Photography - Lewes Camera Club

Lewes Camera Club organiser Anna Hayman brings a selection of images when she drops in to tell us about the annual exhibition at the Star Gallery but the two that catch our eye, we learn, are Anna’s own. One of them is a close-up a folded piece of satin, “I’m obsessed with fabrics and folds”, she says. “I like that one because if you look at it closely it looks like a grumpy old lady.” Another (pictured) is a close-up of a sequined evening bag. Anna is relatively new to the club, which has been meeting in some capacity for more than a century. Since then the quota of members has fluctuated between twenty and two hundred but now it has dropped down to twenty-five, and, they are desperate to recruit some new blood. As part of a publicity drive this year's exhibition will be judged as a competition and a camera will be presented to the winner.
Some members, however, are resistant to the idea of judging digital photos against film. “The club is divided between die-hard film fans and those that prefer to use digital”, says Anna. “There’s a strong belief amongst the film fans that digital is not real photography because you can shop it around on the computer.” Will both sides of the fence be represented in the exhibition? I ask. “Yes, on the traditional side there is a wonderful four-piece panel work of some black and white interpretive dance shots by one of our most successful members”, says Anna. “On the other there is a digital print of some colourful Seaford beach huts. They’ve been printed onto a sort of metallic paper which looks amazing when you look at it from different angles.” ER