Photographer of the Month: Susi Luard

Our photographer of the month his month if Susi Luard. Although not a Member of Hampton Hill Photographic Society, Susi is a good friend to us having given us talks and come along on our Summer Walks programme this year. Here is more information about Susi

I joined London photo walks organised by photographic societies in 2013 for exercise and to try out photography as a hobby. I borrowed an Olympus PEN from a member for the first photo walk with City of London and Cripplegate Photographic Society and to my surprise Olympus magazine published my photo of a red phone box. I won a little prize when I joined a Royal Photographic Society (RPS) panorama walk and by this point I started thinking photography sure is fun! I joined the RPS and through the highly active RPS London Region joined several photo projects. In the meantime I joined the Lighting in Photography course at Barking and Dagenham College which really made me learn a lot about manual settings and understand more about the technical aspects of photography. In 2015 I gained the LRPS distinction, in 2016 the ARPS distinction and in 2017 Gold Medal for Mono section of the RPS Documentary Photographer of the year with 5 photos of the protest march by the strippers on the closure of the White Horse Pub in Shoreditch East London which meant they lost a work place.

Nowadays I’m just having fun taking photos while travelling and since the Covid pandemic mostly in London streets. During the lockdown I started taking photos of street artists and their murals and by engaging with them I made a lot of new friends. I cover all types of photography – landscape, long exposure, flash, portraiture, architectural, urban, street, ICM, etc. My favourite photos would be candid ones which often include dogs I met in the streets.