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BIRMINGHAM NEC 3-6 MARCH 2013Visitor registration: 01489 882 800 | Online registration via website or Focus App Non trade youre welcome! Only 10 on site (8 if pre-paid on-line)Tel: 020 8681 2619 - Fax: 020 8667 1590 - Email: [email protected] Image House, Coombe Avenue, Croydon CR0 5SD UK

www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk

SHARE THE PASSION

Tim Clinch

EDITORS LETTER B+W147 FERUARY 2013

Welcome to

BLACK WHITEPHOTOGRAPHYThe bond between the man and the woman is tangible but understated. Ive had this print on my desk for months; I look at it every morning. I dont know the photographer, but I have been in email correspondence with him and we will be featuring his work later this year including this print which is part of a series. But today something happened. I realised that I had to possess this image, I had to take it home and look at it every day. I will never tire of it and it will, eventually, teach me something about portraiture. Its the picture that I would have liked to have taken. Its difficult to say why, maybe its

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n my desk, as I write this, sits a print. This image is a formal portrait of an elderly couple. They sit side by side and look directly into camera. She is small and tubby, wearing a pale floral dress, black hat and shoes, and in her white-gloved hands she clutches a small black bag. Her arm is linked in his. He sits upright, hands firmly placed on his knees; he wears some kind of uniform and dark-rimmed spectacles. The floor is wooden and the backdrop appears to be a kind of creased brown paper. Light falls from one side.

something about the tenderness between the couple, or the relaxed formality of the setting. Or maybe its because I sense a story behind the image, a narrative of years of life lived courageously but with a sense of fun. Theres a sort of fearlessness about this couple. Falling in love with a picture doesnt happen very often, but when you do, you know it. I have a small collection of images all of which have been love at first sight. Some have been expensive, some not, but I love them equally. So, my next step is to email the photographer and talk finance. Wish me luck. Elizabeth Roberts, Editor [email protected]

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Colin Ford CBEColin Ford was the first senior curator of photography at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 1972-82. He then became the founding head of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (now the National Media Museum), Bradford. After a decade there, he spent five years as director of the 10 national museums and galleries of Wales. He has written more than a dozen books and mounted many exhibitions, including Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century at Londons Royal Academy last year.

Eddie EphraumsEddie Ephraums is a photographer, photobook maker, publisher and mentor. His background is in traditional b&w and he has written a number of bestselling books on landscape photography and darkroom techniques, as well as founding the acclaimed AG magazine. He has produced books for some of the most well known British landscape photographers and he runs photobook and project-related workshops in London and Scotland.

Charlie HopkinsonCharlie Hopkinson was a butcher, paint maker, and artist, before teaching himself photography. Based in London, he spends most of his time taking commissions for portraiture, and shooting landscapes and still lifes for his personal work. He laments the loss of his favourite films: Polaroid pos/neg (Type 55 and 665). His photographic heroes include Jacques Henri Lartigue, Diane Arbus and James Ravilious.

Susan BurnstineSusan Burnstine is an award winning fine art and commercial photographer, originally from Chicago but now based in Los Angeles. She is represented in galleries worldwide, and published in many different countries. Her first monograph, Within Shadows, earned numerous accolades, including the PX3 Prix De La Photographic Paris Gold Award for best Professional Fine Art Book of 2011.

COVER IMAGEThis months cover image is Hilltop Trees, Teshikaga, Hokkaido, Japan, 2003, by Michael Kenna

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Issue 147 February 2013

CONTENTSGET IN TOUCHBlack+White Photography GMC Publications Ltd, 86 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1XN Tel 01273 477374 Email EDITOR Elizabeth Roberts at [email protected] DEPUTY EDITOR Mark Bentley at [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Jemima Greaves at [email protected] www.facebook.com/ blackandwhitephotographymagazine twitter.com/BWPMag

FEATURES

NEWS

COMMENT

8 A FRAGILE MIND

Jonathan Stead discusses his work with Jemima Greaves

4 NEWSROOM

Whats going on in the B&W world

20 AMERICAN CONNECTIONSusan Burnstine on a classic photographer in the making

26 LIVING PICTURES 16 IN THE FRAMEColin Ford on the work of influential Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron

