'Just look serious!'

Local photographer Monica Weller won a Bronze medal in the Royal Photographic Society's (RPS’s) International Exhibition for her picture of her granddaughters.
Weller, who already has countless prizes and books to her credit, took the pictures while babysitting: “I decided on the spur of the moment to take some pictures of the girls at bedtime in my home.
“For this picture all I asked of them was to look serious for a couple of seconds!
“For several years I’ve worked in black and white. In my camera bag that evening was just one roll of film, a Kodak T-Max 3200. I’d never used this type before. I took 36 pictures. This is the one I liked the most.”
Weller says she hopes the image speaks for itself: “Some say it’s like a Pre-Raphaelite study. That’s fine by me.”
The RPS International Exhibition is the world’s oldest international photographic exhibition. This year’s, the 149th, opened in London on June 10. It runs there until July 16, after which it starts a UK tour, dates below.
Weller’s winning picture has also been accepted in the London Salon of Photography (LSP). The LSP accepts only the best. Its declared aim ‘is to exhibit only that class of photographic work in which there is distinct evidence of artistic feeling and execution.'
Last year Monica Weller published her first non-photography book, a detailed investigation of the conviction and death of Ruth Ellis, hanged for murder in 1955. Weller wrote the book with Ellis’s sister.
The dates for the RPS exhibition tour are:
[] Haven Gallery, Boston, Lincs 12 Aug - 17 Sept
[] Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2 Dec - 20 Jan 07
[] Royal United Hospital, Bath 31 Jan - 4 March 07.