Prospect Park, 5x5 Palladium Print
I got a chance to try out my new 4×5 pinhole camera in Prospect Park this weekend. I think this is a nice counterpoint to the sharpness of the photos I take with my Hasselblad. It’s also a good complement to the palladium printing process, which lends a soft and dreamy feel.
I’ve sometimes thought of pinhole photography as a bit of a gimmick; more about the technique used to create a photo rather than the photo itself. But, as with every photographic instrument, the real challenge is in the hands of the photographer to transcend equipment and technique to create something representative of a personal vision.
I have been spending a lot of time in the woods lately, but there has been something off with my photographs. They are too sharp, almost hyper-real, and not at all representative of the way I feel about being out there. So I’ve decided to go retro and see if I can capture that feeling in some other way. This image is almost a bit too soft and indistinct, but there’s definitely something there. Clicking on the image for a larger view helps quite a bit, as would a bigger print, I think. I am going to continue working on this for a while and see where it takes me.
I like this a lot. The process definitely lends itself to the subject matter – possibly to do with ‘getting back to nature’ with the minimum materials required to produce an image.
It would be interesting to see this develop!
i think you’re on to something there.
i’ve been going back and forth between hasselblad and holga and feeling the same. the hassy is sooo sharp and distinct which can be awesome and the holga is blurred and inconsistent and that can be awesome too.
(Oh and I’m also shooting with a Polaroid land camera these days which falls somewhere between the two. sharper than the holga but not crisp like the hblad.)
I really should have mentioned in my post, if you like shots like this, you’ll love jzorn’s holga set on Flickr. These photos have served as an inspiration for me and my excursions in the woods.