Stripes
The first of a series of film based street photographs, shot in Barcelona.
Urbanity
Winter is coming, in every sense, and Barcelona feels like a different city. Back to some street photography on Monday…
Simplicity 3
Parc della Ciutadella, Barcelona. Leica M7 with ZM 1,5/50 and Ilford Delta 100.
Simplicity 2
Mural on the side of College of Architects, Barcelona. Minolta X300 with 35-70mm and Ilford HP5+ rated at ISO 3200 and processed in DD-X. This was one of a series of films that were shot to try push-processing HP5 three stops, which gives an interesting effect with grain and contrast.
Simplicity 1
Tree branches, Barcelona. Leica M7 with ZM 1,4/35 and Ilford Delta 100 in DD-X 1+4.
Open House – Arc de Triomf
A short set of photographs taken at and on the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona. This was built in 1888 to support the Exposició Universal de Barcelona (World Fair), and frames the end of a large pedestrian boulevard. The arch is not normally accessible, but this year it was opened to the public as part of the 48H Open House BCN, allowing small groups of people access to the surprisingly roof space. It is quite an interesting structure, mostly made from simple red bricks with minimalist and simple ornamentation. […]
Behind the Zoo – Barcelona Street Art
A short selection of images of street art. These are all located on Passeig de Circumval·lació – the rather literally named road that runs around the back of the zoo here in Barcelona. The quality of some the work is incredible, ranging from the Escher-esq gravity defying images of zoo cages through to a sequence of portraits of a woman and baby breast-feeding.
Barcelona Colour?
Five colour street images, taken in Barcelona and shot on Kodak Portra and Ektar. My favourite is probably the “Refugees Welcome” image, as this represents two of the main issues for the city at present.
Barcelona Still?
Five images of Barcelona, shot on colour film and developed at home with some rather expired chemicals. These were test images, taken out of curiosity to compare the old Minolta X300 with a cheap 35-70mm f4 zoom against the M7 with the Zeiss 50mm. The only conclusion I can see is that image quality wise, it is almost impossible to tell the zoom images from the prime lens. I also attempted to shoot some street photography with the X300, but this was much less successful than with the Leica thanks to […]
Barcelona: Manteros, Tourists and Luxury Yachts
There are few more poignant symbols of the problems in Barcelona than photographs taken around the newly redeveloped harbour area between Port Vell and Barceloneta. Here, tourists newly disembarked from cruise ships or disgorged from the flood of incoming flights to El Prat walk past rows and rows of “manteros” – illegal immigrants selling fake designer sunglasses, handbags, shoes, hats and numerous other dubious goods. In the background is an exclusive private marina where multi-millionaires dock their luxury yachts. The blankets (mantas) are usually linked to ropes attached at each corner, so […]
La Diada Nacional de Catalunya 2016
Another year and another “diada”. This is the national day of Catalunya and the focus of popular support for the Catalan independence movement. Catalunya is currently in a unnerving process of trying to ceed from Spain. A fragile coalition of nationalist parties are in power, with frequent conflicts
Bubbles – Film Photographs with a Modified 50mm Lens
Almost all the cameras we use are chosen for their performance and image quality. But sometimes clean images are not what you see or want when interpreting a subject. For this set of images we have used a modified Centon 50mm lens, mounted on an old Minolta film camera. The Centon was an ultra-budget lens, badged and sold by Jessops in the 1980’s and about as far from a modern Summilux or Otus as you can imagine. It turns out to be very easy to unscrew the mounting for the front element, and re-install it in a […]
Barcelona Green
It is August, hot and everyone is on holiday. A few highly non-artistic and random shots taken on a walk up to the wild green hills hills above Singuerlín in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Unfortunately, a strained leg meant that we did not get as far as we wanted. There is a lot of interesting insect life here – the mantis was very unexpected. At some point it would be interesting to come back specifically to take some insect macro photographs.
Week 22 :: Sant Boi
Six images from Sant Boi de Llobregat, on the outskirts of Barcelona. An interesting town just on the edge of the Garraf, and easily reachable from the centre of Barcelona on the metro from Plaza España. This will be the last of the weekly sets, as it is getting to difficult to juggle the conflicts between temporal and thematic aggregation – so this will switch next week to a mix of single image posts with occasional longer posts on a single theme.
Week 21 :: Angels and Daemons
Five more black and white images, taken in and around the touristic centre of Barcelona. These were all shot with the Ricoh GR II and converted from RAW to black and white in Capture One.
Week 20 :: Frames
Five images characterised by framing, taken at the Monestir de Pedralbes on the outskirts of Barcelona. The monastery is now run as a museum, and makes an excellent alternative place to visit if you are overloaded from Gaudi and the industrial-grade tourism of the centre of the city. Aside from the history of the monastery, there are often music recitals and an excellent collection of religious art (click an image to view full-size):
Transient Eye 