A NEW DIMENTION IN PHOTOGRAPHY Scunthorpe Camera Club weekly report.

A NEW DIMENSION IN PHOTOGRAPHY!

Keith Scott, FRPS; PAGB, gave a presentation to the members of the Scunthorpe Camera Club that left them amazed and elated. Keith came representing the Audio Visual Group of the Royal Photographic Society.

Keith explained that AV presentations are nothing new; for years presenters of AV shows have had to manage two slide projectors coupled to a tape recorder to show each slide fading into the next one with a synchronised sound-track of music and commentary. A lot of effort went into the preparation and design of the shows and the need to have connections between two projectors and a tape player often led to technical hitches.

With the advent of digital images and projectors the whole process became more automated, reliable and simple to set up. Also the flexibility of digital images offers amazing new scope in the way images are presented.

Keith went on to explain that a number of photographers in the UK and Europe had grasped the immense new creative possibilities offered by digital AV shows and the Royal Photographic Society had set up an AV group of which he was the chairman. Tonight he had brought 48 AV shows produced by 18 different members of the RPS group from the UK and Europe. He was able to show on one ‘slide' the name of each author and the titles of their shows - each one running for about ten or twelve minutes.

Keith decided to project one of his own shows first. It was entitled ‘Dreams' - and it was something of a culture shock to club members who were expecting to see a sequence of still images. Ghostly figures and faces emerged from swirling smoke and fog and faded away before one could grasp any detail. Surreal scenes formed, changed and faded away to be replaced by even more dreamlike images. Keith had composed images representing all kinds of dreams, flying, threatening and even erotic - but these were handled with such delicacy that no one could be offended. At times it was easy to forget they were not ‘movies' but still images given remarkable treatment.

He then went on to show a selection of twelve shows, some rather nearer to a traditional slide show but with superb style and effects. Others were mind-blowing in their totally creative approach to presenting photographic images. Some were so subtle that they could only be appreciated by abandoning any attempt to analyse them using normal parameters - you could only sit and experience them.

At the close Club President, Ian Moss, delivering the vote of thanks, admitted he could not find words to adequately describe Keith's presentation - but members knew exactly what he meant!