Opinion With Qualification
I have some friends who write this sort of stuff:
I went to see the Isle of Dogs. It was great.
Two presidential busts of JFK arrived in the mail and he isn’t even an interesting president.
People seem to have opinions. They voice them but they don’t qualify their statements. I do not understand.
Or:
I was at Starbucks this afternoon.
I want to ask, “Why were you at Starbucks? Was it memorable? Who did you have coffee with? “
One of the photographs illustrating this blog was one I meant to take and did. The circumstances that allowed me to shoot it are not likely to occur in this 21stcentury ( I no longer teach). Two of my favourite models were hired by the now defunct Focal Point Photography School on 10thAvenue for one of my classes.
While my students were taking photographs (following my instructions) I noticed the bare feet and the patent leather shoes. My only regret is that I did not give the photograph more of an exposure so I could notice detail on the shoe on the right. The shoe on the left was too close to the edge. With Photoshop I have added more.
The other shot was an accident. All the photographs on that one roll of film I took with a Canon Pellix (I have used it only once). It was given to me by Abraham Rogatnick’s lawyer after Rogatnick died.
One of the maxims of photography is to never use a new camera or one you are unfamiliar with on a job. Luckily I was not on a job. Before the shoots with the two models I went to a tea shop across the street from the school. I was not too sure how to load the camera. I tried several times. Somehow when I snapped a couple of shots (in the tea shop and at my table) so as to advance the film in the just loaded camera there was an unintended double exposure which I really like. It was an accident.
For me the shoes and the bare feet have enough information to intrigue. But there is not enough information to figure it out. Why are those two women there? I find the uncertainty erotic.
I have explained and qualified why I like the two photographs I took with that vintage Canon Pellix.
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
