CR Zero - Local Photography Exhibition

[Mike Farley]

An exhibition of 25 photographs currently on at the Click Clock Gallery, where the club is now holding its annual exhibition is local in every sense. Called CR Zero, it mainly features the area between North End and West Croydon, so it is being held in the same locale depicted in the images. It is easy to think that there is nothing to shoot on one's doorstep, this proves otherwise. If memory serves, the Photographer's name is Paul Dargan.

I am not sure how long the exhibition runs for. I saw it last week and it is still on display as I write. For those who enjoy street photography, it is certainly worth a look.

[Mike Farley]

UPDATE: The exhibition was on display in the gallery on Monday, so I assumed that meant it would be there until this Saturday at least, but it seems that changes can take place on days other than weekends as I went in today and it had been taken down.

[Mike Farley]

If memory serves, the Photographer's name is Paul Dargan.

Memory did not quite serve and the photographer is Richard Dargan. I have found his flickr photostream, which includes a CR Zero set and I recognised some of the shots from his display among the 140 or so images there. The prints I saw were all monochrome and the set has many which are in colour. It is a pity that that the photographer did not create a set specifically of his exhibition images, which would have been a good way to support his show.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richarddar ... 253337044/

[davidc]

I must admit, I'm not impressed at all. I can't see a single one that appeals

[Mike Farley]

I must admit, I'm not impressed at all. I can't see a single one that appeals

I nearly did not link to the Richard Dargan's flickr photostream for that very reason. I thought the exhibition gave a far better impression, which is why I would have liked to have seen a set dedicated to it. Possibly part of their reason for the appeal was that the 25 images on display at the bgallery worked well together as a set.

[davidc]

Even just looking at his CR Zero ones I'm not inspired. For me, his shots are lacking a strong emotional impact or message and seem to be almost random snaps in some cases. I'm not a fan of the philosophy of "take a stealth shot at a weird angle of people's backs, convert to mono, street photography!".

What do you think of them?

[Mike Farley]

Particularly in some of the intial monochrome shots, I think that he has captured some of the less appealling aspects of Croydon - urban decay of the 60s architecture, the desolation of St George's Walk, windows of shops which are here today and gone tomorrow, the Hustler Club etc. In other words, the grittier side of photography which the exhibition carried off quite well. That has not really come across in the flickr set as a whole, which is why I would have liked to have seen just the exhibition photos together.

[davidc]

Interesting, I hadn't considered them as record shots and assumed the intent was for street photography. As a record of the state of Croydon I see what you mean about some of them.

[Mike Farley]

Interesting, I hadn't considered them as record shots and assumed the intent was for street photography. As a record of the state of Croydon I see what you mean about some of them.

In terms of the exhibition, I would say that the selected images went beyond record shots and were more documentary in the sense that as a panel they formed a narrative about the area being photographed. Some of that is evident in the flickr gallery, but there is less cohesion about the way they are ordered and presented.