Working with wonk
Exhibit A: As shot.
The Sage concert and learning halls on the banks of the Tyne in Gateshead is yet another one of those glassy, curvy structures appearing on city skylines all over the world. The Silver Slug as it’s known locally, the external structure is all wavy steel spines. Even its blue-green viewing barrier wriggles and writhes its way through the space.
The top photo is as shot, with a point-and-click GR film camera, on the run. My companion was anxious about his train, but I did think the light was good, so took the chance. Correcting in Lightroom (or Photoshop, or iPhoto), following the grid system, which of the horizontals or verticals would you follow?
Exhibit B: The picture directly above uses the top of the blue-green barrier as it’s nominal straight line. The steel skeleton is no help at all, and neither are the chairs. It’s a wide angle 28mm lens, so there is some keystone distortion, visible mainly in the shapes of the humans, but it’s not too disruptive, or at least not to my eye.
Exhibit C has been straightened against the perpendiculars of the table legs and the visually important spire of All Saints Church across the River.
Which one of these looks straight, to you?
There is a fascinating discussion going on about wonk on Mrs Deane’s blog here. After looking keenly at the exhibits in Street and Studio at the Tate, I’m convinced that for many genres, wonk doesn’t matter at all. The Dutch Angle is big wonk used in cinema to add drama. There’s a copy of The Third Man out on DVD which makes intensive use of the device.
In architectural photography, the intent surely is to make the most of the perspective elements, the position of the horizon, the deliberately vertical uprights in the structure or its surrounds. In these cases, straightness with accuracy is important, isn’t it? And just to show that it can be done:
Exhibit D above was taken with the camera held resting on the table, so there’s more chance that it’s straight, and Lightroom says it’s level against the blue barrier, but it doesn’t look straight, does it? It is possible, even given the challenge the Sage presents. But does it really matter?
For those who like to know, the film is 400ISO Vista colour neg, developed at Asda in Hartlepool for 97p. I like the colours, and the contrast is right, the daylight was very bright and shiny.
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Where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing
Plunged off down to Penzance, a distance of bleh miles, and a 10 hour train journey. Why? A buddhist memorial service for an old friend, and more about that in another post, because it’s interesting. If anyone knows how to edit/improve a .amr file, I’d be very glad to hear from you.
The new camera performed well when it performed, but also jammed, twice, quite spectacularly. Nice ultra-cheap Kodak 200iso colour film, rendering well in the thick seaside mist of the south coast. Felt like walking through soup. Maybe that contributed, but since it’s okay now, who knows?
A triple, quadruple, multiple exposure of Penzance, St Ives and thereabouts. Interesting.
Click through either of these to see a few more touristy-type experiments of ’street’ and architectural nature. Still very much finding my feet again with 35mm, so they all look better cropped to square. Seems I’m seeing in 6×6. More to come, including some interior black and whites of Tate in St Ives, which was truly magnificent. Apart from everything else, the trip was worth it just to go there, even jammed with tourists. The roof terrace - go to the roof terrace!
Apart from that, lots of renewal, some irregular family stuff and massive amounts of painting and decorating happening. So, not on the internet much this month. Apologies therefore if you’re awaiting answers. And email for me is mostly broken - I’ll post about how best to communicate soon. Promise!
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These fields were once all houses
Over the past few weeks, the last of hundreds of classical brick built Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses on the steep north bank of the Tyne that is Scotswood, are entering the end of days. Offered for sale for as little as £1 each back in the 1990s, the streets were closed off boulder by boulder, and steel applied to windows and doors.
One small enclave remains (photos of that another day), but right next to them, is this miniature estate of Voysey-esque suburban semis with mature climbing hydrangea, a rambling rose and patches of kniphofia. A few of the houses are occupied: on this warm summer evening a small child scoots furiously up and down the echoing streets, someone waves from an upper window, and beyond, a well-pumped football beats against a garden wall.
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