Manifold Exhibition - Private View Night...

Tonight we presented our photographic work to an invited audience. It went well, I particularly liked meeting members of our group in a social situation. In addition to the support we gave each other, we also received support from family, friends and students from other exhibition groups and courses.

The exhibition is on until the 31st May and is well worth a visit.

See www.manifoldexhibition.co.uk for more details.

Manifold...

Our year (second year MMU photography) are putting on exhibitions. The group I am in are exhibiting our work at ZArts on Stretford, the exhibition (titled "Manifold") runs until 31st May. More detail can be found at our website www.manifoldexhibition.co.uk

My exhibited piece is one of the "road shots" taken with my 120 pinhole camera. I have chosen this because of all the images captured of the moor, this one provides the best represents its desolation, in addition to this, this image makes full use of the camera's infinite depth of field. 

My exhibited piece measures about 33 inches square and has been printed onto a chalky type of matt paper giving it a water colour quality. I have mounted it without a frame or mount, using eight slimline bulldog type clips to hold it in position.

 

Dark, Moody and Gothic...

The most recent photo shoot took place on the 7th May. Prior to this I had made a pinhole lens for my Nikon D3000 DSLR. The thing about using a digital SLR with a pinhole is that you get an instant image of what you have just shot, which on one hand is good as you can't see much through the viewfinder, however you are tempted to re-shot it again to get a better shot, by the time you've got a good shot you have forgotten what it is you were trying to do - OK that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get what I mean?!

One thing is for sure, the results I achieved using a 35mm film pinhole were as good or superior to those of the converted DSLR.

I also ran another roll of 120 film through the medium format pinhole, revisiting a number of locations and attempting to improve on images I had previously captured - this did not work out, none of them were better, some were the same but most were not. Lesson Learnt! I did however capture some images taken of a cliff face with some boulders in the foreground. The resultant image was perhaps the most moody and gothic I had achieved, ever:

Also captured was an image of the view from the top of the moor looking down to the fringe of the moor. The barbed wire in the foreground acts as a demarcation between the desolate part of the moor and the more scenic part on the fringes of the moor.

An example of how it is often a waste of time to improve on an image:

This image shows the Pennine Way stretching away to the horizon, straight as a die. This pathway is the only sign of human activity in this part of the moor (with the exception of the roads). I think it also represents a human scar on the landscape. 

A little bit higher...

As well as taking a road shot on the road surface itself, I took another with the 120 pinhole camera mounted on a tripod, you can see much more of the road, even though it is only about three foot higher than the surface shot - which one looks best?

Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate...

Inspired by line from The Smiths song, "This Charming Man". I took a bike up onto the moor (in addition to my 120 pinhole, 35mm pinhole SLR and a lensed 35mm SLR, all loaded with colour film). The bike shots captured by the 120 pinhole came out well, especially those with bike lay flat on the ground. The lensed 35mm images were also good, however I thought that the sharp detail might distract the viewer away from the intended meaning of the images (ie abandonment, isolation, loneliness). A number of the bike images captured by the 35mm pinhole had the bike truncated - this is because I couldn't see much through the viewfinder (given the size of the pinhole).

I also wanted to capture some more road shots, this time looking straight down the long stretches of road lying between Greenfield and Holmfirth. Encouraged by the result obtained by mounting the 120 camera on the road surface, I repeated this shot on a long straight stretch. The result is shown below, I'll leave it up to you to pass judgement.

Big Skies...

I have never used 120 for landscapes before, the aspect ratio of 35mm roughly matches the "classic" landscapes produced by artists over the years. But I must say that I was very pleased with the landscapes I captured on my first outing with the 120 pinhole camera. I was also shooting pinhole on 35mm, however, when you compare the images captured of similar subjects, I appear to be getting huge dramatic skies with 120 (compared with the 35mm images).

I have also experimented with mounting the 120 camera on the ground, rather than a tripod, to maximise the visual effect of the camera's infinite depth of field. The fact that the gravel two inches from the pinhole is as in focus as the clouds 3000 foot away is amazing.

One of the locations I visited on this particular shoot had a lot of badly corroded barbed wire, I thought that this added to the sense of isolation and mounted the 35mm pinhole camera close up to the wire. The effect is dramatic suggesting that you are being trapped from escaping back to civilisation. Again the infinite depth of field adds value to this image.

A homemade medium format pinhole camera...

The 35mm pinhole images were ok, but I was inquisitive to try using 120 film. The problem was that all my 120 cameras had fixed lenses - so I decided to make one out of pinewood. I may publish the plans when I have a bit of spare time, but in the meantime, here a few images that kind of gives you the basic idea!

Rear view showing frame counter

Front view showing pinhole