RECENT NEWS
By Ian Hargreaves
Ian Hargreaves- inspired monochrome imagery!
Beauty to be found in brutalist architecture.
10/10/2025
Our speaker on Thursday was Ian Hargreaves, current President of Bath Photographic Society, whose presentation was entitled “Into the Darkness” and featured almost exclusively mono images of the highest calibre. Ian is an engineer by profession, who, after a long time experimenting with his camera in a range of genres, decided to specialise in capturing the essence of his personal passion for “brutal” architecture, and this was the subtitle of his talk.
Ian explained the nature of this form of architecture as being large in scale, often monolithic structures, made from raw, unrefined materials that emphasise functionality in geometric forms and feature the outward display of decorative elements. These use construction materials such as metal and concrete in their basic forms. As suchthis architecture has amazing potential for very stark, graphic, mono images that highlight the use of shape and space, unusual viewpoints and creative use of light and shadow. Where humans do feature in Ian’s images, they are often in the form of a lone figure, positioned where leading lines converge, or at the juxtaposition of light and shade.
Ian’s talk was extremely well planned and included images from several architects and photographers who have inspired his work such as Bill Currie, Alan Schaller, Michael Kenna and notably the late, great, German born photographer, Bill Brandt who specialised in capturing the beautiful and the sinister in his work.
Ian succinctly explained the simplicity of his photographic approach with limited focal lengths and simple settings that rely heavily on the use of exposure compensation and the basic use of the histogram, as well as his expert use of the simple mobile phone. He explained how he seeks out patterns and symmetry, curves and leading lines, whilst looking up and noting cloud formations and vapour trails. All these were well illustrated with images from a range of car parks, bridges and lighthouses in the cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, that readily exemplify the post war brutalism in their range of increasingly modern buildings.
It was an evening that really kept us rivetted with much to learn about post processing, and even more to appreciate in the prints he displayed for our scrutiny in the refreshments break. Ian was warmly thanked, with a certainty that he will be invited back to speak again as he was so engaging!
Jenny Short.
10.10.2025
Ian explained the nature of this form of architecture as being large in scale, often monolithic structures, made from raw, unrefined materials that emphasise functionality in geometric forms and feature the outward display of decorative elements. These use construction materials such as metal and concrete in their basic forms. As suchthis architecture has amazing potential for very stark, graphic, mono images that highlight the use of shape and space, unusual viewpoints and creative use of light and shadow. Where humans do feature in Ian’s images, they are often in the form of a lone figure, positioned where leading lines converge, or at the juxtaposition of light and shade.
Ian’s talk was extremely well planned and included images from several architects and photographers who have inspired his work such as Bill Currie, Alan Schaller, Michael Kenna and notably the late, great, German born photographer, Bill Brandt who specialised in capturing the beautiful and the sinister in his work.
Ian succinctly explained the simplicity of his photographic approach with limited focal lengths and simple settings that rely heavily on the use of exposure compensation and the basic use of the histogram, as well as his expert use of the simple mobile phone. He explained how he seeks out patterns and symmetry, curves and leading lines, whilst looking up and noting cloud formations and vapour trails. All these were well illustrated with images from a range of car parks, bridges and lighthouses in the cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, that readily exemplify the post war brutalism in their range of increasingly modern buildings.
It was an evening that really kept us rivetted with much to learn about post processing, and even more to appreciate in the prints he displayed for our scrutiny in the refreshments break. Ian was warmly thanked, with a certainty that he will be invited back to speak again as he was so engaging!
Jenny Short.
10.10.2025