A DISPLAY of images created using modern and traditional methods of photography opens at Masterworks' Art Centre in the Botanical Gardens next week.

Two Approaches to Photography, featuring deForest (Shorty) Trimingham and Malcolm Greenough, captures the artists' respective talents in traditional colour photography and digital imaging.

The pairing is a first. At 83, Mr. Trimingham - a former Minister of Tourism - has enjoyed amateur photography all of his life. Previously however, he has limited public showing of his pictures to a few pieces at a time.

At 76, Mr. Greenough is also a lifetime photographer, but this will mark the first time the American - who, with his wife Cathy, divides his time between Bermuda and Beverly, Massachusetts - will have exhibited his works.

"I'm basically a travel photographer," said Mr. Trimingham. "My (work will) cover about 20 years of mainly travel, and some local photography. It will be interesting to see how much different the approach is between digital and regular film photography. I think both of us try not to look like photojournalists. What we try to do, is to produce on paper something that has some art form rather than recreating a pretty scene; an easy trap to fall into. I believe we both aim to see if we can make the picture rather than take the picture. By and large, it's not an approach that most people take. (With most photographers) the emotion is caused by what they've photographed rather than the way they photograph."

Describing his as an "old approach" to photography, Mr. Trimingham said he is looking forward to the event which will showcase between 20 and 25 images he has photographed over a 20-year span.

"I've shown at the Lica Gallery in New York and did a photographic book on Buddhism which was produced by Random House with an introduction by the Dalai Lama, and I've exhibited over the years in Bermuda," he said. "But I've never shown (so many pieces). The interesting thing about it is that an awful lot of young photographers are into digital photography. It's quite interesting, the different flecks of colour it's possible to get from that. I think it's going to be a very exciting exhibition."

A Harvard graduate and a qualified lawyer, Mr. Greenough is a published author, artist and photographer who traded his traditional camera for digital equipment in its early stages.

"I got into it and became fascinated with the possibilities," he explained. "As the equipment, paper and inks got better, I found I could really do those things I wanted to do, but couldn't, back when I was using film photography."

Although he had visited the island before, Mr. Greenough said that it was after the Cuban Missile Crisis that he considered buying a permanent residence.

"My former wife and I were with our children, looking at the events on television and thinking how dramatic they were, similar to the events in Iraq today. My daughter Sally, who was about nine at the time, disappeared. I went looking for her and heard crying coming from the bathroom. She said she was terrified that the world was going to come to an end - that we were all going to die. So I went down to the cellar and made a bomb shelter of books for her. I'd inherited some money from my mother and got to thinking that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have a place outside of (the United States). I didn't really like any of the Caribbean islands for various reasons and I'd been to Bermuda before and liked it."

It was the beginning of a love affair of wonderful friendships and photographic experiences, said Mr. Greenough. After discovering the passion for images he and Mr. Trimingham shared, the two decided to exhibit their works together.

"This will be my first exhibit here, in fact, my first exhibit ever," he added. "I have shown incidental items at various shows but in a very minor fashion. Two-thirds of my (shots) are set in Bermuda, with the rest in Tahiti and Massachusetts. I got to know (Mr. Trimingham) - and his interest in photography - through my visits over the years and we discussed doing a joint show. When (he) agreed I was stunned. He's an awfully good guy to have a show with. We both love late afternoon light for taking pictures but our styles are opposite. Mine are more pastel in nature, (he) goes in for very saturated colours. His photographs are mainly of (scenes taken on trips to the Far East) so there's lots of saffron, Buddhist robes, just wonderful, wonderful pictures."