mandag 24. juli 2017

It's a dilemma, I think...

I mean, should you write a lot of stuff about a few of the things you have seen lately and have no snaps to go with them, or would I be better off waiting until the films are duly developed and everything... which would be around the same time I have forgot about most of the stories to tell, obviously. 
I got no particular clue, of course, so I give you this one for a start. Just since I got absolutely no snaps to go along with the words anyway.

OK, so I put this one in here... just because I can. It's from inside one of the oldest churches still standing in Norway, looking out. I don't know exactly why I put this one in here, since I'm going to talk a bit about Oxford today. At least the story unfolded in Oxford, a few weeks ago. 
This snap was snapped a couple of years ago, or so, using one of the old Leica's and some sort of semi fast film, I think.

I went into this thing called "The Covered Market" or something like that while strolling the streets of Oxford one day not too long ago. Stumbled into a nice barber shop and everything, and since I never found myself sitting in one of them chairs before, I just had to try... for once.
It went all well thank you, and I still got me head in the somewhat right spot I should think, so no reason to worry there's going to be some story made out of it. 
After the barber shop experience I went further into the building (head bleeding, so had to return to the barber shop for some clean-up, but that didn't take (too) long...) and suddenly discovered there was this dude selling photographs from a smallish shop stuck into a corner in there somewhere. 
I peeped inside from the outside and thought I recognized a couple of rather well made lith prints, which of course triggered my curiosity a bit more than a little bit. So inside the doors I went.
And know you what? Real great darkroom prints all over the place, believe it or not. A few portraits that didn't exactly speak out to me, but still quite a few that really did, and maybe a few where a different photographer would have done things in a different way, but that's not the point here at all. Further on there were snaps from here, there and everywhere around England, Wales and Scotland as well. Places I knew, and others I definately didn't know much about.
A few lith prints as well, even though I must say I have seen a couple more interesting ones of that sorts around the interweb lately. A few of them really looked great though, and of course they did... I mean the dude's supposed to be a pro, right? With his own shop and everything!
I did some searching at the usual place and found his shop around here, as you do when you know how to use the available tools.  
Go have a look folks, the link is right here. His prints did look a bit better than his scans, of course, but we all know that's the way things are anyway, don't we?

The printer himself were inside the shop minding his business this morning, and we had a quick chat. I told him I liked his printing a lot, because I really did. I also felt like informing him of the facts that there's not too many shops like that around anymore, just in case he didn't have a clue of what's been going on in the world lately. Turned out that he knew a lot more about just those facts than myself, of course.
I can't do much more than wish him good luck, and throw the link to his shop around the internet for a short while. 

So, this is how we made our small buildings back in the days when teaching stuff inside huge universities had been going on for a couple of hundred years or so over there in Oxford and elsewhere. It's a nice church, by all means, but would not exactly stand out if placed alongside the cathedral of Canterbury or something like that. But then again, it's a bit easier to repair the roof of this one, should it be necessary some day. Old Leica, and old(ish) 21mm wide angle lens.

We also met this great dude from Belgium, of course, but that was on the next day I think... You might hear about him, me and my wife and one of the many guides of Oxford one of the next few days, if I'm feeling up to it. 
Oh, and we met a lot of great dogs. Millions, I think!




2 kommentarer:

  1. It's always nice to stumble by some real printing - not that it happens very much to me these days. Or at all, actually. He's got some very nice work there - obviously he knows what he's doing. And he must sell some too, I guess, or else he wouldn't have the shop. Excellent.

    And...that must have been a close shave you had with the razor. Those Oxford Barbers, eh?! You likely scared a few locals, walking around a learned place like Oxford with blood oozing out rather than big words and theorems and stuff :)

    SvarSlett
    Svar
    1. The shave was close but good, I can tell you thank you very much. There were no pool of blood around me to speak of, but the wife thought it looked a bit awkward and sent me back in for a quick fix anyway. I know what I would do if I went around by myself...

      To find a small studio or shop full of handmade darkroom prints is not an everytday experience for sure! I didn't believe it at first, to tell you the truth, but I went in to check with my own semi-trained eyes you know.
      At least it's nice to see things like that still seem to be possible.

      Slett

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