Guest Lecture – Kylie-ann Martin

On 27th February we held a remote talk by Kylie-ann Martin entitled “My Journey in Mono”. Kylie is based in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham, so utilising our ‘Last Thursday’ where we cannot use the hall gave the members a good alternative to the usual social evening.

This was a very interesting talk, and it was indeed a journey. Kylie openly spoke about her suffering from ME and panic attacks, and of using photography as a means of helping her cope with the conditions, encouraging her to get out to overcome them. She still mostly shoots within 10 miles of her home, including her entries for international competitions. 

Kylie described how she initially got involved with Project 365 to encourage herself to take images. She then joined a local camera club, where her journey truly seemed to begin.

Kylie led us through a sequence of images which documented her journey. She explained how she discovered the benefits of conversion to monochrome with particular images – such as uncovering detail and textures not evident in the colour version of the image. She recounted judge’s comments on her pictures, and how she had revisited the photographs as she expanded her editing capability to produce images which had more presence, or to change the presentation style. She also was keen to point out the difference between “black and white” and “monochrome”, where it is tones of a single colour.

Of note was that Kylie’s images were not all of a single genre – there was a bit of everything represented, covering nature, wildlife or architecture. Images from underneath Spaghetti Junction were displayed along with building interiors and some modelling images, although Kylie did seem to admit that she was less comfortable with that sort of photography. She seemed to have a particular affinity with clocks!

This was an evening that was well spent in front of the computer screen viewing the presented images. It certainly gave reason to consider when a monochrome conversion would benefit an image that otherwise might not be ‘special’. Kylie is a very personable presenter with an engaging style.

More information about Kylie and her photographic activities can be found at Kylie-ann Martin Photography – Home