A GALLERY showcasing international art photography will open a new exhibition in Pontypool this weekend.

Earlier this year, the Kickplate Project officially opened their gallery 76m2 in Commercial Street, Pontypool.

This Saturday, the gallery will launch its fourth exhibition Physalis - a solo show by Ukrainian photographer Alexey Shportun.

Mr Shportun lives in Irpin, a town 30 km from Kiev, and creates still life photographs with his wife Katerina, before capturing them with a homemade 18 by 13cm camera.

Describing his process, Mr Shportun said: “It is much more complicated than when photographing with a digital camera. For long exposures the exposure is calculated intuitively by eye, when a picture is shot it also needs to be processed in a darkroom, and the camera itself is quite heavy to handle.

“Thus photographing turns into a kind of ritual, and this will inevitably be reflected in the photographs themselves”.

The exhibition will run until Saturday July ,1and will be open at the gallery from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm.

The Pontypool gallery also has a darkroom, which photographers can use free of charge.

For more information on the ‘Kickplate Project’ visit http://thekickplateproject.weebly.com/

Alternatively, search ‘Kickplate Project’ on Facebook, email thekickplateproject@gmail.com or receive updates on the groups Twitter page @kickingtheplate.