June 26 through August 1 this year, my wife and two daughters (ages 8 and 12) will be traveling around France and Ireland.
the ITINERARY: One week in Paris, four nights in Chamonix, three nights at Mont-Saint-Michel, ferry from Cherbourg to Dublin, free-ranging around Ireland for the rest of July with bases Dublin and Clonakilty (both places where my wife's family live). I've been to Europe half a dozen times, including all of these places, save Chamonix.
the GEAR: 8x10 Kodak Master Camera, 10" Wollensak Vitax, 12" Kodak Commercial Ektar, Gitzo 5-Series carbon fiber tripod, five Toyo film holders, 50 sheets of HP5, 50 sheets of Delta 100, Harrison changing tent. The camera, lenses, and holders fit perfectly into the same internal-frame MEI backpack that I bought back in 1993 for my first backpacking trip around Europe. I'll carry the tripod in a sling diagonal across my front.
the QUESTION: What the heck should I photograph?
Typically I shoot portraits, and while I certainly try to make each image stand on its own, I almost always conceive of any one portrait as belonging to a larger body of images. For instance, I set up an outdoor portrait studio each year at a music festival here in Washington State and make portraits that I'm planning to show when the project is finished in 2030; I shoot portraits of my students each year and hang the portraits in the classroom (my classroom is starting to look like a portrait gallery); I shoot portraits of my own kids and their friends (of course) to hang on the wall at home; I shot portraits of all of the teachers and administration at the school where I work which we put into a 50-year time capsule; etc...
With only ten sheets of film to shoot per outing, I figure I'll go out by myself for a part of the day on the days I shoot (probably two or three days each week). I don't think it would go well to have my wife and daughters along when I shoot because the process of scouting and shooting is pretty ponderous to them. When I make their portraits, I always have the setup complete when they enter the situation. That actually goes for anyone whose portrait I make. I'm bringing along a stereoscopic Sputnik for family snapshots.
So, again, what should I photograph?
Pictures of buildings and monuments? Landscapes? I don't usually shoot these subjects. It's hard to imagine my making a contribution to what's already been made of these subjects.
What about setting up with a little sign in French and English offering to shoot portraits out in a public space like a park and just seeing what happens? I could mail prints to the people I photographed after I return to the states.
Does anyone know any interesting people in any of these places who'd like to meet up and have a portrait made?
It feels natural to bring the big camera. I want to do it just to not miss whatever I'd miss if I didn't bring it. But I'm having trouble visualizing how to make the most of the opportunity.
I'd appreciate any constructive thoughts.
Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com
www.instagram.com/papacornell
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