Spectrum are proud to have been awarded the title of ‘Certified Studio’
by Hahnemühle FineArt

A ‘certified studio’ is a print studio that is capable of creating digital fine art prints consistently and predictably on Hahnemuhle Fine Art papers, with the expertise to reproduce age resistant prints with a consistent quality.

Experience in preparation, presentation, storage and conservation of prints were audited by Hahnemühle FineArt, and they recommend Spectrum as a print service provider.

Criteria for Certification

The following points will give you a short overview of what has to be achieved in order to qualify:

• Advanced education level with regard to archivability / longevity
• Competence in FineArt Inkjet Printing Workflow
• Full Implementation of the Color management Workflow
• Standardized light colour matching conditions
• Softproof-Possibilities
• Knowledge of the non-destructive image processing
• Proper usage of stated fine art inkjet printers
• Usage of Hahnemühle FineArt media
• Benefits of being a customer of a certified studio
• Consistent quality in all production steps
• Assured archivability of all prints
• Reproducible consistent print quality
• Trained employees

You can read more about Certified Studios at the Hahnemühle website.
To read more about colour management see the Support section of our website.

BJP's International Photography Award –
Sponsored by Spectrum

22nd – 28th November 2011

Congratulations to the winners of the International Photography Award 2011.  The IPA is divided into two categories, the single image and the series prize.  The 2011 winners are Chloe Dewe Mathews for the series prize, with her project Caspian, and Facundo Arrizabalaga for his single image from the student riots in London in November 2010.  Chloe wins a £2000 exhibition produced by Spectrum, and Facundo up £200 to be spend on the production of his Single Image, both to be shown at the HOST gallery in November.

Caspian is a documentary project shot in the sanatorium town of Naftalan, where people "gather to bathe in chocolate-brown oil, purported to have therapeutic properties," says the Panos Pictures photographer. "It was startling to see a substance normally associated with industry, politics, power and wealth, being used for health and relaxation. This ‘miracle oil' has been bathed in for centuries."

This particular point particularly impressed Victoria Forrest of Design by Victoria Forrest, one of the judges in BJP's IPA. "I like the fact that this series is so poignant in terms of world events, and yet it shows a tradition that has been going on for centuries."

For Alexia Singh, the editor-in-charge, wider image desk at ThomsonReuters, it was the images' real art sensibility, combined "with a good understanding of geopolitical issues," that warranted Mathews' win. "Every single frame is really strong," she says. "It will look stunning in a gallery."

Dewe Mathews wins a one-week exhibition at the Host Gallery in London from 22 November. She will also see her images printed by Spectrum Photographic, one of Europe's leading fine art pro labs. Finally, she will receive a Nikon D700 digital SLR with a 50mm f/1.4G lens, worth more than £2600.

"I'm extremely happy," Dewe Mathews tells BJP. "I just came back from New York, and I haven't slept all night, so I'm still unsure if all of this is true. But I'm really excited. I shot this project for that very purpose: to be shown, beautifully, in a gallery space, so I'm excited by this opportunity."

This year's series prize was judged by Charlotte Cotton, creative director NMM, Alexia Singh, editor-in-charge, wider image desk, Thomson Reuters and Stuart Smith, from photobook specialist Smith Design. The single image prize was judged by Monica Allende, picture editor, The Sunday Times, Lauren Heinz, HOST Gallery and Hannah Watson, co-director, Trolley Books.

www.foto8.com
www.bjp-online.com

‘Spirit of the Downs’ Exhibition by Oliver Perrott
Sponsored by Spectrum

Highdown Vineyard, Ferring : 29th Oct 2011- 30th March 2012

Oliver Perrott is a Photographer living on the south coast of England in Brighton. He has always been fascinated with how we interact with the environment and have shaped it to serve our daily lives and activities. This fascination influences his photographic practice and crosses over between his Landscape, Architectural & personal projects. Oliver exhibits regularly and continues to shoot his personal projects along side commissioned work.

www.fawnartconsultancy.co.uk
www.oliverperrott.com

‘Facing Uncertainty’ A new exhibition by John Kenny
Sponsored by Spectrum

21st September – 2nd October, 12-6pm daily (closed Monday 26th)

3 Bedfordbury
Covent Garden
London
WC2N 4BP

The exhibition is drawn from John's recent journey to the north of Kenya and includes both intimate black and white portraits along with large format figures in landscape.  John is renowned for the remarkable level of detail he achieves in his portraiture, which is now enhanced by using a 10x8 format Chamonix camera for some of his work.

