Welcome to the Pixel & Grain Gallery

The event saw a fantastic range of amazing performances, involving hundreds of people from across Leicestershire and around two and a half thousand athletes from 19 regions across the UK. These photographs try to provide a balance between the audience, performers and athletes, and show just a small section of this event which provided all the sound, energy, diversity and colour one could wish for.

Hind-Sight is an exhibition of A Level Visual Media work (digital photography) from Hind Leys Community College in Shepshed. The work on display is taken from students final coursework project of which they could choose their own topic. The students have studied themes from 'Macro photography' and 'Toy Stories' to 'Graffiti Art' and 'Performance'.

The photographs in this exhibition were taken during two trips to Thailand in 2005. The overriding theme is everyday life in the country, aiming to depict the wide variety of lifestyles cultures in this large, populous and diverse nation.

The photographs in this exhibition were taken in 2005 and 2006. The overriding theme is to capture the everyday life of Loughborough market, aiming to depict the traders, their customers, and the diverse nature of their wares.

A first exhibition to try out our new venture! Three dance events in as many weeks all within three miles of each other - all with women at their centre - an exhibition which celebrates an emergence of expression and empowerment from the depths of darkness.

© 2006 CHARNWOOD ARTS. All works protected by copyright of the respective owners. Graphic Design and website by GATAFUNHO
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The sixth Pixel and Grain Gallery exhibition centres on a series of large portrait photographs of people of different faiths, all living and working in Charnwood.

Lola Sánchez presents her last two photographic works in England, realized during her stay through the "Leonardo da Vinci" programme in Loughborough between February and May 2006. With these two exhibitions, she tries to show the visual impact that England provoked in her.

Celebrating the production of this year's Loughborough Town Hall panto, these images were taken at various stages of its progression.

An exhibition by a group of enthusiasts from Leicestershire who would like to expand the opportunities for local photographers.
The emphasis is on visual ideas and photography as a means of expressing personal approaches and innovation.

Well known local press photographer Andy T reflects on his career as a working 'snapper'.

A special exhibition celebrating the results of this year international photographic competition.
Enjoy this sample of the winners and find inspiration for the next year competition!
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All the results can now be found on the website -link on the left of this page.

This photographer from Leicestershire presents here a selection of Enduro's (motorbike endurance races), celebrities that have been to the Charnwood area and a few what he calls cute animal photographs.

"Rag pickers fit into the lowest rung of Indian society. These photographs were taken to understand the survival of a community which I have grown to care for. I would like my baheno (sisters) to acknowledge that their drive and ability to work in such conditions is a topic worthy for motivational speeches, anywhere in the world... They inspired me."

"Is there an uncanny side to Loughborough? What are the unusual , unfamiliar, incidental and unexpected aspects of the town? Where are its hidden places and spaces?"
This selection of photographic work reveals a familiar place from a diverse range of perspectives. It reminds us that there is always something new to discover about where we live, work and play...

It does not seem long ago to Dennis when many shops in town were owned by local people. Alas we are now witnessing the demise of local family businesses. Can they survive the assault of the major high street shops? Dennis has captured some of these shopkeepers in their working environment.

These images taken during March and May 2007 in south west China are part of a collection with different contemporary and traditional Chinese arts and artists.
The spectacular production of the musical show "Immortality" represents part of a major undertaking to make the cultural discoveries and heritage of Chengdu known to a wider audience, both within the Province of Sichuan and beyond.

"These aerial photographs all show building landmarks local to Charnwood. We have been privileged to be able to collect them alongside our commercial and wedding photography projects. They bring an unexpected perspective to places that many of us know and love."

"My images show how variable dance can be. There is more to dance than tremendous leaps and jumps. There can be quiet power in a still pose. There is color in dance, but there is also line and form. Dance is so much more than "tricks". It encompasses such a range of beauty that there is no limit to the images it can produce, or the feelings it can invoke within us."

In 2008 the group of students were part of a natural history project. They were encouraged to look at things in a different way with a new perspective not only on the natural environment around them but also on their photography. This exhibition is a selection of some of their images taken from the nature walk in the Outwoods and from a visit to the Collection Resources Centre.

Angela’ s black and white photographs really explore the outer edges of fast film photography, capturing the grace, power and movement of the Loughborough University elite women’s swimming team above and below water. Two of the elite team are now in Beijing competing for Olympic gold. This exhibition is the second in the Passion for Performance project, a four year people's photography based initiative leading up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Gentleness, sensuality and surrealism could define Tatiana Antonuk's portraits and self-portraits. A citizen of Krasnoyarsk (Siberia), her current works are accomplished with the pictoral effects of photography from another century. These effects denote the marking out of her own artistic route within the hectic landscape of Russian contemporary photography.

There were three categories in this year's international competition: Decisive Moment, Landscape and Photo Essay. If you fancy having a go yourself enjoy this exhibition of the winning entries and find inspiration for next year!

"Photographing in the public space is an art on its own, highly inspirational..." Luis Afonso's love for the city, its everyday life and the beauty of unfamiliar encounters, is now being shared with the joy of being among nature, the wide open fields and the salted water. "Are there any similarities between these two genres within my photography? Well, you decide?..."

