My early morning walk with my dog in Prescott, Arizona was all calm and gray. Snow had just started and the streets were empty. The fog added the natural blurring of the background and the touch of snow felt hopeful and clean.
In that space, I forgot about the pandemic and what the new year would bring. I celebrated the moment.
December 29, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
Sometimes living in the high desert of Arizona makes me miss large bodies of water. And, as a street photographer, over the years two rivers in Europe have provided me with ample opportunity to capture moments that have special meaning because of the historical and contemporary meaning the Seine and the Danube have in Western Europe.
So, on a day when all is dry around me, I looked for a few photos from France and Vienna.
Paris
The photo atop this page was a challenge of film photography. I was using 100 ASA film and the sun had set almost an hour ago. The lens on my Yashica 124 TLR camera has a maximum of 3.5 which is not suited for photography in the dark! But the couple embracing on the public bench and the Tour Eiffel in the back made me try a slow shutter speed of 1/8th second, handheld!
It took a number of attempts to print it in my darkroom, and then when digitally scanning it but gives me a secret view of the crépuscule (twilight) near the Seine.
This next photo, one of my favorites, I took at around sunset with a Mamiya 645 medium format camera. There was enough light for the superb Mamiya Sekor 90mm lens opened wide to 1.9. The texture and the tonal range came out beautifully using an Ilford Delta 100 film.
Another published favorite is that of two young women on the wall next to the Seine. The Beret and the pigeon (which just flew into the frame…) make this photo immediately recognizable to represent a Parisian moment.
Only à Paris…
Vienna
On this trip I wanted to capture the street artistic character of the long walkways on both sides of the Danube.
While the Blue Danube is the most popular waltz by Johann Strauss II, I feel comfortable saying that the Danube has never been blue in modern times. I have walked the promenade on the shore of the Danube in Vienna many times in the past 50 years, and have never seen that river blue. And the walls around that walkway are not pristine in shape or colour. And that for me is a character I cherish as a photographer.
So, on this trip I looked for that reality of shape, colour and texture that represents the Danube for me.
This photo is about wall art and street sculpture on the west promenade (the Danube runs at the right of this photo). The sculpted dead tree is a humanoid presence and the paintings on the walls will exist till they are cleaned and replaced by new phantasmagorical paintings. So, what I captured at that moment does not exist anymore. It is history. Although the paintings are often in vivid spray paint colours, I think the general mood of the walk is best represented in shades of gray.
This second photo is my favorite from that trip as it is a true street photography. Steel, water, sharp edges, an old bridge and a pensive man as if admiring his reflection in the Danube. Or his sorrows. And then, a classically dressed woman showing timeless style amid a historic setting. Finally, in the upper quadrant a man leaving the scene. For me, this is a photo of cosmopolitan life but without crowds rushing along. It is also all texture and Fujifilm Neopan Across film did capture the autumnal early morning on the shores of the Danube.
Finally, I shot from the west promenade capturing the recent times of massive immigration throughout Europe. It is a socio-political statement next to the flowing river. It represents the times and issues that old river has seen more than once, when it was once blue and now that it runs in more subdued colours.
November 19, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
The debate about why B&W photos affect the viewers so differently than color ones has been going on since Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell proposed that using red, blue and green filters (RGB in today’s digital world parlance)and superimposing the three images would result in a colour photograph. This was put to test in 1861 by Thomas Sutton, who later invented the single lens reflex camera, by producing a colour photograph of a tartan ribbon using Maxwell’s principle of the three-color analysis and synthesis.
Of course the red, green and blue filters did not produce a colour photograph as we Eastman Kodak’s Kodachrome reversal film did in 1935, but paved the way to the era of photography most of the world takes now for granted. But E. Kodak did not create the colour film—indeed, two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière marketed a colour process in 1907 which was adopted by the silent movie industry as well and called Technicolor. The first Technicolor movie, albeit silent, was “The Gulf Between” which premiered on September 13, 1917.
So the “Wizard of Oz” (1939) was not the first film in color but sure helped Kodachrome become a household name in the 1950s and slowly make B&W photography a niche art form rather than mainstream medium for capturing the moment.
So, where do we stand now?
After digital photography seemed to have put the last nail in the coffin of film, B&W photography is still alive and being resurrected. Major film and camera manufacturers are producing film again, as well as cameras that have the classic looks and perhaps some of the features.
Why?
