Tag: photography
Wales Finest.
Wales Finest. Welsh open hairdressing and beauty championship. These images were shot behind the scenes at the Wales Finest Open Hairdressing and beauty championships in June 2015
Gods Among Us.
A lot of my work comes from my interest in mythology. The stories humans have told for centuries. The ability for us as a species to create these stories. I take inspiration from all kinds of sources. For this body of work I wanted to make my own depictions of classical characters and myths.
I started by writing down any particular gods and characters that I remembered from classics, folklore and popular culture.
Something else that was important to me was that I wanted the images to be organic and unedited; I wanted these characters to exist in the real world. Being able to do this was part of the challenge of creating a believable fiction.
To create images that cannot be tampered with, I opted to shoot the whole series on Polaroid 600 film. Basic and idiot-proof controls strip back any of the complexities of shooting an otherwise “high quality” image. This lack of control allows me to focus solely on the composition as well as the construction of the reality in front of the lens.
I wanted to make each image speak for the character it represented in a more modern setting.
Dionysus is depicted as a bartender, mixing drinks (top left)
Ophelia is floating on the water (top middle).
Zeus is surrounded by electrical cables (top right).
Icarus is wearing his prison jumpsuit and a pair damaged wings (middle left)
Persephone is guarding the gates to the underworld while waiting for Hades (middle centre)
The story of Damocles is that of the unseen responsibilities of leadership. Damocles gets to be king for a day while a dagger hangs above him held by a horses hair. However, the rhendition I created was based on the representation of Damocles, the black centurion, a vengful spirit from a videogame called RYSE: Son of Rome (middle right)
Ares is a soldier in waiting (bottom left)
Narcissus facing his reflection in the water (bottom middle)
Niniane, the Lady Of The Lake who is about to present Excalubur to Arthur (bottom right)
After some experimentation, I made composites of the digital files shot as a backup. They look nice in regards to the resolution and impact, but I feel like they really lost their atmosphere and mood. Making the images so clear really lost the mystery and feeling of the Polaroids.
These images were featured in an exhibition in The College, Merthyr Tydfil. I got a generous amount of space to work with so I displayed both sets of images alongside a copy of the images in a book.
I mounted both sets of images in the same 3×3 grid order. The original Polaroids are mounted on cream mount board, in a black frame. The digital images were printed out onto a semi gloss paper and mounted onto foam board to make for a lightweight, large scale display.
Abergavenny Vintage Toy & Car Market.
These images were taken last year at the vintage toy and car market in Abergavenny. The show hosted dozens of vintage vehicles, toy stalls and dioramas. It is an annual event and I have attended 3 years in a row as there’s always something interesting to photograph.
This series of images was presented as a documentary project for university and earned a 1st.
Archiving Project
A few weeks ago a really interesting project landed on my desk. A box of glass plate negatives were anonymously donated to Redhouse in Merthyr Tydfil.
In the past I have been contracted to archive and retouch family photo collections. This experience coupled with my already extensive experience with analogue film processes, made me the perfect candidate for the project. The image on the left was taken on my smart phone and then converted to negative in order to give us a better idea of what images we were dealing with.
The negatives were stored in a curious wooden box and were separated by the pages of a book. they had such a ghostly feel about them due to their age and content. In my own opinion I would date the negatives from between 1890 and 1920 due to the fact that they are dry-plate glass negatives and the kind of clothing worn by the subjects. The subjects of the images ranged from portraits to street scenes, landscapes, graveyards and even a shotgun!
While searching the box I came across this one image which simply looked menacing with the pages of the book underneath.
To start the scanning process I had to ensure that I could create the highest quality images from these negatives. To achieve this I started by deep cleaning the Epson V700 Perfection flatbed scanner and preparing a program
Epson scanner with Mac and Silverfast 8.
Cleaning the flatbed scanner before use.
Removing negatives to check condition.
Cleaning negatives carefully to remove dust particles.
