Printing up my portfolio. This is good practice for getting better with printing on fiber paper, which can be a real pain. Especially with negatives of high contrast, or even worse- negatives with well exposed shadows but with very bright highlights. I just keep printing and working and the pile of prints is growing on my desk. The theme of the contest I will enter is “Nippon” but man I have to think of a title for my work. If you did not know by now, photographic portfoilios need to be titled oh-so-cleverly with just the slightest bit of irony. Think about winogrand’s “Stock Photographs” for a good example. What no more photographic collections need in their titles is the word “TOKYO” because everyone seems to be doing that now. It’s like all you have to do is put “TOKYO” with a noun. Or maybe a verb. Tokyo Nobody, Tokyo Story, Tokyo novel, Tokyo photographs, Tokyo blah blah blah. Of course, this is also similar to the word “America” in the title of photographs about America. But then again maybe the words TOKYO and AMERICA fit the work and so what.
But since I have been printing, I have not been in the mood to be developing film. That is why there are nearly 60 rolls on the counter bar thing above my sink, with a few more added to the rows each day. I have another 30 in the fridge that are practically begging to be processed in a soup of Hc-110 and tap water. I have been shooting black and white fuji presto 400 but also I have been shooting color film… with (no way!) a 50mm lens. That is a challenge. The 50 is not something I ever liked or have been comfortable shooting with. Which is exactly why I want to try and figure it out. While in Nebraska I shot a lot with my Konica Big Mini, which has a 35mm lens. Those photographs looked pretty interesting to me, in terms of how the lens looks- 35mm looks very natural. I think I want to shoot with a 40mm lens on my leica. Cosina just put out that new 1.4 one, and I saw 6 of those used at Map Camera the last time I was there.
Shooting with a different lens or a different format even is something one ought to try if you are serious about your photographic work. A zoom lens won’t solve this issue though, because it makes it too easy. Making things hard yet interesting is the way to go. Longer lenses? Color film? How will this affect my body of work in the long run? Not just in pictures I will make, but also towards a greater personal understanding in my abilities in, and the possibilities of, this medium.
Maybe you read this (or maybe both of you who read this) and are wondering why I write this kind of stuff but do not post any pictures to prove it- Thats because I have not gotten around to scanning those prints. Hopefully you will see some soon.
On a whim coupled with a good deal, I picked up a beater Nikon F2 black paint body last Saturday. It was well aged with dings and scratches and nicks and brass all over the place. In one word, it was beautiful. But the next day when I loaded it with film I found out that the back door would not stay shut– there was something wrong with the latch inside the camera body that was not working right. Luckily the shop where I bought the camera, Camera Box in Shinjuku, had no problem at all with letting me exchange it (and even better for them, paying a little more towards a new camera) and so I left the store with another black Nikon F2 Photomic body, this time with a photomic finder which works. I bought my first F2 in 2001, and that silver camera can be seen above. Wait- techincally that was my second F2. The first one got traded for an FM setup. Does this matter? No, it does not.
The F2 is just about as perfect of a camera as I can imagine. Solid, well balanced, and simple. I prefer the Photomic finder because of the needle type light meter read out. You can take a reading both through the viewfinder and also by checking the meter window located in the top of the prism, which is something that I wish more cameras had. I have had an F, currently own an F3P, and once had an F4. All are great machines but the F2 is the one that feels the best to me. I did not really like the F’s removable back (But after owning a leica it would not bother me now I bet), and the F4 had more capabilties than I needed so it seemed like a waste to keep. If there is one function that I like a camera to have (other than the basic aperture and shutter speed dial adjustment), it would be Auto Exposure. Which I can do with my F3P.
This is also a great camera, and the motor drive makes it feel like you are holding a solid square of metal in your hands, which you are when you hold it.
Time for sleep. Maybe I will write more nerd talk tomorrow. But for now, this was just an excuse to put up three pictures of cameras.
good night.
p.s. For those who ask me concerning a good beginner 35mm SLR body, I always first suggest a New FM3a, or a used FE2, or a used F3. Or an FM. Or an OM1.
ok now I can’t keep my eyes open
The NHK guy came by tonight for his monthly TV ransom, and since I had my darkroom all set up I figured he would see through the narrow frosted glass window that there were no lights and that I must not be home. To block out the light from the porch light, I leave my bathroom door open and it matches up neatly with a fold out closet door to make a light trap.
He first rang at about 8:10 and I just ignored him, concentrating instead on printing. He did not let up in his knocking and his ringing. For a while I just kind of laid there on the floor not blocking the saftelight and hoping that he would leave. It would be quiet for a while and then again he would ring the doorbell. More time passed and I was debating in my mind if it was worth the 30 bucks that I knew he came for just to get him off of my porch so that I could get back to work. Again he rang and I got to the “screw it” point and went back to work while I heard more quiet knocks and muffled “Konbanwas”. I thought they were muffled because he naturally was standing outside of my door, not inside my genkan. So after a bit of silence (at around 8:35) I concluded that if he were to knock one more time, I would come to the door and explain that I was busy printing photographs and so I could not get to the door in the 20 minutes he was out there. By the way, it is freezing out, and there is still a lot of the recent 7 inches of snow over everything. So I opened the main door from my kitchen (it has a glass window in it, which is why I need a light trap made of my bathroom and closet doors) and as I flicked on the entryway lights I found a very suprised NHK man inside my fucking house.
You know what dude, that shit can get you shot to hell where I am from.
I should have locked my doors and all but then this guy still asks me for 5000 yen to cover my NHK bill (I was gone for half the month anyways), and tried to get on my case when I only offered him 3000 yen because that was all I could afford out of my wallet without a 20 min walk in the snow to the nearest ATM.
Luckily he gave me a recipt. With the help of a teacher at school tomorrow, NHK will be contacted and no way is NHK ever going to get my yen again. Yamashita san, tonight was the last time you got to ring my doorbell.
Even if it is just some 50 something old NHK collector, that second after flipping on the lights and finding an unauthorized human being waiting for you in your own house is not something that is at all cool.
Just been busy printing up my portfolio. There is a large (in possible recognition) photo contest coming up via the Guardian Garden gallery in Ginza, and the deadline is in March. Onishi sensei suggested that I enter and the photos accepted will be published in a book.
On payday I headed down to the Shinjuku Yodobashi and picked up 7 packs of 10 sheet baraita 11×14 Ilford paper and this time (right now, as I am waiting for a print to fix) I am taking my time- I did 50 fiber prints last saturday but with the increase in production, so follows the increase of stupid mistakes. So this time I will print them one at a time, and only after looking at the test strip in actual light, not just a safelight. Last saturday I discovered the miracle of pinning two prints back to back on the drying line. They are much easier to flatten this way.
People today asked me at school if I went out and took pictures of the snow. I said yes because that is what they wanted to hear. This is not actually a lie, because I did walk around Yanaka yesterday with my Pentax 67 and no doubt some snow will show up in those photographs.
Also, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be cold all day and at night, mostly in places like Outside, My Apartment, and The School. I live with this little space heater, which follows me into each room of my apartment and keeps parts of me warm. The parts that I keep near it’s little grill.
Finally, GTA3 San Andreas is an Amazing Work of Art.
Amazing.
