Just before the Xmas break I wandered the streets of the CBD with a medium format camera–the Rolleiflex 6006 and a wide angle lens. It was a dull and grey Sunday morning and I was looking for urban architectural texture with a slightly grungy feel.
French St, Adelaide CBD
I was searching for urban subject matter that would be suitable for a 5×7 shoot; one that referred back to the pictures of shop fronts in Rundle Street in Adelaide that were taken by the nineteenth century urban photographers. These early pictures (1860s-1870s) were known as carte de visite views due to their small size and they functioned like today’s business cards.
Whilst taking photos of the city from the rootops of car park roofs or through hotel windows I’ve stumbled on high rise flats as well as offices.
The former often convey oppressive urban density with the washing drying on the balcony or glimpses of people moving around in their living room. Once–in the 1960s– tower blocks were the answer to a housing crisis but many people came to hate them. The blocks were poorly designed, had drug dealers and lifts dripping with urine, unsupervised kids, and kids running wild.
High Rise, Adelaide
The postwar modernist concrete cladding tower blocks were seen to be ghettos but they are now making a comeback.They have great views of the city and work for the young. The new towers benefit from the introduction of colour and texture.
I was out photographing the Adelaide skyline between 6 -7am this morning. This is normally the time I am working out at the gym, but I allow myself to take a break from the gym on Wednesdays so that I can do the early morning shoots. In summer this must be done before 7am.
The picture below was taken around 7pm with a handheld digital camera from the top floor of a 24 hour car park on the corner of Rundle and Pultney Streets. I was on a scoping excursion. This time I wanted to I see what the skyline looked like in the early morning light. Would it look as dramatic?
looking west from Pultney/Rundle
I was also checking out to see whether I could use a tripod in the carpark and still be able to get the camera lens through the grill on the side of the building. It was possible to do this with a medium format camera. Would it be possible with a large format camera? Maybe. Next time I go back with the 5×7 Cambo monorail.
Sunday morning is allocated to large format photography. Today it was the urban variety. I waited for the rain to stop, then tried to get a 5×7 of Faraway House, around 8am but it was too late. To get the shot I had to stand in the middle of the road across from a major building site, but there was too much traffic. It could only be handheld work.
The light was all wrong anyway–the sun had shifted much further to the east than I had realized. So I tossed it in, and drove to the tramway overpass location on South Rd for the Adelaide-Glenelg tram. This would be a goer I thought in terms of the light and no traffic:
Tram Overpass, Glandore, Adelaide
This is an ideal location for a 5×7 shoot as everybody avoids the stairs and takes the lift to the platform to wait for the tram–they were all going to Glenelg this morning. As I walked around and found the ideal location the wind started, and it swirled around the platforms on the steps.
I’ve been photo-walking the streets of Adelaide these last couple of days. Ostensibly it was to hunt down and photograph the various pasteups down by Peter Drews for his street art project entitled ‘Adelaide’s Forgotten Outlaws! I wanted to do it before the temperatures reached the high 30’s–which they are today.
Then I realized that I was really using this urban wandering to basically look for new locations for the Adelaide book I’m slowly putting together.
Globe, east end
I was looking for locations from car parks that would give me a skyline perspective for large format photography. I wasn’t very successful in my last exploration as I was looking for car parks with open roofs, but these are few and far between in Adelaide. This time I was happy enough to check out the car parks with open grills to see what kind of perspective they offered.
On Friday morning I raced home after the gym, had a quick shower and breakfast, caught a tram packed with commuters, and went on a photowalk along Hindley St St on Friday morning. I caught a tram packed with commuter.
I wanted to continue finding more locations for a 5×7 shoot, to explore new territory, take some snaps and search for a suitable location to take a photo at 11.11.11.11
Duck and Dog, Hindley St
I tossed the photowalk in after the 11:11 shot of the Hawke Building because the light was too strong, and there was too much glare.
How do you order the chaotic flow of the city? How do you arrange the different elements in the picture plane so that relate to one another in some coherent fashion?
I avoid “street photography”–that is, representing the everyday flow of the city — because I cannot satisfactorily resolve the above problems. I started working by sitting in a tram and taking shots but I found that very limited.
Sturt St, 5.30pm
The next step was to stand in front of a building and wait for someone to walk past. That didn’t work that well for me as I wanted to cram more urban stuff into the picture plane. The city is full of flowing stuff–eg., ever changing and moving events and situations.
I started out using the Leica with a 35mm lens (a Summicron F2-ASPH) as I walked through the dense shopping precinct that is Rundle Mall. It was just as I would have done in my pre-digital days. But I actually ended up using the Sony a lot more. I did so without thinking about it. It was instinctive in a photographic sense.
exclusivity
The film Leica with its expensive lens was basically put away in favour of the pro-sumer digital Sony because the latter was more flexible, I could get more shots with the variable Zeiss lens, and I felt a lot more more comfortable experimenting with digital than film. Film costs money. Towards the end–on the way back through Rundle Mall after having the blood test—I only used the Lecia if I thought that I had a worthwhile image.
So this confirms what I said in my earlier post about using 35mm cameras. The shift to digital at this format is a worthwhile investment. That means the film camera is used in order to get that film look. Or the Leica ‘look’.
My days of late have been taken up with scanning some of the old 35mm + medium format negatives, plus some of the medium format film that I took earlier this year. Scanning sure is a time consuming business. In terms of workflow it is probably better to shoot a couple of rolls of film, have it processed, then scan it; rather than allow the rolls of film to build up to 30 or so.
I’m not persuaded that the combination of 35m film plus a flat bed scanner, such as the Epson V700, is better than its digital equivalent. People do use a dedicated film scanner–eg., a Nikon 5000— for 35mm film to improve the quality of the scan. However, if 35mm is the format of choice, then it would probably be better to invest in a top end, full frame, DSLR and some really good glass.
Angas St , Adelaide
Maybe 35mm film would be the equivalent of a high end DSLR if I used a really top line desktop scanner (such as the Imacon Flextight 949 Film Scanner or the Flextight X1); that is, the ones the pro labs use. However, these are a big dollar investment for just 35mm, and it is hardly worth the investment for that format. Those photographers who don’t have high volume requirements will not be able to justify the cost of these pro scanners. They are designed for Photo Labs, Printing Bureaus and professionals that need to scan hundreds of negatives each week or day.
If 35mm is the format of choice, then clearly, it is more worthwhile to shift to, and work with, the new technology. It would be easy to work within, and around its limitations with good image editing software.
I haven’t taken a photo all this week. The camera has sat on the table. I haven’t even looked at it. I have been busy preparing prints for two exhibition and prints for some portfolio reviews for the Ballarat International Photo Biennale. That means sitting in front of a computer screen for long stretches of time.
Gilbert St, Adelaide
Lucky for me it has been raining heavily most of the week. So I have selected a picture of shopwindow in my neighbourhood snapped on an earlier poodlewalk just before I went down to Victor Harbor. The weather was similar—rain with sunshine.