Placing negative on center of glass on at a time.
Prescanning negative to adjust settings before a full scan is done.
The process took roughly 45 minutes per image as they each had to be cleaned, scanned, processed and retouched. The process of retouching the images was left up to my own discretion; the authenticity of the images being a key part of my ideals, I decided to only retouch the faces of the subjects in the images and leave the rest in the original condition. By doing this I believe a good balance has been struck between restoration and the retention of authenticity. I also scanned with the intention of keeping the whole negative intact with no cropping; whoever shot these images really knew what they were doing.
The intention of scanning these negatives is to hopefully create an exhibition from them, possibly at Redhouse in Merthyr Tydfil.
If you feel you have information regarding these images then please contact me as I would love to help create a full account to accompany these mysterious images.
Moss.
I’m always facinated by long exposures of water. The rock retains so much detail due to it being completley motionless throughout the exposure while the water becomes this calming, milky mass of colour and texture.
Horses.
“Looking for love is tricky business, like whipping a carousel horse.”
-George Cukor
Barcelona
On the first day we all met up at college before 1pm in order to board a coach which then took us to Bristol International Airport.
We arrived at the airport, checked in our luggage and then had to wait the standard 2 hours for our flight.
As this trip was to be my first flight AND first trip abroad I was naturally nervous and excited. So as my standard practice, I bought loads of food at the Burger King in the departure lounge.
Our flight as with easy jet and went off without a hitch.
After landing and collecting our luggage we caught a coach to the Generator Hostel in Barcelona. The drive took us through the city at night.
The hostel was something to behold in itself, for lack of a better term it was like an Urban Outfitters that you could sleep in.
After a short wait we were issued with our keycards and then settled into our rooms. Being a hostel we had a 6 berth room, which was pretty fun considering it was only members of our trip that were occupying the room.
After unpacking, a few members of the trip decided to go and find something to eat. So naturally we ended up at a McDonalds restaurant.
We started Tuesday with a walk to the Sagrada Familia. A cathedral which has been under construction for 132 years it is one hell of a building. So packed with detail and workmanship. It is expected to be finished by 2028
We caught the metro to La Ramblas where we soaked up the street culture a little bit. we even got ice cream!
Most of our group went to the Picasso Museum. Where as we decided to explore the city instead and then meet the group at the MACBA. After arriving at the MACBA however we discovered that it is closed on Tuesdays and then had to wait for the group to catch up and instead went to the CCCB.
In the CCCB there was an exhibition on called “Metamorphosis” To be honest it really was a strange exhibition. the work became more, and more bizarre as you progressed through the exhibit. It ranged from early animation to sculpture and installation art there was also a lot in the way of mixed media and video.
After returning from the CCCB we decided to go out and enjoy the Barcelona night life. We ended up at a rock bar just around the corner from the Hostel.
Wednesday started with us visiting the FUNDACIÓ ANTONI TÀPIES where the Fine Art students were involved in a group activity which involved them making a sculpture out of objects in a performance space.
Following that we decided to go to the MACBA. This day they were actually open for visitors.
There was photographic exhibition which featured mainly architectural photography. the way in which the work was displayed was amazing.
After leaving the MACBA we went for a walk through the old Gothic district of Barcelona.
We had to catch the cable car to get to the mountain where the Joan Mirro foundation is. The cable car took us right over the harbour area and you could see all of Barcelona.
Joan Mirro foundation.
Although I could see the appeal of the venue to the fine art students i found the place really annoyed me. As a photographer my prerogative is to make images, the policy of the Joan Mirro Foundation is that there is to be absolutely no photography inside the building. Due to this i cannot even share any images of work that i did actually like from their collection.
That night we had a quiet evening at the hostel with a few drink and a meal.
On Thursday a few of us decided to break away from the main group and have a specific photographers day.
To start we caught the Metro to La Ramblas where we had food at KFC and then made our way around the city to photograph it as we saw fit.
