[Leica] Lower 9th Ward - 21 images

[jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith)]

Thank you Aaron. I do like the grittiness too, but wish I had a darkroom
instead of a scanner for Tri-X. There is a "rental" darkroom place in my
'hood, and I may have to go and get the smell of acetic acid in my nostrils
again. 

Thank you for the kind words. I hope that by the end of all of this, I'll
have about 50 good images from the area. A book would be nice, but it may
end up being a web-gallery as sort of a memorial to that part of the city.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com




-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Aaron
Sandler
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 8:56 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Lower 9th Ward - 21 images


Hi Jeffery,

I don't have the authority that Ted does, but let me anyway say that I 
agree that Tri-X looks great for these shots...I vote for sticking with 
it.  These photos are probably the most compelling I've seen on the 
LUG.  If I may make a suggestion: You could shoot a lot, but perhaps only 
do a quick first pass review of the take to give you more ideas, without 
driving yourself crazy with the editing...it may be that you need some 
distance to really figure out what the best shots are.  I imagine this 
ending up as a large, well captioned collection...perhaps a book of some 
sort...how it all fits together may not be obvious for a while.

My favorites of this group are:
http://www.400tx.com/9th-2.html for the juxtaposition of the 
at-first-glance-normal house with the messed up car...very jarring.
http://www.400tx.com/9th-10.html The rocking chair upside down in the tree 
is very striking and personalizes the tragedy
http://www.400tx.com/9th-14.html I like the way the car almost merges with 
the trees behind it...I feel like there's a deep message here about 
connections between things man-made and things natural...If I were you, I'd 
look for more like this.
http://www.400tx.com/9th-12.html for the way the house has separated from 
the wrought iron it used to be attached to...again, the contrast between 
normal and destroyed.  Wow.

Many of the others are also very strong...I think in general I am more 
struck by the ones that have a strong recognizable element (car, bike, 
house, etc) that jumps out, in addition to debris strewn around.  I find #3 
to have less impact on me because there is no central recognizable 
element.  But that could just be me.

Anyway, amazing work.

Best,
Aaron


>This is a sampling of 21 frames from my first two rolls of Tri-X shot 
>last week. I have 7 more rolls that are at the lab now. When I get 
>those scanned and reviewed, I will probably pare this group down to 
>half a dozen shots.
>
>http://www.400tx.com/9th-1.html
>
>The Tri-X is a bit gritty. I may make another trek with Acros or Agfa 
>100 next week. Yesterday was extremely bright out, and I had to deal 
>with the sun and shadows while using only a 3/e lens.
>
>Jeffery Smith
>New Orleans, LA
>http://www.400tx.com


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