Shocked of Southport

The idle council workers have now finished their holiday enabling me to go see the exhibition I tried to view last week. If the easily upset get wind of it I expect the local free sheets to be filled with letters of moral outrage. To be honest I was surprised that the exhibition was as explicit as it is. I half expected it to be all portraits and flowers with the homoerotic nudity left out. So well done The Atkinson. There is a warning sign at the door to the room the show is in.

With a couple or three exceptions all the pictures are in square format, and exquisitely composed. While carefully lit studio photography in black and white isn't my 'thing' I have long admired Robert Mapplethorpe's pictures. I can only think that is his compositions which appeal to me. In that respect the portrait of a grinning David Hockney is probably the weakest on show.

The show consists of a number of sections including self portraits, Patti Smith, artists, flowers (not the best selection) and still lifes. I thought there would be more flower photographs in a show like this. Of those the leaf was the pick for me.

Most of the pictures were familiar to me from magazines, books and the internet. It's still better to see real life prints as the tonal range is different and although not large by many exhibition standards they are larger than magazine sized. As is so often the case, however, the glass in the frames makes for annoying reflections at times.

Well worth a visit before the exhibition closes on the 23rd of March. I'll certainly be back for a longer look.

Leaving the gallery to pop into WHSmith to pick up the latest BJP (£9.99!!!!!) I managed to get a couple of Dogtown pics. The Fuji is proving pretty good for street snappery.

I was trying to get the reflection to work in this one, but was just a bit too far away I reckon.

Dogs come in all shapes and sizes...

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