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Rob Knight
I am an outdoor / landscape photographer, photographic and creative educator, accredited Adobe Education Trainer, speaker and mentor. I specialises in exploring the landscape including, importantly, human interaction with and shaping of the landscape to explore visual storytelling. I find great inspiration from working in projects both short and long term.
I have always been passionate about black and white photography but also explore colour when it suits the image or project. I love to explore themes and personal interpretations / notions of self, place, space and journeys within the landscape which is very much an experiential response to my education as a Geographer.
Special Launch Weekend
Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April 2018 (9:30 -5:30)
Dates of Exhibition: 31st March to 7th May 2018
Launch weekend Details are on the website
Guest Speakers at Launch weekend
Saturday
- Rob Knight
- Marianthi Lainas
- Leeming & Paterson
- Paul Mitchell
Sunday
- Fotospeed
- Chris Dale
- Isabel Curdes
- Colin Bell
Saturday Night Meal & Social for speakers and guests: details on the website
Contact: exhibitions@rkphotographic.com
Proudly supported by Fotospeed and The Togcast
The collaborative, community based and fully open #Connected exhibition this year moves into its 11th year of bringing photographers of all levels from enthusiast to professional together to celebrate the creativity and photographic talent of the wider photography community.
The whole ethos of #Connected has always been about a celebration of photography and collaboration through community giving anyone with a passion for making images a chance to exhibit their work at a world renowned arts venue in the centre of England.
Organised by Rob and Karen Knight with the help of many members of the community, some who’ve been with us since the early days when it was born from a passionate group of local photographers in the Nottingham Flickr Group. Since these humble beginnings the #Connected community has grown much wider than a local group to bring photographers from all over the world together and whilst being predominantly landscape inspired the exhibition covers a broader range of themes connected to and drawn from an inspiration of landscape.
Each year the #Connected exhibition features the work of our collaborating artists as well as being centered on a special launch weekend. Here they aim to put on a not only a fantastic exhibition of printed and framed photography but importantly a series of inspirational presentations / talks to offer the guests an insight into the creative thought processes, inspirations and workings of some very well-known photographers and artists.
Over the years #Connected has been proud to bring the likes of Lizzie Shepherd, David Baker, Vanda Ralevska, Paul Kenny, Michela Griffith, Dav Thomas, Sue Bishop, Doug Chinnery, Pete Bridgwood, Mark Littlejohn and many more to Nottingham to share their inspiring photography and stories with us.
This year’s exhibition launch weekend on the 7th and 8th of April at Patchings Art Centre in Nottingham is set to be another amazing event, entry to the exhibition and talks is as always totally FREE (demand is always really high so please arrive early).
The guest speakers for the launch weekend are also joined by a couple of practical demonstrations this year to further expand the weekend’s events.
Our proud sponsors and paper partners Fotospeed will be presenting a practical demonstration on print, colour management and papers with their usual mixture of passion for print and deep knowledge for all things paper and print related.
There will also be a practical demonstration (weather permitting) and talk exploring the opportunities, creative ideas, practicalities and hopefully dispelling some of the misconceptions of drone based photography and videography.
Guest Speakers
Marianthi Lainas
Website: http://marianthilainas.com/
Read our Featured Photographer Interview
“I am a freelance photographer based on the Wirral peninsula. Having spent most of my life living a stone’s throw from the sea, I draw inspiration from those dynamic places at the edges of our lands; the shifting sands, dunes systems, strand lines and the timelessness of the tides.
Whatever the location, I am fascinated by the changing relationships between light, shape and form.
I exhibit regularly and my work is currently represented by galleries in the North West of England and on the Outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis. My work is held in private collections internationally and I also undertake commissions producing artwork for commercial clients. Limited and open edition prints are available for purchase through this website and I exhibit and sell regularly at art events across the North West.
My images are licensed via an international picture agency as well as directly to a range of commercial and public sector clients via the commercial use section of my website.
As a self taught photographer, I also enjoy helping others to master new techniques and I run regular 1:1 workshops.”
Leeming & Paterson
Website: http://www.leemingpaterson.com/
“Ted and Morag have worked both collaboratively and as individuals for over 12 years now and exhibit their work around the world, with their fine art prints featuring in many private collections.
