Purple Patch

2006 is no more, hello 2007, Happy New Year. 2006 seems to have passed far too quickly. Maybe it’s true “Time goes quicker the older you get”.

I have been posting far too infrequently, I had intended on showing some of my new photographs but, I’m not happy with the majority of them. I haven’t done much printing in my darkroom over the last few years and you can tell, it’s taking me time to get my printing eye back, but it will come and the quality of my prints will improve.

Having developed such a large quantity of film and not being happy with the bulk of the output, I have started to doubt my abilities, so I’m having a crisis of confidence. I’m a hard task master along with my worst critique. It’s happened to me before and in the past my reaction has been to go maybe a year or more without taking a photograph, but now I’m not going to take this route, life is to short to get hung up on my own shortcomings, real or imaginary, and I must learn to work through this period of self doubt and things will get better.

For inspiration I have been looking at the web sites and books of photographers whom I admire, so I thought I would share some of their work with you.

I have exclusively worked in black white photography for many years, but part of me wants to produce colour prints. With this in mind I have been looking at photographers who handle colour particularly well. Colour photography has revolutionised over the last few years, thanks to digital cameras and printers. It’s never been easier to make quality colour prints, but oddly the first few photographers I will mention have all used or are currently using 10x8 cameras and colour negative film.

The first photographer is an old favourite of mine Joel Meyerowitz .

Joel Meyerowitz

http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/

Bay / Sky 1977

Laundry 1977

I became aware of his photographs many years ago when I bought his now classic book “Cape Light”, which has sold over 100,000 copies, since it was published almost 30 years ago. The photographs contained in the book were taken at Cape Code in 1976 and 1977, and I have found them very accessible and frightenly familiar. Although Cape Cod is thousands of miles away on the east coast of the USA, the terrain, light and even the wooden buildings could quite easily have been uprooted from Cleethorpes and placed across the Atlantic in Cape Cod. If you have ever visited the Humberstone Fitties and the surrounding beach you will understand that the two are so alike.

Truro 1976

I have been aware for many years that there is a photographic project waiting for me at the Fitties, but my reluctance to do it has been partially due to my familiarity with “Cape Light”, perhaps a good New Years resolution would be to start photographing the Fitties and the people who live there.

The link below is a short BBC video on the Fitties

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/humber/realmedia/features/coastal/coastal4?size=16x9&bgc=6699CC&nbram=1&bbram=1&checkedBandwidth=bb&checkedMedia=ram&subtitles=hide&alreadySeen=1

Joel Meyorwitz has had many more books published post “Cape Light” but as far as I’m concerned he hasn’t hit the same heights with his later work, not even his 9/11 photographs when he was the exclusive photographer of the 9/11 site.

http://www.photoeye.com/BookteaseLight/bookteaselight.cfm?catalog=pi191


Many artists have a purple patch and as far as I’m concerned Joel Meylowitz’s was over 30 years ago when he worked on “Cape Light”.

I hope I’m still to have my own purple patch.

Merry Christmas