The proud people he photographed face daily challenges that we would find insurmountable, and yet, through the strength of their cultural traditions, they are able to survive the extreme climate of the region.

Printed and Mounted by Spectrum

www.capitalculture.eu/events
www.john-kenny.com

Clive Frost: thePICTURE

Clive Frost has published three new titles under his own imprint thePICTURE which can be seen in the Bookshop section of his website.

He is also making the blog on his website available as a communal space where contributors, involved in or just interested in photography, can publish their own posts as and when they have anything interesting, amusing, pertinent, controversial etc. etc. to say or report about their own work and projects, the world of Photography in particular and pictures/'art' more generally. If you are interested, Clive's contact details are on his site.

www.thePICTURE.co.uk

Murray Ballard: The Prospect of Immortality
Exhibition sponsored by Spectrum

C-type Master prints mounted to aluminium by Spectrum

Impressions Gallery: 10th June – 17th Sept 2011.

Ballard's images take the viewer on a journey through the tiny but dedicated international cryonics community, from the English seaside retirement town of Peacehaven; to the vast high-tech laboratories of Arizona; to the rudimentary facilities of Kriorus, just outside Moscow. Currently over 180 'patients' worldwide are stored permanently in liquid nitrogen, with a further thousand people signed up for cryonics after death.

Whilst members have often been ridiculed for their views, Ballard takes an objective stance, allowing the viewer to decide whether they are caught up in an unethical fantasy world or are actually furthering genuine scientific innovation. Alongside fascinating representations of the technical processes, Ballard sensitively portrays the people involved, offering a human dimension to his account of this 21st century attempt to conquer the age-old quest for immortality.

www.impressions-gallery.com

New exhibition by Simon Norfolk: Printed by Spectrum
Burke + Norfolk: Photographs from The War In Afghanistan

Tate Modern, London: 6th May - 11th July

Simon usually shoots 5x4" film, then scans and prints digitally on C-Type photographic papers, but has made the change to a Phase One digital camera and has chosen to print Giclee on our state of the art Epson 9900 for the first time in his career. He worked one to one with our printer using our Supervised Master Printing service ensuring the best results, before we mounted them to Dibond ready to be framed.

In October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a series of new photographs in Afghanistan, which takes its cue from the work of nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke. Norfolk's photographs reimagine or respond to Burke's Afghan war scenes in the context of the contemporary conflict. Conceived as a collaborative project with Burke across time, this new body of work is presented alongside Burke's original portfolios. The exhibition takes place in conjunction with an earlier complementary exhibition in March 2011 at the Queen's Palace in the Baghe Babur garden in Kabul, supported by The World Collections Programme and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which resulted from a series of workshops with Afghan photographers, featuring work by Fardin Waezi and Burke alongside Norfolk's own work.

Spectrum: Official sponsors and printers of the Sony World Photography Awards

Somerset House, London, 26th April - 22nd May

The Sony World Photography Awards is one of the most influential and internationally respected competitions of its kind. Spectrum Photographic have worked with the WPO on every 'World Photography Awards' since it's conception, but are proud to announce that this year we are sponsoring the Awards, getting more involved than ever before and helping to make this year's festival the most successful yet for its London debut.

We worked closely with the curators and organisers of the SWPA, pouring over each image to determine whether it should be Giclee or C-Type, what paper it should be printed on, and how it should be mounted or framed. The final result was a lot of hard work, but the exhibition looks truly stunning!

