A LOCAL photographer will "REVEAL" his first exhibition at the Villa Marina this week.
Andi Howland's exhibition – entitled REVEAL – is a collection of 16 portraits taken over the last year.
According to Andi it will show "beauty, fragility and humour" captured in a fleeting moment.
Andi, whose interest in photography started around 10 years ago, said he primarily saw himself as a landscape photographer until something happened on a bus which made him change his path.
He explained: "I noticed a guy sitting on his own and something struck a chord with me. I spent ten minutes with my back to him, going over how I could ask to take his picture, before finally just turning around and doing it. It's one of my favourite images in the show."
Whilst collecting images for the exhibition Andi said he had had the "privilege" of getting to know people and was thankful for the pictures they had allowed him to take.
He added that a person's eyes were a key focus of the images he took and said: "From a technical standpoint one of the most important elements is the point of focus and for me that's nearly always the eyes.
"It is the eyes which reveal a certain depth or quality in a person and all my favourite images tend to be those where the individual is giving something away through their gaze or expression.
"I stress the word individual - I love the human diversity."
Andi added that he was keen to keep his work individual. He continued: "It's very easy to be influenced, consciously or otherwise, by other photographers. I want to continue developing my own visions and making pictures that resonate with the way I see the world.
"At the moment the only photographs I take are the ones I want to take and that is how I want my art to be."
The REVEAL exhibition will open in the gallery space upstairs in the Villa Marina on Thursday, February 9, at 6pm and will run until Monday, March 19.
