David Norfolk ARPS describes his exhibition:

All of the images in the exhibition are photographs of alternative "neverwhere" realities (although they certainly do not pretend to be "straight out of camera" I've only played with tonalities and colours rather than creating objects in software). They are of things that anyone could see "somewhere" in what we think of as the real world, things that we can find "anywhere" if we try to see rather than just look at the world around us. As Man Ray said "I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence".

These images are all reflections, so they portray a looking-glass world. They represent "realities" because we do not see an objective world around us through a camera-eye, we synthesise what we think of as reality using a fuzzy-logic computer, the brain, intimately linked with a complex set of receptors. The retina in the eye is actually part of the brain and our visual perception can be influenced by touch and experience as well as by visual information from the eye.

This means that the camera, which really doesn't lie (at least in a sense beyond the obvious meaning of the term) can present us with alternative realities, that can make what we think of as the real world a much richer place.  However, this may involve the viewer in some effort. As Marcel Duchamp said, “the creative act is not performed by the artist alone.. the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”

Free Entry
Monday – Friday. 9.30 – 16.30

The Royal Photographic Society
Fenton House
122 Wells Road
Bath BA2 3AH

For further information please contact Lesley Goode.  01225 325720 lesley@rps.org