The idea of Evviva Art was conceived by my late wife Wendy in 2013 following the closure of Evviva Consulting, a business consultancy. It was to be a gallery and exhibition space for art and photography. Wendy died in 2014 and so I finally brought it to fruition in 2017 for the publication of a limited edition book of paintings and drawings by her as a permanent memorial ( Wendy Wyatt Drawings & Paintings: A Retrospective ISBN 978-0-9957750-0-8 Evviva Art 2017 ). In 2020 I was keen to support the local community during the Covid pandemic and it became a gallery and exhibition space for local projects until the end of 2021. From 2022 Evviva Art became a gallery and exhibition space for my film photography.

I have been around a long time and so I have always been a film photographer. I had a love/hate relationship with digital cameras during the 2000s working through a Fuji FinePix 9000 and a Panasonic LX100. The mode dial on the Fuji camera failed within two years. I fixed it but it failed again a year later. It wasn't allowed to fail a third time. The Panasonic LX100 was a very well designed camera and a delight to use but it left me wanting more out of photography. Also, I spent my life in front of computers and so I was reluctant to waste any more time trying to fix an image that was never going to work anyway. So, in 2013 I returned to film and went back to medium format with a Mamiya 6. Thus began an exciting period of experimentation with different films and developing processes and eventually different 35mm and medium format cameras.

I have always been seduced by the luscious, vibrant colours of transparency film but of late I am learning to see in black and white, creating images across a variety of genres and experimenting with different films and developing processes. I develop my own black and white films using the Ars-Imago Development Tank ( See Review ) which can be loaded in daylight. Colour negative films ( C41 Process ) and Transparency films ( E6 Process ) are more challenging and it is easier at present to use a lab for development. But I run a hybrid process where negatives/positives are wet scanned to digital images using the Epson VP750 Pro flat bed scanner with a fluid mount platten and driven by Viewscan. I use the GIMP open source image processor but I like to get the image right 'in camera' and to do as little post processing as possible.

In many walks of life today I see a constant striving in the search for novelty. A way to be different and attract attention. We are built to thrive on novelty which in the past had great survival value. But I think it is a bit sad in a way because more often than not novelty is quickly discarded in the search for more and photography is no exception. In my photography I hope to stay alive to the power of novelty but strive to create images that people want to return to time and again.

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