We visited the famous where that was a plethora of local foods. it was a fantastic location to shoot due to it being full of colour.
After getting back to the hostel we decided to make our last night in Barcelona one to remember. We hosted a small party in our room which then moved to the hostel bar, where I ended up drinking until 5 o’clock in the morning.
Friday began in a haze. After I awoke, I managed to get dressed and pack my belongings before the 10am check out time. All this within 15 minutes with a soul breaking hangover.
After venturing to the beach we ended up going to the zoo, after playing with the sealions I perked right up
We left the zoo in order to meet up with group at the hostel. We had a last meal there before boarding a coach destined for the airport.
Once we arrived at the airport my hangover had fully subsided, and was replaced by a form of light hysteria. The news that our flight was delayed by three hours didn’t really come as much of a shock, something had to go wrong at some point. After a breif and fruitless argument with airport security I ended up having to put my film through the x-ray machine. Luckily upon development the pictures seem unharmed.
Due to the time we were in the airport terminal we found that most of the shops, restaurants and cafés were closed or preparing to close for the night. Luckily my tenacious search for the complaints desk and a payphone led me to a still open Burger King!
So over the space of the next few hours the flight got delayed a few more times. I got to watch a few films that I put on my tablet, and even whizzed ariund the departure lounge in some wheelchairs that we found.
By the time the plane actually arrived we had lost more in the way of sanity than anything else.
The flight was okay in the way back. Watched another film and had two cups of soup. We landed back in Bristol at roughly half three in the morning. My first act after clearing customs was to buy food, in this case a bacon and sausage baguette. Leaving the building was another matter entirely as I was used the the climate of Barcelona. Walking outside was a stern reminder that I was in fact home.
The coach that took us from Bristol to Merthyr scared me more than either of the flights. We bounded down barely lit country roads for what seemed like forever until we got onto the motorway.
The bus was full of laughter and stories of the past week, accompanied by a looming sadness that the next day was going to be that of us returing to our normal lives.
When the coach pulled into the college car park, and we got of the coach we then realised how much warmer Barcelona is by comparison. We shook, and shivered until our lifts arrived to take us home.
Needless to say, this experience is one that I’ll never forget. I wanted to tell it to the best of my ability and it has taken me more than a month to do that!
Over the next few months I will be releasing images shot on both film and digital cameras. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article, as it’s my most comprehensive to date.
If you liked my article then maybe you should consider checking out Generator Hostels like the one I stayed at in Barcelona The Generator, Barcelona.
Kiev 60
Does size matter? Not really. Do I still want the camera equivalent of Andre The Giant? yeah of course I do!
The Kiev 60 is a medium format SLR camera that uses the same bayonet lens fitting as the Pentacon Six. It was made in Russia in 1985. The camera is almost an exact duplicate of the Pentacon Six cameras in all ways except for the branding.
The camera is a solid piece of equipment. The full metal body and lens which makes it very reassuring when you hold it. My camera came with the TTL prism which makes it great for all kinds of photography. I also tracked down a waist level finder for street photography and low angle images. It came in its original carry case which to this day smells suspiciously like fire.
I feel like I waited an eternity for this camera, I bought it on ebay, directly from Ukraine. As it turns out, a day after buying the camera, President Yanukovych had been thrown out of office and was found to have been a prolific embezzler. So no wonder my package was delayed.
My only problem with this camera is frame spacing, the camera shoots its negatives almost back to back, sometimes overlapping slightly. From my research online it seems to be a fairly common problem on these cameras. Apart from the spacing issue, the camera is actually a joy to use. The 90mm Vega lens that came with the camera is amazing for shallow depth of field portraits and macro studies. Even though its a fairly long lens (converts to roughly 70mm on 35mm camera) it has no trouble getting up close for detail work. All in all its a great camera that I want to get more use out of.
RPeterThomas Photographic 