Because what B&W photography based on B&W film can produce digital technology has not achieved. At least for artists who continuously explore the suggestive and interpretative magic of shades, tonal ranges and the fluidity of the interaction of these two characteristics that give a movement to the viewer rather than a “still imprint.”
Like many photographer and art critics, I have written about this subject more than once. I still use film, classical mechanical cameras and cherish my work in the darkroom. That is why my favorite most succinct contrasting of colour vs B&W photography is by Eliott Erwitt, the Canadian-American street photographer who has taken most iconic (in my opinion) B&W portraits of famous people, among these being Marilyn Monroe. In his portraits of her, Monroe is the girl next door not the sex symbol we fantasized about from the movies.
Color
is Descriptive. Black and White is Interpretative
Of course, descriptive does not mean colour photographs cannot or do not tell a story. They do. But I think that photographers using are more didactic though their emphasis using colour. They tell you what they had in mind. What your eyes should focus on. So, in some way colour has build-in interpretation – that of the photographer.
Black and White being interpretative means to me that there is enough fluidity through the shades of gray to allow the viewer interpret what he/she is seeing based on the life experience and personality of that very viewer.
And perhaps that is why B&W photographs, especially if printed in a square format have that je ne sais quoi many appreciate. Because it makes them part of the interpretation, not just the recipient of the photographer’s work.
To illustrate, I am including two photos. The first, shown at the top of the essay I took in Morocco. I did some burning and clearly dodging to create that moment of social gathering in a street traditional Moroccan character. The man on the right, with his wife next to him gets the attention—they are happy to see me with my Minolta Autocord medium format TLR camera. Yet, the space behind them is obscure and one wonders if it is their small shop or the side of a house. But there is a lock on the steel gate that closes that area. Is that their shop still closed or a garage? Are they selling peppers in the street or mixing business with pleasure socializing with the neighbors?
Perhaps one such neighbor is the woman standing in front of them. We do not see her face, and many do not immediately notice the child she is carrying on her back. Is she his mother or grandmother? Is she buying peppers or just chatting? So we do not know what she looks like; nor do we have a good sense of the environment. I purposefully included the bicycle as the only “artifact of visual comfort”. Each viewer is left to their interpretation.
The contrast, the shades and shadows in this photo, I believe are best expressed through B&W film.
This next photo is from Baltimore, Maryland. Again the woman’s face is hidden, but the man’s shows a calm moment of respite. We do not see her legs and feet, but we know she is bare foot because of her walking shoes at her side. We assume the man is napping close to her bare feet. Is he napping though? Or did they disagree during their conversation and opted for personal space? Was his mother-in-law with them on this outing and decided to move away after the argument? We see a female’s feet walking away from her. But her body language is similar to her daughter’s we see part of at her right. But the proportins seem misleading -- her daughter looks much farther than the plane she and her husband (?) are on. And that gives a delightful depth of field to the photo. Almost three-dimensional.
There is nothing didactic in this photo—I have heard as many interpretations as the number of viewers who have seen this at an exhibit.
… Perhaps the best description about the popularity of colour film is not in the photos but what it represented in the 1970s. The lyrics of a Paul Simon song entitled “Kodachrome” (1973) puts it this way:
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
Give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
PS/ I find it intriguing that in the Middle Ages there was the “Camera Obscura” (Darkened Room) consisting of a room with a small hole in one wall (today we would call it a "pinhole camera...) It was first used to watch sun eclipses as the image of the sun projected, upside down, on the bleached wall facing the hole and shielded the viewer eyes from the rays. Then in the 1600s this set up was used for drawing as the upside down projections were traced on a sheet of paper and then coloured in.
Then came the Lumière brothers in the early 1900s with their colour processing of photographs. From Obscura to Lumière (Light in French) the definition of Black and White was created for photography . But the origins of that word are associated with the Camera Obscura as “photography” is derived from the Greek language where photos mean “light” and graphein means “to draw.” Photography, as a word was cornered in the 1830s.
November 5, 2021
©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2021/10/anthropomorphism-from-deity-to-desert.html
I also mentioned that I had visited Calcutta in the
late 1970s, as well as Mumbai during the same trip to Hyderabad. So I received
a few emails asking if I have photos from these trips.
Well, I have posted photos from Mumbai in the
following two posts: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4995164429340748464/1810982952832485338
and https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2013/05/mumbai.html
but I am unable to find photos from Calcutta. In the past 40 years I have
vagabonded the planet and often have left paper documents and photos behind.