Your guide to the best photography exhibitions

NATIONAL 74 THE MEDIA MUSEUMColin Harding discusses the theme of death in early photography

18 34 THE ALLOTMENTEERSCharlie Hopkinson ventures into the wilderness with a 6x8 cameraNEW SERIES

ONE EXHIBITION NOT TO MISS

Legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams

78 A FORTNIGHT AT F/8Tim Clinch on a life-changing photograph that set him on the road

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MANY WAYS OF SEEING

A 80 BUILDING CLASSIC LIBRARYOur 45th book finds its way on to the bookshelf

Eddie Ephraums new series on discovering your true photographic self

82 60-SECOND EXPOSUREBraving the elements with Alan Henriksen

JONATHAN STEAD

ALAN HENRIKSEN

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TIM CLINCH

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THE ANSEL ADAMS PUBLISHING RIGHTS TRUST

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TECHNIQUE

TESTS AND PRODUCTS66

YOUR BLACK+WHITE

WIN A SUBSCRIPTIONWIN A SUBSCRIPTIONFind the quote and send us the page number and you could win a years free subscription!

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30 TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

How to harness the power of social network sites to promote your photography

22 READERS PICTURES 65 ASSIGNMENTGreat prizes to be won Leave your normal camera behind and take up our challenge of the month

53 DISCOVERING LIGHTROOMTim Clinch shows how to make a slide show the Lightroom way

Send your entries by 8 April to [email protected]

66 CAMERA TEST 68 70

54NEW SERIES

HOME AND AWAY

The full frame Nikon D600 put to the test by Ross Hoddinott

84 SUBSCRIPTION OFFERHave B+W delivered to your door

Discover the

Lee Frosts tips for planning a photography holiday

WINDOW SHOPPING

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CHEMICAL TONING

The newest kit available in the camera shops

Your chance to experiment with traditional printing techniques without using a darkroom

CHECKOUT

The best display calibration tools for your screen

85 NEXT MONTH 87 HOW TO SUBMIT 96 LAST FRAME

What were planning next

photographer you are

We want to see your work

A single image we love

meant to be VIKTOR VRAB

EDDIE EPHRAUMS

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PAUL BENTLEY

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LEE FROST

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Presented by Wofgang Suschitzky, 2001. Scottish National Portrait Gallery

NEWSROOMNews from the b&w worldEdited by Mark [email protected]

High contrastHundreds of photographs from the vaults of the National Geographic Society were sold for nearly $3.8 million at auction. Records were set for several photographers, including Magnums Steve McCurry, whose photograph Afghan Girl sold for $178,900. magnumphotos.com Photographer Rankin has been presented with the very first new Leica S-System camera (numbered 0001). Rankins work was featured in a special Rankin issue of the Leica S magazine. leica.co.uk Tamara Beckwith, co-owner of the Little Black Gallery in London, is one of the new dealers on Channel 4s Four Rooms. The TV show sees members of the public enter the four rooms to sell a prized possession to the dealers. thelittleblackgallery.com A one day course on camera obscuras and pinhole photography is available to teachers. The course, run by Justin Quinnell, covers camera obscuras, pinhole photography, darkroom construction, non-chemical techniques, solargraphy and three month exposure cameras. Its at St Pauls Darkrooms in Bristol on 23 February. Price 125. pinholephotography.org Hailsham Photographic Society will present an audio-visual extravaganza at the Civic Community Hall in Vicarage Lane, Hailsham, on 1-2 March. The show supports Demelza Hospice Care for Children. Tickets 5. Call 01323 845569. hailshamphotographicsociety. co.uk Congratulations to Ian Weston, who is the winner of our cover quote competition for issue 143 (November) and wins a years subscription to the magazine.

