The Isle of Man Photographic Society is once again delighted to be holding its annual members’ exhibition at the Hodgson Loom Gallery in the Laxey Woollen Mills, which runs for the next four weeks.

The gallery is the ideal location for the exhibition, spacious and with lots of windows giving excellent natural lighting to the images on display - and as always, beautifully curated by Julia Ashby-Smyth in a highly distinctive and artistic way.

The great majority of the prints are for sale at very attractive prices - the opportunity for visitors to get some ’statement’ images with great impact to hang on a wall.

This is the 80th year of the society, the oldest photographic club on the island, and founded in late 1938 in the days when photos were available only from black and white film, colour film only becoming popular and economical after the Second World War.

Many of the members at that time would have processed their images in their own ’darkrooms’ - often a converted cupboard or bathroom, using chemicals to process a negative film and an enlarger to produce the final print.

Today, we take for granted using digital files from a mobile phone or camera and a home printer to produce our prints - a much simpler but still deeply satisfying method to display images of our families, nature, scenery or our holiday activities.

The Hodgson Loom Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, with a wide range of top quality artisan products for sale, together with an on-site café.

Chris Blyth