Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/01

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Canadian streetpix
From: John Brownlow <john@pinkheadedbug.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 09:06:01 -0400

on 31/7/00 10:03 pm, Dan Honemann at ddh@home.com wrote:

> I don't know, Johnny, for some reason these just aren't doing it for me (and
> you know I am a _huge_ Human Traffic fan).  Maybe its the harsh lighting.
> Or maybe its just the mood I'm in this evening.  The only one that caught my
> attention was cop.
> 
> Did you shoot much with the 28 Elmarit in HT?  Or use the same film?
> Something seems different about these photos--as though a dimension is
> missing.  I can't pinpoint it exactly, but what feels closest is some
> quality of the light (too harsh) and the absence of interesting background
> (London with that fabulous architecture provides such a lush backdrop).

HEY! GIMME A CHANCE! THOSE WERE MY FIRST FOUR ROLLS!

Only kidding, Dan.

Actually, those pictures were taken with a completely different mindset to
HT, which was more of an emotional voyage. Those were... wow... this is what
Canadians look like. Sucker shots, maybe. Certainly photographs of the
surface of things. The light was totally different... continental summer
light seems to penetrate even into the shadows. I used the same film as HT
(APX 400) but developed it differently (Xtol 1:3 for 17'30 @ 70F) which gave
a smoother tonality. Nowhere near as gritty. I used the 28 towards the end
in HT a bit but only on sunny days when I could go hyperfocal with it.

If I was being pompous I would say I pretended I was Gary Winogrand shooting
those, and Robert Frank shooting HT (I don't make any comparison with their
pictures!!)

In a way it was a pleasure not to be shooting for HT, which was always a
battle with myself not to repeat pictures and to go deeper into what is
ultimately quite a dry stream. This was... fun.

I don't know yet what I'm going to do as my 'Canadian' project. I have a few
ideas ... Yonge St is 'the longest street in the world' right? There's a
title right there. All the way from Toronto to the arctic. I'm also very
interested in rustbelt towns like Hamilton and Sudbury (through which Yonge
St passes!), as well as redneck Canadian farmers, of whom I hear remarkable
things.

The joy of HT was that I could get out of bed in the morning and just decide
to go down to Oxford St whenever I felt like it. I haven't found the
equivalent here yet. So in the meantime I am just shooting for fun. Last
weekend 500,000 people came to the end of my street for the Beaches Jazz
festival... I only shot a few rolls, but will let you see the results if any
of them are worth it.

- -- 
Johnny Deadman

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com