Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to look at, or enquire about, my Alleyway, Menorca print.
Not long to go now! Anyone who'd like to buy one has until 8pm on Tuesday (28th). From that point on, the print will be withdrawn from my shop.
Alleyway, Menorca
Today I’m happy and excited to announce a new print offer. I’m also trying something different, by offering it for sale in my shop for one week only (starting today). I may make more in the future, or I may not (so it is strictly speaking an ‘open edition’ print), but it will be certainly limited by this time constraint for now. Who knows, I may never offer this image for sale again, so there is plenty of scope for purchasers to land themselves a very low-number work of art.
The piece is Alleyway, Menorca, a black and white inkjet print with a full-bodied tonal scale. It was shot on a Leica M6 TTL earlier this year, using Ilford HP5+ film, before being scanned on a negative scanner and edited digitally. The paper is the venerable Canson Baryta Photographique, which holds the fulsome tonality well, and accommodates the subtle darkest greys. The print is on A4 paper, with a generous border for framing. Image size is approximately 15 x 22 cm. As is my custom, I will sign the print in pencil on the rear and will ship it with a certificate of authenticity.
The print can be purchased in my shop now, but the sale will end on Tuesday 28th November at 8pm, London time. It will then be removed from the shop. If you are interested, my advice is naturally to place your order asap, something that is doubly important if you have the print in mind as a potential Christmas gift (and what better gift that a handcrafted print made by the photographer?). I'll do my best to make sure that any orders reach you in time for Christmas, but please be aware of shipping timescales and potential for disappointment if ordering from overseas.
Passageway, Menorca shot on a Sony A7II with a Sony / Zeiss 50mm lens
A by-product of writing a blog is that it inevitably records the author's developing tastes and predilections. I seem to be very much in a black and white mindset at the moment, to the point, even, of giving a monochrome treatment to shots I originally saw in colour - like this one here.
There is a very old tradition in picture making of a landscape in which the viewer's eye is led towards a source of light. This has a pictorial effectiveness, the eye undertaking a 'journey' and finding satisfaction in so doing, and it also has an obvious metaphorical resonance. 'Out of the darkness, and into the light.' I write 'picture making', because it abounds in historical painting, and therefore long precedes photography.
I am close to this shot, having just processed it, and so am not yet decided as to how much I like it. It is significant because of its relationship with the above tradition, but as usual with these things, it is also something of a photographer's set piece, just as are windows, doors and so on. My main reason for including it is that I know I am happy with its tones.
I trimmed the image a little, before darkening the edges and tweaking the highlight tones. I worked towards a tonally full piece, one having a range of tones from black to near white. This image presents one of those very balanced and full-looking histograms that fills the graph as a neat and symmetrical, centred hill. I haven't yet printed it, but imagine that it will print very well and has plenty to occupy the eye, in textural detail as well as fulsome tone.
I found the scene first, then waited for someone to walk into the right place
In a great deal of the best street photography work there is a special relationship between the setting and the people in it. We often find ourselves marvelling at these shots because not only is the composition elegant and convincing, but there is a person in ‘just the right’ place in the frame. There is a coming together of setting and event, and in the very best this carries the extra weight of a poignant meaning as setting and actor(s) create a frisson. Henri Cartier-Bresson is one such master of this technique.
There is a simple technique you can use to make this happen in your shots (not that I’m promising you’ll immediately become a Cartier-Bresson). You simply find a setting you like, paying attention to composition and the shapes in the frame, and wait for somebody to arrive, in the right place.
In the image above, I was struck by the scene and the view through the opening (the slanting tree caught my eye), long before anybody arrived. I realised I could use this technique and wait for somebody to walk into the frame. It took several attempts to get somebody in the right position, and the right somebody, posture particularly, at that. I enjoy the way the woman’s leaning stride echoes the leaning tree. This elevates the shot from a view that catches the eye to something more.
A great technique if you’re into street photography.