Digital will always copy, film will always take.

 

I did a test print the other day for an upcoming show in October. It was 4 feet deep by 12 feet wide. It was the biggest print I have ever done and, quite frankly, spectacular.
The image was shot on my 6/17 Panoramic Film Camera using a 90mm large format lens (modified to fit the camera). I scanned the image at a high resolution to give me the grain of the film and a sharpness resembling a hand print and not some over-sharp, over-saturated load of fruity nonsense. 

I never really left film for digital and never really wanted to. But this event confirmed, despite its quirks and flaws, that film will, for me, always win out over digital. 

Digital's  aim is to make everything perfect, but hey, nothings perfect. that's what makes it interesting.
You can raise your prices, you can make it rare. But that will only make film more special. But lets not get too nostalgic..

Off Roading in the Midwest..

 

 

 "Surprizes round every corner,  but nothing dangerous."

Willy Wonka. 

 

 

There's not a days goes without me asking myself,  how did I get here?

It doesn't matter where I am on the planet, I always feel like a visitor, or an accidental tourist looking in at the world. 

There is a quietness here, not unlike the deserts of the Southwest were people tend not to venture outside in the middle of the day due to the intense heat. Here in the Midwest you won't see a single soul due to the intense cold, unless of course it's the crazy Brit with a camera..

Lazy Landscape..

 

I have been in the landscape photography game for a good while now, quietly working away on projects  most people will never see. The Irony here is that before the evils of the internet took a large felt tipped pen to photography, my work was seen by thousands of people through gallery shows and in particular events like Paris Photo, San Francisco Photo and a few other great art fairs. It was a time when people used to leave their house to visit galleries, a cinema, a restaurant, and a friend. As for  photography today, I get that people like being indoors, but there's a vast amount of lazy landscape out there. Before I go any further, the above image was made in -20c weather after walking a mile and jumping up and down a lot to keep warm.

I am often bemused by landscape vloggers adding Sunset Filters, or similar, to there landscapes. The fact that they actually film a scene and then shamelessly slap an array of filters and mountains of post processing in the same video no longer makes me laugh.

People spend more time now looking at computer screens of landscape than actually being out in the landscape. You only have to look at the recent Landscape Photographer of the Year (2021) to see every image looking like a cartoon (which I will not show here). That's a lot of post production, and a lot of effort. Taking out a distracting dog poo here, or a tree branch there is one thing, but when people start adding the time of day to a photograph, its lights out for Landscape Photography.

The Green Room.

 

There was a time, not long ago, when sneaking into old abandoned places and making photographs was all the rage. Maybe it still is, but I don't see so much of it these days. For me 'broken interiors' were a by- product of sheltering from the midday sun in places like the Salton Sea, or just plain curiosity as to what was on the inside of whatever I was photographing. 

An open door the other day presented me with the above scene. Despite the interesting, and by the looks of it very old furniture, all I wanted to do was tidy the place up a bit and move things around. But unlike all those Urban X'ers with their ultra wide angle and naff retouching skills, I did not..

The daily observations of a Doyle.

 

The Piffle of the Sniffle..

 

 

 I don't like talking about covid and I don't like looking at imagery of covid. Any images that include people wearing masks I immediately dismiss. This is not denial by any means, but more a case of 'too soon'. I am aware of whats going on and don't need to be constantly reminded. I should also add that if one more person tells me we are living in unprecedented times I may slap them with my sweaty mask..

In my opinion, most photographed events are more powerful, and interesting, much later, and I believe this will be the case with such things as covey. What has been most intriguing however, are the images and projects that would not exist had it not been for such world changing events. Some of the finest work  I have ever seen has been shot over the past two years.

I do believe that eventually people will look back on this period with great fondness. Not because of the virus (that would be stupid), but because of all the good things they done during an unprecedented time.... Slaps himself with sweaty mask!