The World Photography Organisation supports professional, amateur and student photography and lends a global platform for the photographic industry to communicate, converge and showcase current trends in Photojournalism, Fine Art and Commercial Photography.

The Emerging Photographer Bursary Award – Call for entries now closed.

Spectrum in association with Garage Studios and Photoworks are delighted to announce the launch of their first exciting new Studio Bursary Award for emerging photographers. The call for entries has now closed and judging will take place on Friday 27th May.

The Bursary will inlcude:

*1 full day of studio lighting tuition at Garage studios with one of our experienced tutors worth over £550

*7 days of studio and lighting hire at Garage Studios, with a lighting assistant provided to support you on your shoots worth over £2800.

*1 day of mentoring from Photowork's Emma Morris, which will include discussion on creating a cohesive project, and understanding artistic practice with a view to how this can be applied to a studio environment.

*£1000 worth of Spectrum goods and services to be used for the final exhibition (including any film processing, scanning, printing mounting and framing you may need).

* An Introductory visit to Spectrum who will be on hand throughout the bursary to offer technical printing help and guidance.

*1 Full days use of one of Spectrum's top of the range calibrated monitors, to ensure you colour management is spot-on before printing.

* A two week exhibition which will be promoted by all three companies, and held at Garage Studios in September worth approx £3,000.

To apply for the bursary all applicants should submit a 300 – 500 word submission document describing the proposed studio based project and how you envisage it developing. All applicants must also submit a minimum of 3 images of previous work, alongside a current CV to showcase their work. We are aware that is this is for emerging talent images submitted may be either work in progress or non studio based imagery- but please consider how the images will support your proposal. All applications must be received by 12pm on Monday 23rd May, no entries will be accepted after this time.

The judges Emma Morris of Photoworks and Spectrum appointed judge Simon Roberts will view all applicants submission and images and will pick one overall winner of the Bursary Award.

For more information and to apply visit: www.garage-studios.co.uk

Life through the Kaleidoscope: Victoria Dawe

Our urban landscape with its eclectic mix of people, buzzing street scenes and impressive architecture is what inspired Victoria to create and develop this project. Victoria is captivated by the way we construct our environments "everywhere I look I see the result of human thought and endeavour, buildings and scenes that have come in to existence shaped through imagination, economics and cultural dynamics.

"I love city life, when I look at a long stretch of buildings I am reminded that behind each window/door exists another life, whether at work or at home someone fills that space."

Brighton Photo Fringe

The Spectrum team love working within the Brighton art scene and do what we can to help it thrive by supporting our local artists, galleries and festivals.As the main sponsor of the Fringe Focus we have covered all printing, mounting and framing needs for this, the largest and most significant exhibition venue in the Brighton Photo Fringe.

Uprooting the Gaze: foreign places familiar patterns' features five African photographers nominated for the Fondation Blachère Prize at the 8th Bamako Encounters – African Photography Biennial (2009), and one multimedia artist Breeze Yoko, shortlisted for the same prize at the 8th Dak'Art – Biennale of Contemporary African Art (2008). Curated by Christine Eyene, this show proposes to highlight the photographers' gaze and visual response in a situation of temporary (dis)location, a context of passing and ephemeral presence. Underlying the concept of this exhibition is a questioning of accepted definitions of the term "African photography" as a practice that could be defined by, and contained within, an enclosed geographical space. Alongside the exhibition are programmed one public event in Brighton and an artists' talk at Autograph ABP, London (6 Oct).

Muniments: Iran

Works by Afshin Dehkordi with contributing text by Professor Sreberny. Printed and Mounted by Spectrum

Muniments is the first UK solo show of the photographic and text installation work of the Iranian born British artist Afshin Dehkordi. Focusing on the tangled and contradictory relationships between Iran and the West, Muniments peels open the subtle layers of public and private ownership in contemporary Iranian society.

