Steinbeck Dustbowl Photo Exhibition now open at Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre
Fri, March 10, 2023
Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre is delighted to host its Steinbeck Dustbowl Photo Exhibition for the second consecutive year.
Part of the Steinbeck Festival, which this year is themed around ‘The Journey’, the judging panel was tasked with selecting entries that best encapsulated Steinbeck’s legacy.
The competition attracted many superb photographs, showcasing a great variety of thematic interpretations, many of which could easily be imagined gracing the dust cover of a Steinbeck novel.
20 photographs were selected for the exhibition, with the overall winner John Williams presented with a bespoke piece of pottery made by acclaimed local potter, Adam Frew. Three others were selected for special commendation due to the high standard.
The Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Councillor Ivor Wallace said: “I was very pleased to attend the exhibition launch event, and present John with his prize as our very worthy winner.
“Once again the organisers and judges were greatly encouraged by the interest in this competition, and the high standard of entries received were superb.
“Last year’s exhibition was a widely acclaimed success, visited in person and virtually by over 2000 viewers, and I am sure this latest collection will prove to be just as popular.”
The exhibition is free to visit and open to the public until Saturday 25th March.
For more information visit www.roevalleyarts.com
The Winning Image - ‘Slievenisk; Twists and Turns in Life’
‘Slievenisk; Twists and Turns in Life’ by John Williams was a contemporary image that transports us to a special, timeless place. It had all the elements of a scene-setting description of a landscape in which a great story begins. One anticipates the view coming to life with the sound and image of an approaching automobile journeying along the little road. If it wasn’t for the glimpse of the sail tips of a distant wind turbine, it could be an image snatched from the early decades of the twentieth century.
The tonal range of this monochrome composition is reminiscent of those used by the great cinematographers of that era like Gregg Toland and his work on the film adaptation of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Technically, the sharpness of the focus reveals the tiniest landscape details and yet the hazy distance of the hills and the fluffiness of the clouds are conveyed in a much more ethereal way. Such effects do not happen by accident. This photograph is a worthy winner.
