As with any essay the way to producing the final product
usually comes out of trying to deliver your initial idea.
Just as a reminder the concept behind Lancoast was to
document the Lancashire Coastline. The
final outcome of the project was to produce a series of salt prints made from
the sea water of the Irish Sea. It is
still my intention to do this. However,
the main thing that has changed is the way I capture the photographs.
Salt printing involves contact printing a negative. This meant that negative had to be big. My first thought was to use the Micropress
4”x5” pinhole. Combined with a low ISA
film this would allow really long exposures that would turn the sea silky.
The first attempt at shooting the Lancashire Coast was shot
on the 4”x5” pinhole. The negatives
weren’t quite right but still they were beautiful (I still find film negatives
more captivating than a digital file).
There was also another problem.
The film holder only carries 2 sheets of film. That means unless I with me more than one
carrier or changing bag paraphernalia then I can only take two shots per trip.
Another issue that began niggling in the background was that
I would be contact printing with the original negative. While I didn’t see this as a great issue I
could see myself writing off the originals and having nothing to show for all
the hard work.
The way round this shoot the entire project on a 35mm, scan
the negatives and make large negatives using the equivalent of Over Head
Projector (OHP) film. The advantages of
this was that I could still use pinholes and have that film look to the project
but keep the original negatives. The
other advantage is that I can make contact printable negatives up to the size
of an A3 sheet of paper (over even bigger if I used a large scale printer).
Shooting Blackpool back in August last year would set me
thinking about how I would end up reaching a decision.
Looking back to that and the subsequent post I said that I
had an issue with Blackpool. It was just
too colourful and I was struggling to find an image that would work in
monochrome.
All these little points brought about the final decision on
how the project would progress.
When I came to editing my Remnants essay I found that being
totally monochrome left it too heavy. It
became difficult. So when I put it
together I separated in to sections by a colour image. In total there were four colour images in a
total of around forty. It helped brake
up the intensity of the monochrome images.
My internal editing on the fly machine began to work and a
way forward found its way.
As much as I love film and wanted to do this in film it is
impracticable. The cost and time in
getting each image in 4”x5” format would out way the advantages and look. If I were to use 35mm although it would work
I would still scan the negatives, carry out some Photoshop work (levels,
scratches, dust etc.) and print the large scale negatives.
Digital has become the answer that I didn't really want it to be. Cut out the middle section of developing
film, shooting with different film and/or cameras and I still end up with the
outcome I want.
It is with this in mind that I have decided that this
project would be a digital/traditional essay.
The image capture device will be my DSLR. The long exposure idea has gone and the
shutter speed etc. will be appropriate to the subject. I’ll shoot for both monochrome images that
will make up the salt print section of the essay. The other side of the images will be colour
which will be C-prints. Combined they
will make an accurate and artistic representation of the Lancashire Coastline.
