When all Herefordshire had to worry about was being hit hard by unprecedented floods back in February 2020, and the Covid-19 virus was still something only happening in China and Italy, the Herefordshire Life Through a Lens project had booked a small space in the Buttermarket in which to run a small ‘pop-up’ dark room for three days in half-term. We didn’t know how well it would be received, but as Rick Goldsmith had toured schools and other youth groups he was struck at how many young people didn’t know what to make of terms like ‘negatives’ or a ‘dark room’ or ‘developing a photograph’. At that moment the idea was born to run free workshops in developing Derek Evans’ original prints from a negative.
Moira Davidson, from the Buttermarket in Hereford, greeted the idea with open arms and let Catcher Media take over an old hairdressers and also suggested that we could take over more space to hang an impromptu exhibition of Derek Evans images. At first we flinched at the idea of another exhibition as we already had a huge amount of work on our hands putting up the other five exhibitions but, come the first morning of the activity, having three stalls with Derek’s prints on show was a great way of attracting people, and as always with Derek’s photographs: they got people talking, and reminiscing, and identifying friends, family and events. One gentleman even identified the smiling May queen showered with confetti who had graced our posters, DVD covers and postcard packs: finally after three long years of doing the project!
The flooding didn’t stop young and old coming along to book themselves a 30-minute slot to develop a photograph with Steve Fratson (who appears in ‘Carousel’ our second film for the project): children, students, older camera buffs and the plain curious all came along. People came out smiling, and one Shirley Smith said that her two grandsons had, after looking forward to it for weeks and having researched it out YouTube, had thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
People came back and collected their prints or we posted others. So many thanks if you came, and sorry if we couldn’t fit you in. And to those who asked us to run it again, we’ll let you know….
Photographs by: Rick Goldsmith & Marsha O’Mahony