CityScapes

[r.e.]

Stephane,

The photographs that you are posting that you made in Essaouira, here and in a couple of other threads, raise an interesting question. As you know, Essaouira is being developed as a major tourist destination, and there is a significant discrepancy between what your photographs suggest about the place, the photographs being on the romantic/nostalgic/pretty end of the specturm, and the greater reality of the town.

If you care to comment, I'm interested in knowing what you think about this issue, which I think faces anyone who wants to make photographs in Morocco and no doubt lots of other places, including North America and Europe. It was an issue that I had to come to grips with when I was in Morocco a couple of weeks ago. In my case, I resolved the issue by going in the opposite direction, making photographs only of what struck me as real life modern Morocco. Interestingly, I made this decision definitively in Essaouira. At the opposite end of the spectrum from Essaouira, the current development of which struck me as somebody's idea of transplanting the Costa del Sol to Northern Africa, I took a pass on photographing some of the incredible examples of Moorish/Andalusian architecture that I visited, because I felt that I didn't understand them. They may be the subject of a second trip a few months from now.

I'd be interested in knowing whether you felt the same tension pulling you in two different directions.

[Stephane]

r.e., I need to see your photos to understand fully what you are talking about...
I had a rangefinder for street/every day shots, not carefully composed and thought about. I was shooting a 8x10 sinar and I did not want to do "documentary" photos with that format, but yes you can put them into context. I'll put more photos as they come.
Morocco is not much developed, growing crops is done the old way (you can say most of everything is organic), even the oil is pressed with animals moving the milling stone. Their way of earning money is through tourism and welcoming elderly people in old age home (14 millions of retired french people in Morocco today).
You probably experienced differently. I rented a fantasting house (riad) along the city walls where the waves crushed at high tide, making the house shake. For me this was magical. From the ground floor to the terrasse on the 3rd floor, the stair case was packed with full-body portraits of women in their cloth from the 1920s. Morocco was overwhelming for me, all my senses were alert. I almost cried when I had to leave...
In the end I dont know if I answered your question. It is rather something we can talk about around dinner...

[r.e.]

Thanks Stephane,

Your response is very interesting. We did indeed have different reactions to Morocco.

I look forward to seeing more of your photographs. My own are 6x7 and can't be posted here, although I may be back there in about April with a 4x5.

One small point; the whole population of Morocco is 31 million and it is unlikely that 14 million of that is French retirees. Newspaper reports say that the number may be as many as 30,000, and certainly Essaouira, with direct flights to Orly and booming construction of hotels and apartments, is one of the places that is courting them.

[Rick Tardiff]

I live in a really small town, this is as city as it gets! This is downtown and only my third or fourth LF image ever! I haven't even tried to crop out my camera! This was taken before all the snow arrived here in Bangor, Me.
A ebony rw45, 210 rodenstock, provia 100f. I scanned it on the epson V700. All this is very new to me, its like the first time I saw a print come to life in the tray so many years ago.. Thanks again to all the people on this format for the encouragement and help...still a newbie.
victornoir is online now Report Post Edit/Delete Message

[eddie]

NYC wet plate collodion on black aluminum. from the roof of my buddies place. he never even noticed this view?!?!!?

pressing my portrait lens into some architectural shots. ran out of coverage etc etc. f13 1 sec

oh! i almost forgot. i dropped the plate and then stuck my finger in it.

eddie

[spiky247]

a slight change of pace from my usual urban scapes. Santiago de Chile Ebony sv45 Ti + Carl Zeiss Planar 135 T* wide open.

[Allen in Montreal]

In the streets of Essaouira, Morocco.........

Nice picture Stephane.

[caleb]

Here is one from Dubai that I made on a recent trip.

[Rick Tardiff]

a slight change of pace from my usual urban scapes. Santiago de Chile Ebony sv45 Ti + Carl Zeiss Planar 135 T* wide open.

I like this, urban landscape with people!

[r.e.]

a slight change of pace from my usual urban scapes. Santiago de Chile Ebony sv45 Ti + Carl Zeiss Planar 135 T* wide open.

I'm a fan of Spiky's work so I hope I can say that I think that this photograph is not among his most successful. To me, it underscores the importance of mobility to street photography. On the upside, I think that the decision on focus - to shoot at f/3.5, isolating the fellow in the black T-shirt from the rest of the scene - was very much the right one. I'd be interested in knowing whether Spiky pre-focused on the general plane where this man is walking, which presumably would have required a stand-in, or whether he zone focused. I also like the sense of movement from motion blur, and the opposition of the direction of the man in the T-shirt to that of the rest of the pedestrians (save, interestingly, the heavyset woman in the background just to the right). However, I don't think that these visual effects make up for the fact that the photograph lacks content. If this had been shot with a 35mm camera, I think that it would be a discard. It would be interesting to use this lens on a hand-held camera, which would provide the kind of mobility that is so useful for street photography.

There is currently an Ebay auction for the non-T* version of this lens. With three days to go, bidding has reached over US$1700.