Photographer and former diplomat David Tunnicliffe presented a compelling illustrated talk at Dimbola Galleries earlier this week (Wednesday), exploring themes from his 2 current exhibitions on show.
Introduced by Dr. Brian Hinton, MBE, Chair of Trustees at Dimbola, Brian related how David had asked him which of his two exhibitions he would like him to bring to the Island..Brian’s reply was instant-” Both, of course”, he insisted.
David recalled how his working life began as a young man in the Merchant Navy, later working for Cunard on both the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth.
His first talk, entitled “Travels with a Tangerine”, featured the extensive travels of the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, (1304 to 1368).Of Berber descent, Battuta was one of the greatest travellers of all time, according to David.
What followed was a fascinating travel catalogue of architecture, people and tourist sites.
India,.Oman, Jordan, Vietnam,The Great Wall of China, Saigon, Turkey, Egypt and the Alhambra Palace in Spain followed.
“The Road to Palmyra” was a more sobering series of photographs detailing the past glories of what was once a vast architectural paradise.
Originally part of the vast Roman Empire, Palmyra was built using stone imported from Egypt by the Romans but was widely damaged by the 1930s. It was vandalised beyond repair in 2016 by the Daesh.
When David was asked why he had chosen monochrome for the exhibition photographs, he replied that actually 75% of the originals were colour, but he found that for exhibitions a mixture of monochrome and colour did not work. Hence, these two exhibitions, which will be on show at Dimbola until the end of this year, are in monochrome.
Sales of David’s book and calendars depicting some of the photographs are on sale at Dimbola with profits from the sales going to Dimbola.
No detail on Mr Tunnicliffe’s career in the diplomatic service?