Good week for Salons

I received news this week that three of my photographs were accepted by the Edinburgh International Print Exhibition. Two of them were awarded ribbons.  Here are the ribbon winners. 

Goldelse, Berlin. I had an amazing week in Berlin with my son, Steven.  This tower was high on the list of photographs I wanted to take.  It’s in the Tiergarten, in the centre of a huge roundabout.  You access it via a subway and emerge at the bottom of a flight of steps leading to a perfect view of the tower. This is a black and white picture, but I replaced the gold colour of Angel and some of the tower features. 

Through the glass.  This is the London millennium bridge which crosses the Thames towards St Paul’s cathedral. It’s a long exposure, around four minutes, which means that people, even crowds of people, disappear from the picture. If you fancy taking this shot, make sure that you stand on the concrete walkway, which is very stable, and not the bouncy part of the bridge. This is also a black and white picture with the original green colour of the glass put back in. 

Normally a salon is required to accept around 25% of pictures submitted, which means an entry has to be pretty good to be accepted. But Edinburgh has a special dispensation to allow them to accept only the number of prints they can exhibit in their small Edinburgh premises, which means an acceptance rate of nearer 10%. So an acceptance in Edinburgh is pretty special and an award even more so. I’ve won a gold medal from Edinburgh in each of the past two years: Glasgow Armadillo and Looming. You can see them here  

Also this week I got the Midland Salon report card: 6 acceptances including a gold medal. Here is the gold medal winner.

Tower of Peace. Similar to Goldelse, this is a tower in Munich, Germany, Again it’s presented in black and white with gold added back to highlight the figure. 

Sadly, FIAP approved print salons in the UK are becoming fewer; only Midland, Bristol, Smethwick, Southampton and Edinburgh remain.  The Scottish Salon folded a few years ago and the Welsh salon has gone wholly digital.  I really enjoy having my work exhibited in these exhibitions, knowing that, for a couple of weeks, visitors can meander through the gallery and take their time viewing the prints.