The following Plano Photography Club member(s) received recognition in the February 2024 Gulf States Camera Club Council photo competition:
Bio: Graham Hobart offers a unique approach to photography. Growing up during a civil war in Africa as well as having lived on three continents may explain why his work is anything but ordinary. At age ten he was carving stone at the feet of native Zimbabwean artists. While still in high school he began casting bronze sculptures and painting in oils. This was followed by a period during which he began to explore as much of the African subcontinent as he could, sometimes by canoe or bicycle simply because roads did not exist.
"It was during these travels that I realized that I just had to have a camera to record all those incredible experiences," Hobart says when asked about the transition to becoming a professional photographer in 1985. So, from the simple desire to share his stories with others he bought his first camera and the next great adventure began.
After so many years the thrill of the pursuit for the perfect image hasn't left Hobart.
Having grown up in British Colonial Africa, Graham Hobart witnessed first-hand animal populations disappearing as their pristine habitat shrank to smaller and smaller areas in the name of human progress.
Harnessing the unique qualities of infrared photography, Hobart has created images reminiscent of old Victorian lithographs by artists like Thomas Baines (Africa) and Thomas Moran (the American West) during the late nineteenth century.
Hobart's images evoke a haunting nostalgia for this bygone era and will transport you back in time to when animals roamed freely while challenging all of us to allow the overly stressed wild areas space to heal as we learn to reestablish our coexistence with the natural world.
Hobart believes that you can never fully experience Life without first getting close to Nature and then learning to tread lightly where you walk and listen carefully to all the plants and creatures around you.
Program Description: Good photographic images are more than pretty pictures. Every good photographer must have a firm command over the look and messaging of his/her images. Once a degree of maturity has been achieved a sort of “reverse engineering” is essential to go back to repeat that success again and again so that a recognizable style or brand can be established.
A key component of this journey is knowing what you want to say as an artist and learning how to see the finished print while still looking through the viewfinder ... long before the image is captured.
Since Graham Hobart’s last lecture titled "Finding your Visual Voice,” he has been exhibited by several museums and institutions in Africa, Europe, and the USA. In his next lecture titled “VISUALIZATION,” Hobart will break down how he arrived at his iconic illustrative style and how he was able to reinforce his messaging with a branded look that is undeniably his own. This lecture will challenge you to find your look and learn ways to build that brand into a body of work that is more dependent on belief and command than on luck.
Samples of Graham's Photography
The theme for the next Plano Photography Club photo contest is OPEN (Electronic).
Accompanying electronic entries must be uploaded to the PPC Competition Site before 11:59 PM CT on Thursday, March 21, 2024.
You may submit one image to this contest. SUBMIT CONTEST IMAGE
NOTE: You must be a Plano Photography Club member to submit a contest image.