Authorised By

Authorised By

We’re coming up on a federal election in Australia; so it’s safe to say some people are on edge.

But it’s hard to discern left from right out on the streets - unless they’re standing next to a sign in a t-shirt, handing out ‘how to vote’ cards, of course.

Will we continue on the conservative path that’s seen three prime ministers (and two deputy prime ministers) in the past six years? Or return to a more liberal - though that word means something else, here, as the Liberal party are the conservatives - some would say progressive, considerate way of running the country…?

LES PRUNELLES DE L'OMBRE

“Les paupières des fleurs, de larmes toujours pleines, 
Ces visages brumeux qui, le soir, sur les plaines 
Dessinent les vapeurs qui vont se déformant, 
Ces profils dont l'ébauche apparaît dans le marbre, 
Ces yeux mystérieux ouverts sur les troncs d'arbre, 
Les prunelles de l'ombre et du noir firmament 
Qui rayonnent partout et qu'aucun mot ne nomme, 
Sont les regards de Dieu, toujours surveillant l'homme, 
Par le sombre penseur entrevus vaguement.”
V. Hugo

Two Seconds

Two Seconds

As a reportage photographer rapidly developing stories, unpredictable action and consequently fast shutter speeds tend to be my primary domain. But within those .somethings of a second that I ultimately capture I always seek to find a truth - to reveal something, some essence, big or small of the subjects and scenes in front of me that I can give back to the viewer to help them understand not just what was happening but who the people in these photographs really are.

In The Second City of the Empire

010_CLARK_Street-Portraits.jpg
012_CLARK_Street-Portraits.jpg

I’m a street photographer, and for me that equates to candid pictures without asking permission. But for this latest Kage assignment, I wanted to get out on the street and ask if I could take peoples portrait. I went out with a Hasselblad 500c/m with an 80/2.8 and an X-Pro2 with a 50/2. I wanted to capture the men of Glasgow with as much character on their faces as possible.

An old man near the train station was causing a bit of a commotion with a piece of religious artwork. Although he looked impoverished, he had actually commissioned an artist to create this painting and having just collected it (on his wheelchair), he wanted to show it off.

I was given a poem about a female athlete by the man with the silver hair and I was asked on several occasions if I was from the press. People are suspicious about cameras these days. It seams that if you shoot with anything other than a phone, you must be press or up to something dodgy, even with an old Hasselblad.

Around one in three said yes to having their portrait taken. In the end I only used two shots from the Hasselblad due to a problem with the lens. Medium format film or a 1.5 crop sensor, can you tell which two are from the Hasselblad without looking at the metadata?

One day late

Image 209.jpg

By Jonas Rask

I was supposed to get this story done and uploaded yesterday.
But I didn’t make that deadline.
Obviously.

We weren’t supposed to dig into our archives and reuse material that had already been shot.
But I dug into my year old gallery.
Obviously.

So, why was I late? Why did I dig? - Because I was lazy and didn’t get my portraits shot? Not really.
I shot self portraits. I portrayed my good friend Donald, I portrayed fellow photographer Frederik Vohnsen, I portrayed my kids, nieces and nephews. All within the last 14 days.

So I didn’t need to be late, and I didn’t need to dig.

I have this camera. It’s nothing fancy. It’s old.
I love that little (big) thing. It shoots packfilm. Old Fujifilm FP100c or FP3000b. It’s a fantastic feeling to shoot a portrait of someone I know with this camera. To show them the positive, then go home and develop the negative using bleach and a glass-plate. It’s oldschool charm that really makes you commit to your craft, and to your portrait.
But the Fujifilm FP100c and FP3000b are no more. I have collected a lot for storage in my fridge, but they’re way past expiration already. And when they’re done - then no more. Then only digital noise.

So, again I’m late. They’ve all expired, and I have to dig deep into the corners of online stores to find the few remaining packs for me to maintain my storage.

So I’ll continue to be late, and I’ll continue to dig.

The below images have been shot using a Polaroid 600SE camera and a Mamiya Sekor 127mm f/4.7 lens.
Some are shot on FP100c, some on FP3000b. Some are scanned as positives, some have been scanned as negatives.

In spite of ourselves

laROQUE-in-spite-of-ourselves-008.jpg
“Strobe lights and blown speakers
Fireworks and hurricanes
I’m not here
I’m not here”
— Radiohead

I’ve disconnected myself at last. I’ve deleted CNN and MSNBC from Safari’s Frequently Visited URLs. I no longer visit Trump’s Twitter feed, “just to check” the level of insanity. I unplugged the poison drip, cold turkey.

