My Charman Prize money may go towards a telescope

Charman winner Teresa Kirby Smith thinks she will be spending some of her $10k prize money on a telescope so that she can capture the heavens on camera. 

Smith has always had an interest in the stars and even once aspired to become an astronaut before NASA told her women were not allowed on to the programme. 

She said that the telescope she has her eye on can has a digital camera attachment meaning a new direction for the photographer who has shot analog for the best part of 30 years. 

“Of course it is such rigorous training to become an astronaut but I have always really liked astronomy. You can purchase really good telescopes and you can attach your digital camera to them so I might explore that route.”

Smith’s winning photo — Analog Gombey Goes Digital — brought her two disciplines together as one part was shot with an old “Brownie” Rolliflex camera and another with a modern digital camera. It depicts a Gombey dancer, making it one of three Gombey-related overall Charman Prize winners in the past six years.

“I guess it really is an iconic image — the Gombey — for Bermuda and I think that they (the judges) appreciated my marrying two different techniques together. 

“Also the Gombey go way back in history so my Rolleiflex reflected that being now it is becoming an older photographic technique. Photography has advanced incredibly in 150 years compared to other mediums like painting or sculpture. It’s like light travelling in years.

“I decided to put the two techniques together. I was hesitant at first as they are different sizes... how would I display them? Should I just do one? I’ve been working on a series for a couple of years called Unreal Portraits. I have people who pose for me and long time exposures and usually at night with the Roliflex. It is not recognisable rendition of the person you may look completely different because I hand hold my camera and it can be a time exposure of one, two or more minutes. Even myself at times I don’t know what the result will be. So I had my subject pose with it and at first I said I’d use the digital and see what it looks like — using it as a work tool to get immediate feedback. I had both cameras in the same sitting and that is how I got the idea.” 

The judges said: “The presentation was clear, the craftsmanship high, and the image full of meaning that related it to Bermuda and the world beyond. There is a lot of photography in the exhibition this year but Ms Smith’s attention to detail and care for the printed image impressed us very much. But beyond that we found her treatment of the subject — Gombey — to be without parallel in the exhibition.

This year’s new prize is the Masterworks Collection Prize, which was chosen and purchased by the Masterworks Collections Committee to remain in the Bermudiana Collection. The winner of this award was Sharon Wilson’s  untitled Encaustic on birch ply piece.