Exposure Leeds Photowalk round Sunny Bank Mill

* photos by Simon Cliff

Exposure Leeds, a photographic society, held a photo walk on 17th November at Sunny Bank Mill in Farsley, Leeds. 

The photo walk was a Joint Event with the hosts Sunny bank Mill, with the hope of involving local people along with Exposure regulars. Learning a bit about photography and the social history of an important and prominent Building in Farsley.

The Mill owners are keen on promoting Farsley and also getting some interesting images and story's for the community web site, "Farsley Village". Some of the images will also hopefully be added to the Archive that they are building. The photo walk was a perfect opportunity to record a little of the history of a fascinating mill before it is fully refurbished.

There was a tour of the Mill lead by John Gaunt, whose family have owned the mill for decades. We started down in the Sunny Bank gallery, allowing attendants to gather and muse around the work of Shane Green, the artist responsible for the Calverly Angel.

From there it was on to the mills archive. This was an absolute treat for historians and photographers alike. A room full of 200 years worth of cloth samples filed along the edges and typewriters, telephones, beautiful cracked leather seats and office and mill equipment displayed along the length of the room. 

Next it was on to the Spinning mill and Weaving shed, rooms in which the echos of gentle chatter between the photographers really gave you a sense of the volume of noise and atmosphere that would have filled these rooms over a hundred years ago.

One member of Exposure Leeds commented on how it's interesting to see evidence of the remnants of the industrial past mingling with more modern items. Pieces that have been left, scattered about like little snapshots of history.

The walk was rounded off with a visit to either the 1912 mill tower or to the Northern Lights studio, which was opened up by Flickr member Tom, allowing attending photographers to have a fun session playing with lighting. The 1912 mill tower is an example of what the whole mill will hopefully look like. At the top the photographers found a room with wall to wall windows, filling the room with beautiful light with views of Farsley village and small patches of woodland surrounding.

Seeing the interest and excitement on the faces of the photographers and the amazing photos that have come from the event, it's clear to see that the photo walk was a great success on all counts with people of varying ages and experiences all getting involved and creating some fantastic images. Photographer Simon Cliff said "it was an interesting and rare opportunity to see parts of Farsley that aren't often seen by local residents".

On Tuesday 27th November 2012 3pm to 7pm, John and William Gaunt, together with their site Architects and site Property consultants are hosting an Open Day to launch their "Vision for the Future" of Sunny Bank Mills. The open day will be held at The Sandsgate Gallery, Sunny Bank Mills and the display will run until 11th December.


For more photos from the photo walk visit  http://www.flickr.com/groups/2086023@N25

For more information on up and coming events in Farsley  pay a visit to the Farsley Village website or follow them on their Twitter page.

Photo Camp 2012

This is an Event blog that I wrote after being invited to attended and cover this years Photo Camp. 

* Photos by Simon Cliff

This year Photo Camp returned to Leeds and was held at St Patrick’s Studio East Street Arts. It ran over the weekend of the 29^th and 30^th September, and this year Simon Cliff and Alison Covey took over the organizing reigns from Jon Eland.

The event ran over two days. The first day being more practical with numerous workshops and events held throughout the day.  The second day was what you’d call a ‘play day’, it was much more relaxed and about putting into practice what you had learned the day before.

Saturday was kicked off by a quick introduction by Alison and then attendees were free to wander around and attend a wide range of workshops, ranging from Macro, Model shoot, Processing film, Copyright, Wildlife and more.

Possibly one of the highlights of the day was the trip to the Playhouse costume department. I found John Dolan in the Military isle and, as he had organised the trip, asked him what he thought was the main thing to come out of the trip, “it’s to give people a chance to go in front of the camera for a change rather than taking the photographs and just have fun dressing up, it brings out a different side of people which you wouldn't normally see and that’s interesting as a photographer”. It was wonderful to see a group of approximately 20 grown-ups almost reduced to giggling school children.

Now I'm not personally a photographer but I am the daughter in law of one, so when I was so generously asked to attend and offered the opportunity of some writing experience how could I possibly say no. Having not attended a Photo camp, or in fact any photography event previously, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I think I was imagining a much stricter, very structured conference but I was quickly and pleasantly surprised.

To me Photo camp had a real community feel to it. It was clear that most people had attended previous Photo camps and knew each other or at least knew of each other’s work. There were also a handful of new comers but because of the relaxed atmosphere, it didn't take long for them to integrate. No one was left out and everyone was willing to share with and help anyone who needed it.

What seems to make Photo Camp stand out is that it’s not just professional speakers addressing ‘students’, the people who run the workshops were more than often people who had attended previous Photo camp workshops and who were now giving back by imparting some of their knowledge. Everyone in attendance seemed to be able to fill both the student and teacher role.

Speaking to Jitesh, who was leading a workshop for the first time this year, really gave me, as a Photo camp novice an insight to what it’s all about, “ Mainly it’s about talking to new people, trying a few new things. Personally I'm looking for things to keep me interested, looking for different ideas and inspirations. Photo camp isn't a conventional conference, it’s a different concept. It does breed the idea of sharing. It’s fitting for this generation of photographers”.

Later on in the day I caught up with Anne  Ackers, who said about her workshop ‘Portraits not snapshots’, “It’s me trying to encourage people to take better pictures, I'm not coming here to say I'm a fantastic photographer , but my passion is to help people to do things better”.

Anne has attended every photo camp and says she’s seen it evolve over the years, “It’s about imparting with that little bit of knowledge and getting people to think for themselves”.

Speaking to people throughout the day, it was clear how highly people thought of Photo camp and how willing everyone was to get involved in one way or another.

After having so much positive feedback I wanted to know how this year’s organisers felt about it all. I managed to grab Alison Covey in a rare free moment and she said, “There’s the right number of people, a mix of people we know and a few new people. It’s a free and easy way of doing things. Everyone involved is a volunteer and I think people respect that”. Speaking to Simon Cliff after the weekend was finished, he said, “it was everything that photo camp is about, everybody sharing in their experience and abilities”.

Up and Running

Welcome to my new blog!

Some of you may know me from my book review blog, recently renamed 'Well Worn Pages'. In the last few months I've been trying my hand at event blogging. Reviewing and covering events I've attended around and about, in particular events in and around my home village of Farsley and Photography events in Leeds.

Wonderfully these blogs appear to have been well received and I had great enjoyment in writing them. Because of this I've decided to create a blog page specifically for my new area of  writing. You'll find a mixture of event blogs and reviews, information on up and coming celebrations/events and informative pieces on places I've visited.

Hope you all enjoy.