If a picture’s worth a thousands words, two former Brighton reporters have plenty to say as a collection of their photographs goes on show at an exhibition in Lewes.
Jonathan Harwood, 51, and Rudi Gnoyke, 57, collaborated for their first exhibition which is being held at the Lewes Arms, in Mount Place, as part of the annual Artwave festival.
The pair worked as news reporters in Brighton in the 1990s and both now work in London as national newspaper sub-editors.
Mr Harwood said: “I only bought a ‘proper’ camera after lockdown in 2021 working at two Lewes-based photography magazines as a sub-editor.
“Looking at the great images – and reading about how to make them – inspired me to get involved.
“Taking photographs has given me the opportunity to see, explore and express myself in a new way. I am interested in space, shape and symmetry and how images can evoke different feelings and emotions.
“Photography has helped me reconnect with nature – noticing how the light and landscape changes with the seasons, for example. It also provides an excellent excuse to escape for a few hours and live in the moment.”
Mr Gnoyke started his newspaper career as a photographer and said: “In a busy life of commuting to London and working anti-social hours, photography allows me to slip back into myself and shed the stresses of the daily grind.
“Taking photographs makes me see the world differently, and I try to be alive to what’s going on in my field of view – people, movement, patterns, colours, light, juxtaposition.
“It doesn’t happen often, but nothing quite gives me the joy of a successful shot – the sense of having captured something fleeting and, hopefully, beautiful or thought-provoking. I doubt I’ll ever tire of making that split-second connection.”
The exhibition – upstairs at the Lewes Arms – is called “Depth of Field: Exploring Sussex in Photographs”.
It opens at noon today (Saturday 2 September) as part of Artwave, the annual festival across the Lewes district, as it reaches its 30th anniversary.
The exhibition is free and runs from noon to 10pm every day, from today until Sunday 17 September, with a chance to buy professional prints.
The festival started in 1993 with a founding mission “to make the arts accessible to all” and featured 70 artists across 18 events.
The organisers said: “This year you can discover work by more than 1,000 creatives and visit upwards of 180 venues.”
It’s the biggest festival yet, with free-to-visit exhibitions in private homes, studios, potteries, windmills, railway stations, farms and churches, across the Lewes district from Ditchling to Herstmonceux and from Newhaven to Danehill.
Another exhibition of pictures has been organised by Edward Reeves Photography, the family business founded in 1855 and based at 159 High Street, showcasing archive material.
The exhibition of 80 light boxes in windows around Lewes is called “Stories see through a glass plate: In their footsteps”.
Maps of where to see the light boxes are available from the shop itself as well as from the tourist information centre, also in Lewes High Street, and several of the participating venues.
Additionally, a new exhibition at the Edward Reeves Studio will show portraits spanning over 160 years as well as photomontages by Isaac Reeves.
The light boxes can be seen from next Thursday (7 September) to Sunday 1 October. The archive room will be open from 11am to 4pm on Friday 8 September to Sunday 10 September and again the following Friday to Sunday at the same times in the Victorian studio.
