Another from Philadelphia. More on the way as soon as I can develop it.

PS: Sorry if the site looks a little screwy right now, I just updated the stylesheet. Try refreshing and see what happens. If you still see weirdness, please let me know.

Paul Caponigro

Paul McDonough

Harry Callahan

George Tice

Sometimes serendipity strikes: I came across three of these photos today while flipping through books or browsing the web. The fourth, the Callahan, is on the wall just above my desk.

I haven’t been doing much urban landscape photography lately, so a quick trip to Philadelphia seemed to be a good opportunity to take my camera to the streets and shoot a roll or two. I am not very familiar with Philadelphia, but after walking the streets for a few hours I seemed to get the hang of it and found quite a few spots I liked. I shot most of a roll in this little alley near Rittenhouse Square.

Unfortunately I continue to be plagued by technical difficulties and much of this roll is in very bad shape. March hasn’t been a very good month for me, photographically speaking. In this case, as has been the case with my last few rolls of film, I have been experiencing very uneven development, with bubbles or patches of light and dark showing up on the left edge of the photographs. I’ve never had this problem before, but since it’s always on the left side I suspected I wasn’t using enough developer or agitating enough. This time I used a larger tank, a different reel, added an extra 200 ml of developer, and agitated a bit more, but I’ve got the exact same problem. I think I’m going to shoot a couple of rolls of gray card and hit the darkroom tonight to figure this out.

If anyone wants to take a look at the symptoms, here’s a version of this photo before I fixed the sky. As you can see, I did a rough job of covering it up because I liked this image enough to post it to the web… unfortunately, it will never look good enough to print. If you have any ideas as to the cause of my developer troubles, please drop a line in the comments.

uneven development, click to see larger

Just as an update for anyone who’s been following the Taking a Picture series, I’m afraid I won’t have a new post on that topic for a little while. I am entirely unhappy with the contact sheet I posted last week and I’m considering using a pre-existing photograph for the scanning and printing examples. I’m not sure yet if that spoils the intention of the project—to follow the process from start to finish… on the other hand, with my luck, it will be months before I have any new photographs I’m sufficiently happy enough with to dedicate that much time and energy to.

Thanks for your interest in my “Taking a Picture” series. Just as a note, I have continued improving my digital workflow and some of these notes are now out-of-date. Feel free to drop a line in the comments or contact me directly if you would like more information on my photographic workflow.

Even though there are so many elements involved in the making of a satisfying photograph, this is the moment that counts. I’ve spent hours preparing equipment, traveling, searching for the scene, setting up the camera, and now it’s time to expose some photo-sensitive silver particles to light. My focus becomes very acute and everything around me seems to disappear. The rush of creative energy leading up to this moment gives me a kind of excitement I can’t replicate anywhere else.

* click *

And then I pack everything up and go home.

One of the things I like about shooting with film is the delayed gratification. There’s a certain thrill to be found in pulling a roll of film out of the developer and seeing that an image has been formed. The process still works! The anticipation of seeing the contact sheet for the first time becomes almost too great to bear. And then, the truth comes out: most of the photographs on the roll don’t live up to my expectations. I become conflicted. It’s not that they’re bad (well, sometimes they are), it’s just that enough time has passed between taking the pictures and actually seeing them that they’ve become almost heroic in my mind, and it’s just not possible for them all to be that good.

Then I spend a little more time with the contact sheet and interesting details emerge. I learn something new every time I go through this process. A photo I thought was a throwaway at the time appears to have more potential than I thought. A photo I thought was a sure win turns out to be static, lacking in vitality. I’ve learned to take nothing for granted, because the very fact that I make these assumptions while taking a picture in turn influences how it will come out. Some of my best photos come when I am able to empty my mind completely.

And now the work begins. It’s time to turn potential energy into kinetic; time to pick an image and make something happen.

This is my most recent contact sheet. I am not making any claims that it’s anything spectacular—in fact, as you can see, most of the images aren’t great. I think the effect of the yellow-orange filter in several photos is heavy-handed, and I’m still having some kind of weird technical problem, too. There are a couple in here that intrigue me, though, and certainly at least one or two that will work in the context of this series. I’ll let you know which one I’ve chosen when I get back to town early next week, and then we’ll take a look at scanning.

Some technical information for those so inclined: these photographs were taken with a Hasselblad 500 C/M on Ilford HP5+ film. I developed this batch in Xtol at 1:2 for 15 minutes at 68° F. The contact sheet is just a flatbed scan of a photo sleeve, with each frame individually adjusted for contrast.

