"I didn't know there were so many talented photographers in Bermuda," was a comment overheard at the opening of the Bermuda Society of Arts Photographic Show. Indeed, both the Onions and Edinburgh Galleries in City Hall are full of a wide variety of photographic styles, subjects and techniques.

One gets the impression that if all the photographers in Bermuda took photos of the same subject, the photographs would all turn out different - and that is just with conventional photography - with digital photographic manipulation the possibilities are even more infinite.

"This show provides a range from platinum prints, which are very old, to digital manipulation, which is changing as we speak," said gallery director Peter Lapsley. "People seem to really like the show, there's enough of a mixture of themes and subjects, it doesn't get boring."

Most of the photographs are about the same size though, and similarly framed, so a large piece like Peter Terceira's "Scaffolded" really stands out. Viewed at a distance, it's possible to become lost while being drawn into the corner of a completely scaffolded monumental building. And the small stands out, as well as unusually framed. Grant Hall's "Wells Gray Provincial Park" is both. Set on a plinth it draws the viewer in for a closer look of what would otherwise be just another picture of trees.

Gillian Outerbridge's "Fishing Nets of Isla Maggiore, Umbria" also stands out with mottled brown frames and deep red mattes that offset touches of red in the nets. Four photographs give the sense that there is world of fishing nets out there to see.

Troy Jennings' digital but realistic prints are outstanding. "Father and child" captures the awe, joy and wonder between these two people and "Sprinter" which was selected as a juror's choice, looks as if he's ready to run straight off the print into the room.

There were 150 pieces entered into this juried show and 107 were selected for this exhibition, which is larger than last year's photographic show. "People don't usually enter photography into regular shows," said Mr. Lapsley. "My personal opinion is that photography is fine art and should be entered into each and every show unless restricted."

This year instead of having a prize for the best entry, the jury gave stickers showing their choices, which puts photography on the same level as every other juried show at BSoA.

Jenny Gower's "Antelope Series" photographs are some of the few more abstract pieces in the show and gained a `juror's choice' sticker. They draw the viewer into deep earth brown, organic forms. Martha Vaughn's series of brightly coloured stools and counters, which was also a juror's choice, is arresting for a different reason with its vividly bold vitality. "Daniel Head" by Robert Rogers is another juror's choice that is striking. It seems more Oriental than Bermudian with it's building on stilts, but sure enough there are the familiar Bermuda rocks, but with an `otherworldly' reddish glow and the ocean is smokey.

Mark Emmerson's platinum prints, with their old world luminescence, are his usual outstanding quality with a good variety of subjects represented. From orchid vine and clouds in Bermuda to "Donegal Bay, Ireland" and "Sienna, Tuscany" which looks like an old mediaeval etching.

Patty Petty's photographs of sections of people's houses, like shutters and windows, one at least in Croatia, are striking for their seeming simplicity and bold bright colours. There is a sense of lives lived in wonderful harmony with these buildings.

Victoria Evens captures a similar spirit of life in a totally different way with digitally manipulated photographs, "Salt Kettle Way", "Bermuda Banana" and "Spinning Spinnaker." Indeed, the feeling is of spinning into a bright other world.

As an accompaniment to what Bermuda's photographers are doing, internationally-renowned Bermudian photographer Deforest (Shorty) Trimingham loaned two classic photographs to exhibit at this show. "Kenya 1970" by Edward Weston (1886-1958) and a 1936 nude by Ernst Haas (1921-1986) are strikingly rich photos by innovative pioneers of photography.

Denise DeMoura