But in my search for old photos, I came across a few
about Thaipusam that I have taken in the 2000s (I have signed the prints but
did not put down the date…)
… Thaipusam is a festival celebrated in countries
where the Tamil Hindu communities are predominant, such as India, Malaysia, Singapore,
Sri Lanka and Canada among others. It takes place on the full moon of the Tamil
month of Thai, usually January or February of each year. Devotees walk to the local
Tamil temple carrying a pot of milk but also they pierce their skin, cheeks and
tongue with thin but long skewers called vel.
This ritual of flesh mortification is part of their soul’s purification before
they enter the temple.
The march to the temple is though a dance called kavadi dance, where a large semicircular canopy, often quite decorated is
carried by the devotees showing their pierced body. From a distance it may look
like they are holding a large, ornate umbrella but a closer look shows the
ritual of soul purification.
… On that January, a colleague who has seen many a
Thaipusam celebration in Singapore picked me up from the hotel to see the
procession.
“Too bad you take only B&W photos” he said, “look
how delightful the colours are.”
Indeed, not only were the kavadi ornate in gold,
yellow, white, and red but also the women attending the ceremony were in traditional
Indian silk dresses. It was a wonderful
scene.
So I took a few photos with my Nikon F2. The photo at the outset shows the canopy and
the one below a close up of the back of another devotee displaying the ritual
body piercing.
… I was delighted to find these old photographs.
Then I checked and there are many wonderful colour photos of Thaipusam on the
internet covering celebrations from many countries.
My black and white photography is photojournalistic as
always – trying to tell a story rather than dazzle the viewer’s eyes.
October 24, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
Rolleiflex Medium Format cameras have been in extensively used in photojournalism since the 1940s. They are small, relatively light and can be preset (if needed) to an approximate focusing distance for quick snapping. Most importantly, since the TLRs have a waist level focusing screen, one can identify the subject without the latter knowing that you are taking a photo. That makes for candid shots.
I have used TLR cameras in street photography since the 1980s. While I have a number of them, my three favorites are a 1948 Rolleiflex, a 1966 Minolta Autocord III, and the Yashica 124 also from the 1960s. For studio portraiture, I use a Mamiya Professional with bellows and a Minolta Autocord CDS which has a light meter but is too bulky for hanging around my neck.
Here are the Rolleiflex, the Autocord CDS and the Autocord III. Note the modifications I have made for quick photo taking -- I have added longer plungers to the shutter button, replaced the hood on the CDS with a Yashica hood and internal fresnel for a brighter viewfinder, and made a hood on the III using three metal rings from old filters:
While all three of them have delightful lenses, the Autocords have an elliptic sliding focusing system with a knob under the lens compared to the left hand rotating knob on the Rolleiflex and Yashica. With some practice, one can hold the camera in the right hand, slide the focusing knob right or left with the middle finger for the perfect focus, then press the shutter with the index finger.
The concept was not new. In the 1950s and 60s, Meopta, a Czechoslovakian company, made a TLR called Flexaret that was widely used during the Soviet days. It was the first TLR to use the sliding focusing mechanism. But the aluminum bodied camera did not have professional features nor the endurance for heavy use.
Here is a close-up to the Autocord sliding focusing design:
So, I do not need my left hand to go through these steps and take a photo. Unless I am holding the leach of my dog with my left arm!
And that is what I did last weekend. I knew the downtown was getting ready for an open air art show and my dog needs his daily early morning walk. So, there I went trying to control a 106 pound Akita who pulls like a pony on the first day of spring, and hoping to snap a few photos with my Autocord III.
It was soon after sunrise when we got there. The tall trees around the town square filtered the early rays making me choose an aperture of 3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/60th second.
The photo at the top of this page is what a medium format film delivers – the wide opened lens blurred the background smoothly and the subject, a cowboy taking a break is in focus surrounded by a tonal range progression that fits his pensive mood. I did crop the photo, especially the top of the chair on the left to give contournal contrast to the smooth lines. Also the top of the trees were amorphous and distracting.
A few minutes later, I notice a man helping a Western dressed woman unfold a blanket. With my dog pulling enough to un-steady my camera holding, I tried to capture that movement. The man is at the front and left of the woman, his legs showing, but most of his body and face are covered under that blanket. Interestingly, the folds of the blanket give a resemblance of a funny face almost where the head of the man is supposed to be. Here is the ghostly illusion I noticed when I printed the photo:
Here is the full photo, this time with an almost Sonnar like background swirl!
