A Truly Inspiring Evening with Carolyn Mendelsohn
Last night we were delighted to welcome award-winning portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn to Otley Camera Club for her talk, Portraits, Projects and Personal Stories – and, quite simply, wow!
From the moment Carolyn began, the whole club was captivated.
Of course, Carolyn's portraits are technically and creatively exceptional, and it was fascinating to hear about how she approaches her work. But one of the strongest messages from the evening was that, for Carolyn, the technical elements of photography are not the most important thing.
The story is.
Carolyn's work is often about finding and amplifying the quieter voices – giving people the opportunity to tell their stories and be seen and heard through photography.
During the evening she shared work from a number of her projects, including Being Inbetween, her long-running portrait project exploring the experiences, hopes and fears of girls making the transition from childhood to young adulthood.
She also shared her powerful project This is Also Motherhood, which explores the hidden realities of motherhood and maternal mental health through portraits, still life and audio.
Hearing Carolyn talk about these projects brought a completely different perspective to portrait photography. The photographs weren't simply portraits of people – they were stories, experiences, emotions and voices.
And that was perhaps the most inspiring part of the evening.
Members left thinking not simply about how they could take a better photograph, but about what they want their photographs to communicate.
Can our photographs tell a story?
Can they give someone a voice?
Can they create an emotional response?
Can they make the viewer stop, look and think?
That's a pretty powerful takeaway from an evening at camera club.
A huge thank you to Carolyn Mendelsohn for sharing her work, her experiences and her approach to photography with us. It was an evening that will undoubtedly have our members looking at their own photography in a slightly different way.
Photo by Louise Rayner Photography
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