Gallery Fun!!

One of the greatest pleasures you get as a professional photographer is standing back and watching others enjoy your work hanging on the wall of a gallery. I have always loved preparing for exhibitions. Despite the stress and the pressure, it’s a fun and exciting time. Having said that, perhaps the greatest thrill is preparing for a gallery showing and being able to share it with your family. My family visits are sporadic but often lengthy (too long my family think sometimes as they count the days until my return to Africa!!).

So when it came to starting to discuss the possibility of exhibiting at The Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton; North Yorkshire here in the UK I was really excited. The gallery is a photographers dream and is on my doorstep at home in the Yorkshire Dales countryside. Dreamy British landscapes by Joe Cornish himself adorn the walls across two floors of a beautifully historic house in this market town which in itself is steeped in medieval British history.

Joe Cornish is a British landscape photographer of legendary proportions. His work is the staple diet of those people who love National Trust properties the country over and his work is published widely across the globe. Very few landscape photographers will have honed their craft without reference to some of Joe’s sublime and dramatic compositions of the British wild open spaces. He is the author of several books and is a regular contributor to many photographic magazines and journals. Want to go on one of his workshops or courses .. best you book early. They are always a sell out!!

During a visit over Xmas I got the opportunity to meet with Joe's business partner, Joni Essex, and his Gallery Manager, Jo Rose, to discuss the possibility of my exhibiting my work at his gallery as a visiting photographer. We went through my portfolio, drank amazing coffee and eat stupendous cakes from the Gallery cafe which in itself is just another excuse to make a trip to the gallery!! The result is that I will be exhibiting there in early 2015 with a collection of my images from my years in the South African wilds. Something I’m looking forward to doing very much.

Today, my son Will and I took a visit to the gallery in order for me to sign my prints that will be exhibited as part of an Africa Week exhibition starting this weekend. It’s a nice pre-cursor for my own exhibition next year and it will be exciting to see and feel the spirit of Africa in the air of this Yorkshire market town during the course of next week. He should have been at school but said he was feeling “unwell” today so missed classes to spend some time seeing what his dad actually does for a living!! You know it is really nice getting to share the final results of my work with my family. They get to spend time with me in the field often enough, but aside from social media, often don’t get to see my exhibited work as it’s mostly outside of the UK. Today was as much treat for me as it was for him!!

Let’s hope the images do well next week and that the people of North Yorkshire and beyond get a taste for Africa, and a taste for my work. I’m so looking forward to my “full on” exhibition here next year. If you are looking for something really different to experience next week during your time in the Yorkshire Dales why not head over to The Galleries and take a look at what’s on show by a number of artists who share one common passion … a love affair with Africa

For more information on Joe Cornish and the Joe Cornish galleries go to http://www.joecornishgallery.co.uk for more details.