PHOTOGRAPHY fans can enjoy a month-long celebration of the art form.

The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse cafe on Castle Gates will be packed full of photographic prints with around 50 submissions from Shropshire and beyond.

There are also events planned throughout August.

“We’ve got quite a diverse style of work and age ranges and abilities,” said organiser Richard Foot, “from professionals to students to those who do it as a hobby.”

He said there will be a competition element to the exhibition.

“None of them will have names, just numbers on the frames, so people will vote for what they like rather than voting for a person.

“The winner will get their own solo exhibition the next month.”

Richard said if it was successful he would consider making it a annual event.
Activities planned include a ‘photo quest’ treasure hunt on August 14. Teams of six will be given clues to take photographs from around Shrewsbury.

“There are points for getting the clues correct, and points for the images.”

There will be coffee and cake for the winners and the most artistic image will be printed and added to the exhibition.

August 18 will see a photography networking event from 7pm to 9pm, where local photographers are invited to come along and discuss their work.

In addition there are a range of talks planned including Christophe Dillinger, editor in chief of Square magazine and an expert on experimental fine-art photography, on August 9.

Richard himself will also be talking on August 30.

He is a professional photographer who runs Shrewsbury-based Footprint Photography and had his work used in the Oscar-winning film Inception.

“It was a picture of Theatre Severn,” said Richard. “In one scene there’s a little piece of Shrewsbury on the wall behind Leonardo DiCaprio.”

Jessica Kendrick, owner of the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse, said: “We talked about putting on an exhibition for a long time.

“It’s slightly different from the average gallery exhibition, a bit more informal and fun.
As a venue for artwork, it works quite well.”

Richard added: “There’s not a great deal of exhibition space in Shrewsbury to do something like this so it’s great to have the Coffeehouse.”