Squaring the Circles – Royal Photographic Society exhibition comes to Scarborough Art Gallery

Squaring the Circles explores how 10 contemporary photographers are using traditional techniques and approaches in their work to address contemporary issues and demonstrate the beauty of the photographic image.

Featuring new and previously unseen work in the UK, the exhibition takes its inspiration from pictorialism, the artform that dominated the mid-19th century and early 20th century.

During this time, photography became recognised as an artform in its own right, superseding its role as a scientific, documentary, and technical medium.

The works on show reveal radical experiments with photographic processes and include cyanotypes, daguerreotypes, pinhole and cameraless imagery.

The exhibition is curated by Royal Photograohic Society honorary fellow, independent curator, editor, consultant and lecturer in photography, Zelda Cheatle, who has worked with many internationally renowned photographers.

She said: “The original aim of pictorialism was to create an emotional or spiritual quality, evoke a feeling in the views, and this exhibition shows that neo-pictorialism enables everyone to discover and see something new, perhaps eliciting an emotional response.

" No prior knowledge is required but hopefully it will awaken an interest in the early practices applied to new work.”

Dorcas Taylor, curator at Scarborough Museums and Galleries, which runs Scarborough Art Gallery, said: “This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see the very best in contemporary photography.

"We hope it will inspire visitors, students and photographers to delve more deeply into this creative medium and its history.

"As photography is one of the most accessible ways to express ourselves and explore the world around us, this exhibition poses questions about the power of photography and how historic processes can be brought to life to reflect the world back at us today.”

Exhibiting photographers include Japanese visual artist and filmmaker Takashi Arai, Susan Derges HonFRPS, David George, Joy Gregory HonFRPS, Tom Hunter HonFRPS, Ian Phillips McLaren, Céline Bodin, and Spencer Rowell.

For this exhibition, work by two photograhers who are based in Scarborough is an exciting addition.

Images by David Chalmers and Angela Chalmers demonstrate how the local natural landscape can be a source of inspiration and how traditional processes are relevant to contemporary photography.

The exhibition catalogue will be available to buy from the gallery along with Zelda Cheadle’s book The Photograph That Changed My Life.

Scarborough Art Gallery in The Crescent is open from 10am to 5pm every day except Monday (plus Bank Holidays).

Entrance is free with a £3 annual pass, which also allows unlimited free entry to the Rotunda Museum.

Scarborough Art Gallery houses the borough’s permanent collection of fine art, which has grown through gifts, bequests and purchases since its beginnings in 1947.

The gallery, originally called Crescent House, was built as a family home in the late 1840s by local solicitor John Uppleby.

If you’re in need of some refreshment and time for reflection after your visit to the art gallery then visit Sitwell by Eat Me next door at Woodend.