Private - Public

My BTEC photography course is now in its last few weeks, it finishes mid July. The next to last assignment was to interpret the theme of  "Private - Public" -  on film. The selected images may be digitlly printed, but the original capture must be on film.

I used to take a lot of black & white photos in my pre-digital days. In those days I had access to a darkroom and spent many hours there printing. Alas those days are long gone, but as I kept some developing tanks (and my film camera, a Nikon N70) at least I could process the negatives. You don't actually need a darkroom for that. And I have a scanner - which can scan 35mm negatives - so any subsequent processing can be done in Photoshop and then printed digitally.

Picked up where I left off all those years ago with Black & White film - Ilford Delta 400, rated at 400 iso. The shoot was to be an odd experience for me - keeping to the one iso rating and only 36 shots per roll.

Suggested interpretations of the theme, earlier, were of people in a private moment in a public space. My take was rather different - private/public signs. I'd seen plenty while exploring central London on previous shoots, and this time was no exception. Private/Public signs ? Signs - with writing or graphics - aimed at the public indicating something private. The brief required seven images, so here are those I selected.

 

 

I processed the negatives in Kodak HC-110 for 9 minutes, and found the results more grainy (noisy ?) than I would have liked. Perhaps if I was processing negatives more frequently I'd get back into the optimum chemistry for my type of work; then again the the negatives have also been scanned and not printed digitally and not in a darkroom. Out of practice ?

Countdown

Next year - 2012 - the Olympic Games come to London again.  I'm sure the intervening time between now and then will provide many photographic opportunities. 

In Trafalgar Square, central London, an official clock was installed, which counts down the time to the Games start, froma starting point of 500 days.

Since the clock has been there, it has almost become a tourist attraction. People come and sit by it, pose by it, and have their photo taken by it.

The clock is just nearby the Fourth Plinth in northwest corner of Trafalgar Square, which was empty for many years but now shows artworks. Currently on show is "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle", and you can read my posting on it here. Other previous posts on the Fourth Plinth are here and here and here - one and other. The artwork is due to change in 2012 and again in 2013, so I plan to be back and photograph what goes up then.

In the meantime, I wonder what will happen the Olympic Clock next December 31st ? The Square usually attracts 50,000 revellers at midnight to welcome in the new year.

Street Photography in London

There is an excellent photographic exhibition on currently in the Museum of London near the Barbican, entitled "Street Photography London". The exhibitions has photographs taken over the years - 1860 to 2010. The pictures on show are good examples of the genre - Street Photography - in that there is a narrative, or story told in each, not just photographs taken in a street.

The older photographs tend to be smaller in size and in monochrome, getting larger and moving into colour as they get up to date, reflecting, the changing photographic technology. They are also very people oriented - rather than scenes of London - and the changing fashions of the residents are obvious, as are the changing cards and buses.

Think I preferred the selection of photographs in the sections labelled 1930 - 1945 and 1946 - 1979. Monchrome - which the photographs are in these sections - lends itself to the genre in mood and atmosphere, which, for all its other advantages, colour rarely does.

The exhibition runs until September 4th, 2011. Better yet it is free to get in. And it is well worth visiting.