Today Is Tomorrow's History
How did you spend the Lockdown? I spent it looking up – not in a life affirming, positive way, but quite literally looking up – at the skies above me. Living under the Heathrow flightpath this would normally result in seeing loads of planes, but with air travel severely curtailed there was so much more to see; birds, clouds, helicopters, moons, super moons, and more clouds.
I’m a music lover and an avid people watcher, and with the festival season well and truly upon us (does it actually ever end?) I was reminded that I took some time out last year at the BST Festival in Hyde Park, where we’d gone to watch primarily The Cure, and grabbed some candid shots of the festival goers.
How much detail is too much? Modern digital cameras capture a huge amount of information, and with a seemingly endless search for more Megapixels (Phase One make a 100MP camera back which produces a 300MB image!) I decided to go back to basics; no, not film but binary which is the basis of all digital systems including cameras. What is binary? Well it means there are only two states – on/off, yes/no, black/white, true/false or 0/1 in computing terms. As an example a simple light switch is binary as it is either on or it’s off (dimmers don’t count).
Binary people is an ongoing personal project where I create portraits, mostly in profile, but solely in black and white, and take that term literally; there are no shades of grey, just black or white!
Despite these images being described by only 2 states the people in them are clearly very individual and clearly recognisable as the people (and dogs!) they are.
Okay, I’ve been away; I’m sorry. I’ve spent most of the time out and about exploring the streets. It’s been fun, although my feet haven’t always agreed. I’ve met some great people and photographed most of them. I’ve also been surreptitious; I’ve been doing some street photography and below are some of the results.
Please enjoy and as Arnie said – I’ll be back.
:DK
Three of my black and white street photos were nominated for the Spider Awards, and one managed to get a “Honourable Mention”, which is all quite exciting.
Dusseldorf Photo Opportunity
London Streets-Honourable Mention
Dusseldorf Crossing
As well as shooting portraits of the Cordwainers and stills of a range of shoes for a new catalogue designed by Remember Creative, I was asked by the client to take some shots emphasising the craftsmanship of the workers and the fact that each pair of shoes is hand made to order. We decided to make the images look timeless by shooting in black and white and focussing very much on the hands and tools used by each of the craftsmen. I also used available light to add an element of grittiness to the images.
The client liked them so much that they had some large canvas prints made up to decorate their entrance reception:
The full set of images can be seen here.
Remember Creative did a lovely job of the catalogue, which was delivered in time for a specific trade show, and the client has subsequently said that their new image has put them head and shoulders above the competition and, as a result, they have seen business increase significantly since the trade show.
Had a few days away and kept seeing signs that amused me. Here’s a selection:
I’ve just discovered that this photo was awarded Nominee status at this years Black and White Spider Awards – that’s the first time I’ve had success with the Spider Awards, although I have managed to get 3 other photographs nominated in their sister awards – The Photography Masters Cup.