I usually take digital photographs. I have chosen to put three abstract photos on the gallery website. My photos range from old clay pots, Winchester, to lichen covered rocks in Arisaig, Scotland.

I frame my shots through the camera viewfinder and don’t usually crop later, using the macro (close up) and take photos of anything that catches my eye. It’s all down to your way of looking…

As taking photographs is largely a solitary activity using the Open Access workshop gives me the opportunity to meet with people like myself, who enjoy taking photographs. The atmosphere is friendly and help is available from a team of knowledgeable workers, leaving you free to pursue your personal projects. Whether it be landscape, portraiture, documentary or abstract photographs. With positive interaction between Media Workshop users as well as constructive criticism, personal growth can be achieved.

What do I get from the Media Workshop? I can continue with traditional black and white photography so I don’t have to buy a lot of new, expensive, digital equipment, and don’t have to sell my old stuff, in a friendly local environment. Which is great.

Ari Ashley’s photographs are snap shots of a quintessentially British way of life. 



Reminiscent of Lartigue, Ashley’s playful photographs were not made with an audience in mind but for her own personal pleasure, evoking a family album of family, friends, pets, parties and holidays all captured with a sense of joie de vivre and affection for her subjects.

Although all of the photographs were taken in recent years, they seem to belong to an idyllic belle époque long gone: a naked man galloping on a black horse across the moors, a self-portrait of the artist and her friend in costume only rooted in the near present by the modern camera in the frame, a nursery rhyme figure leaping across a large rock, and a dog dressed up as a sheep!

A self-taught photographer, Ashley’s career began shooting for catalogues and progressed to editorial work for Tatler, Harper’s & Queen and House & Garden magazines.

www.ariashley.co.uk

Since I first saw a print magically appear in a darkroom dish I have been in love with photography.

I choose to use film, making black and white silver prints just because I enjoy it.

Coming to the Media Workshop [Open Access sessions] gives me access to a great darkroom enabling me to continue my hobby and importantly continue to use film. The coffee is good as well!

I became an open access member couple of years ago. I was very excited about the idea of using a darkroom and printing facilities, and the overall experience has been and still is a positive one. It is great to be able to explore my photographic skills in such a friendly environment.

My work speaks of people I have always been fascinated by the human face and I use it as the main subject of my research both in my paintings and photographs.

Eyes that never look at the viewers, but still communicate to the most hidden and provocative side of us.

Angela is a 35-year-old parent, teacher, and photographer from Winchester, who has been talking pictures for about three years. She loves portraiture, and documenting the ancient and beautiful landscapes around her hometown. She wants to be Gary Winogrand when she grows up.

Angela mainly shoots in either digital or medium format. Her weapons of choice are her Hasselblad or her Holga. She loves these cameras more than is healthy.

Angela takes pictures because it’s the easiest way to communicate important things without opening your mouth.

I have an unrelenting passion for capturing the soul of us Mortals. Cuba which is where most of my work is shot partly because it is the only time and place I have time out with my camera, and partly this is a place I have total empathy with the people. “The eyes are the mirror of the soul” and the camera has the power to empathise or to abuse the portrayal of these inner moments. The Art of my photography is, hopefully to capture that moment without damaging the purity of the microsecond; hence most of my work is on the Street up close and personal. 50mm lens and politely in your face.

Number one would just being able to access a darkroom.
Having knowledgeable people on hand makes it a very useful and creates an encouraging atmosphere.

The darkroom has made me much more critical of my work, the subtlety of detail and the never-ending problems with light, especially at the time of execution of the shot.

It has confirmed my belief that film is a very different medium to digital and film will always be here because it capture the image in such a different way due to it being a chemical reaction and process, the crispness of the image, the blackest of black and the purest of white, this all held within the one image, this without using a dark room one would find it hard to fully understand the potential depth of a composition that goes in to that image, “the oh so simple thing called taking a Photograph”. From this I have had a much greater appreciation of the stunning images one sees taken by some ore inspiring documentary photographers.

To sum up the Media Workshop, I have eventually learnt how to take a better photograph, even if I went over to, I dare say it! Digital!

www.cubaporcuba.com

I have an unrelenting passion for capturing the soul of us Mortals. Cuba which is where most of my work is shot partly because it is the only time and place I have time out with my camera, and partly this is a place I have total empathy with the people. “The eyes are the mirror of the soul” and the camera has the power to empathise or to abuse the portrayal of these inner moments. The Art of my photography is, hopefully to capture that moment without damaging the purity of the microsecond; hence most of my work is on the Street up close and personal. 50mm lens and politely in your face.

Number one would just being able to access a darkroom.
Having knowledgeable people on hand makes it a very useful and creates an encouraging atmosphere.

The darkroom has made me much more critical of my work, the subtlety of detail and the never-ending problems with light, especially at the time of execution of the shot.

It has confirmed my belief that film is a very different medium to digital and film will always be here because it capture the image in such a different way due to it being a chemical reaction and process, the crispness of the image, the blackest of black and the purest of white, this all held within the one image, this without using a dark room one would find it hard to fully understand the potential depth of a composition that goes in to that image, “the oh so simple thing called taking a Photograph”. From this I have had a much greater appreciation of the stunning images one sees taken by some ore inspiring documentary photographers.

To sum up the Media Workshop, I have eventually learnt how to take a better photograph, even if I went over to, I dare say it! Digital!

www.cubaporcuba.com

These pictures are amongst my most recent, I used them for my AS photography exam and they’re examples of work I produced using processes I learnt at the workshop. My GCSE work is currently on show at Southampton Art Gallery and showcases some of the other techniques I have learnt.

I tend to print with high contrast, but recently I’ve been learning to appreciate lower contrast prints. My subject matter varies quite a lot but I like looking at more abstract forms and predominantly still life or landscape, rather than portraiture, though I have done some work in this area.

I’ve been taking photographs for a few years now, I really get a lot out of it, and out of the workshop too. Attending a course at the workshop is what actually got me really interested in photography, it was the trigger if you like, and I’m constantly learning new techniques there or just being astounded by the quality of some of the work I see people produce.