Focus on Imaging just misses out on its quarter-century

If you attended this year's Focus on Imaging Show at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre earlier this year, you might like to know that you were at the very last show, which started life 24 years ago as the Focus on Photography show. Show-founder, Mary Walker, today revealed that the show has been axed and she is not entertaining any possibility of selling the show to a different organiser. Here is her statement:

Following a successful and long-running contribution to the photography industry spanning 24 years of the annual Focus On lmaging exhibition, and alter more than half a million visitors have enjoyed photography through the show. Mary Walker Exhibitions would like to announce that the 2013 Focus on Imaging exhibition was the last.

Mary Walker said: "Focus On lmaging will not be sold -I'm simply bringing it to an end." She continued : "It is with great pride that I look upon an amazing period of time in my life where I continually worked hard to run Focus On Imaging to the absolute best of my ability. I myself, the Show and my committed team have witnessed the phenomenal growth and revolutionary changes that have come to the photographic industry, and I am proud to have offered photographers and manufacturers an opportunity to come together professionally and personally over the years. Mary said: "There are now so many elements of a photographer's working life that we simply could not have imagined back at the inception of the original 'Focus On Photography' as it was 24 years ago.

"It's been an immensely rewarding job that has brought experiences and friendships that will always remain. I am certain that the time Is right for the industry to perhaps find fresh opportunities and bring new ideas to photographers· maybe we're due a new revolution of some kind?"

Mary is aware that she has a long list of people to thank, concluding: "I would like to offer my thanks to all of the exhibiting companies, large and small, both now and in the history of the Show for their support then of course my small team who have helped make everything happen each year; and certainly Focus would never have been the experience that it became without the visitors who walked through its doors. It's been a fantastic journey."

In recent years the show has attracted reasonably good public visitor attendances on the look out for bargains from several retail exhibitors, but the big ticket exhibitors have been dwindling' This year only two major camera brands, Nikon and Canon, invested in large stands at the show. In the past Panasonic Lumix, Sony, Pentax, Kyocera, Mamiya and other well known photo industry brands, many of which no longer exist, were major exhibitors, but not this year. The the loss of even Jacobs and Jessops from photographic retail, the strain in the viability of the show may just have been too much.

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