Uncategorized

Bédarieux, Hérault, April 2020

black and white photography, Uncategorized

x200402 2 iii for FB
This photograph shows the entrance to my house, seen from an unusual point of view.
I’m finding the 4×5 camera a challenge – I have yet to develop a feel for it – to ‘see’ as it does, and need much practice and experience before I can reliably produce work I’m happy with.
So, to make a virtue of necessity, for the duration of the lock-down I am photographing our house and garden using the 4×5 camera.
It’s nice to be able to spend ages setting up a composition, getting the focus and the ‘movements’ right – all done under a large, vivid red focusing cloth – without curious onlookers breaking my concentration (which large format photography requires much more of than 35mm photography).

Three Parked Cars

black and white photography, landscape, Uncategorized
Bédarieux, Hérault, France, August 2018
Vinas, Hérault, France, July 2018
Bédarieux, Hérault, France, August 2018

I’m not the greatest lover of cars: I passed my test, unenthusiastically, when I was well into my forties and resent now living a life that obliges me to drive.

A photographer interested in the beautiful ‘mess of reality’ has to come to terms with things that maybe don’t interest him, or which may be a bit at odds with his aesthetic sense. Especially so when that ‘uninteresting thing’ is as omnipresent as are cars.

I no longer feel irked when there’s a car parked in front of an interesting old building, or spoiling a beautiful landscape. I dive in and photograph away, relishing the challenge of making something beautiful and meaningful from the notional incoherence the car has introduced into the scene.

Occasionally I capture something that I’m quite pleased with…

 

 

Celles, Hérault

black and white photography, landscape, recent work, Uncategorized
Celles, Hérault, France, March 2018
Celles, Hérault, France, March 2018

“Un seul être vous manque, et tout est dépeuplé.” (One person’s absence and the whole world’s empty)
Alphonse de Lamartine

Celles is a small village not far from where I live.
It sits on the bank of Lac du Salagou – an artificial lake created for tourism. When the barrage that created the lake was built in 1964–68, the intention was to raise the water level in two stages—first to 139m, and then to 150m. The second stage would have submerged the village, and accordingly the village and its vineyards were evacuated and abandoned. The first stage of water level left the water lapping at the foot of the village without encroaching on any structures. But the second stage was never implemented.
The authorities are allowing the village to decay and all buildings except the town hall and the church are in ruins.