The Journey of an Image

Day 1 The last day of a trip to Venice and I was still trying to squeeze more light and colour from the well-trodden city. The vaporetto took me to St. Marks on the 16th September 2018 well before dawn and at 6.19am “Quiet Moorings” was made. By 3pm I had checked in at Marco Polo airport, leaving two thirds of my images in the recycle bin and barely 1,500 hopefuls weighing down my laptop.

Day 9 Sifting through that many images to tease out the true winners requires a decisive frame of mind. Even on a big monitor a RAW file has flat tones and washed out colours so processing needs an artistic mind-set.

Day 36 My first package of A3 Fotospeed Signature Platinum Etching 285 arrived and twenty of my favourite Venice images provided the test-bed for printing on fine art paper at home. The joy of holding a tangible photograph in real life completed one circle of the journey which had started at an early hour that final morning in Venice.

Day 117 Soft testing your printed images on friends and family can be both surprising in what appeals but also rewarding. But what would a gallerist say? On the 11th January 2019 I took my prints to Luke Whittaker at Bosham Gallery and faced a professional critique. Luke, familiar with this view from his visit,described it as “a lovely, well composed and tidy picture that is a romantic marriage of a classic architectural-frieze in the background whilst the movement in the foreground gives the mood and feeling of something different.” Icing on the cake!

Day 141 Having submitted it a week before, news came back from AppArt that Quiet Moorings had been accepted into their annual exhibition over the Easter holidays.

Day 172 Sixteen days after organising the printing and framing, I am back at Bosham Gallery to put the final touches to bigger prints on Platinum Etching paper: deckling the edges, a polite way of tearing, leaves a softer textured finish to the print, shows the fibres of the paper and draws attention to another detail of the work. Signed, editioned and stamped, they are off to the framers.

Day 190 Collecting framed work is a tight-rope walk between expectation and reality. But the bright glass, clear deckling, sharp framing, gorgeous print - the overall effect is one I would have hoped for. Four days later they are delivered to AppArt.

Day 202 Supported by a cast of over 700 other artworks and sculptures, Quiet Moorings faces its harshest critics yet and,for a professional photographer, perhaps the ones that count the most. The exhibition opens on the 6th April almost 29 weeks after the initial making of the image.

If you can get along to the exhibition it would be great to see you there. I’ll be stewarding on Saturday the 6th April between 10am and 1pm.