This series of blog posts follow a single image from it’s very conception all the way through to the final print. When I’m done, I’m going to give the print to someone who has commented on one of the posts along the way.

Click here to read other posts in this series.

Jem Southam is a color landscape photographer from England, and his exhibition “The Rockfalls of Normandy” opens tonight at the Robert Mann Gallery. If you have any interest in landscape photography whatsoever and you live in or near the NYC metro area, it would be a crime to miss this show. I can’t offer enough superlatives to get the point across—this is a show I would be terribly disappointed to miss and I would feel guilty if I didn’t let as many people know about it as possible.

Southam’s work is quiet and yet somehow monumental at the same time. His most recent book, Painter’s Pool, seems to be sold out just about everywhere, but Landscape Stories appears to be readily available. Both are highly recommended.

The details:

Jem Southam “The Rockfalls of Normandy” at Robert Mann Gallery
11 avenue, 210, floor 10, b/w 24 & 25 street

Photograph by Jem Southam, courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery

Link via: Shoot the Blog

Some of the most powerful photographs are the ones that tell an entire story in a single frame. These are the photographs that make me stop and think, that have made an indelible impression in my mind. I can’t imagine a day when I see one of the photographs below and don’t stop to appreciate them.

Garry Winogrand

Joel Sternfeld

On the other hand, not all photographs need to be stories of their own—some are made to play an important part in a greater whole. Some of my favorite photographic works unfold over the course of dozens of images. Robert Adams is one of those photographers whose stories develop slowly, and get deeper with repeated viewing.

Perfect Times, Perfect Places is a good example of a book that doesn’t wow you with single images (not that there aren’t plenty of standouts), but rather blinds you with simplicity and subtlety. This book has hooked me, and I can view it again and again without ever getting tired of it.

Robert Adams

Robert Adams

Robert Adams

As the focus of my own work evolves over time, certain stories emerge, but I guess I never thought about crafting the story as a conscious part of what I was doing. Now that I’m more aware of the importance that story plays, especially in a series as opposed to in single images, I wonder how I will use that in my own photography.

Related: A review of The New West, a new edition of Robert Adams’ 1974 book, at 5B4.

I’ve been looking for ways to more accurately describe the area along the shore of south Brooklyn I’ve been exploring for the last several months. The modern maps that I’ve been using are pretty vague about the names of neighborhoods, beaches, and waterways in this area. Last week, I still thought this was in the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay. After a second look, I’m calling this Plumb Beach, after viewing this map.

I’m so confused! I need to find a nautical map with lots of detail and just work with that. A visit to the library is in order, although it would be nice if I could find something online.

Here’s a link to the Google Map.

Jason Kottke links today to some statistics released by the Virginia Quarterly Review about the correlation between cliché in poetry and likelihood of publication. It turns out, contrary to their predictions, the connection is pretty strong.

I wonder if same correlation would be found between clichés in photography and the likelihood of success with various contests and magazines. I think the relationship at Flickr Explore hovers somewhere around 99%. Some magazines are particularly bad, too. But then there are some very good publications and contests that do a better job of promoting innovative and interesting work. Most likely, the numbers are still higher than one would expect.

Related: The Greatest Art Photograph Ever, on current trends in art photography cliché, and Advice for those considering entry into the Hey Hot Shot competition at the Jen Bekman Gallery, from slower.net, which includes some great discussion on avoidance of cliché. Could be that Eliot is completely wrong.

To do: Compile the ultimate page of photography clichés. You must reference this list before submitting your work to any publication or contest. The higher your score, the better your chances of winning. Handy for contest judges, too!

Link via: Kottke.org

This was supposed to be the day when I posted the next installment in my “taking a picture” series, which will include a contact sheet evaluation. Unfortunately my Hasselblad developed a light leak and half of my photographs from yesterday are ruined! I ordered a new light seal kit, which should be here in a few days, but unfortunately that post will have to wait for a little while.

In the meantime, I will continue to post the few photos I can salvage from that roll. Here’s one I like quite a bit, I think that I may ultimately add it to my “By the Sea” portfolio. I recommend clicking through to see the larger size, I think this is one of those photographs where size really does matter. I am looking forward to printing this one.

Here’s a link to the Google Map. As you can see from the satellite image, this is on a small peninsula which juts into Raritan Bay. Taking a closer look at that peninsula, I can already tell that there is a lot to explore as I work my way further in.