The works display the underlying drama and construction of the ‘story’, inherent within the language of journalism and an important concern within Muniments. A shift in awareness occurs as the mix between migration, architecture and borders reveals seductive social and personal ideals or longings that are sharply displaced from focus. The relationship to documentary and fiction is never quite separated in Muniments. We are shown through photographs and texts the special complexity of borders – that different kinds exist all around us and that the understanding of the border as a line or single place is perhaps obsolete.

The exhibition is set within two spaces that hold an ambiguous physical edge to the photographs and the texts. From the mountains of Tafresh, to the urban cityscapes of Tehran and to the salt desert of Daryache-Nama. Muminents interest lies in the politics of appearance, in terms of tracing experiences, memories and histories that are rendered largely invisible and how this invisibility occurs in reality.

This is the afterlife of Dehkordi’s migration between Iran and Britain and it calls attention to what extent that part of the journey is rendered visible and invisible. The exhibition appears to move between the surfaces of a personal use of utopia - not escapist or apolitical, but one where it becomes a critical force against the perceived reality that exists and the closed bi-cultural language of the past.

Tom Leighton: Appropriation of Space

C-type prints and Perspex Reverse Mounting by Spectrum

Pictures with presence

Looking with the eyes of the soul. Printed and Mounted by Spectrum

In the week that Eckhart Tolle (ʻThe Power of Nowʼ and ʻA New Earthʼ) visits London, a new exhibition opens on 20th October to mark the occasion and to launch a new style of photography ʻPictures with Presenceʼ.

Photographic images of the natural world as reflections of our own true nature. Images as invitations and as doorways into inner stillness, inner peace.

This exhibition inspire a re-connection with the infinite dimensions of life itself. In this way photography becomes a spiritual practice, inviting us to perceive beyond surface form, beyond thought, into the timeless, spaceless, formless dimensions of being, which may also be called presence

This is conscious photography. ʻLooking with the eyes of the soul.ʼ Beauty and simplicity are the qualities which guide the photographer. Wonder is the constant companion. Breath, the vital connection.

The photographer is Ann Bromley, ʻBeing aware of the essence flowing through all form (including me), continuing even when the form as such dissolves, dies. Being in such awareness, perceiving the beauty of form before me and clicking the shutter. It could be described as a moment of grace and yet the moment is infinite. This is how I take pictures and it allows for the same awareness to be available to anyone looking at my pictures afterwards. I cannot explain how this happens, but it does.ʼ

Within the exhibition is an invitation into inner peace. The peace which Ann suggests exists already within us and within all life forms. ʻIt is ever present, it is who we essentially are. This is not a passive state as the word peace, or stillness, may suggest, for the dynamic qualities of creation are equally present as aliveness, as inner vitality.

Her suggestion to exhibition visitors is, ʻIf you are drawn to a particular image, it can be helpful to pause and become aware of your breath, become aware of the space between you and the image. In this way, that which draws you may speak more eloquently to you. You may wish to listen with soft ears and look with soft eyes, what I call the ears and the eyes of the soul.ʼ

Simon Roberts: Election Project 2010

Simon Roberts was commissioned as the official election artist by the Committee in March. His task was to provide an enduring and unique artistic response to the 2010 General Election, whilst at the same time achieving political and geographical balance around the country. To enable him to do this successfully, special access to the election campaign was arranged.

On 12th April 2010 the election was called for 6th May and during the twenty-four days of canvassing which ensued Simon traversed the UK in a motor home, photographing events with a traditional 5x4 inch plate camera on to film.

His attention focused on the relationship between the canvassing politicians and the voting public. He recorded not only the three main political parties but also the smaller parties and independent candidates, whilst simultaneously inviting the public to submit their own images of election activity in their area.

The result is a series of 25 images, one representing each day Simon spent on the campaign trail, and includes a final photograph capturing an unexpected additional day: – the coalition talks. The 1,696 photographs submitted by members of the public also form part of the display, opening on Wednesday, in Portcullis House.

Doll Face

Photographs of dolls by Craig Dean. Printed and Mounted by Spectrum

Portrait and still life photographer Craig Deane has created more than a dozen large-scale images of dolls from the V&A Museum of Childhood’s extensive collection which will go on display at the Museum from Friday 3 September.

