Tags
charlotte bellamy, Dutch landscapes, holland, Landscape photography, netherlands, Netherlands photography, photo exhibition, photography exhibition, The Netherlands
It’s just a couple of day’s since my first ever exhibition of my photography work and I think I’ve just about recovered! And in this first sentence I’d like to say (before anything else) a HUGE thank you to everyone who came along to view my work. It was a complete pleasure to see you and I hope you enjoyed seeing my vision of ‘beautiful Netherlands’!
Now as a little back ground to this exhibition I’d like to take you back just over two years to when I first arrived in The Netherlands (NL) to live. Although I have been a professional photographer for around 8 years now; it is only in the last two years since living in NL that I have developed my landscape photography. You see I arrived with a love and masses of experience of people photography, but my skills and success in this genre lay in my ability to communicate with those I was photographing, and without knowledge of my new language I was suddenly adrift from one very important skill to make my profession work! Hence my development into landscape photography.
It was a combination of working with my wonderful mentor Lesley Chalmers in the UK and joining my new local camera club mentoring group in Doesburg that highlighted that I had a unique ability to view my new home in a very different way to those who had always called it home. With this in mind I started work on a project to document the beauty of the Netherlands through (my) new eyes.
Last weekend’s exhibition was a culmination of two years work on this ongoing project.
I have traveled all over the Netherlands photographing ‘beauty’ and ‘uniquely Dutch’ landscapes, objects and customs. I thought I was doing pretty well, but the more I photograph the longer my list gets! Having spoken to many of my Dutch visitors over the weekend there are so many more areas of the Netherlands which I have not yet touched on, and I am assured they are all unique in their own way.
On the walls of my home (used as my exhibition location) I divided my work into different areas.
This wall for example I chose a selection of images all of which depict unique Dutch (maybe the tourist view!) Cheese, clogs, bikes, geese, and windmills. Whilst other themed walls were the colour of the Netherlands, images in the neighbourhood, green and blue, cows, windmills and our local National park; The Posbank.
Finally I also opened up my studio/office to showcase my people and horse photography both of which I still love to do when I can.
Over the weekend I enjoyed welcoming well over 100 people to view my photography; the International community as well as many Dutch. This event was for me, as much about showcasing my talents and encouraging others to understand what I do, as it was selling my work. I was delighted with the feedback from everyone, and the number of prints that needed “sold” to be written over the price by the end of the event was a huge bonus!
These are just a few of my wonderful visitors before it got so busy I had no time to pick up my camera!
So as this year comes to a close I am hugely proud that I have achieved my craftsman qualification with the Guild of Photographers and hosted my very own photo exhibition. I look forward to 2015 and exploring and photographing more!
Below are links to two You tube videos of the exhibition.
charlottebellamyphotography.wordpress.com 