A time of great progression for me, both spiritually and photographically was when I was serving a mission in the Czech Republic, Prague Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had taken with me a standard point-and-shoot film camera that did a decent job. I don't remember the brand but it had an extra wide-angle lens which ended up being very handy and I remember it was on sale at Kmart. (After all, my sister left on a mission to Romania the week before I left so money wasn't exactly plentiful.) While I was serving in Zilina, Slovakia I bought a beautiful Russian Zenit 35mm slr. It weighed about 4 tons and its solid steel construction was basically indestructible so I hauled it around on all of our many adventures. (At' zije Hra Vlaku!) Being a poor servant of the Lord however, I didn't have tons of money for film. Cue a miracle in the form of a case of bargain basement out-of-date Russian b&w 800 iso film! I am hoping I kept a package from this film because I'd like to scan the box and post it--it lasted me about a year and a half of picture taking fun. You'll see that the skill with the fully-manualmatic auto-nothing camera was sadly lacking but the images are fun. They have so much character. Old emulsion, Soviet engineering and a complete lack of care by eastern European film developers left them with no contrast, oddly vignetted, scratched and spotted with dust. In short--I LOVE them. There are several which I consider influential images for myself so I'll be posting quite a few in the next little while.
The first is an old street performer on the amazing Charles Bridge in Prague. He looks haggard and a little bored as he plays the accordion in below-freezing temperatures. Everything from the stone bridge wall behind the musician to the people in the background paying him no attention made me realize how important the context is to me.. Even now I shoot with shorter lenses and smaller apertures because the location and context is so important to me and the style of the images I like to make.
To fit with the theme, here are a couple of other shots of Prague street performers on Charles Bridge from the same roll.
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They look like antique photos, like you'd see in a museum or something. I LOVE the first one.
ReplyDeleteI love these! I visited Prague a few years ago for just a day on my way from one country to another. The bridge at night was my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope that someday I can take John to all the beautiful places I was able to see in my touring days!
Lynne Marie