Wierd and Wonderful

WEIRD and WONDERFUL PICTURES.

Despite the wet and windy weather there was a good turnout of members of Scunthorpe Camera Club at the Central Community Centre to see the presentation of prints by John Wells FRPS of Lincoln.
It was John’s first visit to the Scunthorpe Club and he opened his presentation by announcing that his photographic style was considered to be ‘weird’ by many photographers even though it had earned him a fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and an invitation to join the Gamma Group. Membership of Gamma is by invitation only and the membership is limited to twenty photographers worldwide.

John’s easy manner, dry humour and self-deprecating style quickly established a rapport with his audience and led to many good-humoured exchanges with members. He prefers to demonstrate his prints as panels or sets of up to ten prints at a time. To facilitate this he brought his own display stand that, when erected, resembled a large wooden scaffolding!

John is supported by a company called  Permajet,, that specialises in the supply of printing papers that have matt and textured surfaces suitable for printing artistic images. The first panel of prints clearly illustrated John’s unorthodox style. He had acquired a new wide-angle lens and on his first trial outing he photographed only local street corners! There was nothing exceptional about the subject matter but by skilful use of the wide-angle lens and subsequent manipulation and colour adjustments in Photoshop he turned each print into a work of art. Many of the prints were passed among members so they could appreciate the unusual paper surfaces and the delicacy of the images.

Another unusual aspect of John’s images is the fact they are all square, the same size and mounted on plain white boards, all of which enhances their impact when they are displayed as panels. None of the images had hard straight edges, they all appeared to have been laid down by broad brush strokes.

Travelling around Britain with his work gives John the opportunity to see many things most people would not photograph. He captured the colours in the rust on an old railway wagon. On waste land he photographed derelict buildings, isolating small details, then treating them in a way that turned them into works of art.

At Ullswater John took a beautiful photograph of one of the Chinese-style boathouses on the lake side. He then showed several prints of the same image but given different treatments so they appeared dramatically different but each with its own individual appeal.
Altogether John showed nearly 200 prints but held the avid interest of his audience for every second.

In his closing remarks Club President Roy Featherstone, thanked John for a most unusual, informative and entertaining evening and hoped we would see more of his work in the future.