Context - Ron Lines Photography

Contextual Text

What i Did

I went to a cycle cross country meeting that was being held in Tredegar park on the outskirts of Newport on the 31st October. It was a sports meeting using cross country style pedal cycles were raced around grassy and muddy and hilly circuits by children and teenagers and adults.The events were over a day culmating in the male adults final race. It poured down with rain and the circuit was muddy and treacherous but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the cycling patispants.

I could see that these participants were dedicated to there sport come rain or shine they threw them-selfs around the circuit like crazy trying to win their races. It was their utter dedications that made me want to photograph them and then above all to put their images into my exhibition. Although the motocycles looked powerful its was these cyclists powering their way through the mud and any other obsticles that won me over.

Where I did it.

Below is a map showing the approximate area of where the race was being held.

Why I did it.

Intro.

This is all about our Exhibition that was staged by the 3^rd year student in March 2022. In all 19 students exhibited their work in a pop up shop or unit in Friars walk shopping centre. This is in a very new and popular part of Newport shopping area where a high footfall could be expected. The exhibition space was a large empty shop unit and gave us plenty of room to hang our work.

The exhibition was set to last 3 weeks with 2 weeks being for exhibition to be open and the other days were to be for setting up and taking down the exhibition, the theme of the exhibition is to be called Raw. This was a title that was decided by the group and then posters were printed and invitations were sent out

The Exhibition is part of the 3^rd year BA curriculum and is to task students and teach them both management and teaching them how to set up a joint exhibition of work. All 19 students on the course had to contribute both their work and their organising skills to learn how to create an exhibition both shared like this one, and then your own individual, that would be done in the future.It is also intended for the students to invite potential and future clients to the opening of the exhibition and to show them their work which could possibly find the student work in the future.

It was a sport I had never photographed before and I was very keen to both go and see and photograph this new type of event. With any new event I had to talk to the marshalls who were running the race and find out what? I could photograph vunerable people and children were the main worry, and where could I photograph on the race circuit? were there any area’s out of bounds for safety reasons.

How I did it.

This was an exhibition in which I was as a participant of the BA 3rd degree in which I had to exhibit photographs,the exhibition was meant to be organised by this group.This was, by the group engaging to discuss the arrangement’s and how we could fund it. Certain members of the group more accustomed to management, and it was passed over to them to do a lot the primary work of finding an exhibition space and sorting out both funding and the cost to rent it.

1 Once we had the funding we would be able to search for, and book the venue and organise the rental along with all the significant paper work needed.

2 to organise funding to pay for the event, this was done through a go fund me scheme. Also included was personal funding and other means of making money like doing portraits of other students at college and putting the money gained into the funding.

3 to organise the insurance and safety certificates. Through both the college and the owner’s insurances schemes. Public Liability insurance for both us the students and the public entering the build was a must.

4 To organise the making of posters and other publicity documents this was done by some members of the class. Also, invitations were designed and sent out by emails to people who had contributed or helped on the project to attend the evening launch on Thursday night 3^rd March 2022. Snacks were also purchased for this event.I found that members of the class who had good organising skill went ahead and started to get funding as we needed to rent a property to hold the exhibition in.This was achieved by one of the class organisiing a Go Fund Me Account on Facebook which raised over £1000.I had no dealings in this as I had no idea what a Go fund account was never mind setting one up.

5 to organise the signing of the contract and handing back to the owners.

What I did

In a meeting at college we decided on what the exhibition theme would be about which we called Raw. Then we all went away to think of ideas about projects that would fit this theme.

Analysis of own work your project idea project.

This was a difficult one and at first my idea was the Raw Land project this meant that any type of landscape I photographed had to untouched by man. Therefore, any tree plantations ploughed fields anything with hedges building ruins or other could not be included into the image. So basically, what I was looking was the wild landscape uplands and mountain areas that we have plenty of around the Brecon Beacons.

Looking at the work of both Nick Jenkins and Nigel Forster both landscape photographers, I decided to travel along Sarn Helen a Roman road leading from Glynneath to Brecon and so drove up there on October 3^rd.

Once I had reached an area, I could use I got out of the car and started walking around looking for a good venue point. This is where my troubles started, and it soon became clear that because I have a cataract in one eye meant that I could not perceive distance well enough to walk around rugged mountain hill sides.

I found it was only safe to leave the car and walk a short distance and come back so I returned home and thought about my project a little further. About October 20^th I decided to travel to a local nature reserve called Silent Valley.

On-going into the reserve, I found trees that suited me fine but as I had gone deaf in one ear and was also having problems with my balance I was very wary as to where I went into the reserve, but I pushed on determined to take some photos. Suddenly I realised I was placing myself in great danger I was on my own walking along an uneven path and I was unable to perceive distance and also not able to keep my balance properly with the likely hood that I could fall over and knock myself out and nobody would find me for a few days. I quickly realised I must carefully get out of the woods and get home as quickly as possible for my own safety which I luckily able to do.

From this encounter I realised I must change my project to something safer so having already photographed Grasstrack motorcycles it was on flat land with plenty of people around along with a couple of ambulances.

