The Bermuda Professional Photographic Association Biennial, 2006 at the Onions and Edinburgh galleries at the City Hall.

BERMUDA is blessed with an unusually large number of good photographers and a reasonable expectation would be that the best of them are professionals. At any rate, the professionals' work is what you will see at the Professional Photographic Association's Biennial at the City Hall for the next couple of weeks and some fine photography is indeed to be seen there.There are, of course, in this modern computerised world, almost as many different photographic methods as there are photographers. I know almost nothing about them whatever beyond having a sneaking feeling at the back of my mind that the digital manipulation of a photograph is a form of cheating.

I enjoy what I am looking at in exactly the same way as I enjoy paintings, by appreciating colour schemes, compositions and the play of light and shadow, no matter how it may be achieved. There is also, of course, an emotional impact in good art or photography that remains personal to the viewer.

Fifteen photographers are represented by some 75 photographs, but not equally. Amanda Temple, for example, shows ten photographs, while most others show only four. Her photographs as a rule investigate texture.

Several in the present show do exactly that, but only two, Doppio Arco, of Venetian arched entryways, and the stunning Old Walls Gate are in her usual range. Beau Peau is an exquisite diagonal linear composition in black and white achieved by cross lighting on a bare back. Aspen Eyes is of a close group of aspens tree trunks, the eyes in which have snowbrows.

The effect is intriguing.

Somewhat in the same vein are the five Cavea studies by Antoine Hunt. His subject matter is a shade macabre: feathers still attached to the bones of a dead bird. The black and white studies, of course, present linear compositions of complex textures and once the little frisson of horror at the subject matter passes the studies are entirely absorbing. They should, however, be viewed in the order numbered for greatest effect; they are hung in reverse order.

Scott Stallard's current work depends considerably on his willingness to subject himself to a measure of physical discomfort to achieve his results.

There are three of his splendid Namibian desert photographs that were so prominent at the recent Society of Arts show. I was more taken, however, with the splendid compositional effects of the eroded swirls in the red-gold rock of Utah's Antelope Canyon.

Having myself visited the pyramids of Egypt in the standard tourist way I was fascinated by Mr. Stallard's entirely uncommon shot of those most photographed of monuments and spent some time wondering how he managed it. I then ran into him on the stairs and he told me how it was done. It is a story verging on the gruesome, but the result is close to unique. I don|0xb9|t know about Mr. Stallard's soul, but suffering certainly ennobled the photograph.

Roland Skinner's work is, of course, very widely known. In this show no one will fail to be struck by his splendid photographs of our island at its most spectacularly tranquil in Sound Reflection and close to its most furious in White Caps. Netting Bait is a photograph curiously reminiscent of the paintings of Otto Trott and shows a Bermuda way of life now close to extinction. Morning Mist has a soft compositional balance and restrained colour scheme that is, once again, reminiscent of another artist, Chris Marson. In the end the art in any medium is in the eye of the artist.

James Cooper provides four marvelous meteorological photographs with geographical co|0xf6|rdinates for titles. By themselves they would make a splendidly dramatic set. Unfortunately they are framed above and together with four quite mundane shots of a young girl swimming underwater in weather conditions entirely different from those in the pictures directly above.

Hugh Conyers' Boat with Blue Rope was notable for its sober colour scheme and horizontal straight line composition offsetting the vertically aligned curves of the boat. The punctuation provided amongst the grays by the blue rope of the title was splendid. Much of the rest of the show falls into the "predictable" category. Much of it is self-conscious and contrived. Graeme Outerbridge's best work, the oddly titled Dreaming of Monet might better have been titled Dreaming of Dan Dempster.

Mark Emmerson might be well advised to note that bad architecture is unlikely to provide subject matter for good photography. David Skinner's Shadow Play, a cleverly contrived shot of basketball catches the attention, but his Spiritual Light, a sensitively composed shot of vertical gothic columns lit through fragments of stained glass was the better photograph.

Surprisingly, there was almost no portrait photography. This usually enlivens any photographic show, but since the death of the late John Weatherill Bermuda hasn't enjoyed a portrait photographer of any note. Scott Tucker's dramatically composed Sensei Kent Simmons was an exception, despite the subject's brandishing what can only be described as an illegal weapon. His Stephen "Still a Playa" Ratteray, though much less forceful, had far more character.

Ann Spurling's light touch and irrepressible, gentle humour enlivened a shot of her nieces and nephews arranged in star form on their uncle's circular driveway paving stones. Her Calendar Girls is a twist on a subject always good for a chuckle.

As it always is, this show is good for a trip to the City Hall, with plenty of good work for almost every taste.