I like the movement in this photo, as the woman and the water fountain in the background give the contrast of immobility.
As with all mechanical cameras, taking a photo makes the photographer one with the tool. Now add to that a massive Akita on his first morning walk not eager to stop walking, and a TLR that had to be held in one hand to focus, click the shutter and rewind the film!
But when I look at the photos, I know why I still love the challenge of TLR photography and the joy of having my fourth dog in the past 40 years dragging me in the streets!
October 9, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
When in the 1990s digital photography allowed everyone to “take pics”, the market for mechanical cameras, lenses and other paraphernalia became inundated with classics no one wanted anymore. At some point, one could get watchmaker quality professional cameras from the 1950s and 1960s cheaper than the film needed to shoot them. And online selling gave the chance for all those Soviet cameras and lenses, many in inoperable condition, to be available to those of us for whom photography was all about using light and shadows as we wanted it, rather away from Artificial Intelligence and software caprices.
So I bought many cameras that I could not afford before ranging from a few Leica IIIF, Rolleiflex TLRs, a Hasselblatt, A couple of Mamiya 645s, lovely Nikon Fs, Minolta Autocords, Canon rangefinder cameras and of course Soviet cameras from the 1950s and 1960s. The latter came with bagfuls of lenses the sellers enticed camera buyers with “Contax copy” and “Leica copy” aluminum bodied gems. And that gave my curiosity a new opportunity, which was learning how to make one good lens out of parts from 3 or 4 others!
Then came a new temptation – could these practically free lenses, with amazing glass and all metal bodies be fitted on cameras for which their original lenses cost more than all the equipment I had in my darkroom?
And I was not alone. Photographers and engineers from around the world started posting on the Web about their experiences with modifying amazing Soviet lenses from the 1950s and 60s to fit German and Japanese classic cameras. Of course this was before today’s hi-tech adapters that allow approximate fitting of these lenses even if often do not focus at infinity.
I have read most of the postings over the past 20 years. Even after significant effort to make a Soviet lens focus perfectly on a Leica (or a Leica mount Japanese camera like Canon rangefinders) most of the resulting photos are “soft”. In technical terms softness is the result of the lens focusing in front or behind the subject.
Why? First the construct of the lens differs from Soviet to German. Specifically, Soviet rangefinder lenses have a round cam while the Leica lenses have flat cams. That makes a difference in the trajectory of the cam when the lens focusing ring is rotated. Second, the internal construct of the lenses vary using one or more helicoids, making the linkage between the cam movement and the actual focus adjustment vary between the lens and the camera.
The best explanation, for those who are technically inclined, is by Dante Stella here:
https://www.dantestella.com/technical/compat.html
Knowing all this, why did I try to adjust a 1960s Yupiter-9 (Jupiter-9) Soviet 85mm lens to my Leica IIIF? Delusional thinking perhaps, but also because I wanted to see if the incorrect focusing can yield uniqueness in street photography.
First, here is the Yupiter on my Leica. Aesthetically, and with the round auxiliary viewfinder atop the camera, I think it looks like a time machine! If my approximate calculation is correct, there are more than 550 individual parts between the camera and the lens. And the purple, thick Soviet glass looks wonderful…
I did disassemble the lens and adjusted the shims. To my surprise I could see the Leica focusing what seemed perfectly between 2 meters and infinity. I had to test the new arrangement by taking it along to a Classic Corvette car show downtown. My goal was to take photos where there were people at different distances in one frame. Such as folks on the foreground at about 10 meters, then others between 10 and 20 meters, and the last group 25 or more meters or almost an infinity setting on the focusing ring.
After a while three cowboys arrived to check the corvettes. It was a perfect moment when one cowboy was at about 10 meters sandwiched between folks in the foreground and those 25 or more meters behind him. I focused on the cowboy and was eager to develop the negative (I had rolled a short negative strip of about 5 frames just to test the lens.)
When I looked at that frame take shape on paper in the developing tray, I knew how many before me had felt! Yes, it looked like perfect focusing in the viewfinder but that is an illusion. As Dante Stella said, the Leica now was focusing perfectly on the background not the subject, the cowboy, I had focused on.
The printed “experiment photo” is atop this page.
