A small piece of paradise, this town is. At the junction of two oceans, it has as much variety in is topography as its demographics. To anyone holding a camera it offers compositions and outlooks that are very unique.
But to a street photographer using only B&W film, the ocean, beaches and colourful houses are not the primary focus. My quest for a composition that also tells a story about Cape Town was the challenge during last year's trip.
The first is a composition of horizontal and vertical lines, the ocean in the background and a social moment in the marina. The platinum-blond woman provided the perfect contrast, as well as the visual disruption through the patterns of her bag. I did some dodging in the darkroom to enhance her presence.
The second picture is a typical street shot: I saw the hat-seller lady walk on the beach and hoped to frame her between the couple having lunch. While this was planned on my part, the perfect positioning of the pigeon atop her was not! And that is what those of us still using film and 1950's mechanical cameras hope to achieve based on what H. Bresson called "le moment decisif" or the deciding moment: to frame and click just when all actors and elements are about to tell a story.
Of course the lighting was much less than optimal: against the sun and reflections from the sea and sand. But I did not think about the technical quality of the picture, just the story it may tell. Both pictures taken with a Mamiya 645 1000s and a Mamiya-Sekor 80mm 1.9 lens. The film was ASA 100.
©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013
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