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Tim Parkin

Amateur Photographer who plays with big cameras and film when in between digital photographs.

Flickr, Facebook, Twitter

I was recently chatting with a photographer who has experienced the last few decades of the photographic environment in the UK and one of the topics we wandered on to was the change in galleries and approach to exhibitions in the UK. Around the last decade or two of the 20th century, there were quite a few galleries and they were rotating exhibitions on a monthly basis, or more in some cases. Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century and the number of galleries has fallen and the number of exhibitions they are putting on has also reduced dramatically.

So it's quite possible that there are now only a 1/10th or less of the number of exhibitions than there were 20 years ago. What happens at this point is that the exhibitions that remain tend to be the 'establishment' and quite often foreign artists. There is now very little space for breaking artists or scope for experimentation and bravery by curators.

© Seán Kerr

In this environment, it has now fallen to the photographers themselves to put exhibitions on. In the last few weeks, we've seen the Vision and On Your Doorstep exhibitions and quite a few more. So these days, it's fair to say, if you want to see your work exhibited, it's probably up to you and by the looks of it, many of you are.

In this vein, the Society of Scottish Landscape Photographers group organised an exhibition through Facebook and found a 'friendly' gallery to host it and some sponsors to fund it (Zeiss and Firecrest). The negative accusations against such group exhibitions are usually about the quality of curation (i.e. usually none - the work is self-selected) and of work (strictly 'amateur'. However, it is a testament to the quality of the photographers showing work (and the fact that there are so many talented 'amateurs') that the exhibition has a coherence beyond that which you might expect. Not only in the quality of imagery but also of printing and presentation. There are always going to be stand out works (just as there are in a single photographer's exhibition) and we've selected a few of these to give you an idea of what you can see if you get to the show.

© Seán Kerr

I should also add that the exhibition space at the Lime Tree Gallery (inside the Lime Tree Hotel) is also very nice indeed with some very high quality and discreet lighting.

I highly recommend a visit and you're in luck in that not only is the exhibition on for another three weeks but it is also going to be exhibited elsewhere in the future. Congratulations to the organisers (especially Davie Hudson, Russell Sherwood, Fiona Mcrae and Sean Kerr) and the exhibitors and I look forward to seeing more exhibitions such as this in the future.

You can go and visit the exhibition Lime Tree Gallery in Fort William until the 5th of May.