Here I am going to give a review on John Bulmer’s work and the way in which he exhibited it.

To start off with the lighting was unusual. The non-natural light was shining into the frames give a glare on the images which made it difficult for me to see the pictures but then he also had natural light dancing around the room. When it was dull outside the exhibition space still looked poorly lit inside saying to me Bulmer was depending on both light sources together to give the correct light. I believe the lighting could have been solved by blackout blinds on the windows and have the spotlights on as well as the main lights as the exhibition space has enough lights to point at the images but also highlight where his audience should move, giving them a path to follow. 

The framing and arrangement upset me greatly, nearly half his images had slipped out of their mount and some even their frames, if I was Bulmer I would be embarrassed. The slipped prints show to me how little he cares about his work and what he thinks of his audiences opinion. Furthermore the mounting for the prints doesn’t have the spacing at bottom which is designed for exhibiting work to allow the audience to read the image,  to concentrate on the image. 

 Moving on to Bulmer’s use of the space. There was such a waste of space within the middle of e room which was occupied by an empty display cabinet. Also the images hung by the window not only did they have to compete with the natural light but there is seating underneith at least 4 images, now when I went there was a member of the public sat using the wifi in the library which didn’t allow me to view the images situated behind his head. I didn’t get to see the images positioned there as the gentleman was sat there a great deal of time. To conclude the exhibition is sadly the home to the neighbouring cafe, which means a lot of people walking in and out plus the added noise of the toilet and not to mention the odour. Finally, I don’t know why but I couldn’t and still haven’t found out anything about the photographer other than the images he displayed. There wasn’t a flyer, poster, card no information for me to take away, very frustrating.

  
Overall with all the negative points, I really did like Bulmer’s work. I enjoyed his take on street photography, his playful humour within these images. They’re almost secrets of the streets. The boy urinatinb into a puddle triggers the immature side of me but compositionally I am drawn to the bold lines on the road and darken areas on the boy allows the eye to flow well through the image. His style is similar to one I’d like to create within my street photography for my final major project.

If I had to redo this exhibition I would have deffiently covered the natural light then moved the unused display box out and use the middle space for a partican wall which could hold up to six images. I would even try placing a partican wall in front of the Windows that way the space wouldn’t be wasted. I believe there are lots of different layouts once you move the un used furniture out.