Anita Anderson

Being a photographer I am always on the lookout for anything that takes my fancy. I had been squirrelling away my hoard of pictures for many years. Family and friends were quietly encouraging me to show my work. I dipped my toe into the ART world and was exhibited in The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 2011, in the very year that photography was properly acknowledged. To see my photograph, BENCH, in The Wohl Central Hall, was a highlight of my life. I was told by the Academy that my edition was the first to sell out. The wonderful comments were a massive motivation to share my work. 

In 2014 SPACE FOR KNIVES and ACCORDION were in the RA Summer Exhibition, and in the most sensational position. I was shortlisted in 2017 and again this year, with two pictures, and my work FOUR GO SAILING was hung. It is No. 851 in Gallery V, which has been curated by Barbara Rae RA and Hughie O’Donoghue RA. 

Since 2011 I have been included in three photography exhibitions at Candid Arts Trust and a further two for painting, at The Working Mens College. I was shortlisted for The Cult House ‘It’s Art Call 2017'. I am always thinking about a private exhibition but have yet to pin down a place and time. 

Making this website has been a trial because I am sincerely eclectic. I had to herd a body of disparate photographs into categories. In spite of this my pictures will always mingle and merge. I can see the connections, because I know what triggered the need to take the photograph. For me the most mundane object or view is transformed by the right bright light at the right time, and in the right place. I am simply charmed by light and bewitched by this transformation and the contrast and drama it creates. 

I went from Our Lady of the Rosary to Patchway Secondary Modern and then on to Filton Technical College, where Mr. English gave me the confidence to apply to art school. Drawing and painting were the light of my life. I had yet to encounter photography. Two months before the interviews my portfolio was destroyed in a fire. I had to gather myself to make a new one, which was fortuitous, as Mr English said the work was much more exciting. It worked because I was accepted by The Central School of Art and Design. I remember the interview when they said I was the first student who had put the college down as second choice! I had the most eye-opening four years at The Central and when a fellow student gave me a little Box Brownie I was captured. 

I work with my husband who has the special skill to print my pictures perfectly.

I always have a camera with me, just in case a picture presents itself. If it is a good picture I will know immediately. It is a bit like big game hunting, without the cruelty.

Anita Anderson