Prater Wheel, Vienna by Edith Tudor-Hart

Friends, lovers and spiesPortraits by Man Ray are among the highlights of the Scottish National Portrait Gallerys programme for 2013. The exhibition is the first major museum retrospective of the influential photographers portraits and features more than 100 works from his career in America and Paris. It will include portraits of lovers, friends and contemporaries, ranging from Lee Miller and Kiki de Montparnasse to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Ernest Hemingway. The exhibition runs from 22 June to 8 September before travelling to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Another exhibition, Edith Tudor-Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny, looks at the work of the Viennese-born photographer who left Austria for Britain after being arrested for her political activities in 1933. She worked as an agent for the Soviets in both Austria and Britain, where she was involved in the recruitment of Anthony Blunt, and was pursued by the security services until her death in 1973. This exhibition runs from 2 March to 26 May before transferring to Vienna.nationalgalleries.org

Its time to go wildThe search for the next Wildlife Photographer of the Year has begun. Last years competition saw entries from 48,000 photographers from 98 countries. The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 exhibition is currently on at the Natural History Museum in London until 3 March and will tour worldwide. Organisers are now taking entries for this years competition. The deadline is 22 February. See the website for details.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto

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New app on Klein

A feature-packed new app on William Klein will form the second part of the Great Photographers app series. The app, which is available in English, Italian and French, contains 393 images plus videos, lessons, essays, interviews and a virtual exhibition. Its available for the Apple iPad price 9.90. contrastogreatphotographers.com

Print your InstagramA new service has been created by Metro Imaging to print Instagram pictures. Prints are 5x5in on matt or gloss Fuji Crystal Archive paper at 35p per print. Instagram was launched in October 2010 and now has 30 million daily users.metroimaging.co.uk

New and disposable

Ilford Photo have introduced two black & white disposable cameras. The Ilford XP2 Super Single Use Camera can be processed using C41 colour neg systems, while the Ilford HP5 Plus Single Use Camera is for standard black & white film processing. The cameras each give up to 27 exposures and cost 8.99. In the UK there is the option of a process paid version of the HP5 Plus camera. This comes packaged with a pre-paid envelope. Cameras returned in the envelope will have the film processed at the Ilford Lab and will receive a set of 6x4in black & white prints. Price 14.99.ilfordlab.com

Not forgottenA photograph of Captain Oates by Herbert George Ponting has sold at Bonhams in London for 10,625. Oates was part of Scotts Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole. After reaching the pole on

Capt LEG Oates at the stable door, Winterquarters Hut, August 30th 1911 by Herbert George Ponting. Picture courtesy of Bonhams

18 January 1912 and discovering they had come second to the Norwegian team, the men began their fatal return journey. Oates suffered terribly from frostbite. Aware of his hindrance to the groups

progress, he awoke on 16 March and informed the others he was going outside and might be some time. In an act of selfsacrifice to save his team, he wandered into the snow and was never found.

For the journeyBlack & white pictures of Paris (together with colour images of bad weather) won Craig Easton the Cutty Sark Award for the Travel Photographer of the Year. Craig beat entrants from more than 90 countries to win the competition. He is the first British photographer to take the Travel Photographer of the Year title since 2007. The winning images can be viewed online at tpoty.com and will be on show at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London from 12 July to 18 August. Craig Easton

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Ray Spence

RPS honourCongratulations to Ray Spence, who has been given awarded the Royal Photographic Societys Fenton Medal for his contribution to the photographic industry. Ray has specialised in fine art monochrome printing and alternative printing processes for 30 years. His work has appeared in the pages of B+W Photography and his books include Beyond Monochrome, Digital Photo Artist and Black and White Photography in the Digital Age. His work is held in many private collections in the UK and the USA and the permanent collection of the RPS. The former lecturer from Birmingham City University was presented with his award by the president of the RPS, Roy Robertson, at an awards ceremony at the Royal Society in London.Spider Shell, from the series Natural Forms by Ray Spence

Thriller picturesBlack & white pictures from the archive of the Royal Institute of British Architects will be used in a new installation at the Boiler House in London. The installation takes the form of a thriller, called Passage, which is inspired by several classic films and was shot on location in Cambridge, London, Paris, Vienna, Trieste, Milan and the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. Photographs of Odeon cinemas shot in the late 1930s by John Maltby form part of the experience. The installation was created by Wapping Project director Jules Wright and photographer Thomas Zanon-Larcher and was first staged at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Milan last year. It runs at the Boiler House until 10 March.

