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David Daggar and Bernard Sellick: Double Act

14/02/2018
The two most recent meeting of the camera club have featured photographers with a great love and passion for the images they create and yet one operates almost completely at night and the others roam the nearby landscape in broad daylight. But what both had in common was their determination to take images whatever the weather.

This (second) meeting was a double act shared between two friends David Daggar and Bernard Sellick who came up with a cunning ruse to escape to the Mendips on a regular basis for two years to photograph what they could discover about an area they knew very little about but which was one their doorstep. They promised an evening of 'no fiddling' (images straight out of the camera) and no people - well almost.

The first half was a presentation of prints mostly in monochrome of the the Mendip landscape and its industrial remains often depicted on giant A2 prints. Starting from Waldegrave Pool, we were taken to see what the Mendips has to offer the photographer hardy enough to climb steep hills, clamber over fences and to a certain extent take a few risks by avoiding the shafts left behind from mining lead, iron or slate. There were some beautiful shots of trees and drystone walls but also a reminder that much of the land is still full of toxic waste that strangely doesn't bother the sheep.

There was plenty here to inspire club members to undertake similar projects which should not be too difficult to plan with the aid of a good map.