This would be called Raw Power, so I went to Sperrington Farm Penscombe to the Ledbury Grasstrack meeting and photographed along with a couple of my mates the Grasstrack action there.

Shortly after I heard from camera club members about the Welsh Cycle Cross events these are pedal bikes being raced around set out courses both at Newport Builth Wells and Caerphilly. Again, lots of people and an ambulance service are there. I went to both Newport and Caerphilly and took photos, and I now had both pedal cycles and motorcycles and was intended to have a mixture of the two but reviewing the photos I decided on using just the pedal cycles as they exuded Raw Power.

Analysis of own exhibition, from both group and individual perspective.

I have tried to put my exhibition together in a professional manner I chose images that would complement each other in a panel as the Royal Photographic Society insist on when doing an ARPS (Associate) panel. I then went on to mount them in 500 x 400 mount board to keep them looking professional and them finished off by placing them in frames in a 12 images rectangle to keep it all symmetrical. I have my exhibition alongside Charlie and Tracy’s exhibition both have also framed their images so keeping all 3 exhibitions looking similar.

Analysis of the group perspective, well the 5 members of the group who all came to college should have liked the right hand side of the exhibition as a few other people also chose to frame their images. The rest of the group I don’t really know who they are because none of them have ever come to college on a regular basis and thus I don’t know them very well, or what they do.

Health and safety.

Health and safety at our exhibition in Newport.

My major concern is that the floor is uneven where walls have been taken out and there are gaps in the floor tiling of around 6” wide. This could cause someone who is unsteady on the feet or disabled to trip over or fall over. There should be a notice in the doorway telling people to be aware of the uneven surface. That problem is my major concern.

All lighting in the shop unit seems to well-fixed so there should no danger from falling lighting. The ceiling tiles also look well secured but there are cables in boxes in the walls that could be touched but a neatly tucked into the boxes so should not be live. These socket and lighting boxes should have been covered over.

We are renting the shop so therefore do not have any jurisdiction over the inside of the building. The other major concern is that the images in frames are falling off and could be a possible danger, but most seem to do so overnight.

The exhibition is set out using the large space we have most of the student’s images are fixed on the building walls. We have been giving some large wheeled partitions by the college, which we have used to hang pictures, these are professional made types and have wheels so they can be moved around and therefore are fit for purpose with only light loading on them in the form of photographic paper, so should not be overloaded as to make them unstable. If I hung my 12 frames on them it would make them unstable.

When the exhibition opened, we had a large amount of people in the room which was quite adequate, and people were able to move around freely.

The security and management of Friars Walk have given us an induction and we must have a designated fire warden a red high vis vest is to be left in the unit and the stewards on the day must designate one of them to act as this. We have been given a security phone number and have designate our own key keepers who hand back the keys every night with 2 of our local students giving their numbers in case of any problems.

The evacuation area for Friars walk was shown to us by security and is across the road by the riverside theatre there are papers showing this which need to be in the unit at all times.

In case of any fire or the need to evacuate we will all leave by the front door and cross over to the safe area, if we cannot leave by the front door there is an emergency door at the back. Any members of the public as well as the stewards on duty must go to this evacuation area

How it felt.

Its was nice to wander around looking at all the individual ideas that have come from the theme of Raw, there is some very interesting ideas and a couple of very good photographers who had good ideas and presented their exhibitions very well like Jessie Bishop and Leigh Palmer along with both Charlie and Tracy.

For me it was pleasing to see my images up on the wall in a professional display, but I felt nothing for it. In the last 8 years I had had my images both DPI and Print displayed in countless salons in the UK and around the world.

When I have seen my prints in the annual Welsh salons, I find it feels good because I know I have beaten more than a hundred photographers who belong to camera clubs throughout Wales to get them there in that exhibition and I have done that many times. To see twelve images hanging there in an Exhibition paid by us, and with no competition means nothing too me.

Progress – what’s next? Has this made you want more?

I personally think that these types of exhibitions are becoming out of date, they are like the dinosaurs who by not wearing woolly jumpers, slowly became extinct. Some people still love them but with the cost of exhibition space rising every year and the fact that they need to be booked at least a year in advance there is a major problem with them.

I have been involved with trying to find exhibition areas for the last six years for the Welsh Photographic Federation and I find it harder and costlier every year.

We have an exhibition called the Masters of Print and we cannot find a cheap enough venue or one we can use at the moment, Turner house in Penarth and The Winding House in New Tredegar are two that we could use but are fully booked up for a year.

I believe that good exhibitions by well-known people will always be regularly visited, others by little known people will not. We have many in our Federation who say that they love prints and how they like to hold them and study them, either on the wall or by holding them.

What they don’t say is what they happens to a print once it has finished it useful life of being exhibited. I have a cupboard full of prints around 150 of them I cannot sell them because they are not the right subject and I cannot give them away to charity shops or others, so what will happen to them? When I die my son will come along and try to give them away and then not succeeding will throw them into the skip along with a lot of my other belongings and collectables.

This is why I have scaled down on my printing as I found it’s a waste of my time and money and this also goes for opening an exhibition as the 12 prints on display at this Raw exhibition will also be destined to the skip unless I strip them down and recycle them as I have done with over 60 of my other prints.

