An eye for images

Engineer holds photography exhibition at Cultural Foundation

Frank Miles is a civil engineer by trade who hails from Toronto, Canada. After two years in Abu Dhabi and two years in Muscat, Frank is holding his first photographic exhibition at the Delma Corner in the Cultural Foundation. The exhibition starts on January 26 and runs for two weeks.

Miles's love of photography started at an early age when he helped in his father's darkroom, learning the techniques of developing and printing. He has been greatly inspired by his cousin Dennis Miles, who is a well- known sports photographer in Toronto.

The other influence in his life is Freeman Patterson who wrote Photography and the Art of Seeing.

Patterson has a great eye for images. His photographs of abandoned mining towns in the deserts of Namibia are both eerie and beautiful. He has published four best-selling instructional books on photography and visual design and several large-format books.

It wasn't until Miles was in college that he bought his own camera, some 20 years ago. With this camera he took the black-and-white photographs that are being shown in the exhibition. Now he is the proud owner of two Nikons and a Pentax 67. Before this he had to be content with borrowing cameras from his father.

This did result, however, in one photograph of an 80-year-old bathing pavilion shot with a 90-year-old camera.

Miles became a member of the Camera Club in Toronto 10 years ago and this was a great learning experience for him, coming into contact with accomplished photographers and learning about light and texture.

For him, light and texture and light on texture are the most important features. Favourite subjects are landscapes and nature, particularly close-up shots of animals, and old and modern architecture.

Frank was fortunate enough to win the Canadian Landscape of the Year Award. The photographs in the exhibition are both in colour and black and white. The light in the Emirates and the environment have played an important role in this particular exhibition, which will be of great enjoyment to all.