Yet, in the past I have had excellent results with a 1950s Industar on this Leica and a 135mmYupiter-11 on a 1954 Canon L with good results perhaps because it is a much simpler design lens than the 85mm Yupiter-9. Here is the 1950 Industar lens which I also sometimes use on my enlarger which has a Leica mount.
The only time this has worked was in using 50mm Industar lenses from 1950 (uncoated) and one from 1964 (coated). I have even displayed such shots at photo exhibits surprising photographers who use Leica lenses. Here is that lens:
And, to my delight, sometimes these lenses produce unpredictable but lovely effects. Here is one with a 1970s Industar. I focused on the dog lens wide opened (f3.5) and got this dreamy background blur.
In conclusion, I would not advocate pursuing such Frankensteining attempts between a Leica rangefinder camera and a Soviet rangefinder lens if my goal was to take predictable photos. But, for those moments when I feel like playing with the unknown and ready for surprises, it is perhaps an experience every photographer should indulge by losing all control over focusing or telling the story I had in mind.
Now, there will be a new story to tell.
September 27, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
“You still use film?”
I had found a shady spot under a cottonwood tree to change film in my 1970s Yashica 124 TLR camera. An older gentleman stopped to see the challenge loading film presents.
“I used to have one of these years ago. Fun to use but you have only 12 shots. And the lens used to flare like a desert thunderstorm at midnight!”
When I was done loading the film, I explained that digital “picture taking” has never been attractive to me as I like taking “photos” and working in a darkroom.
“But you can do so much more with digital” he said, “and you do not need to inhale the Stop Bath fumes!”
So, I gave him my card and said that I will try to write something up on my blog if he is interested, but that I had to catch up with the people in the street for a few more shots.
He took my card and promised to read. So, here is why I like film photography.
First of all, I enjoy using mechanical tools, and in the case of cameras be that a 1940s Leica or a 1950s Kiev, I still get excited when tiny wheels, springs and levers move in concert at the pressing of a finger or winding for the next shot. In some ways the photo-taking is more of an adventure than the resulting photo.
Projecting the developed negative under the enlarger makes one find out how the old camera worked, if the lens was closed or opened appropriately to invite the wanted light, and if the shutter speed was chosen correctly. I do not use light meters and rely on my experience with the Sunny 16 rules.
Then, the surprises I have seen almost 60 years ago in the developing pan when a plain paper slowly becomes that moment I froze still amazes me.
Finally, using my hands and home-made shading gadgets, when I dodge or burn for a few seconds under the enlarger light, the moment I froze on film takes a new character. It becomes what I wanted to see when I framed that negative.
So, playing with software on a computer just does not do it for me.
Now, there are some visual characteristics that film captures which are quite unique. It is usually called tonality or tonal range. This is the range of tones (or range of gray shades) between the very dark and the very light elements of a photo. The tonal range can be wide (very dark to very light) or narrow (a transition between shades of gray). Further, the tonal range transition can be abrupt (few shades of gray between the darkest and lightest elements) or smooth (a wide spectrum of grays).
I know there are many ways software driven editing can play with the tonal range. But as a purist and one who only uses B&W film, the challenge of creating a tonal range under the enlarger using dodging and burning remains the true artistic touch during darkroom work.
To illustrate, I chose three photos I took with 35mm and 120mm film.
A. Whistler Mountain, Canada. I took it in late morning light with a
35mm Nikon F. Then, given the wide range of tones (snow, light reflections on
the lake and the shade of trees surrounding it) wanted to create a midnight
scene. How could I not with two young women in the middle of the scenery?
Spot dodging and burning took a while, but the final photograph was what I had in mind when I tripped the shutter of that 1969 camera.
A. Big Ben and a pigeons, London. On that day I had a 1953 Kiev A 35mm rangefinder camera with me. The evening sun was soft and bright, and pigeons were flying over us. I waited till one flew over the head of a young boy hopping to catch the sun through the bird’s feathers.
Again, there was enough to experiment with the tonal range.
Interestingly the 1950s Jupiter 8 lens had enough sharpness to capture much detail on a flying bird. Here is the cropped portion – the bird was looking at us…
C. Ferrara, Italy. Given the perspective, it is clear that I was using a TLR camera hanging from my neck. It was my 1970s Minolta Autocord medium format camera which makes street photography “easier” as people do not see me placing a camera in front of my face.
