Black and White

Dark

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A set of test images shot at night in Italy, to gauge whether or not a digital camera would be a reasonable replacement for film in the Barcelona Dark series. The bottom line is probably not. It is very hard to emulate the “glow” around lights that get with film (caused by back-scattering of light from the film base). Shooting with a diffusion filter gets someway towards the look of film, but the fall-off with distance from the light is never quite right – although it is a nice effect […]

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Black and White

Signs of Life

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A short photo essay on the easing of lock-down and the (quasi) return to normal life, albeit somewhat cautiously. These images were shot on a short and cautious trip to Italy, with some hiking in the mountains both in Italy and neighbouring Switzerland. It is clear that the COVID19 situation is going to persist for some time to come, not least because there is still widespread confusion and/or refusal to take simple preventative measures against infection. Surprisingly, the flights and public transport were perhaps the lowest risk in the trip, […]

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Black and White

Barcelona Dark VI

Nighttime Street Photography in Barcelona on Film
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Continuing the series of night-time street photographs in Barcelona. This time I have tried using a 28mm lens, which has proven very difficult. You might expect that the wider angle would mean needing a lower shutter speed, but in practise if you try to get closer to the subject to compensate for the wider field-of-view there is no real advantage. Add to this the practical limitation that my 28mm is a stop slower than my usual lenses, and it is very hard to catch images successfully. With the typical light […]

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Film

Barcelona Colour

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A set of colour film images, shot on Kodak Gold 200 and processed at home using the Tetenal ColorTek C41 kit. These were intended to clear the pipeline for a future project, checking both the characteristics of the film and developer, and also the scanning and subsequent colour correction.

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Black and White

Barcelona Street – Week 1

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This is the first of five weekly posts featuring street images take in Barcelona. The idea is to try to improve my street photography my methodologically trying different approaches and subjects. Each week will feature images shot using a  specific camera and lens, with the intention of really deciding what style, medium, focal length and way of shooting seems to work best. At the end I will write a summary of what techniques were used and some of the pros-and-cons. For this week, all the images were shot with the […]

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Landscape

Unnatural Spaces

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A set of photographs taken on walks in the Garraf, a “protected area” between Barcelona and Sitges. The zone is disconcertingly industrial for a natural park, even though (somewhat surprisingly) the area is officially part of the Natura 2000 series of protected green spaces.

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Black and White

State of Independence XV

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Βlack and white film images taken at two Catalan independence protests in Barcelona. The use of Article 155 to suspend autonomous rule in the region has effectively blocked the indirect channeling of government finance (via cultural associations) to support events such as these, with the result that banners are being recycled or even hand made. This is in contrast to the piles of professionally produced posters that were routinely handed out at events earlier in the process. In these images, the protesters are mainly campaigning for two issues: to free […]

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Black and White

State of Independence XIII

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An update on the Catalan independence protest with a set of images taken on a March march against the independence movement, led by the Tabarnian movement. Tabarnia is a fictional region, which is seeking independence from Catalunya. It is a satire of the Catalan independence movement which has gained substantial popular support.

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Black and White

State of Independence XII

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Another set of images from the ongoing Catalan independence protest. Following the elections in December, the Catalan parliament was returned with essentially the same political makeup: a small majority of pro-independence representatives elected from slightly less than 50% of the popular vote thanks to Catalunya’s weighted voting system in which a rural vote can carry up to 2.5x the weight of a vote cast in Barcelona. Carles Puigdemont is currently subject to a Spanish arrest warrant resulting from his attempt to lead a unilateral declaration of independence for Catalunya, in […]

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Black and White

Dolce Vita

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A photo essay contrasting mass tourism in Asturias and Cantabria against city life in the same region. This reflects the growing tensions between increasingly wealthy and mobile tourists and and increasingly impoverished local population that sees little benefit from the tourist industry.

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