Doll Face is a series of close-cropped, large-format portraits which confronts the audience with the essence of each doll.  Returning the viewer’s gaze, their huge scale shows a great amount of detail which allows time to really study their fascinating faces.

Deane is interested in both the representation of the human form and the objects people surround themselves with.  Mankind's desire to make images and objects in their own likeness stretches back to the dawn of civilisation and while dolls have traditionally been toys for children, they are also coveted by adults for their beauty, nostalgic value, and historical and financial importance.  Deane is particularly interested in exploring the evolving representations we have made of ourselves - and given to our children to play with - as illustrated by the broad spectrum of dolls held in the 8000-strong collection at the Museum. The dolls photographed include beatnik CND dolls from the sixties and a pedlar doll with a leather face from 1830. Deane has previously shown at Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie in Arles, France and has had an Artist's Residency in Alexandria, Egypt.

The oldest doll in the Museum’s collections comes from ancient Egypt and is over three thousand years old: it dates back to about 1300 BC. The Museum has dolls which speak, walk, blow kisses or play musical instruments. The largest doll on display is 73cm high. The Museum’s dolls are made from many different materials – rubber, prunes and mutton bones as well as the more usual cloth, wood, ceramic, plastic and wax.

Miss Aniela: Self Gazing

Printed and Mounted by Spectrum

SUB-SAHARAN JOURNEYS: Ethiopia and Namibia

Mounted by Spectrum

In 2006 John Kenny began a series of journeys that would take him through hundreds of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most remote communities and 12 African countries. Capital Culture will be exhibiting his most recent stunning and intimate portraits from Ethiopia and Namibia at 3 Bedfordbury gallery in Covent Garden, London, during July 2010.

The work highlights Africa’s nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists. Over centuries these societies have
adapted perfectly to the scarcity of pasture and water in their regions and have managed to flourish. External pressures in the 21st century such as the spread of urbanization and droughts that have increased in severity and frequency threaten the continued viability of their ways of life. These are stakeholders in the earth’s climate who have literally everything to lose if rainfall uncertainty continues.

John’s style of portraiture is achieved without using flash or studio equipment; he simply uses natural light
reflected from the ground. This illumination, subtle in intensity & effect, reaches gently inside the darkness of a village hut to shape compositions that are both striking and beautifully simple.

The exhibition is the result of hundreds of hours walking, hitching, and journeying with Africans and their
animals. It is a celebration of Africa, of Africans, and a reminder of the vibrant cultures that are now in
danger of disappearing forever.

England...Here Come The Girls Alison Palmer

Mastered and printed by Spectrum

Urban Fictions: Richard Rowland

Richard used our Hire Suite Facilities and also had some images mastered. C-Types printed and mounted to Dibond by Spectrum.

Caroline Irby: A Child from Everywhere.

Caroline worked with our studio using the Master service to produce her final prints, choosing to print digitally on Fuji Crystal Archive C-type paper, known for its fine detail and proven archival qualities. Caroline’s prints were then mounted to Dibond, an archival material which is a lightweight alternative to Aluminium. To show off the detail of these beautiful prints we then box framed with a wooden moulding and used Mirogard museum glass to give her frames the perfect finish.

Simon Roberts: We English
Gallery One, National Media Museum, Bradford.

During 2007 – 08, British photographer Simon Roberts travelled the length and breadth of England with his family in a motorhome, photographing people playing, relaxing and revelling in the country’s richly varied landscape. Gathered together as We English, his works are an intriguing and lyrical, personal exploration of the nation.

Printed, mounted and framed by Spectrum.

'Inscape' by Anna Heinrich & Leon Palmer.

Backlit, high resolution, photographic images printed on transparency material and mounted on perspex sheets and vinyl lettering mounted across walls. Text taken from conversations with members of Bingley Harriers.

Printed and mounted by Spectrum

A new photography book on Cuba by Clive Frost published by thePICTURE.