Identity crisis?

Ireland has a lot to offer. Its glorious countryside and splendid coastline have seduced countless photographers. I am thinking off, recently, Jill Freedman, Agnes Pataux and Jean-Pierre Gilson. But rapid economic development has catapulted the country from its agrarian, deeply religious past into the 21st century. The Celtic Tiger continues to boom, pulling in increasing numbers of foreign investment funds and workers.

But when travelling through the country it is obvious that the Tiger suffers too. Rampant consumerism, obesity, urban sprawl, overstretched traffic and public transport infrastructure, astronomical housing prices, environmental stress. It's all on the menu. Did you know that the Irish drive their cars more than Americans do? What certainly leaps to the photographic eye is how new housing developments are transforming the country. 30% of the housing stock dates from later than 1990. The effect of that transformation is visible also in remote parts of the country, such as Dingle peninsula.

The picture above was taken in the area of Ballydavid. It is a perfect example of the soulless architecture and culture that is invading the island. In contrast with the bucolic surroundings, the sterility is chilling ...

Interesting background reading on Ireland's identity crisis is the book "Chaos at the Crossroads" by Frank McDonald and James Nix, Gandon Editions, 2005.

Irish trip

As I've said earlier, the past few months have been exceedingly busy and I was very happy to have a few days with the family during the Easter holidays. We escaped to Ireland. As our plan was to walk as much as possible, I didn't want to schlepp a lot of gear. So I took the newly acquired XPan with me plus the three lenses.

Our destination was Dingle peninsula: the very westernmost point of the European continent. There is nothing else but ocean between that spot and Newfoundland on the other side. Our basis was an excellent B&B very close to Dingle, with a very friendly hostess. The weather was typically Irish: very windy, with a succession of showers and clear spells. Excellent for taking photographs and for walking. We spent three days walking, covering altogether just under 50 km along the Dingle Way.

As I was very tired and just happy to empty my head for a few days, I wasn't too hung up about taking pictures. I just let it happen. The XPan was an excellent travelling fellow, light enough to keep on hand at all times. The 30mm lens almost didn't leave the camera. As said, the viewfinder is such a pleasure to look through. The interesting thing is that one always has the possibility to compare the 30mm and 45mm perspectives and I almost always decided in favour of the wide angle. My fears that the 30mm plus center filter would be too slow for handheld work, proved to be unfounded. I used Fuji Neopan 400 throughout and only had problems at the very first day when a very gloomy start of the day and the desire the maximise dof forced me to push the film to 1200 asa (1.5 stop).

I came home with around 50 negatives. After development I selected 12 for scanning and printing. A very good score! Proof that the XPan fits my eye very well indeed. Proof also of the fact that being relaxed and not too deliberately focused helps at times to get the most of a trip.

The picture above was taken on the first day (XPan, 30mm lens, 1/15s, Fuji Neopan 400 at 1200 asa). We were on the trail very early (unintentionally so as I forgot to synchronise my gsm alarm with Irish time), starting out from Ventry, near Dingle. The path follows the fine beach around Ventry harbour for quite a while. A little over halfway we were not quite sure to follow a little trail inland. We decided to explore the option - which proved to be erroneous - and serendipitously hit upon a very picturesque burial ground, totally overgrown with a whole bunch of eroded tombstones. I just spent 20 minutes taking pictures, but I could have easily spent a few hours more. I was grateful for the opportunity anyhow, as we normally wouldn't have come across it ...

XPan is back in town

I have had quite a few cameras coming in and going out over the last few years. The Hasselblad XPan, however, has been the only one that I truly regretted selling. In fact, the XPan was the very first professional camera I bought. It was instrumental in shaping my panoramic eye, which for me continues to be one of the key perspectives to observe the world photographically. Above is a sample from these early years, taken in the French Jura area, with the 45mm on Fuji Superia 200 emulsion.

That being said, I always felt a bit constrained by the relatively narrow angle offered by the standard 45mm lens. And at that time, I didn't see an opportunity to add the very expensive 30mm wide angle lens to my kit. Furthermore, its relative slowness (f5.6) and the necessity to add a centre filter (1.5x) seemed to make it unsuitable for handheld work. That was probably the key reason to sell the camera.

I came to regret this decision over the years. Not that I lacked options for panoramic photography. But I came to appreciate that the XPan offers a package of features that no other camera has: lightweight despite its solid, metal body, very bright viewfinder, automatic film transport, TTL light metering, dual format and excellent optics.

So when Hasselblad recently announced that it would discontinue its X-line in order to comply with EU "Disposal of Hazardous Waste Regulations", I decided to buy another XPan before it would disappear from the market. I found a second hand XPan I with 45mm and 90mm lenses - a very clean kit - in Holland for 1500 euro and closed the deal as quickly as I could. I am not too bothered by the difference between Mark I and II of this camera. Then I also added a new 30mm lens from Robert White.

I was ravished when I received the 30mm lens kit. The separate viewfinder is sparklingly clear and offers a very natural perspective for someone who is used to working with an Horizon camera (the latter covers 120° whilst the XPan 30mm offers an horizontal angle of 94°).

I am quite happy to be able to rely again on the XPan. It's a gorgeous camera, very well thought out and superbly built. I am sure it will serve me very well many years to come.

Sold!

I have been superbusy over the past month and unable to contribute anything to this blog. However, one of the pleasant surprises over the past few weeks is that I was lucky enough to sell my complete European Capitals portfolio to the ENSPIRO Executive Development Center in Brussels.

ENSPIRO is a Swedish organisation that develops seminars and learning experiences for business people. They have two development centers: one in Stockholm and one in Brussels. The latter one is located in the well-known Hotel Métropole, right in the heart of Brussels, at the Place de Brouckère.

A first exhibition of the European Capitals photos was held right here in Leuven, at the Expo Tweebronnen. Right after that, they moved to the ENSPIRO Center in Brussels. And now they will remain there as a permanent exhibition. Needless to say that I'm very happy and honoured with that! It's a great opportunity to showcase my work to a constantly changing, very international audience. Thank you, ENSPIRO!

With Romania and Bulgaria now gearing up to become new EU Member States in 2007, I need to pick up my Horizon camera again and add two more chapters to my portfolio. At the end of May, I will travel to Sofia and in September I will provisionally close the circle with Bucarest. Then the portfolio will be fully up to date for the next couple of years. It's high time to start thinking of that book again ...

Above an image from Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, taken with the Horizon 202 swing lens panorama camera on Kodak Tri-X 400 (as all the others in this portfolio).