They lead dynamic and friendly photographic trips and workshops in association with Ocean Capture. Currently these are based in the UK as well as Iceland, Italy, the Faroe Islands, Croatia, South America and China. They also offer private tuition and tours, for groups and individuals as well as a dedicated mentoring programs and portfolio reviews. In recognition of the fact that travel photography can have a negative environmental impact, all of their trips include carbon offset. Leeming and Paterson live between Liguria in Italy and rural south-west Scotland on their zero footprint small holding. They built their own eco house powered and heated by its own wind turbine. Their land is now fenced and reverting from agricultural pasture to native woodland with over 3000 trees planted, whilst a poly tunnel provides year round vegetables for the table. This venue and lifestyle form the inspiration for the "Zero Footprint" project.
Ted Leeming
Read our interview with Ted Leeming.
Capturing the beauty of the natural landscape and man's interaction therein, Ted's work is informed by a lifetime in the outdoors and a profound commitment to the environment. From a traditionalist photographic background his journey increasingly explores a variety of techniques to incite an emotive response, asking the viewer to interpret rather than simply submit a factual representation of place. Ever more concept based projects sit alongside an ongoing passion to capture the inner sense of location whatever the season, weather, light or time of day, with many images having subtle messages that reflect wider issues. Despite many monochromatic and graphic images his work is ultimately focussed towards the positive, engaging the viewer to understand and appreciate the absolute beauty of our planet and why we should seek to protect it.
Morag Paterson
A sense of belonging underpins Morag’s photographic work, which varies from the wildly abstract to more literal representations of the natural world. For her, the art of photography is process based, using the camera as a tool to express her engagement with any given location or subject. Deep immersion is important and she often spends several hours on just a few meters of stream or coast, delving into possibilities, experimenting, observing the ever-shifting interplay of light with matter. Spending many camera-free hours roaming on the hillsides of the southern uplands in Scotland or the wooded slopes of their small hideaway in the Alpes-Maritime helps build her mental scrapbook and incubate ideas.”
Paul Mitchell
Website: http://www.paulmitchellphotography.co.uk/
Read our Featured Photographer Interview with Paul Mitchell
“Born in East Yorkshire, Paul's interest for photography began at school. He then studied graphic design at art college and soon after began his design career in London working for many well known FMCG companies and brands. He now lives, and runs his own design consultancy in Buckinghamshire and tries to devote most of his free time to photographing the landscape.
Paul has had numerous exhibitions in London and the South East and has had articles and images published in many photographic magazines. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and currently serves on the Fine Art Distinctions Panel, a member of the prestigious Arena group and a founder member of The Landscape Collective UK (LCUK). Paul is also a well respected photographic judge and lecturer.
Paul has also been successful in the prestigious Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, winning the Sunday Times Choice Award in 2013 and being the Urban Category winner in 2015. He has also had recent successes in the Outdoor Photographer of the Year and the International Garden Photographer of the Year.
Apart from his self-published book on pinhole photography “Spirit of Light” he has collaborated with four renowned photographers to publish “The Coast – a personal view of the English coastline”
Chris Dale
Website: http://chrismdale.co.uk/
“Chris Dale, a photographer based in Nottingham, England.
My photography comes from the enjoyment of being out in the woodland and countryside, unwinding from life's stresses and being surrounded by nature.
A lot of my work is focussed on the local area, which isn't known for big vistas. This has led me to look at the landscape differently, trying to capture the essence of the place at that time, rather than a straight representation.
While most of my photos have no obvious landmark I aim to portray the different elements that make up a location, from the wider views to small details and abstract interpretations.”
Isabel Curdes
Website: https://www.isabelcurdes.com/
Read our Featured Photographer Interview with Isabel Curdes
“I am an artist, a dreamer, a wanderer and explorer.
I look at the world like a child that finds beauty in unexpected places and sees magic everywhere, but I feel things with all the experience and the emotions of a grown-up.
This combination of childlike curiosity and awe with the struggles against anxiety and the acceptance of my inner darkness is what drives me to create, to search for stillness and solitude in a dream-world that lies just beyond reality and time - a place of refuge when reality becomes too overwhelming.
In my pictures I share glimpses of dreams and fragments of imagination from that special realm, telling stories of its mysteries and beauty and of my feelings.
Inspiration
My main inspiration comes from inside myself and from reading a lot of fantasy literature.
Apart from that, I love looking at paintings, my favourites being Japanese and Chinese ink paintings, romantic paintings and abstract (monochromatic) watercolour landscapes.
