Greetings from the End of the World
This was the picture I'd meant to use on Friday, but couldn't find it again in time. It's one of the first test scans I made on my flatbed from colour negative film (medium format, 645 size). I had a lot to learn about scanning, and it's not a great image (also, one of its neighbours on the filmstrip is a great image) so it got left in its raw state, complete with dust (remember dust?) and a slightly weird colour balance. It struck me, though -- when I glimpsed it last week, looking for something else -- as having the charm of a "found" photograph.
I took it in 1994, on the Bristol Channel at Watchet, during a four-day workshop at Duckspool with one of my personal photographic heroes, Jem Southam. In fact, he was standing just behind my left shoulder as I framed the shot on my Fuji GS 645 (can't you tell?).
I had one of those odd experiences of convergence when I first met Jem. We both had identical cheapo surplus-store nylon camera cases hanging from our shoulders, out of which we both pulled medium-format rangefinder cameras. His was a Plaubel Makina, however, a very superior beast. For me (and sorry if you're reading this, JS!), I think his work using medium-format had qualities that are underutilized in his later work with the large-format camera. There's a reason The Raft of Carrots is an unobtainable book, and it's not the quality of the binding.
Anyway, it seems we're all still here, so I'd better do some Christmas shopping after all. Sigh.
1 comment:
Looks very similar to The Giant's Causeway on the North Irish coast. Now that does like the end of the world on a typically grey Irish day.
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