The Bike

One of my most recent photographs taken whilst in Wellington as i was getting my book bound for my final major project hand in. Whilst on this journey I took a Hasselblad and my most favoured lens the 150mm F4 Sonnar T lens. The lighting was very strong with the light beaming down upon us from the sun. There were a few things in this small town that caught my eye, one thing i noticed was the amount of people eating ice cream. Something of which I will show you at a later date.

This bike stood out to me due to the fact that 1) it wasn't locked and 2) it looked as if it was no longer 2009 through my lens.

The ideology of a photograph that could be deemed to be taken at any time, any place anywhere is very appealing to me.

Film or Digital?

Yes they should be placed in that order, not alphabetically because that would make Digital superior. Of which in my opinion it is not. Long has the debate in my head be going on, probably pushing for 4-5 years now. Having only owned two compact digital cameras in my life dating about 4 years ago. They were a Canon S70 and a Sony P200 the only thing that set them apart from the others was the simple fact the incorporated a certain amount of manual control. Both of these camera's were 7.2 megapixels, at the time this was something major. Fast forward 4 years and we are looking at 12-15 megapixels as standard. So does the 'Megapixel' have any worth at all if the same camera comes out with the same size sensor yet more pixels added to re-market it as something else. Some of them claim to have different features but do any of them actually claim to be any better than the predecessors? The answer is no. Until the day I am absolutely blown away by a digital camera then film is for me.

The aesthetics of film for me are very pleasing. The unwrapping of the film, the unrolling and the loading of the film knowing that this light sensitive strip of paper hold the key to ones photograph making. The wait of anticipation as the leader card goes through the development tank, watching the electronic display of which is showing me like a version of 'Snake' on Nokia phones the journey of my film. The initial look at the film to see if they have all come out and also to see if the exposures are consistent. Nothing in digital terms can beat that. With digital you've already seen the photograph on the screen, the only thing you are doing on a computer that’s different when you upload them to a computer is that your shining an even bigger back light on the photographs from the monitor. Loosing the thrills of a film has from the developing to the printing stage.

To be continued . . .

If only . . .

One could only wish to be be like the great William Eggleston and say next to nothing in description of his own work. Never was a true explanation given as to the meaning or context of a particular photograph. The only few I've seen are in the film 'William Eggleston and The Real World' (2005) which even then are as vague as they are thought provoking. His work speaks for itself in his instance.

Unfortunetly, in the world that we live in today is a car cry than that of the 1960's and 70's. With the ever changing times of modern technology it is becoming clear that there are lot more photographers out there now plying their trades to try and sneak themselves into the category of 'one of the greats of photography'. An explanation and clear concept is needed for nearly every single piece of art not to mention photography.

This maybe be why I have found myself writing on a Blog, creating my own website and flirting with Flickr. The website to showcase my work as a whole, Flickr to add 100 megabytes of photographs to a month and this the Blog... To explain, to ramble and to put right my thoughts and findings within the field of photography.

The first photograph that paved the way forward

This photograph is taken from the 4th roll of film in the 2nd to last final major project. Although shot on 400 ISO film I knew I was onto a winner. I believe it was the 1st film I shot with the Hasselblad. I had been struggling with the words 'PHOTOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE' throughout my whole degree, what did this term mean?? would a tutor tell me? No is the simple answer. The idea of using the square format of the Hasselblad was to cut out the excess around the shop facades. This was mainly due to the fact that the majority of shops in and around Plymouth have a square front. With this in mind I was cutting out what I didn't want within the frame. Thus allowing myself to realise that everything within frame allows the photographer to show his 'Photographic Language'.

My Photography

Greetings.

I would like to call myself a street photographer. During the final year of my degree I decided to go back to where my heart is within the field of photography. After my much experimentation and generally bad ideas in the 1st two years of my degree I thought it was time to shine. The ideology of being a street photographer harks back to my original research on my A-Level of which I was heavily into the likes of Walker Evans, Bresson and Paul Strand. Quite why I took myself away from my favoured area I long to find out. But here I am back where I belong, photographing the Streets.

It was over the summer between the 2nd and 3rd year of university I shot a couple of out of date Fuji Velvia 50 film, i set out with no particular goal or aim, just roaming around the city of Plymouth capturing the city as I saw it. Initially I established that Colour Slides, particularly this one was far to contrasty for what I was after. It was only then that I realised that I should be listening to what the tutors told me and that whilst listening I could actually learn something.

Apart from the last two modules of the third year of which I was still experimenting with work and indeed camera formats. The grade for that project was suffice but I knew something had to be done in terms of actually getting the grade I wanted.

With a few Ideas floating around from the 'Year Three Launch' I decided to take my photography to a much more regimental stage. I had finally figured out that digital photography was not for me. Not that it was too simple but the ability to shoot away without thinking about the true technical aspects of the so called 'photographic image'. I wasn't a stranger to film but I had neglected it, in favour of this easier form of photography.

Initially in the 2nd to last major project of which the credits were inevitably higher toward the end of the course I knew something had to be done to ensure I put myself in good steed to achieve a decent grade. Using the formats of 645 (using the Mamiya 645 Pro) and 6x6 (using a Hasselblad 500 c/m) I set out to capture the facades of the shops around the city of Plymouth. The word facade was the word I choose in the 1st project in the 3rd year, although for that I was shooting womens faces as the apply their make up?! to show how they look at themselves differently after the mask of make-up was removed. As with everything I did in my degree up to this point I did it without any real commitment, thus not getting what I should from the course.

With the two different cameras loaded and ready to go I set out to capture the shops of Plymouth, initially I was using Fuji 400 Pro H film because I knew how temperamental the weather is this part of the country. This was a cop out, shooting in sunlight with 400 ISO film?? It was only after this point I realised the technical aspects of film. I started using Kodak Portra 160 VC film to this day I haven't turned back.

So for the following 9 weeks I was shooting predominantly in sunlight as my understanding of research, sunlight and film all had a unique relationship between them . . .