Rye and District Camera Club scaled new heights with its 60th anniversary exhibition held last weekend, September 17-18, at St Mary’s Centre in Lion Street. Stunning images of the natural world were hung next to local and foreign landscapes and architecture, each demanding the viewer’s close attention. Here was photography revealed as a true art-form in the hands of professional artists, whose paint-brush is their camera.
Welcoming members and visitors, Chris Shore, President of the Kent Photographic Association, praised the quality of the photographic display. “When I come to Rye”, he said, “I always know I can expect to see images of natural history, but today there is so much more. The Club has always had a good reputation in competitions and as a very friendly group”. He went on to explain his presence, “When photographic associations were first established, they were organised on a county basis, but not in Sussex, so Surrey took the West of the county and Kent embraced the best quality ones in East Sussex”.
Prize-winners’ work was on display, including the image by Dr Norman Ferguson of the courting gannets used as the exhibition poster this year. My favourite of all perhaps was the interior of Ely Cathedral shot by Douglas Moss, another retired doctor who lives at Northiam. The sharpness of detail and the interplay of light from the famous lantern were breathtakingly beautiful.
Photo: Norman Ferguson