We listen to morning reports of course, the 6 PM news on TV...awareness feeds on information and I refuse illiteracy. But I won’t plunge into the depths: for three years I drowned, my lungs and brain screaming for oxygen while I swam further and further away. No more. The change, in such a short period of time, isn’t even remotely subtle: my thoughts are clearer than they’ve been in ages. I’m writing again, shooting again. Breathing.

We’re alone and we’re a multitude, separate yet identical. We host quantum universes in our blood, aspire to the same improbable ideals, all of us finite and impossible.

I see no plan
but I do guess at beauty, still.
We will always be one, fundamentally indivisible—in spite of ourselves.

Just ... Simple

BY BERT STEPHANI

A friend asked me to show him how to shoot simple, elegant portraits and so he set up a shoot for us with a lovely young German student. In a way this was pure comfort zone stuff for me but it made me become aware that I’m often overthinking portraiture. In the pursuit of killer-images my mind gets away from the person in front of my camera. For this series I kept it super simple: My X-Pro2, the 35mm 1.4 and the 56mm 1.2 and a big window.

My friend’s next question was: what if I don’t have a window? I usually don’t light with a huge soft light source because it just seems too easy. But why would that be a bad thing? I hadn’t used a softlighter-type modifier for ages because it’s impossible to control. But on the other hand, it just pumps out a bunch of pretty light which gave me and my subject room to move.

We then went outside in a non-descript residential area to see if we could find good light and interesting backgrounds there. I think we did.

In many ways this shoot was effortless and if the wheels in my head were spinning it was just because I was trying to explain how my intuition works to my friend. I was pleasantly surprised by how the images came out and how enjoyable the process was. I’ll keep it in mind not always to try so hard but just enjoy the shoot, the light, the company.

Shock, Recognition

Shock, Recognition

What does it take to recognise someone you know?

I wonder sometimes about this - about how little information you could be given about someone, and still know them; from a description, a sound, a gesture they always use, a certain way of doing things.

And it’s what I find I miss about people when they’re gone, too…

Sketches

By Vincent Baldensperger

Terrains de jeux quotidiens, espaces de libertés infinis, j’expérimente en quête de découvertes. Le portrait est avant tout un dialogue, parfois silencieux, totalement, né d’une observation, d’une écoute réciproque, d’une attention particulière, furtive. Ici toutes les frontières sont floues, aucune préparation, aucun artifice, je n’attends rien et suis parfois surpris et heureux d’être là au bon moment, d’avoir saisi un instant la partie immergée de l’iceberg, de laisser la place à un regard, une expression, une attitude, une émotion, qu’elle soit vibrante ou chuchotée. Laisser la lumière respirer…

FOR THE LOVE OF THE STUFF

BY KEVIN MULLINS

I feel somewhat guilty that this project we are embarking on revolves around Consumerism.

It’s because of my post earlier in the year that we came up with this idea, as a collective, to explore consumerism…..but with a twist.

As you will have already gathered, by reading the other posts this month, we have tasked ourseves with shooting with our oldest available digital camera.

In my case, it’s the venerable original X100. A camera I adore, has a great place in my heart and recently I had it signed by Masa-san, the designer of the camera.

Over the last month, I’ve traveled a little. Probably not as much as Jonas, but I’ve been to places as consumer driven as you can get - namely Dubai and Bristol - where all these pictures are yielded from.

As I’m one of the last to go in this series, there isn’t much I can add to the words and thoughts of others with regards to the theme.

However, I’d be contite to exlaim that consumerism is bad. It’s not. It’s life and I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to have stuff that I probably don’t need.

However, when I look around and compare places like Dubai airport and then the less afluent areas of Bristol you can’t help but to consider the huge bend in the equilibirum.

Even though Dubai’s economy is not strong right now, there is no real outward sign of it. In Bristol, the shops are closing and the “Sales” are all year long.

Consumerism is, in part, to blame - I guess. But the economics of life, the beating heart that we all have, is partly to blame too.

I’m on a downsizing mission right now. I’ve sold a lot of gear, cancelled unecessary bills and am desperately trying to get my kids to eat all their food at dinner (not an easy battle!).

The world we inhabit is still beatuful. I’m proud of the human race. All races, creeds and colours. I feel we are starting to work together more as humankind. The cogs are turning, slowly, and the people are understanding more.

Less waste, more sense. 2019 +

All photographs taken with the original FujiFilm FinePix X100