Special workshopCokin have produced a new line of photo filters. The Pure Harmonie filte filters are described as the thinnest and lightest in the world, with a t thickness of 3.3mm for the Multi-Coated Anti-UV, 4.5mm for the Circular Polariser and 9.5mm for the Variable Density Neutral Grey. They have been engineered to be compatible with all lens caps and multi-coated to withstand almost any conditions. cokin.co.uk Sean Batten

New thin filters

Seeing Photographically is the title of a special workshop run by Paul Hill and Maria Falconer. Designed to improve skills and knowledge, the workshop is at Zinc Arts, Chipping Ongar, Essex, from April 12 to 14. Price: 365 (for bookings before 1 February) and 395 after that. hillonphotography.co.uk Jonathan Agami

Awards expressPictures entered into the Sony World Photography awards have the chance to be on show on the Heathrow Express travelling between London and Heathrow Airport.

Sean Battens picture is entered into the Open category of the Sony World Photography Awards 2013

Heathrow Express is the official travel partner for the awards and the World Photo London festival in April. The company will exhibit entries on

their on-board entertainment system, on digital screens and across the airport. Professional photographers will compete for the title of LIris dOr/Sony World Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year 2013, plus a $25,000 prize. Amateur photographers will compete for the Open Photographer of the Year title, plus $5,000. All category winners will receive digital imaging equipment from Sony. Winning and finalists work will be shown in an exhibition at Somerset House in London. The winners and a selection of shortlisted photographers will be published in the annual Sony World Photography Awards book. The awards ceremony is on 25 April.

Last wordThis picture by Jonathan Agami won second prize in the Macallan Masters of Photography Last Word competition. The winning picture was a colour image by Martin Faltejsek. themastersofphotography.com B+W

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Dewald Botha, Tokyo

Study for a BA (Hons) PhotographyFind out more about studying with the Open College of the Arts at www.oca-uk.com, call us on 0800 731 2116 or find us on

INTERVIEW

A FRAGILE MINDIf nothing is certain except death and taxes, why is the final stage of life such a universally uncomfortable topic? For Jonathan Stead, his grandmothers dementia revealed a very different and hauntingly beautiful perspective on the inevitable. Jemima Greaves reports on a challenging documentary project

All pictures Jonathan Stead

he human mind is an infinitely fascinating subject, its myriad pathways as specific to the individual as a fingerprint, and the difficulties of communicating its idiosyncrasies numerous. But, despite all these potential pitfalls, I was entranced from my first glimpse of Fragile Mind. For Jonathan Stead it was finding the perfect synthesis of process and subject that enabled him to tell such a difficult story and, in doing so, create something as stunning as it is tender. A lot of processes bring something of themselves to the aesthetic, so its about matching subject to technique to achieve harmony. Ive been playing around with glass plates for a few years now and, for me, there couldnt be a more appropriate process the flawed and fractured plates speak of the way your mind breaks down, how things no longer connect. In spite of the mental and physical decay that they directly

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document, there is a bizarre, almost jarring sense of calm that pervade the images. A serene quality sits in polar opposition to the generally accepted view of dementia as a frightening syndrome and, at times, it left me wondering how accurate Steads depiction could be. But those are my preconceived ideas and a documentary photographer owes it to their subject to record events as they are. She was at peace, often in a state of bliss and its no one elses place, not even mine, to say she wasnt, Stead points out. And, in true reportage style, he seeks to distance himself from an intensely personal situation: If you get too close you start putting your own stamp and emotions on it but its just whats happening and you work with whats in front of you. We naturally put sadness into the situation but we dont know if she was. I had no control of the story. It was her existence and I was just recording it.

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ar from ignoring the unsavoury aspects of life in a care home, Stead readily admits that editing posed some difficult questions. There were times when she looked very undignified and that could also be portrayed as dementia but it isnt how I saw what was going on. It was much more about her calmness. Also absent from the collection are those shots that record her postmortem state. Though it could easily be argued that this was a cowardly shying away from the realities of old age, there were artistic considerations that couldnt and shouldnt be ignored. I didnt see the advantages of including them, so I didnt. Thats a whole different project and to include it here would cause a lot of art for arts sake waffle I dont want people to think Ive done it for shock value. Its enough that Ive taken them for myself and if there was a good enough reason to show them I would, but I dont want that debate. The balancing act involved in honestly conveying her situation has resulted in an intense and immersive series. She is the only subject, the sole focus of our attention, and through the coherence of Steads images we are entrusted with a rare window, albeit through frosted glass, on to the closing act of a life. As I peered into someone elses private existence, an unmistakable presence and character confronted me and it is hard to shake off the10 February 2013 B&W

