THURSDAY 27th JANUARY
Through the Years
WARREN ALANI ARPS DPAGB AFIAP ABPE
Smethwick Photographic Society is one of the leading camera clubs in the country and our speaker Warren Alani has been a member of this prestigious group for over ten years. His work has been recognised around the world by many photographic societies, he has received various honours and distinctions and has been published in several prominent photography magazines. Knowing this, we knew that the images accompanying his talk ‘Through the Years’ would be something we would remember for quite some time.
His presentation was split into two completely different halves. The images in part one were photographs Warren had taken for his own personal pleasure, they were taken without having to please any judge or comply to any restrictions a competition or exhibition may require. Every picture displayed in was of square aspect ratio, a format Warren has used for many years as he feels his images seem to ‘come to life’ when cropped to this size. He explained that with square format the eye was encouraged to move in a circle and not from side to side or up and down as it does in landscape and portrait modes. He feels that he gets more impact, better concentration on the subject and is able to make a busy photograph less complex when cropping to square. His images, on a variety of subjects, displayed balance, simplicity and good use of monochrome and space, as we took in the beauty of each one he talked about why and how he was feeling when he took the photograph.
The images Warren shared with us in part two were, in many cases, heavily post processed, brightly coloured composites which Warren had worked on specifically for competition and exhibition. The photographs that he cleverly merged together may have been taken from many places around the world, but to the onlooker it was a true representation of what was in front of the lens at the time ‘it was shot’.
With his attention to detail Warren has produced beautiful, dramatic and compelling images in which his passion for photography clearly shows through.