Camden New Journal - Features: Reno Wideson: Flashback to Cyprus

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The Review - FEATURE by SUNITA RAPPAI
Published: 26 April 2007

Shepherd

Cypriot times past

A BEARDED priest in a long black cassock winds his way down steep pathways though pristine white Cypriot villages dozing in the village heat…
This and other iconic images of life in Cyprus more than half a century ago go on display this week in Gallery K in Hampstead. The discerning eye behind the viewfinder belongs to Reno Wideson – retired head of BBC TV film operations – who left Cyprus in 1959 to work in London.
Now in his late 80s, Wideson has probably taken more photographs of his homeland, over a longer time frame, than any other photographer. This current retrospective is selected from his massive archive of about 10,000 slides and negatives of Cyprus, out of a total collection of about 35,000 images.
As beautiful as they are in purely artistic terms however, the photographs also represent a Mediterranean way of life that has ceased to exist. As Gallery K curator Ann Eastman says: “These pictures evoke a sense of nostalgia – even if one has never set foot on Cyprus; they intrinsically capture the quintessence of our past, wherever we have come from.”
* Reno Wideson: Flashback to Cyprus – 1950
Until May 7
Gallery K, 101-103 Heath Street
Hampstead, NW3
Tel: 020 7794 4949

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