Photo-Forum is an independent photography group based in London who hold monthly meetings with talks by guest speakers, and a chance to connect with other photographers. This is their sixth year and accordingly they are holding a celebratory Christmas Party, along with an exhibition of works by previous guest speakers (a full list is available at the Photo-Forum website).
Amongst those who will be showing works is Shutter Hub member Melanie King who also has work currently on show in our Alternative Process exhibition (and incidentally you can read an interview all about that with her here). The image which Melanie is exhibiting in the Photo-Forum show explores nothingness, quantum science and photography, as she explains:
My research questions the idea that a photograph be trusted as a reliable source of evidence. Our understanding of the universe as a whole is entirely dependent on our interpretation of the past through records; photographs, ledgers, memories and traces (fossils, skeletons etc), but how much can we actually rely on these sources?
My experiments with the material destruction of photographs reflect my understanding of reality. These photographs were taken on a 35mm digital camera, and were developed as usual. The original scanned negatives displayed a fairly accurate copy of what I had seen with my eyes. I then buried the negatives in the grounds outside of my house for 10 days, as I knew that microbes in the soil would eat away at the photographic emulsion, much like time eats away at our understanding of past events.
The resulting images are nothing like the original scans and seem nonsensical as they bear no resemblance to the “reality” that we see every day. However, I posit that these images are no less of an accurate interpretation of “reality” than any other photograph, memory or other form of recording.
The Photo-Forum Christmas party and exhibition will take place on Thursday 4th December from 7pm at Calumet, 93-103 Drummond st, London. NW1 2HJ. Further details and information about the speakers can be found here.
Photo-Forum talks are held on the second Thursday each month 6pm – 8pm. They are FREE and on a 'first come – first seated' basis. The next Photo-Forum talk will be on Thursday 13th November with Gideon Mendel and Charlie Phillips. For further details visit the Photo-Forum website here.
