Landscape photographer, Shamani Surendran will be exhibiting her work at the Wimbledon Museum as their first ever Photographer in Residence. This is part of Wimbledon Museum’s new initiative of encouraging local artists to showcase their work at the adjacent Norman Plastow Gallery.
The photography exhibition, Flora | Reimagined, depicts images being shown of trees, flora and reflections taken mainly around Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. You may have a hard time recognising them because she has “reimagined” them to tell her story.
Shamani was born in Malaysia and prior to moving to the UK resided in Australia for several years. She lives with her family in Wimbledon and is a keen photographer.
She has always taken photos but became passionate about photography during the Covid pandemic whilst on solitary walks with her beloved dog Flint, who was suffering from poor health at that time.
She began to focus on her local surroundings, becoming more aware of the space around her, capturing moments that caught her eye. These images of their favourite spots are a way of feeling, of touching, of remembering, long after the moment has passed. Creating these images became a meditative, therapeutic process.
Photography allows Shamani to translate her observations visually onto paper so that others may interpret what she has seen.
It is often exciting when someone notices something totally different whilst looking at the same subject – a face in a tree, a shape in a shadow, a story in a reflection – and provokes the question “What is it we truly see in front of us?”.
Her work has been exhibited in several galleries and a number of her images have been featured in limited edition photo books in the US.
Her bird series “and there were more, there always are” has been shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society’s International Photographic Exhibition in January 2024.
The exhibition will take place during the weekends of 15-17 & 22-24 September and other times by appointment.
Entry is free.
The Gallery is located at 26 Lingfield Road, SW19 4QN.
You can expect to see Shamani’s work including her many images of trees and reflections on Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, and you can meet her to learn more about her practice.
The images can be viewed on her website and she can be contacted on shamani_surendran@hotmail.com or 07766 554 533 with any queries.
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