Observation: The 15mm Panny in a vertical position has a horizontal field of view not so unlike the 75mm on the Pentax, horizontally. Then, to imitate the comp while the film awaits processing, all I need to do is crop a 5×4 out of the vertical frame.
Why? Well, and this is a bad answer, the film hasn’t been processed.
As for metering light like this, it remains to be seen how the expired–for–more–than–a–decade–ago Astia takes it.
Stay tuned! (Actually, don’t)
In 2015 my family and I visited Stykkishólmur. I took some photographs. They didn’t turn out any good but one way or the other the place stuck with me. During the time between now and then, the images have somehow confirmed what seems to be the core of my photography; to provide comments on this and that, perspectives, answers perhaps, to questions that didn’t get asked at the time, questions that hadn’t yet reached the surface and possibly never would have hadn’t it been for the photos and their commentaries.
The order here is a bit messed up, but that’s all right. As long as there is movement, some movement.
Fjord, islands, the unspectacular.
And Stykkishólmur. In a restless kind of way I wanted to love the place. Restless, not as in not genuine, but hollow. Either way, at the same time I was terrified to risk it, whatever it was, enough to suffocate whatever might have happened hadn’t it been for the fear of reaching for, or out, or..
A house on a hill.
I do believe it is a lovely, lovable place though. For what it’s worth.
*Stykkishólmur is a village on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland.
Random thoughts going through the mind:
At least we’re moving forward.
Forward?
November already? Well..
July: Just resonated somehow. Certainly no favorite though.
August: Because landscape. Doesn’t need to be pretty and well composed but we knew that.
September: From the I was there category of images. Nobody’s favorite category of images.
October: Because who doesn’t love a good moon? No need to raise hands.
November: Not a word.
Some of the six months since last time have been quite dry, in terms of lens based activities. Also, my favorite images these days are eight years old and not the ones that have appeared lately and since this is about recents I’ve adjusted the tag. And this was a terrible sentence.
And here’s a new years resolution, if a tad early. If nothing worth saying to say, shut up. Now may this post creep downwards in shame and forever be forgotten.
I used to always want to be the one with the Horseman 612, an expensive Sekonic, and a large bag full of 120s. It was probably more about the Horseman than what might have been produced with it. There never was one, a Horseman, and the only Sekonics in the household are the most affordable versions. Not that there is anything wrong with them, except that the one that needs a battery tends to eat it up fairly quickly. The bags however—fairly large ones, considering—are indeed half full of 120s, but exposed and unprocessed for the most part.
Not sure where this was supposed to go. I still wouldn’t mind the camera, although a 612 wouldn’t make much sense. But I must admit to rather liking the idea of having a camera called Horseman.
No relation to what I’m going on about here, in spite the fact that I called them Horsemen.
Then, there was the dead horse..
I know..
No, strike that.
I have an idea about what I’m looking at. And I do wonder what you are seeing.
Then there is the underlying element that if I communicate what I’m looking at it will influence what you see. And as much as I’d rather not—influence—there really isn’t any way around it, is there?
In 2011 I started photographing places where people live, from afar. I called them Homes, the images. Here is where I might choose to get into the details about the project, if the words were ready, but instead I will say that the one above might have made the cut had it been square, and taken from a slightly higher viewpoint. Might but probably wouldn’t, it doesn’t quite sit. I don’t miss it terribly, from Homes I mean, but nevertheless, a little fond of it.
So, homes, just not Homes, is what I’m looking at.
What might you be seeing?
Nothing is new under the sun. That’s all right.
Plus I have no idea where this is going, if anywhere. Also all right.
A former neighbour. That was before.
Rjukan is one of the places in Norway where I would like to live at some point.
It’s probably a fantasy, mostly. An illusion.
Picture: A village, in a narrow valley, in between steep mountains, with its history and all. And the lack of sun during the winter months, and mirrors to compensate. The kind of place that could become big on Instagram? (Not that I checked, perhaps it already is).
Not that this is an illusion, but I suspect the associations, ideas, the “oh how nice it would be to live there for a while”, are.
Arriving at the illusion has a certain charm though.
No, that’s impossible.
The journey towards the illusion has a certain charm though.
Not journey.
Approaching the illusion has,.. its thing..
Which reminds me of this book of photographs I seem to recall having, in one of the boxes I can’t remember where I placed. Approaching Nowhere, if I’m not mistaken. That’s not Rjukan, not nowhere. Far from it. The illusion is, though.
Or, what do I know? Having spent only enough time there to drink a cup of coffee and walk about with a tripod for an hour or so. In pouring rain.
Illusion?
Photograph that almost got left behind on a hard drive.
The fact that this particular batch of envelopes reaped no responses doesn’t mean that a future one won’t. Nor does it change the fact that a previous one did.
The lack of ROI for these particular envelopes did, however, come with a cost, one that was neither foreseen or anticipated. In hindsight, at this particular point in history, it should have been obvious that the potential concequences might turn out to be a bit of a catastrophy and given that, perhaps there never should have been envelopes. Let alone ones that made it all the way to the mailbox.
But that was a long time ago. Looong time. From now on—to envelopes.
Two.
Matching ok or not so well.
In a somewhat chronological order. Except Odda, sometimes before dusk, Odda should be at the end, if the timeline was important and it is. Timelines always are.
Men with bright coloured clothing, repairing courthouse.
A BMW by the lake. I mean the reservoir.
The local art museum. No, not the only one. In between exhibitions.
Portrait of the lens. And gobo.
The hut and the steel wires that make sure it stays up.
“Don’t fall down here”, I guess the plastic line was meant to say.
A truly horrible place. Thanks to humans in suits, elected.
Water. And concrete.
Another reservoir. It seems to be a reoccuring subject.
At the time, two of the saddest photographs.
Coastline. Lines. Old country. Nostalgia. Et cetera.
There are two possible approaches here, aren’t there?
Personally I should force myself to commit to #2, no later than now. Have spent way too much energy already on disliking 3:2.
*Perhaps what we should be asking is why rectangular?
Summer light is nice, it lasts forever.
In some places at least, say north of 60 degrees, it does. Not here though, not in Southernland. Not because Southernland is so far south, just enough to allow night to be night and change the summer light character quite a bit. It’s still nice, very nice in fact.
The hows and the whys and that sort are not too important. Just different.
Southernland, 2015.
By the way. It’s not only the duration of summer light that makes it nice. Although that’s nice too. Let’s say it’s complicated.
That was five times nice. Six including this one.