I have done little editing on this photo. It already had the dark lines and the blurred (bokeh) lighter background. The composition of this photo captured natural the tonal range.
So, would digital picture-taking produce photos with these classic tonal ranges? Perhaps. But for sure it would not be as much fun (at least for me) as using a 1960s Hansa Pro enlarger, Ilford Multi Grade IV paper, and Kodak chemicals in my darkroom!
September 10, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
A Renaissance-man friend, who harmoniously navigates
between medicine and the arts, sent a picture of a water colour nude painting
his elementary school art teacher had given him as a present. He commented “I love
the richness and warmth of washes of colors”.
Although I started with water colour, most of my
painting is in oil and acrylic. The attraction of water colour remains that of
the unpredictable for me. The way colours could run, mix, and escape what the
painter intended to achieve. When using oil, especially acrylic paint, the
artist remains in full control.
But what makes a water colour work most attractive
to me is the harmony that the unpredictables achieve.
So, this morning I was thinking about the science
and poetry of harmony.
Of course, as a photographer, I cannot think about
harmony without recalling Newton’s seminal work Optiks where in the 1660s,
he carried out experiments of sun rays’ reflections and refractions through
prisms. This is how we know about rainbows as he identified the ROYGBIV colours
(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). He stated:
“…if
the Sun’s Light consisted of but one sort of Rays, there would be but one
Colour in the whole World”
But a rainbow, or harmony in colours, is never
exclusively a scientific observation. Indeed, Goethe, as a philosopher, suggested
that observed colour was not simply a scientific measurement, but a subjective
experience perceived differently by each viewer. He stated:
“Colour
are light’s suffering and joy”
Interestingly, the discussion of colour preceded
both Newton and Goethe, as Aristotle tackled the theory of colour by bringing
in religious interpretation. He proposed that colour came from heaven and that
all colour came from darkness and lightness or black and white. In some way,
Aristotle addresses colour as if a reflection and refraction of the human
condition, or perhaps vice versa.
(A good discussion of the above history can be found
on this Smithsonian library page “The
Science of Colour” https://library.si.edu/exhibition/color-in-a-new-light/science)
So, with the
scientific, philosophical and religious background to the theory of colour and
the concept of harmony, my mind migrated to the Hebrew and King James Bibles. I
grew up with the imagery attributed to Isaiah 11:6 where the image of peace,
calm and harmony is the lion lying down with the lamb.
Well, a little research let me to realize that
neither the Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh) nor the King James Bible mention the lion
lying down with the lamb. Indeed The Hebrew Bible says:
And
the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young
goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together
And the same lines in Isaiah 11:6 in the King James
Bible (1611) read
The
wolfe also shall dwell with the lambe, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid and the calfe and the yong lion, and the fatling together
… All this brought me back to black and white
photography! In the past 55 years I have, a street photographer captured
fleeting moments from around the world on miles of film that probably would
cover part of the world at list once. I looked for a couple of shots that may represent
harmony in the context of this discussion.
The photo on top is from Santa Fe, New Mexico I took
with a 1960s Nikon F fitted with a same era Nikkor 105 mm lens. A man was
metaphorically describing harmony through his dog, cat and a white mouse. When
I saw the scene, the mouse was on the back of the cat. By the time I clicked, had moved on the neck of the cat expressing the hope that a dog, a cat and a mouse
can co-exist without fear. In harmony.
Then I thought of a photo I took in a 1880s forsaken
Arizona cemetery. The grounds were unkept, overgrown weeds and cactus covering the
few gravestones half sunk in the ground under the weight of time. There was a
wooden cross, lonesome and without any markings but somehow represented a calm
to my moment.
Unkept grounds and unwept cross.
I had a 1955 Soviet/Ukrainian Zorkii camera, a Leica
clone I have used for decades. The lens is a 1956 Jupiter-8 marked in Cyrillic,
ЮПИТЕР-8, a postwar Soviet copy of the prewar Zeiss Sonnar 50mm
f/2 for the Contax.
Here is the camera and lens:
I like this lens for portraiture as wide open it
gives the characteristic Sonnar swirls to the background of the subject in
focus.
This time, my subject was the lonesome cross with no
markings. And the 65 year old lens gave swirls and light flare that I was not
anticipating, as if the running colours in water colour painting.
And the circle was completed.
