Throughout 2023 I have taken part in a mentoring project, led by Charlotte Bellamy. We are a group of nine women photographers, each working on our own project, who have all been on fascinating creative and personal journeys. We met once a month online to share our responses to the challenges set by Charlie and any progress with our project.
We soon found that we all shared an enthusiasm for expressing our ideas and emotions through our photography and were all 'experimenters' in different ways. An added dimension was that we were based in different countries (USA, Australia, Norway, Finland, Belgium and UK) which provided a interesting diversity of settings and perspectives.
My project was based on the Female Gaze in Abstract Expressionist Photography, where I have researched the work of four female photographers and experimented with their techniques to produce my own interpretations (see my blogs on Florence Henri, Uta Barth, Frances Seward and Olga Karlovac).
The finale of the year is an online exhibition!! With Charlie's guidance we have all pulled together a small selection from the body of work we have each produced during 2023 and you can see it here: My Journey: My Project. Take the time to make the tour of the gallery, stop and wallow in the amazing diversity of images that the group have produced. You can also follow the links in the following paragraph to the individual artists:
Scottee's project was about the Eno River in North Carolina, and her passion for the environment really comes through; Janne Ostby (Norway) created a series of beautiful impressionist photos of nature using ICM, gorgeous light; Jaane Kotoneva focussed on small findings in the natural world, producing dreamy playful images (and I will forever remember her joining in one meeting from Finland while walking in the forest towards the beach!); Margaret Stapper (who often joined in at 4am in the morning from Australia!) told the story of key places in her life, using both multiple exposure and ICM; Angie Robertson (Scotland) brightened our evenings with her amazing flower photography, such colour and light; Mary Seddon captured the beauty of the South West Coast path while her husband did the walking, and as a fellow Devonian these really resonate for me; Camilla Rutayisire Gore photographed the architecture of Brussels, creating amazing abstracts with multiple exposures; and Carol Sinclair (UK) bravely tried out something new each month resulting in some wonderful surprises.
I learnt so much from this group of inspiring female photographers. We shared our journeys, our stumbles and our strides, building friendships along the way.
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