What will evolve though will be the futuristic virtual galleries which I have already seen being designed’ although not a hands on gallery it solves a lot of problems the major one being costs. You are cutting the costs down with no rent to pay a reminder that ours cost £500 just for 3 weeks no cost of travelling there to hang the exhibits no costs for mounting them, (I have saved around £700 already). Then there is no cost of having stewards sit in the exhibition again we volunteered to do this taking up 2 to 3 peoples time cost of travel refreshments etc again more saving up to nearly a £1000.

We then look at people coming to visit the exhibition we must look at the cost of their time, travel, and of food etc, some people enjoy this but for many, the exhibition can be to far away. Then we look at people coming to view the exhibition on Thursday we had around 60 people come most did not have a clue what it was about nodded their heads signed the guest book and shoved off.

So, in my estimate after a month everyone who visited our exhibition will have forgotten what it’s about and what was in it.

Virtual Online Gallery’s

These will save on all the costs shown above though not as personal and not only that I can target specific groups of people who could be interested in my work, online anywhere in the world and with a click of a button they can visit the gallery, if there are enough people interested in seeing the work or buying it, then I can hold a private viewing in my house the only cost being copious amounts of tea and cake.

This section is called Progress and what next, and this Virtual gallery is what I will do unless someone sponsors me, or my work is good enough to be paid by a professional gallery. I will never set up my own exhibition because of the high costs involved,

Ok you will say well some students sold some work at the opening, which is the time that work will be bought, but how much did they sell their works for? that is the question? Will they regain their initial cost the answer will be no. So, it a written off money outlay, fine if you want to fiddle your tax but as already pointed out I cannot afford it.

https://hundredheroines.org/virtual-galleries/

https://ffotogallery.org/channel/virtual-tour-many-voices-one-nation-2

This is above is websites above are the future of Exhibitions for me.

Learning – what did you learn?

The first thing is that you can set up a Go Fund Me Account and get people to pay money into it. I had become stressed out, from experience with the Welsh salon and I thought that trying to find exhibition space would be very difficult and very costly.

I was very surprised to find that Go Fund Me account set up by Andrew raised so much money in such a short time, and that then we were also able to find and secure a shop unit in Friars Walk with a high footfall of people coming past so easily. This was all done by a few clever people in our class who worked very hard, but also knew what they were doing through already having management skills. I would still not have a clue how to do this, and to honest at my age I don’t really want to learn how to do it either. This was all set up by those people that we have in class and thank you very much to them.

Also, I learnt that those costly command strips that I used to fix the frames to the wall and hold them in position do not work properly and were a complete waste of time buying them with the thin frames I used. I should have gone to the Range Warehouse and bought theirs which have a much thicker back to them and are £1 cheaper

I have also learnt that I would do away with the frames on my images as they were not needed and I could have just stuck the mountboard containing my images to the wall directly using those command strip which would have held them much better instead I have a couple of broken frames to either repair or throw away.

Own participation – what did you do?

I was put down to take the portraits of students in college to raise cash for the funding but because of the high price that was mentioned £25 plus the infighting in class by certain members that got pushed to one side and did not happen. I didn’t do a lot else because I would have been a hinderance not a help in trying to help in the organising. I don’t do it as I am not a good organiser and never will be. I had hoped to be of help setting up the exhibition having been in building construction for over 40 years, but I was not needed.

I also would have liked to be more helpful in the management side but know I am deaf in my right ear I find it impossible to hear properly and when I was in class I could only hear around 33% of what was going therefore if you asked me to discuss anything that went on I could not do it.

I have also realised that thankfully this is my third and final year and most likely will be the end of my learning career as I just cannot hear what is going on in class, my father became a recluse after his hearing failed and I now know why.

I also found that communications between the major organisers in the group and others of the group could have been a lot better, not everyone was informed of what was going on and even people organising parts of the event weren’t informed of what was going on with other parts of the organisation.

Due to my hearing problems I have to step back and let others get on with it, as I have had to do with other work that I am involved with the with the Welsh Photographic Federation, and I personally will not need this type of skill as I do not ever intend to hold and exhibition run and paid for by myself.

Conclusion

This has been a very educational experience for myself, I have learnt many things in how to set up an exhibition and how easily it can be done. It is also good to see how a group of people can come together and work out the planning and administration of how to fund and find space to hang our images.

This was done by a few people who are clever enough to do it, but I found a lot of problems with the communication between members of the group, especially the ones we only see occasionally in class.

When we visited the unit to see how it looked and to discuss how we would split the hanging areas the problem was we did not know how many images people were going to hang and how much space they needed, Luckily there was enough room for everyone involved.

Bibliography

1 https://www.welshcycling.co.uk/events/welsh-cyclo-cross-league-2021/

2 https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/wales/cyclocross

3 https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/getintocyclo-cross/?c=WA

4https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events

5 youtube video of the Newport Event women

Youtube video of Mens racetredegasr park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9YSpAbO3dM

6 http://www.cyclocrosswales.co.uk/

7 youtube 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Bi8h24kE

Grasstrack

1https://formulagrasstrack.com/