I also very much enjoy the photographic bodies of work of Harry Callahan, Ernst Haas and Josef Sudek and some pictures by pictorialist photographers.
Creative process
I experiment with various techniques and ideas to convey what I feel and see. I let images find me and follow my intuition. Thus making a photograph has become more a spiritual dance, an emotional experience.
The Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi is another integral part of my creative process. I have learned to embrace the beauty of imperfection and transience (evanescence). The world around us is not perfect and neither are we - light, nature, our lives are all ephemeral and so are my dreams and so is my art.
I often work in “stories”, short episodes in my story-book. These stories are usually finished in one or two days with one roll of film as they very much reflect my dreams and feelings during that time - they are like the stories we create as kids and the next day there is another story.
Since spring 2017 I work exclusively with film, using Large and Medium Format cameras and lenses - this allows me to create most of my vision already in camera.
By developing the negatives in my own darkroom as well as scanning them myself, processing them in Photoshop and printing them either on an Epson large format printer or in my darkroom I am in full control of the whole process from vision to final print or book.”
Colin Bell
Website: https://www.colinbell.photography/
Read our Featured Photographer Interview with Colin Bell
“I’m a landscape photographer spending time in both Cheshire and the English Lake District. I’ve made video games for 30 years but these days, as a relative latecomer to photography, I’m never happier than when in the landscape and being creative using my camera. In May 2017 I launched my first book, Healing, with foreword by Joe Cornish. Healing is my portrayal of how stories of an invasive past have become interwoven with those of the present. This collection brings together images taken over three years at Thirlmere and Holme Fell in the Lake District and at the enigmatically named Dead Lake, Delamere Forest in Cheshire. There are parallels between the theme of healing in the landscape and photography’s role following the health intervention in my own life.
Outside of photography I love spending time in the Lake District with my family and three lunatic spaniels.”
Rob Knight
Website: www.rkphotographic.com
Read our Interview with Rob Knight on his 'Dark Visions' Project
“#Connected exhibition co-curator / organiser with wife Karen, Rob’s passion is for exploring landscape in all its facets with a key focus in working on long term projects and visual story telling. Rob is a photographic / creative educator, mentor with a passion for helping others explore their personal photography journey.
Rob has solo exhibited at the Joe Cornish Gallery, Patchings and and been published widely, his past projects include the 6 year ‘Dark Visions’ project which he exhibited and self-published as a book, ‘Unknown | Known’ which he’s just finished the photographic stage of and is now collaborating with some song writers and musicians on towards an exhibition in 2019, and many more on his web site.
Rob’s current project is ‘#Washlands’ which he is sharing openly from ideation, through meanders to image making and final output for others to gain an insight into the project workflow and creative processes.
As well as all the paid workshops and residential photography learning holidays Rob and Karen run he also offers two free mentoring slots each year to help photographers explore their own creative ideas and processes through development over a six month period. Rob sees this as a means to give something back to the photography community where he’s drawn inspiration from over the many years.”
Rob will be leading the drone photography demonstration and presentation exploring how this is being used both from his inspiration and education as a Geographer and to inform and make his creative projects, especially the #Washlands project and a recent micro project exploring the unique geological landscape of the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
Fotospeed
Fotospeed will be on hand at the exhibition with a range of the superb papers including some great offers for #Connected guests and lots of advice and inspiration to explore printing your images.
Togcast
At this years #Connected exhibition we are also working with our friends from the Togcast and each day we are hosting a special ‘Photographers Question Time’ with our guests and speakers to get involved and discuss all things landscape and photography. Sam Gregory from the Togcast and Rob Knight will co-host this discussion and it will also be recorded as special TogCast episode to go live on their website.
More Information
For more information on the running order each day over the launch weekend please visit the #Connected web site or follow & chat with @Rkphotographic on Twitter.
The exhibition and talks are open to all to attend and as mentioned are completely FREE. It’s a great opportunity to also come along and find out about getting involved in future exhibition including this year’s special event later in the year #Connected: Landscape Inspired up in North Yorkshire which will have a slight twist in that the second day of the launch weekend will include some special ‘Walkshops’ led by some amazing photographers and raising money for the RNLI.
The #Connected2018 exhibition in April is supporting the charity Young Minds this year and we will be holding an online print auction of donated prints from our guest speakers, collaborating photographers and respected photographers who’ve supported #Connected over the years.
#Connected2018 looks forward to welcoming lots of you to the launch weekend.