RPS Eastern Region Exhibition.

Spent yesterday help hang the exhibition that is on at Mundesley Norfolk from 31st July -14th August. My main function was that of providing manual labour but this did give me the opportunity to observe how the images were arranged on the display boards.

Each panel held four images and there were two panels to each board. The boards were arranged so that the viewer was offered four, eight, sixteen or 32 images within one 'area'. Our Regional Organiser Joy Hancock FRPS was the sole arbiter (this is the only way to stand any chance of finishing the process and it being coherent - imagine a dozen people offering their opinions or placing images where they thought best. (Democracy doesn't always work!).

Joy's main aim was to achieve 'balance' within each area not only in subject matter but also how the colours in the images harmonised. It was fascinating to watch as she placed and replaced images as different ones came out of the box. There were approximately 136 images so it was not possible to display them before the placing happened. In addition you want to draw the visitor into the display so that there was a need for the initial impact to be strong enough for them to want to see more.

In terms of the part of the Course I am presently studying it was a very useful day as different sets of pictures emerged, were changed and re-formed elsewhere. Gradually a definite pattern emerged and the changes became less although there were a very small number of images that did not quite comfortably fit anywhere. Sometimes it was the subject matter or the photographers approach that in some way made them unique within  the overall exhibition or the colours within the image did not sit happily with others.

I had an opportunity to go around the exhibition and try to work out why the panels were as they were. It made me thing about the panel as a whole, the individual images and elements within the image that worked together to produce the desired balance.