Café Red

John Buttress at Cafe Red

Banbury Camera Club have been given the opportunity to hang an exhibition in Café Red, the canal-side cafe which is part of Banbury Museum. In 2016 we used this space for our 70th Anniversary “British Life” display of club members’ photographs.

Following this we had on show the twelve pictures by BCC members selected by Katharine House for their 2017 Calendar. This was followed by an exhibition by Banbury Camera Club Chairman, Andrew Spackman ARPS – a panel of prints he submitted to the Royal Photographic Society to gain his ARPS award. More recently we presented an exhibition of flower and garden photographs by club member John Buttress.

This has now been replaced by a new exhibition by Michael Butterworth LRPS. Here are a few words from him.


I’ve enjoyed music all my life and, when I went to study in Cardiff, I started to go to gigs and found that live music was so much more. You feel the music, as well as hearing it, and watching the performance just gives the music an extra dimension. I went to many gigs in my early twenties.

In 2006 I got the opportunity to take photographs, from the pit, at The Cornbury Music Festival – I combined two of my favourite things. Through luck and contacts I’ve managed to get access to take photos at festivals and gigs every year since.

What I like about shooting from the pit, and the three song rule, is that you have fifteen minutes to work out the light, what the band might do and who is the most dynamic/photogenic. It’s anticipating what’s going to happen next and trying to capture the essence of that performance in one image.

These images were all shot in Oxfordshire.

To provide interest for customers at the cafe the exhibition will be changed regularly. Our next exhibition will be from Alan Sargeant who will present images from his Images of Banbury talk to be timed to coincide with a talk he will be giving in June.

In addition to our exhibitions in Cafe Red, over at the Katherine House Furniture Shop there is an exhibition of members’ prints for sale. The proceeds from the sale of each photograph will go to Katherine House. Please see more details here.