PHOTOGRAPHY-Using Black and White Film

Photography? A plethora of choices. So, as in my ceramic choices when a potter, I try to keep it simple. Pottery was St. Thomas white stoneware, Raku and White Ivory clays with Cobalt, Red Iron Oxide and Titanium Dioxide raw paint ons.

Photography is a Pentax LX SLR housed with 400 asa black and white film. A Wetzler late 1800s darkroom enlarger with Ernst Leitz lens. And high contrast papers or use of high contrast filters on multigrade papers. Use ID11 mostly for developing fluid choice. So, the plethora of choices being too much for my technophobic brain are avoided” .

The Shock of Latent Imagery. The invisible image that lay on the film’s silver halide crystals surface until it undergoes the developing, stop and fix processes to reveal the ’negative’ imagery. Then printed in the darkroom to provide a ‘positive’ photograph…..to be treasured.

‘Two Sisters. All Splinters and Metal’.
My daughter wrote a poem around my title. One of the very first photographs I took. The darkroom was new and up and running and I had an air of new found joy regarding this art form. Also found a supply in a reclamation centre selling many old boxes of papers. Harsh contrast #5 papers are my favourite and create a Gothic feel. With being very much astounded by Bill Brandt’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ photograph, I hunted for grass. The Ynyslas dunes became a treasure trove. A place of visiting for many experimental photographic learning experiences.

‘The Whisperer’s Cottage’. Saw this a fair while back now. The name came from the story where I just think that there is a faerie sitting on my shoulder ‘whispering in my ear’……. ’Stop! This is a photograph you should take. I’ll tell you when to push the shutter button. Ready?…….Now!’

The Sea that is not seen was calm, serene. Taken with the warhorse that is the beautiful Pentax LX SLR. Down on Aberystwyth sea front in the VeeDub. Was waiting to pick up my wife from a ’work’s do/meal’. It was a late even and a dark night of hush. The sea front lamplight was isolating in each individual light spread and voices carried from distance. One of those little oases akin to ’The Legend of the Magic Hour’. But without the desert.

Sheen. Love the capture of light in this one. Film gives such glorious grain. My preferences with grain can be from gentle hints to falling apart at the seams.

Screen shot from my Flickr site. With additional information. Not the most popular photograph on the site. Called ’Grayne’. I love grain in black and white and taking chances with it’s inclusions in a very busy subject like grass. But falling apart nature works a treat here. I can feel the weather in this photograph.

‘Myst and thoughts of Flight. The black minute’s at end’.

Took this on a whim. Saw the fog and wanted to capture it as I had never tried before. Late at night, very midge ridden and being bitten upon bitten. To the left of the lane I was standing in was the vast expanse of the peat bog area towards Borth. So my vicinity was near a very damp place. Interestingly, David Bellamy the naturalist and environmentalist who loved peat-bogs apparently had visited the area on occasions.

I couldn’t stay long. Being bitten makes you scream in frustration. The camera was on a tripod due to the need for long shutter speed. ‘The black minute’s at end?’ Whilst standing there the Robert Browning poem Prospice came to mind. I haven’t rote learnt it. Just snippets. But read it when I got back home. Strange how the ’far removed as can possibly be’ subject of war, facing death and subsequent hope can seep into the senses and bring about a long forgotten poem.

There was a tendency to take the same subject choice for various images of the Visitor’s Centre. Many angles were chosen and from many viewpoints. I have about half a dozen ones that I can say I like. This one is included. It is the small dune hillock in the foreground that has an air of menace. Hunched and watching. I thought of a deer behind her fawn looking out at the approaching danger from a beast of prey.

I was asked to take images for an upcoming presentation by a dance group. To be performed at the Aberystwyth Art Centre. I had no flashlight equipment and found myself working in a darkened atmosphere with central spotlight as the only light source. Very nervously taking photographs I hoped would be successful. It worked okay in the end. A fair few came out and were used as projected backdrops on stage. It was a bit mesmerising seeing my little 35mm film negative imagery blown up to cinema screen size.