Club Meeting "More than meets the Eye" Tuesday 3rd March 2026
On Tuesday 3rd March Morpeth Camera Club welcomed guest speaker Alan Brown whose presentation was entitled ‘More than meets the Eye.’
Alan, a street photographer from Sunderland, has exhibited many times and has had several articles published on Street Photography.
He opened by saying that his preference is to engage members in discussion rather than ‘give a talk’ let alone ‘a lecture’. This was an opportunity for the audience to air views, all of which have equal worth. He went on to say that he left the Camera Club world and put his energies into producing books, not for publication but for his own satisfaction.
He wanted the audience to distinguish between looking and seeing; one looks with one’s eyes, but seeing shifts the emphasis from the norm. What you see depends on where you start, he said. Two people can view an image but won’t see the same thing as this is influenced by one’s own experiences. He quoted ‘Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’ In the Camera Club world images comfort the comfortable, they are easy on the eye; authors and judges are in search of perfection.
He suggested that one should ‘look both ways,’ with text we are used to reading from right to left, but when given an alternative this challenges the brain and it becomes more than what you are looking at.
He went on to say that he photographs the real world, candid and straight. His images are not all that they seem to be, until you think out of the box. Illusions must have context to be able to see the bigger picture. In a Camera Club environment distractions are avoided; but one’s persons idea of a distraction is another’s point of interest. Distractions are the real world; fiction and none fiction are in today’s photography.
Alan went on to illustrate the impact of bare walls in a gallery; saying that seeing ‘nothing’ encourages one to see for oneself and to use one’s imagination.
His strategies for undertaking street photography followed; find a location, find text, and wait for an interaction between them and the public. He showed images of people taking selfies of themselves against something of interest, not actually seeing it themselves. Alan’s candid images are the real world and form an archive of contemporary society. Street Photography is serendipitous; people walking into something which has a link, by chance.
He went on to show a set of four slightly different images and asked the audience to choose one and explain how they were affected emotionally. A lot of conflicting views illustrated that some images could be misinterpreted; it depends on what each individual is seeing.
Alan said that the primary intention of his photographs is for people to ask questions; he creates images of contemporary society, highlighting attitudes, the contrast in living conditions and lifestyle choices.
Alan’s amusing and sometimes shocking images were certainly testament to his goal of recording real contemporary life and together with his enthusiastic dialogue it made for a very entertaining and thought-provoking evening.
Club Chairman Jeremy Cooper thanked Alan for his very interesting talk with illustrations of juxtaposition and contrast in society in general, after which refreshments were served.
Alan, a street photographer from Sunderland, has exhibited many times and has had several articles published on Street Photography.
He opened by saying that his preference is to engage members in discussion rather than ‘give a talk’ let alone ‘a lecture’. This was an opportunity for the audience to air views, all of which have equal worth. He went on to say that he left the Camera Club world and put his energies into producing books, not for publication but for his own satisfaction.
He wanted the audience to distinguish between looking and seeing; one looks with one’s eyes, but seeing shifts the emphasis from the norm. What you see depends on where you start, he said. Two people can view an image but won’t see the same thing as this is influenced by one’s own experiences. He quoted ‘Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’ In the Camera Club world images comfort the comfortable, they are easy on the eye; authors and judges are in search of perfection.
He suggested that one should ‘look both ways,’ with text we are used to reading from right to left, but when given an alternative this challenges the brain and it becomes more than what you are looking at.
He went on to say that he photographs the real world, candid and straight. His images are not all that they seem to be, until you think out of the box. Illusions must have context to be able to see the bigger picture. In a Camera Club environment distractions are avoided; but one’s persons idea of a distraction is another’s point of interest. Distractions are the real world; fiction and none fiction are in today’s photography.
Alan went on to illustrate the impact of bare walls in a gallery; saying that seeing ‘nothing’ encourages one to see for oneself and to use one’s imagination.
His strategies for undertaking street photography followed; find a location, find text, and wait for an interaction between them and the public. He showed images of people taking selfies of themselves against something of interest, not actually seeing it themselves. Alan’s candid images are the real world and form an archive of contemporary society. Street Photography is serendipitous; people walking into something which has a link, by chance.
He went on to show a set of four slightly different images and asked the audience to choose one and explain how they were affected emotionally. A lot of conflicting views illustrated that some images could be misinterpreted; it depends on what each individual is seeing.
Alan said that the primary intention of his photographs is for people to ask questions; he creates images of contemporary society, highlighting attitudes, the contrast in living conditions and lifestyle choices.
Alan’s amusing and sometimes shocking images were certainly testament to his goal of recording real contemporary life and together with his enthusiastic dialogue it made for a very entertaining and thought-provoking evening.
Club Chairman Jeremy Cooper thanked Alan for his very interesting talk with illustrations of juxtaposition and contrast in society in general, after which refreshments were served.