When Alistair Rucklidge of the Ilkley Photographic Society showed us some of his Grandfather’s monochrome prints and bromoils, the resonance and timelessness of them has, he says, inspirationally haunted him, so much so that in his photography (and to some extent, that of his wife, Beverley White) he looks to create a sense of place and perhaps timelessness all his own.

Twelve years ago Alistair and Beverley belonged to Cambridge Camera Club, since which they came up to live in Harrogate for 6 months before settling in Ilkley. They had planned to present their lecture ‘In and Out of Focus’ together but newly-born son, Rowan had other ideas and instead, congratulations were in order and Beverley’s colour prints had to be shown also by Alistair.

From a scintillating waterfall they took us to a remote, unspoilt spot where, whilst concentrating on the silence of the place, they were able to give their landscapes a wonderful tonal sense of permanence. Similarly, Wastdale in the Lake District awarded them the severity of the screes and interrupted by one beam of sun breaking through moody heavy cloud, Alistair made a panorama of dark, timeless beauty.

They experimented with intemperate and unpredictable infra-red film, some Lith printing, sandwiching of slides and an exciting innovative use of the Polaroid camera, from, say, a New Zealand volcano to the Farne Islands teeming with gulls and from Washington State’s coastline to Epping Forest.

Beverley works more in colour but their aim is one of ambiguity and auto-suggestion, deliberately blurring images into ragged-edged ‘etchings’-come-soft-focus ‘pastels’ of desaturated colour, ‘Lowri-like’ figures and composite surreality!

By using every imaginable trick - like maneuvering a rubber ‘hose’ fronting the slr or zooming the lens whilst releasing the shutter, by printing on , say, sandpaper or by image transference (using instead, the throw-away chemical side of the peeled Polaroid print!), they produced a thought-provoking programme and, in the words of club member, Andrew Clark, a truly remarkable set of timeless prints.