July 28, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
It has been very hot in the Southwest but nothing could stop the gathering of thousands on the city Square. I wanted to capture a few moments of this post -2020 pandemic year 4th of July celebration, but given the heat decided to take my dog for an early walk before the large crowds gather.
This year, my goal was to take photos of the environment representing the celebration, rather than pursue street photography of those present.
So, I took my 1970 Nikon F with same year's 135mm Nikkor-Q Auto lens for a cumulative age of 100 years in equipment between camera and lens!
First, as we were walking downtown, a wild cottontail rabbit ran by reminding me that we were indeed in the desert and that it was already 80 F degrees just after sunrise.
Next, to continue with the theme of identity, I wanted my Nikon F to "see" statues around the square in the early light. Here is part of a Sheriff's statue looking at the boots of a fallen colleague. The writing reads:
"Lest We Forget"
By now many of the vendors were opening their tents showcasing sculpture, painting, metal work and food. I found this composition of tonal range and gray shades harmony. A perfect setting for testing my expired B&W 100 film!
We had already walked more than two miles and my dog was ready to walk the last mile and get home where he would eat his ice cubes and lay two feet away from a floor fan.
So, we passed by an antique store that has been on our daily walk path for now more than five years. But the early light was soft to capture both foreground shades and the eclectic nature of this store. By now I had captured cowboys, Vietnam soldiers, a Sheriff's statue, a woman getting her vendor tent ready, and now a Civil War wagon!
Perfect symbolism for the 4th of July.
But symbolism was not yet to end. Behind a metal fence, someone had piled stones perhaps driven by an artistic impulse. But from my angle and the early morning shades, that edifice, in contre-jour, looked either like a cowboy from the back or three hats piled atop of each other.
Now I was ready to see what would come out of my trusty 50 year old Nikon F that has traveled the globe more than once with me and NEVER stopped performing! In fact it is my only camera, out of a few dozen, that has never been repaired or adjusted after running miles and miles of film through.
Here is my most beloved time capsule of mechanical perfection.
July 3, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian,
2021
Some of the feedback I received from my June 16 posting was about the photo of Taiwanese military police raising the national flag The readers appreciated the angle and framing of the photo as all pictures on the Internet seem to show the soldiers equidistant from the flag pole.
So, I went back to my unpublished Taiwan photos and found a few that had special meaning to me. That is, they were taken very early in the morning, during my walks before I started work at 7:30 am.
The first two photos have an additional story associated with them. On that trip, sometimes early in the 1990s, I had taken a Pentax 1000 35mm and a Yashica 124 medium format cameras with me. Given the age of my cameras, I always take a backup.
That morning, I went to the wet market where animals of all feather and skin are sold along with non-meat foodstuff. It was very dark and humid when I got there and the sellers were getting their stands ready. This photo, taken with the Pentax 1000 and ASA 100 film captures that moment.
On my way out I passed by a small temple in front of which dogs had yet to start their day. The motorcycle represents the most popular mode of transport in many Asian cities, and the combination of shade, humidity that could be felt from this photo, and the dog's posture reminds my of many a morning walk I have taken in that lovely city.
Ok, here is the additional story associated with these photos. The next morning, when I was to reload the Pentax with a new roll of film, the winder jammed and I could not release the shutter. I put it back in my suitcase and used the Yashica for the rest of the trip.
Back to Baltimore, I called a few camera repair places. The answer I got was the same "we do not work on antique cameras." Antique! It is from 1979 and has a light meter! Anyhow, I put it on the shelf and forgot about it.
A couple of years ago, I got the nostalgic urge to use it again. This time I check YouTube for repair advice. And there it was -- the most common weak point to the camera and its predecessor the Honeywell Pentax, which I also have and has never jammed for the past 40 or so years. And the repair was simple once you take the base plate off.
Now my Pentax is as delightful to use as in the 1980s when I acquired it.
The following picture is from the same trip but with the Yashica 124. I took it on an early climb of the small mountain behind the Grand Hotel where I was staying. There was something anthropomorphic in the posture of these mops, and abundantly Asian.
All three of this photos represent daily scenes from Taipei. But perhaps I was able to capture them with a personal touch and angle.
June 26, 2021
© Vahé A.
Kazandjian, 2021
It is 104 degree Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) outside and the Southwest is praying for rain. It is a good day to put some order in my studio.
