Documentary and Storytelling Photography by Sue Macpherson ARPS

It was such a pleasure to journey from Uganda where she worked with the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund as a volunteer photographer to the Alpaca Farm and horses at Sea Barn Farm Racing here in Dorset, to tell the stories of the owners and their animals.

Sue, having been born and brought up in Africa showed us the insiders view of the life of a very successful and thriving charity, dealing with official functions and huge school groups in their matching uniforms as well as dancers and with a demonstration of the excited ululation sound of the Ugandan women. We were impressed! Dealing with many children clamouring at your lens, she suggested the use of a longer lens to get the quieter moments of life in the village.

In contrast some of Sue’s images were in black and white and their quality could be seen in the two stands of prints she had brought to share. Working with animals, whether shearing Alpacas or the horses racing alongside the Fleet, the images illustrated the life their owners lead to make it all happen. Not necessarily and easy one but one with love and empathy for their charges!

LOOK. This body of work involved getting to know people with sight impairments, was most impressive. The relationships Sue developed with various people and their sight issues made us think about the implications of the conditions. Using visualisation and sensitive planning of shots as well as vocalising a description of a picture were important. Sue took this further and with a special method of developing photographs introduced a Braille format, a tactile experience. Examples on the stands gave us all the chance to experience this. The year was 2016 when this project came to fruition through linking with the Rio Paralympic Sight Impaired team in a detailed interview.

To send us all home to sleep soundly Sue read us her lockdown project: Scotty’s The Shadow Lion. A beautiful book based on her memories as a child and using photographs suitably processed and her granddaughter as the main subject.

What a wonderful evening of original photography and with such a broad range of topics.