Looking at film again.

Recently and encouraged by my first term in the MA, I decided to rediscover the joys of film photography. When I first started photography, digital was not an option, so I mainly used a 35mm film camera. In my case, it was a Nikon FE2, a camera that I used for about fifteen years. The joy of analogue photography is that the technology moved on at a slower pace. The need to catch up with the latest and greatest camera, apart from improved metering or faster shutter speeds, technology-wise, there wasn't much that could be improved. This lack of advancing camera technology determined that most people just concentrated on photography and the image. The process of taking a picture with the film was much slower, even with a point and shoot camera. Also, the cost of the film meant most users would be more careful about the subject they photographed. One of the considerations I made when buying a film camera was to develop my film at home. Doing this helped reduce the cost of the process and allowed me to experiment with different developing techniques. Initially the set up is quite expensive as a professional film scanner also has to be added to the mix. Some will question why bother to use film when it is digitised at the end of the process? I would suggest three things; one is how using film slows you down, you are more considered about the subject and careful not to make mistakes. The second is the magic of seeing your images appear after the developing process and the third is the look of the pictures. The analogue 'look' that digital photography can never entirely reproduce.

Hasselblad 501CM

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Research Project Proposal for PHO701 Positions and Practice MA Photography Falmouth University

Oral Submission, MA Photography, Falmouth University

Responsibilities you have within your own practice.

I have been commissioned on several occasions to photograph schools either for architectural publications or for school brochures. These can prove tricky as the children cannot be identified in the photo, but their presence is required to demonstrate the use of the internal and external spaces. Two ways I have found relatively successful is to have the children's heads turned to the teacher or, especially in play areas, to blur the children so their form can be seen, but the identities are hidden. Examining my practice, I prefer to photograph people I know. I wouldn't make a very good street photographer!

Power and Responsibility

In this weeks discussion, we are looking at the responsibility photographers should have with their practice.  The photographer must have a responsibility to the subject to treat it fairly and honestly. The subject may or may not have the ability to control the outcome of the image or how it will be used. The use of pictures on social media is a common way images can be publicised, sometimes unintentionally, without the consent of the subject (as is the case of photographing minors). Reportage photography is different in that it is alerting us, the public, to disasters or conflict etc. While this subject may be considered more important and more pressing, other areas of this discussion have affected my practice. 

For many years my favourite subject was nature photography. I was influenced by the impressive images in magazines and the thought of travelling to wild places. I wanted to be a full time professional and attended several workshops to get that quick fix from the honey pots of wildlife around the UK.  The places I frequented, like Donna Nook for the Grey Seal and Lathkill Dale for the amazing Dippers, became very popular. Indeed so popular that there were times when you had to compete for space!  More importantly, it became apparent this practice was harming the wildlife and their habitat. Over time this intrusiveness of photographers had a profound effect on the breading of the animals. This was so severe that as a consequence, many wildlife trusts had to provide a voluntary code of conduct. My own conscience made me rethink my responsibility towards the subject. My photographs were not original or new, and the purpose of them was for my own indulgence. I decided to leave the animals alone, after all how many pictures do you need of a Grey Seal!

This guide is freely available from the RPS web site  http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/nature/about/the-nature-photographers-code-of-practice.

Grey Seal - Donna Nook ©Robert McMillan

Interdisciplinary Practice - Other Than' Photography...

In this weeks discussion, I was asked to find a piece of work that has some kind of link to your own practice or research interests; This image is by the artist Michael Praed, who attended the Penzance and Falmouth Schools of Art. I admire his paintings and this image in particular.  The coastal location, the form of the picture is uncomplicated, it has strong architectural lines and the draughtsmanship is masterly. Praed’s subtle use of colour blends with the seeming simplistic form.

The Global Image

I recall buying my first Digital camera around 1996. It was a Kodak digital science camera with a 756 x 504 high-resolution CCD sensor. It was primitive by today’s standards but at the time the camera was revolutionary. It was one of the first digital cameras the general public could afford. It would take 7 photos on its internal memory, it didn’t have a screen so the only way of reviewing the images was by plugging it into a computer. The immediate advantage of these early cameras was the ability to review a digitised picture on your PC without the need for a developing process. Yes, the image quality was poor but it gave an immediacy modern technology demanded. People no longer had to wait.

Kodak Digital Science Camera

Like early photography (daguerreotype process for example) opened up image-making to the masses, digital photography allowed the masses to share images with a much larger audience. Images can be shared immediately all around the world thanks to the growth of the internet and social media. Who would have thought 100 years ago an image can be taken on a mobile phone and that image can be viewed across the world instantly. Everybody is a photographer ………I believe the ability to take pictures in a digitised form and the advent of the modern email had a profound effect on social mobility in the late ’90s.

‘In photography’s early decades, photographs were expected to be idealized images. This is still the aim of most amateur photographers, for a beautiful photograph is a photograph of something beautiful, like a woman, a sunset’.

Susan Sontag from the book ‘On Photography’  

Turner and Ruskin Exhibition - York

For anyone located in Yorkshire, I can thoroughly recommend this Exhibition at the York Art Gallery.

https://www.yorkartgallery.org.uk/exhibition/ruskin-turner-and-the-storm-cloud-watercolours-and-drawings/