So here’s a new idea for my blog in terms of a recurrent series of posts. So let’s give it some context.
Let me ask a question. Have you ever had this conversation with someone or with yourself?: “oh yeah I like that photo I took… but I had about 50 duff ones that day and only got that one good one, so I’m not really a ‘good’ photographer.”
Now, I recently read this passage of text from Terence White in “A Life in Pictures”; Bonnie McCurry’s book about Steve McCurry. If you’ve not heard of Steve McCurry, you most certainly will know his most famous photograph – the iconic National Geographic front cover portrait of the young Afghan girl, Sharbat Gula. Anyway, recounting their time together in Afghanistan, White recalls:
‘At the end of the day Steve dropped by my place for a cup of tea and a chat. I asked him how his day had been
“Oh, productive,” he said.
Knowing Steve was a perfectionist, I asked him, “So how many rolls did you shoot?”
“Oh, about twenty” he replied.
“Did you get many good portraits out of that?”
“Well – I think I got it.”
“What do you mean ‘you got it’? You mean out of 700 frames you got only one?”
Steve looked at me and nonchalantly said, “Yes, I think I got one – but it’s a good one!”
Steve was the consummate professional.’
Insights like this into the work of some of the best photographers are, for me, incredibly helpful and empowering. They are my reply to that very same internal conversation I’ve had with myself. I know from my day job that, at the end of the day, there are very few ‘inspired geniuses’ but a hell of a lot of real humans simply putting in the time, hard work and self-reflection to progress. Creative arts can come across as only something for the ‘gifted’ so seeing that it is predominantly about effort and reflection makes it all the more accessible – turns out it’s like much of life and just about passion; passion that motivates the effort required and the inquisitiveness to reflect on your experiences and output.
The problem is that this is often kept hidden. Some individuals do this by design so as to project a particular persona – something that winds me up endlessly! But I suspect that it is more often due to other factors: distance from an individual, for example – I don’t get to have drinks with Steve McCurry or Rankin to find this stuff out – or because of the structure of social media which encourages feeding the photo stream with images that wow and generate likes/subscribers. So those other photos and the simple perseverance that went into getting an image are lost, and a glossy ‘airbrushed’ picture of the process is all that is left. That is a problem if it leads to a sense of exclusion or intimidation for any photographer – new or intermediate etc.
Now, I make no great claims about my photographs. I sure as hell haven’t put in the hours of Steve McCurry – which is reflected in my photos compared to his. But I am passionate about being open and honest rather than pushing a pretence, and about welcoming and encouraging rather than intimidating and stifling others. So, I wanted to make available the images that were taken either side of some of the photos that I love the most and have put in the projects part of this site.
This hasn’t been a decision taken lightly. I have wondered if this is a good idea as I’m concerned that it might contextualise the chosen photo too much; somehow detract from the image being received by the viewer on its own merits. Second, if it was taken on a digital camera I’m not sure there’ll be a noticeable difference so will be very dull! On the latter, let’s see. But the first reservation is important. However, the reasons given already outweigh this for me. So here we go…
Photo: ‘Kowloon Waterfront, Hong Kong 2019’ (Rolleiflex TLR 2.8 E2, Cinestill 800)
So before going to Hong Kong, I had read about CineStill film and thought I’d get a roll to try it out. All I really knew was that it did something special with lights - honestly, that’s about as intelligent as I bothered to get on this matter. So a major purpose behind being out with the camera on this evening was to learn about this film; what it could and couldn’t do. This means the frames are very varied because I want to get lots of samples.
Frame 1
Film loaded, this is the very first photo on the roll and is of the Space Museum in Hong Kong. As you can see, the lights must have come to my attention! Also I liked the geometric shapes, but it doesn’t grab my interest enough here. I’ll go back though!
Then I made it to the waterfront with it’s spectacular views of Central Hong Kong. The ‘light and sound’ show was going to start in around 30 minutes so there were plenty of tourists finding their spots, and having selfies taken. I liked the hand rail as a leading line through the viewfinder, and of course, neon lights, which is something this film is meant to do funny things with, right? My concern was avoiding camera shake - a 1950’s camera has no exif data!, so I can’t say for sure, but I was down below the 1/focal length rule (maybe at 1/60th?), so didn’t want to be wasting film. So I only took one photo…
Frame 2 - ‘Kowloon Waterfront’
Now when this image came up on the scans, it leapt right out at me, even though it wasn’t, if I’m honest, the best photo I thought I was going to get on that roll, but it captures such a different side to Hong Kong in comparison to the ‘top 10 instagramable locations in HK’. I also find it very calm. The grain in the film is noticeable given how dark the conditions were, but it added something to my emotional response to the image.
So then I clearly remembered I am also a tourist so should look at the view, and then remembered that thing about lights because I took an ‘okay’ photo of the harbour next…
Frame 3
Now I’m going to throw in the 4th frame to this blog, because it was the first of a number where I tried and failed to get the image I could very deliberatively see. Behind me were some steps that offered an elevated position from which to view the sides of the HK Cultural Centre. Now the architecture is a famous photo opportunity as it has these buttresses along its base - most people take photos underneath these buttresses. People were walking along in the lights and in the viewfinder I saw this totalitarian, monolithic structure rising above them. I took three frames of this, but didn’t once get the people in the optimum position. This can happen… but I am fortunate that I will get another chance at this photo later in the year (when I might just use the A7iii as well). But here is frame 4. The image I thought was going to be the keeper, but which I didn’t get right!
So there we go. I’ll keep trying and learning. That’s all it really is.