feeling that Im now connected to her, regardless of the fact that we never met. Surprising as this element of the images was for me, Stead realised that dementia is as individual as personality and others will witness a completely different experience with their relatives because its the personality thats breaking down. By immersing himself in the situation with his grandmother, he was able to capture the gestures that so defined her. If you spent an hour there, she might have had her eyes closed the entire time but the way she yawned, itched her face or held her hands was the same as always. Even though it probably wasnt a mindful action it reminded me that we are the sum of our parts movements that appeared to be nothing suddenly came to mean everything. Inextricably linked to the issue of dementia and personality is the equally intangible and fluid concept of identity. When you strip away signifiers like a persons home or their conversation youre just left with an elemental being, the raw material. Couple this with the regression present in dementia and youre left with a portal into another era, a long-changed or forgotten aspect of the self. In her youth she was a ballroom dancer and to the very end she would tap her foot to music. She could be completely uncommunicative but she always kept rhythm, he says.

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omplicating the matter still further is the element of collective or associative identity. We see ourselves, and are seen by others, through the lens of our accumulated objects, partners and homes but, as Stead points out, When your partner dies or you move to a care home your whole life is packed in a suitcase. My grandmother was a hoarder and when those pieces of herself were removed, 70% of her identity was altered. The connection between the person and her possessions was so strong that Stead initially began the project using the discarded objects as a metaphor for dementia. But the more I visited her the clearer it became that she was the subject, he says. It wasnt the things that told her story but the intensity of what she was going through. Given this, it is perhaps no coincidence that Stead is an12 February 2013 B&W

almost exclusively analogue photographer, preferring to deal with the tangible negative than the ephemeral pixel. Just as his grandmothers belongings had no meaning other than the intrinsic importance she placed on them, he attaches more value to handmade goods and one of kinds than machine produced items that can be replicated en masse. Stead is happy to acknowledge that his experience of dementia will be vastly different from many others, again reflecting the personal and unique nature of our existence and endings. Yet, for all our acceptance of surreptitious street photography and horrific images chronicling conflict that confront us every day in the media, the very idea of photographing an individual who is past the point of being able to give meaningful consent could be regarded as questionable.

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There is a fine line between raising consciousness, sparking

intelligent debate and exploiting the vulnerable. To walk this moral tightrope successfully it is vital that the body of work has purpose. For me, Fragile Mind pushes uncomfortable questions that need to be addressed. Stead feels strongly about the matter: Like it or not, we are all affected by these sorts of things but we dont talk about it and I dont understand why we are sweeping it under the carpet. Why are we backing away from the issue? An aging population goes unavoidably hand in hand with an increase in dementia and this raises a whole raft of scientific and ethical considerations, none of which Stead shies away from. You get the feeling that without medication she wouldnt have been alive when I was taking the pictures and thats something that worries me, he explains. The ability of medication to push you past the point when you should die. We dont put our pets through this so why are we so obsessed with prolonging life when death is a natural part of being? When someone has14 February 2013 B&W

little of themselves left it is an existence not a life. Perhaps the most evocative aspect of the project is its completeness; the accord between process and subject matter flowing seamlessly in to the way the series has been exhibited. The 5x4 glass plates are precariously perched on each edge of a plinth, able to fall and shatter at any time, just as the human body no matter now resilient and adaptable we see ourselves as is liable to break without notice. Their small size encourages viewing each image individually, preventing a quick glossing over of those we find troubling and allowing us to slowly build a picture of the person and syndrome before us. In presenting us with such an unflinching representation of the one thing we can all count on, our eventual death, Stead has universalised a truly personal experience. To find out about analogue workshops run by Jonathan visit jonathanstead.com, call 07783 438779 or email [email protected]

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IN THE FRAMEEdited by Jemima GreavesIf you would like an exhibition to be included in our listings, please email at least 10 weeks in advance; Elizabeth Roberts at [email protected] for UK exhibitions or Jemima Greaves at [email protected] for international listings.

