A SUNNY SUNDAY AFTERNOON SPENT AT SUMMER HOUSE. Last Sunday marked the final day of the 2017 Photo London exhibition, held at Summerset House and the Blend team took the opportunity to exercise their artistic muscles in the glorious London sunshine. The Exhibition, which has been held annually for the past three years, comprised of ninety-nine separate exhibitors, showcasing the creative talent both, past and present of about five hundred photographers from around the world. Given the range of ages and backgrounds of our team, we each came away with different highlights from the event. For some of us, it was the chance to see the work of photographers that have influenced our own practices up-close, others enjoyed finding new pieces to be inspired by. Amongst the 100’s of photographs, there were a few pieces that stood out as being just amazing. OUR HIGHLIGHTS: Seeing the work of iconic fashion photographers Helmet Newton, Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn in the flesh.. and then seeing their prices tags. One Helmet Newton image was going for £130,000. I’ll have five please! The “making of” series by Cortis & Sonderegger who amazed us with their incredibly detailed recreation of iconic photographs, providing enough context to their images to give a real insight into their creative process. The works of Phil Shaw was exhibited at the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery. In the Londonensi Subterraneis series, Shaw takes something as mundane as the stations on the London underground and uses the titles of the books to piece together beautifully constructed images. Each image depicts one of the underground lines by a display of coloured books on a shelf. It’s an ingenious and beautiful way of portraying the lines. Each of the titles on the books also had clever references to the stations. Rob Munday Naturalium – three-dimensional flowers. Rob, a pioneer in 3d holographic printing, produced a series of works that stretch.. If you didn’t get the chance to see the exhibition this year- fear not! The events’ organisers have confirmed that Summerset House will open their grounds to the 2018 Photo London show. At £30 a ticket, we could think of worse ways to spend a few hours next May than attending the world-class photographic fare.