...KEEPING THE MUSIC ALIVE! Now dubbed as Europe’s largest tribute and new bands festival, ‘Glastonbudget’ is held annually over the late May Bank Holiday weekend just outside the Charnwood village of Wymeswold. Charnwood Arts has been involved since the early days and has documented Glastonbudget photographically over the years as well as running its own venue at the festival, the ‘Charnie Arnie Marquee’, for the first time in 2008.

"I am Subir Basak from Kolkata, India, who does not like to be called a photographer; instead I like the phrase "artist of light and shade" better....
My real topic of interest became -and the favorite of many photographers: 'people'. I tried to give a form of reality and truthfulness to the emotions, surroundings, values, traditions and lives of people. My camera clicked...clicked...clicked...."

Pixel & Grain Gallery is a joint venture between Loughborough based Charnwood Arts and Loughborough Town Hall. The cafe gallery spaces provide a window for photographers to display up to 15 landscape, portrait or square format images in frames provided by the venue.

Most exhibitions follow a 'to view' size of 18 inches by 12 inches but mounts may also be used within the standard frames to show other variations.

Photographers of all ages and locations worlwide are welcome to display their works in the gallery and through an accompanying on-line exhibition website. The gallery is committed to showing a wide range of work from both amateurs and professionals and group work.

Exhibitions run from one month to two months in duration. Loughborough Town Hall is a busy art and cultural venue with a large daily throughput of people - so if you would like your work to be seen - get in touch!

Ay Up Me Duck was an exciting community project encouraging local people to produce creative photographs focusing on a simple rubber duck. The response from the community and the creativity of the entries has been inspiring; ducks have been taken all over the world, from Sweden to Sri Lanka, as well as staying closer to home in gardens and homes across Leicestershire.

These images embody Lucia's chapters of thought; "If you were able to paint sudden bursts of thought and emotion, the images in "Headscapes" are what mine might look like." Many of the images are blurred and layered with multiple textures blended in with the original photograph, hinting at the inspiration of the often dream-like reflective thought processes behind them. "What you are actually seeing when you look at these images, are still clips of the film in my mind."

This selection of black and white images from three series of Sarah's work focuses on woodland but addresses opposite experiences, in the night time and in the daylight, and one series combines geology and photography by offering an in depth and close up view of the rock outcrops of Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, depicting how different and violent our landscape once was.

"...Through my work and travels, I want to show the great diversity of the Muslim world, as well as examples, both current and historical, of peaceful coexistence... I don't purport to bring you the "real" Muslim world, but I believe that our observations, even if not new to you, might be illuminating simply because they show aspects of the religion and common life in the regions, things one sees day-to-day, ordinarily, outside of the lens of politics or war...."

...To take photographs from the air is a relatively old project of mine. Taking aerial views is a discipline for which there is no school. My photographic project simply aims to illustrate my intuitions about the predominance of the imaginary - sometimes Promethean, sometimes simply absurd - in the transformation of the modern countryside. I finally composed the neoligism “Geopoetic” to explain this improbable dialectic of reason and subjectivity...

Jerzy is a committed amateur photographer, specializing in street photography, travel photography and documenting life in two regions of Poland: the industrial region of Upper Silesia and the unspoilt, “lost in time” region of Podlasie in Eastern Poland.
He also uses his numerous opportunities to travel abroad to learn about other cultures and he is an active member of TrekEarth.com photo community.

...This exhibition is a window into my mind, my view of the world...
I adore a lomographic view and strongly believe that vintage is the future! When I don’t have the resources available to portray my vision, I reach for Photoshop... We only get one shot at life, why not live it to the very fullest? Don't dream your dreams.. Own them! I hope to express this with my work, it's a colourful and exciting portrayal of all the world can be, and so much more.... As Maurice Sendak, the author of Where The Wild Things Are, beautifully said: "There must be more to life than having everything" ...

The aim of this exhibition is to give a glimpse of life in the street, portraying both the happy and also the sad side. When people are looking at my photographs I want them to actually feel the atmosphere on the street... Some are sad, some are quirky, some are very emotional but that's how life is on the street.

The entries for the "ClickIt! Open" this year presented the hardest task for our judges yet. It is true that a number of entrants from past years have gone on to enlarge their mark upon the world of photography. However, this year the quality and diversity of work we received was truly astounding....It is with great joy and enthusiasm that we present a small selection of this work through this exhibition....

Of all the ClickIt! competitions this was the hardest to judge and the competition which elicited the highest quality of work.
...This was not just a matter of producing six strong and winning images - telling or suggesting a story with one image is sometimes easier. For the six image essay the photographer's artistry also must consider the way in which these images work together. What is that links them? The visual elements, accompanying or included text, an aesthetic quality, a linkage of feelings, a visual narrative?...

This was the second 'Vision' international photography competition aimed at younger photographers world-wide. For a second year we and the judges were delighted by the number of entries and the quality of work submitted...
...The emergent talent around the world points to an incredible future for image making in the decades to come.