One of my favorite activity is to ope a box written "rejects" on it. These are photos I actually printed under the old enlarger but did not like the result. Often because they do not tell a story or the story has been told in other photos I have taken. I like going back to decades-old photos because during that time the world has changed and even a technically imperfect photo now is a testimony or a testimonial of days irreversible. For a street photographer that is photojournalism at its best.
I chose four photos that now have a new meaning relative to the moment I had taken them. All four are from the 1990s or 2000, but I have not written the exact dates on them.
A. Taipei, Taiwan. I traveled often to Taiwan as an academic and researcher the entire decade of 2000. Before starting my work days, I used to take my camera and walk the streets just after sunrise. This photo is from the main square and the moment is the flag raising daily ceremony.
Since these days much has changed in the geo-politics of the region. I am not sure if the ceremony continues and which flag is now raised. But this washed-out photo is a frame in a time that has surely changed.
B. Porto, Portugal. An evening shot through the window of a charcuterie. I always used ASA 100 film, so the shadows and some of the focus are unappealing. But it was a time when crowded shops hardly had space for people as all the food was either hanging from the ceiling or piled out in the aisles. And no one wore a mask then....
C. Barcelona, Spain. This is an evening in Las Ramblas. The singers were there for the tourists, of course. As I looked at this underexposed photo, I recalled reading an article about this famous three-lane street in 2020. Residents were almost happy that there were no tourists because of the pandemic and they were quoted saying "Las Ramblas are ours again!". A silver lining in all that befalls upon us.
D. Ferrara, Italy. This photo has a haunting character to it. I took it in the court of the Ferrara Cathedral a magnificently Romanesque style cathedral dating from the 12th century. During all my trips to Ferrara I stayed in a pension across from the cathedral and recall the joy of having espresso on the minuscule balcony every morning.
This photo is of a man dressed as a woman and holding a doll en guise of a baby. "She" had a small pan to collect donations impersonating a homeless refugee. Of course everyone was generously donating till this young boy saw the face covering move and exposing a dark and full beard! I clicked just before "she" covered her face and was asked to leave.
Since that day, thousands and thousands refugees crossed the Mediterannean Sea for Italy, Spain and Greece.
.... I have thousands of reject photos and even more unprinted frames on miles of 35mm and medium format film negatives. I hope the heat and the drought in the Southwest break soon so I do not looking through these next.
June 16, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
A. Kazandjian, 2021
A friend who saw my last posting from Jerome, AZ, wondered why the contrast was high in the two photos I posted.(https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2021/05/street-photography-is-back-visit-to.html)
It is always a challenge to print on paper using an enlarger in the darkroom and then scan them to be able to post on the internet. Sometimes digitalization changes the tonal range of film photography.
But that is not a bad thing if the message of the photograph, especially when street photography is looking for a story as the main goal (at least mine) of street photography is photojournalism not the technical quality of the photo.
So, I looked for photos I had taken where high contrast does give a certain flavor by enhancing the story. I chose four photos from Vienna, Austria and one from Baltimore, USA.
A. The "surprised wife" look, Vienna. This was a night shot with ASA 100 film and a Minolta Autocord TLR camera. The husband is enjoying the lingerie vitrine as his wife seems to thinking "Really?" Given the light reflections on the glass, the high contrast brings forth the surprised look of the woman as she is the only one in focus.
C. Christmas Market, Vienna. This is a busy picture, so I wanted to make the man in the white coat stand out. Higher contrast brought up some shadows. He seems to wonder how that tree got to be so tall!
D. Bridge over the Danube, Vienna. I like this over exposed photo as I had no time to adjust aperture or speed. I wanted to get the dark silhouette of the man under the bridge. Of course a runner moved in the frame as i clicked and an overdressed woman's slow walk created a great contrast between the three of them. The street art on the side of the bridge makes the Danube calmer than usual.
E. Post wedding gathering, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Maryland. Here the two bare feet women attracted my attention as they seem relaxed after the ceremony. But when I developed the film and printed this frame, I realized that there is a juxtaposition of the two man on the right. Actually one of them looks a bit "devilish" with his posture, shiny shoes and ears that stick out! That juxtaposition would not have stood out without the high contrast I gave to it.
Clearly, what I saw in my viewfinder was not exactly what these photos ended up emphasizing. but street photography is not like taking landscape photos when you have time to adjust all the parameters to capture what you planed. I see a potential for a story, and I click.
What ends up on film is what I discover when I print a frame. It is that discovery that makes film photography and darkroom room even more exciting.
May 20, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
