I was teaching a lesson on Friday on HDR and was inspired by a student to make some more ‘experimental’ images. My daughter kindly lent me some of her footwear and herself to be the subjects.
We took a group of students to Gloucester on monday for a location shoot. We saw a photographer taking some portrait shots on a 5×4, a camera I hadn’t used for many years. I went over to have a chat. He said he liked film and large format for personal work as it had qualities that digital didn’t match and was most positive about the magic of darkroom work. It was refreshing to see that some photographers still use film and also lug around that sort of kit. I promised my students I would explain the differences back in class. I took some of them to the Linhof stand at focus on Wednesday to have a look at the cameras available and explained how these are used..
I love working digitally, the journey can really start in post-production. But I do miss my darkroom. Maybe time to dig out the enlarger.
Had some interesting discussions with students this week. One centred around the use of black and white images. The students had turned their images into monochrome to get an ‘oldy worldy’ feel. Bloody hell! It doesn’t seem that long ago we were busy in our darkrooms making these images and it seemed normal at the time. I bought my first digital camera in 2000, 13 years later black and white images are seen as old fashioned, How quickly things change. I wondered how quickly things go from being modern to out-of-date.
We talked about mobile phones and I asked my group about what they thought about phones that were a year or more old and whether they thought they were old fashioned. I also asked them to consider whether the phones had changed or if the way they looked at the world had altered.
It threw up some interesting questions. What makes a thing new and modern one day, old fashioned and out of date the next? What is the mechanism for the way our views change? I also realised how quickly things do change. What seemed a recent development (digital cameras) was for most of my group all they knew. As I was buying my first digital camera most of my group were learning how to read and write.
Perhaps its also part of just growing old.
Phew! After a few moths of eye problems I’ve finally back to sorting out issues with the Website. Finally managed to change the database entries and settings so I could log back in to the site.
Is it age or are there too many usernames and passwords in the modern world?
Have finally started to photograph again. The image below is on from a visit earlier in the week.
All 18 images I’ve printed so far are in frames. It’s back-breaking work if you haven’t got the right table, have a bad back, or have just come back from digging on the allotment. In my case all 3 apply.
Still it was very much worth it. The images look great and under glass take on a feeling of realisitc egg tempera work in many cases. This is quite exciting although in my dark front room they are not easy on the eye because of the dark tones in most of the images. Hopefully this will be better in the exhibition space at the library.
A few more images to print and then it will be ready to go – at least as far as the images are concerned.
Phew – have bought most of the frames and card. Had to wait for a break in the weather and luckily I took down some tissues so was able to wipe of the excess water off the trolley. Waiting for the house to empty before I sart on the framing.
Can’t wait to see how they look!
Finally got confirmation of the show at Kidderminster library. It marks the end of quite a long period in my life. My last show was 20 years ago or so and I feel like I’m starting all over again. Waiting for my daughter to come up with some designs for the invite to the opening, otherwise I’ll have to go with my boring old-fashioned design. What makes 12 year olds so convinced they know better and can do better and can I have some of it??
Lots of controversy about the library and theres a meeting at the end of June so I guess we will find out about the council’s decision. Can’t help feeling the decision has already been made! A town the size of Kidderminster badly needs a space for cultural events and taking this away seems very short-sighted.