Kudos from RP

I was happily surprised to see that the Capitals book was reviewed in this month's Réponses Photo (August). It's featured alongside Koudelka's "Invasion Prague 68" and Alec Soth's third edition of his celebrated "Sleeping by the Mississipi". It's astonishing that alongside these luminaries, RP's Jean-Christophe Béchet gives my little booklet very high marks indeed: 5/5 for quality of printing, 5/5 for layout and 5/5 for value for money! "Personal note" has been scored a 4 out of 5 but I'm not sure what it means. 

JCB is very generous in his assessment: "... a surprising little square book in a nice slipcase ... a lightning trip full of poetry and softness. 27 capitals, 27 pictures, 27 euro! A nice idea ..." I am suprised, though, that he doesn't recognise the signature of a swing-lens camera. Probably it's the quality of the printing and scans that lured him into the false idea that these are XPan pictures. 

Wow, needless to say I am very happy with this review. 

Back in town

Back in town after a long month of traveling through northern Italy, the French Alps and the suave, undulating countryside of the Lot-et-Garonne in France's South-West. Altogether we logged around 4500 km. I had left with 8 cameras in my bag - all 24x36/56 format - and I feared this might be much more confusing than helpful. It wasn't. In fact I enjoyed having the mix of cameras and focal lengths at my disposal. I worked a lot with the Contax RTS III and the Planar 85/1.4. An addictive combo. Then the Hexar RF with the Biogon 25/2.8 and the Noct 50/1.0. The Xpan and the M2 with the Heliar 15/4 saw somewhat less action. I hardly used the little Leica CM. And in between the 5D came out for some candid shots. Altogether I shot some 1000 exposures on film and 200 or so digitally. This should provide me with enough material to compose an interesing photographic travelogue. Let's see what comes out of the lab tomorrow. 

Apart from shooting we visited the summer festival in Lectoure ("Eté Photographique") which I found way too conceptual and overrated. The only real discovery there was Serge Clément, a Quebecois photographer with a keen, Callahan-inspired eye for urban textures. He has a nice book out at Marval. I also wrote a short Amazon review of Arnaud Frich's book on panoramic photography. Finally, we passed a few of the ubiquitous antique markets on one of which I saw a Mamiya C33 TLR. I'd never seen this camera before and with its long bellows and extensive range of interchangeable lenses (55-250mm) it seems like a very interesting tool. They sell quite cheaply these days ...

Now I look forward to the next couple of weeks to put some order in my archive, streamline the final design of the Pakistan portfolio, prepare a new submission for Millennium Images. 

Tällberg

Last posting before I leave on holiday. Last week, I had a good time at the Tällberg Forum. An excellent place to network and pick up new ideas. My head is still spinning with the woosh of energy I got from all the conversations and encounters. 

I took my Rolleiflex and my tent and in both respects I was certainly unique at this 450-person gathering. The Rollei was hugely popular. People couldn't believe it actually worked. And some of the younger participants thought it was really the latest and coolest thing. They were kind of disappointed when I told them the camera was 50 years old. The campsite, on the other hand, was not popular at all. Whilst people were shelling out 200 euro per night in one of the hotels, I had a solitary 8 euro/night stayover on a beautiful spot on the very shores of Lake Siljan. Every day I left early and came down late after the conference. The walk in and out and the late evenings, illuminated by a wonderfully subdued midnight sun, gave good opportunities for shooting. I had even taken a tripod with me.

I don't think this part of Sweden is particularly exciting in terms of landscape. But what is exciting is the quality of light. At these latitudes, the light is soft and hard at the same time (a little bit like Zeiss optics, if you like). Contours are very distinctly etched, objects stand out in tangible three dimensions, even on a gloomy day. But there is a delicate softness pervading this all, showering the land with a sense of delicacy and grace. It's a photographer's dream, really. 

Colour is not really my thing, but I must say that the Planar in combination with the Fuji NPS works very well. They do justice to the delicacy of the boreal light. However, scanning remains difficult as I have little sense what the right colours are. There's more material in the 7 rolls I brought back but this will have to wait until our return from Italy and France, end of July. 

Mail continued

A bright day today. Shot this with the 5D and the Planar 50/1.4. The camera's matrix measurement has no difficulties whatsoever with this lighting situation.

Mail

Back from Sweden and already packing up for the family holidays. Tällberg was a very good experience professionally. Photographically I didn't manage to collect a series of portraits, as I'd hoped to. I shot 8 rolls of colour with the Rollei, mostly views of the Siljan-läke shimmering in the midnight sun. 

Picture above I shot yesterday with the 5D and the Zeiss Planar 50/1.4 wide open. I now have a battery grip for the 5D which improves ergonomics and autonomy. But I won't take the 5D with me on holidays. It'll be film throughout.