Photographic exhibition: Beyond Colour

Winter approaches and the world around us desaturates as autumn’s last flourish of colour is replaced by shortened days and darkening skies. Some of us meet this deepening gloom headlong by submerging ourselves in a riot of colour as we light up our lives with preparations for winter festivals, fashions and the cultural scene which so often goes into high gear as the winter sets in. Outside though, a new world reveals itself as distracting colour falls away to reveal shapes and textures removed from the distraction of the spectrum, instead showing us a new spectrum, that of form and feel. It’s almost a form of mindfulness to stand behind a camera and look at your world purely in abstract monochrome and consider why is something a particular shape. Is it graceful, or brutal? Is it rough or steel spun like silk fibres? Why does one tree have smooth bark, and another shed it in flakes? And how do these things change in the light and time of day. A camera can capture it all.

Beyond Colour is about challenging visitors to pick up a camera and go for a walk. Some of these photos were taken in far flung locations, others here in Enfield, using a range of equipment including phones, professional digital kit and vintage film cameras from the 1940s. The one thing they all have in common is that these photos are an act of meditation which you’re invited to join. Maybe you’ll see a tree on your walk that you’ll return to throughout the year and photograph it changing, or that building you wondered about every time you walked past it but never stopped. What would it look like if you stopped and crouched down low and looked up? We’re looking to display a selection of the most interesting pictures submitted by visitors during the exhibition on our video screen. Send your picture to to be considered. The copyright remains with the photographer.

Cliff Docherty

Colin Docherty was a keen photographer all his life and infected his young son with the same passion from a very early age, passing down his 1957 Kodak box brownie when Cliff was 8. He still has it. Working in both analogue and digital mediums these days, he has been exhibited in numerous shows in London, but this is his first solo outing. Working in a range of genres you can’t really pigeonhole this deaf artist. He has a wandering interest, wanting to try new things all the time, especially if it involves playing with old equipment and bringing it to life to do something contemporary with it. He enjoys abstract work and carries a fondness for the film noir style as can be seen in a lot of the work on show today. You can see more of his work on his website and his blog.

CliffDocherty.com

Show map