Catherine Ball

Catherine Ball

Our guest for this evening (2nd Jan) and the first for the year 2020 was Catherine Ball, a Wallsend based photographer with a BA (Hon) 1st Class in Photography and a foundation diploma in Fine Art.

Although Catherine indulges in most genres of photography, with the exclusion of landscapes, she specialises in children and families, pets and wedding photography and has a passion for fine art photography, which was to be the topic of her presentation this evening.

Catherine began by asking if the audience knew what was meant by ‘Fine Art Photography’. She gave a simple explanation that if an image didn’t fit into the ‘normal’ genres of photography then it could probably be classed as ‘fine art’.  Catherine also showed the Wikipedia explanation of fine art photography, being, in a nutshell, ‘To express an idea, message or emotion through an image’.

Catherine showed the members a series of thought provoking black & white images taken by famous fine art photographers, some from early 1900s and was interested to hear the reaction that the audience had to seeing these images and what, if any, conclusion or story they could draw from them.

Catherine continued by showing images from later and current fine art photographers whose work she admired, while still engaging with the members discussing their thoughts on what they saw and any emotions that they provoked.

Fine Art images taken by Catherine herself followed with, dare I say it, the odd landscape image creeping in. This is clearly a genre of photography that ‘speaks’ to Catherine and one in which she was able to convey to the assembled audience.

At the end of an extremely professional, entertaining and often thought provoking presentation, Catherine remained to answer questions from the members.

I’m are the members will join me in thanking Catherine for her excellent presentation on a topic I’m sure many camera clubs, Cramlington CC included often overlook.

Bob Finlay (President)