17th Alan Brown More Than Meets The Eye

​Alan Brown, who lives in Whitburn, told us that he was a member of a local camera club until about 20 years ago when he took the decision that the photographs he was taking were too heavily influenced by what competition judges were looking for. Alan felt that he was being asked to submit "nice" photographs whereas he wanted to take shots which interested him and caused him to think. He argued that there is a difference between an image which is "shown" and one which is "seen" and that the difference was in the perception of the image by the viewer. He wanted to take images which made the viewer think, reflect and maybe challenge their own world views. He wanted to do this without himself taking any particular political stance. 
 
Alan showed us many images over 90 minutes, and most of them could be categorised as street photography. He also brought with him a number of his photography books for us to view after his talk. Many of his shots contained what he called "loose connections" within the images. Many of these included juxtapositions, such as a scene with a homeless person in front of a hoarding of fashionably and expensively dressed models. Some of the images included items, such as somebody's leg appearing from behind a wall, which would be considered a "distraction" by a competition judge but which, Alan contended, added to the image and invited the viewer to consider what was actually going on.
 
At one point Alan showed us 4 images. They all included the same background war picture and a quote about the impact of wars on the lives of children. However, Alan had captured different members of the public in each of the images. It was clear that in each of the images, the members of the public had different relationships, or levels of interest, with the background. Alan asked each of us to vote for the image which we felt was most impactful and to explain why we felt that way. Our members voted for different images and had different reasons for doing so. This demonstrated Alan's point that perceptions and thought processes vary greatly when looking at the same picture. 
 
Alan acknowledged that some of the scenes he photographed were potentially sensitive for those included in the scenes. However, he said that although he tended to be more courageous than was normal for him when he had a camera in his hands, he had very rarely provoked a negative reaction from his subjects over the many years he had been capturing such images.    
 
In the pub afterwards, our club members agreed that Alan had provided an entertaining, thought-provoking and challenging evening. The time had passed very quickly. It was fascinating to hear about a different take on photography and the possible motivations for taking photographs. As members we hoped we had responded well to Alan's request for us to engage with him in discussion about his images and points of view.
 
Ray Barnes
CCC Programme Secretary