Christine Widdall

Photographer Statement

Photography is a part of me. It's as familiar as sleeping and eating...in fact I seem to do much more photography than I do sleeping and eating these days! My aim is very simple and straightforward - to try to capture places, people and moments in time and make them as beautiful and interesting as possible. I try to go beyond the objective recording of fact and to use self-expression to provide an interpretation of my subjects. This approach can be controversial in the world of photo club photography, where maintaining the objectivity of the shot can be, to some individuals, the most important thing. But photographers have been manipulating photos since its earliest beginnings, so I make no apology for that!

Profile

I was born Christine Archer in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire. For anyone interested in family history, please see my Genealogy Pages

I was brought up taking pictures and learned how to process them in the darkroom from the age of about 5. The excitement of taking and making images has never diminished for me. In common with so many others, I have "gone digital" in recent years and now use a digital SLR for image capture. My pictures have been primarily made for my own pleasure. Some are "competition" pictures, others just an expression of my enjoyment of a day, an area or a subject.

I am a member of one of the oldest photographic societies in the UK, Oldham Photographic Society, which was founded in 1867 when photography was in its infancy. I have held most offices there over the years, with my third term as President in 2004-5. Currently I'm programme Secretary.

Initially a hobby, photography has now become a major part of my life, as an exhibitor locally, nationally and iinternationally and also as a lecturer and judge in the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union, where I also serve as Hon. General Secretary and Vice President.

An increasing number of images are now processed primarily for stock.

In October 2006 I joined forces with fellow photographer, Mike Lawrence, as SteelOrchid Social and Commercial Photography. Our web site is at www.steelorchid.co.uk

National and International Exhibitions

I have become a regular exhibitor in National and International Exhibitions, where I have received a number of awards, including gold, silver and bronze medals, and starting off 2007 with a FIAP Gold Medal awarded at Smethwick.

Local Exhibitions

Timelords Exhibition, Gallery Oldham

2002, July to September: "Exploring the intriguing subject of time", the Time Lords Exhibition was held jointly with Gallery Oldham and also included work from other members of the Oldham Photographic Society.

2003: took part in the Oldham's Panoramas Exhibition, August to October 2003, at Gallery Oldham and have exhibited in Open Art Exhibitions at Gallery Oldham and at the Saddleworth Museum Art Gallery.

Circles of Confusion Exhibition

2004 and 2005: exhibited in the "Circles of Confusion" Exhibitions at the Saddleworth Museum Art Gallery with other photographers.

2006: in collaboration with 4 other local photographers, Oldham Athletics Football club and the Oldham Chronicle newspaper - was commissioned to take and exhibit photographs of the Littlewoods Legends Reunion match for the "100-nil" Exhibition at Gallery Oldham from June to September 2006.

This montage of fans, "100-Nil" exhibition atGallery Oldham, was
put together by myself and Mike Lawrence from photographs taken by all 5 contributing photographers
(© 2006 C Widdall, J Widdall, J Binks, M Lawrence, B Dennett)

With 3 other Oldham PS members, we are exhibiting in the "Made in Oldham" exhibition May to October 2008 at Gallery Oldham - the subject is "fish and chip shops"!

I have also exhibited work at the Octagon Bolton and at Bury Met with photographic group SLIC.

updated June 2008