily influenced by the paintings of Vermeer. Given the nature of the indoor scenes and natural window lighting, Joe explained that using the optimum settings in his camera was a challenge to which, due to trial and error, he eventually rose. Joe told us of the additional challenges he had to overcome to produce 5 framed images which were to be his exhibits for his degree. To do this he had to gain the help and cooperation of a number of people to achieve the quality of printing and framing which he sought. In the event, Joe's exhibition won star prize out of 60 exhibits at the university. Joe brought his framed photographs to CCC to show us the actual work he had shown for his degree exhibition. The images were of a truly excellent quality and were true to the Johannes Vermeer style he had set out to emulate. The images were so well received that Joe was invited to show one of them at an exhibition in London.
 
Throughout Joe's presentation, his warmth, people skills and natural enthusiasm shone through. Members present for the talk gave Joe a warm round of applause in full appreciation!
 
Ray Barnes
CCC Programme Secretary