Still-Life Images, 2012

[jcoldslabs]

Taken yesterday in the dining room. I'm starting to think I'm doing this in reverse order: I keep taking photos around the house while I am still relatively young and able-bodied. I should be roaming the streets with my heavy gear now and save the house-bound photos for when I'm too feeble to get out and about. Oh, well. Work to your strengths, I guess.

Speed Graphic, Zeiss 15cm f/4.5 uncoated Tessar, Polaroid type 55 film (expired 1981).




Jonathan

[jcoldslabs]

And for comparison's sake here's the positive half of the sheet which looks much closer to how the scene looked to my eye. Normally when exposed for the negative (E.I. 25) the positive is blown out, but with film over thirty years old the equation changes somewhat. I guess the positive lost more speed than the negative did.




Jonathan

[mdm]

I have been looking at Joel Meyerowitz's Cape light today. He sayes he was trying not to be seduced by the beautiful, to deliberateley make not beautiful photographs that are somehow personal. Photographs of mundane things that appeal to you are very personal things and it shows. Sometimes photos that are not beautiful have something special photographically that beautiful photographs never have. I agree with him. I see the same in the Guido Guidi book I have, and in Steven Shore's American Surfaces, and Fred Hertzog's book I recently got. And Lee Friedlander, even Atget who was not trying to make works of art but merely artists documents, which are somehow deeply personal. Then there is Andre Kertesz who seems to have only made photographs that are deeply personal, whatever their ultimate use turned out to be. Many, many made from his apartment and even perhaps his most famous one, a self portrait with his girl in an embrace.

[jcoldslabs]

David,

Thanks for that. I agree. And speaking of personal, here you go: I have a bad case of atopic dermatitis on my right hand. In order to keep it under control I need to keep my hand out of detergents and water as best I can. We have no automatic dishwasher, so I do dishes two or three times a day by hand. When I do I don a glove to protect my skin from the hot water and soap, wash dishes, tidy up, and then I usually take the glove off and fling it somewhere to dry so I can use it again later. Yesterday this was where that day's glove ended up, over the back of a chair in the dining room, and I wanted to make a record of this aspect of my daily life. In this sense it is a very personal photograph that has meaning for me for the reasons I just described. What it might mean to someone else is anyone's guess.

Jonathan

[wentbackward]

this is photography and this forum at it's very best!! Thankyou for the insights and sharing personal stories.

[stejo]

Snowberry or Symphoricarpos albus. From last winter but scanned now

Shen-Hao, Fujinon w 150/5,6, FP4 in D76 1:1.

//Stefan

[rpalm]

Baby Limes
4x5 Tachi, Rodenstock 150, Ilford FP4, 100watt shop light, 1 sec. f5.6
They tasted great! I was surprised they came out, the wind kept blowing.

r

[Ken Lee]

Snowberry or Symphoricarpos albus. From last winter but scanned now

Shen-Hao, Fujinon w 150/5,6, FP4 in D76 1:1.

//Stefan

It's simple, imaginative, subtle - and has a real feeling of presence too

[stejo]

Thank you Ken, I was inspired by you .

[Nasser]

I did couple of years of Panerai catalogs (watches) and accumulated some tools and dies for the setups. Best were two dozen precision-cut steel blocks.

what a coincidence!! One year a go I was watching Panerai catalog and was amazed of the background setup! That is a unique thought!
Nasser