Monthly Archives: November 2018

‘The Itinerary’

‘A Syrian refugee burns a raincoat to warm himself at a refugee camp, at the border between Greece and FYROM: 12 March 2016 near the village of Eidomeni, Greece.  Yannis Kolesidis’  The caption on a photograph in the exhibition ‘The … Continue reading

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Woolf Inspired

‘Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings’ at the Fitzwilliam is a treat, even if you don’t think much of her literary style or content.  Drawing on work by over 80 artists from the mid-19th Century to today, it … Continue reading

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Margate 7

Monica Sommereux chose Charles Trenet’s La Mer to start her choice of music at last week’s U3AC Music Club.  He sings of how the ‘dancing’ sea ‘shimmers with silver’, of the sky as an ‘infinite azure shepherdess’, of the ‘big … Continue reading

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U3AC Photography Forum 2018-19 7. American Photographs

American photography is characterised by tensions, according to Mike Morrish, tensions between the urban and rural, rich and poor, commerce and art.  He argued that these tensions arise from America’s absorption with itself and the long held, but once less … Continue reading

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Going Spiral

‘The English landscape is full of spires and towers pointing to the heavens. A unique mixture of landscape and building—the horizontal and the vertical—conditions that change in different weather and varying lights and atmospheres. Spires in all their variety, set … Continue reading

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Margate 6

Britain’s greatest painter (?), J. M. W. Turner, first visited Margate aged 11, his parents having sent him there to school in Love Lane. He returned to sketch in the town 10 years later and from the 1820s onwards was … Continue reading

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U3AC Photography Forum 2018-19 6. Post-processing

Using mainly Photoshop and Lightroom, just two of the range of packages available, Sue Fifer showed how easy post processing is in the digital age, compared with the time of silver halides and chemical baths.  She described it as a … Continue reading

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U3AC Photography Forum 2018-19 5. Personal Photo Projects

Five people presented personal projects under the umbrella of ‘creative photography’ yesterday.  Jitka Brynjolffssen: the creation of a picture Orange Spray combining multiple images in Photoshop.  Eric Smith: enhanced colour pictures of the random beauty of bismuth crystals; Eric challenged … Continue reading

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Margate 5

The tidal pool on Margate sands was built in 1900.  Such pools emerged in the latter part of the 19th Century as sea swimming became a regular part of a visit to the seaside, and was liberated when the legal … Continue reading

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Margate 4

Residents and visitors to Margate can see green power in action – the Thanet Wind Farm is 7 miles off the coast. One hundred turbines cover an area of 13.5 square miles, with 1,600 feet between turbines and 2,600 feet between the … Continue reading

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U3AC Photography Forum 2018-19 4. History of Photography

Yesterday I presented ‘A (Partial) History of Photography’ to the Forum.  It was partial in both senses: it covered only a small part of the history; and it reflected my tastes and choices.  I tried to blend the history of … Continue reading

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Infinite Clouds

Dr Hannah Fry explored the brain numbing concept of infinity in her excellent recent series on BBC4, ‘Magic Numbers: Hannah Fry’s Mysterious World of Maths’.  She showed that there may be more than one infinity and how to get a … Continue reading

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