Tyler Udal A debut exhibition of an emerging talent who has already made an impact in American photography 13A Park Walk, London SW10; 020 7349 9332; thelittleblackgallery.com

12 February to 29 March Michael Eastman: Havana A magical body of work that exposes the colourful and crumbling interiors and exteriors of Cubas capital 3 Jubilee Place, London SW3; 020 7352 3649; michaelhoppengallery.com

LOMOGRAPHY GALLERY STORE EAST LONDONTo 31 January Lets Play Sardines Collaborative exhibition with the cream of the UKs leading designers, artists, creators and graphic-heads using La Sardina DIY cameras 117 Commercial Street, London E1; 020 7426 0999; lomography.com

MUSEUM OF LONDONTo 17 February Women in Focus: Colour Photographs by Dorothy Bohm Thirty three photographs capturing the myriad roles of women in society 25 January to 16 June Highways: Photographs by John Davies British landscape photographer captures Londons thoroughfares before congestion charges 150 London Wall, London EC2Y; 020 7001 9844; museumoflondon.org.uk

Neil Libbert: Photojournalist Great work by this dedicated photographer 7 February to 27 May Man Ray Portraits Work by this versatile and experimental artist in an exhibition that brings together portraits of cultural figures and friends from Lee Miller to Pablo Picasso. St Martins Place, London WC2H; 020 7306 0055; npg.org.uk

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUMTo 28 April Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea Over 100 original prints, many never before seen in the UK Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10; 020 8858 4422; rmg.co.uk

INDEX TO EXHIBITION PAGES18-19 Exhibition of the month 20-21 American Connection

LOMOGRAPHY GALLERY STORE SOHO1 to 28 February Lets Play Sardines Collaborative exhibition with the cream of the UKs leading designers, artists, creators and graphic-heads using La Sardina DIY cameras 3 Newburgh Street, London W1F; 020 7434 1466; lomography.com

PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERYTo 27 January Julie Cockburn: Conversations Uniquely crafted images that evoke questions around identity and origins To 7 April Geraldo de Barros: What Remains The first UK exhibition of the influential Brazilian artist To 7 April Laura Letinsky: Ill Form and Void Full A new series in which the images play with our perception of illusion and reality To 7 April Perspectives on Collage

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMTo 3 March Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winning images from the competition Cromwell Road, London SW7; 020 7942 5000; nhm.ac.uk

LONDONBRANCOLINI GRIMALDITo 26 January Domingo Milella Milellas first UK solo show, showcasing an on-going exploration of landscape, history and community 1 February to 16 March Heidi Specker: Termini The first London exhibition by this acclaimed German artist 43-44 Albermarle Street, London W1S; 020 7493 5721; brancolinigrimaldi.com

MICHAEL HOPPEN CONTEMPORARYTo 30 January Finders Keepers: A Story of Collecting One hundred and thirty photographs from Hoppens personal collection comprise the gallerys largest ever exhibition

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERYTo 17 February Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize The prestigious annual event To 21 April

CHRIS BEETLES FINE PHOTOGRAPHSTo 9 February Steve McCurry: India Showcasing the best of McCurrys Indian photographs from his 35 year career as a photographer 3-5 Swallow Street, London W1B; 020 7434 4319; chrisbeetlesfinephotographs.com

HOSPITAL CLUB GALLERY25 to 27 January Now Is All There Is: Bodies in Motion Black & white images of Royal Ballet dancers taken by Rick Guest, celebrating the physicality and expression of their bodies 24 Endell Street, London WC2H; 020 7170 9100; thehospitalclub.com

Stian Andersen

A-HA: Photographs by Stian Andersen28 February to 17 March

A series of stunning black & white images of Norwegian superband A-Ha from his first photograph taken of the band in 1994 to the very last concert in 2010.

STRAND GALLERY32 John Adam Street, London WC2N; 020 7839 4942; thestrandgallery.co.uk

LITTLE BLACK GALLERY11 February to 16 March

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International exhibitions are now available on the app version of Black+White Photography. If you would like an international exhibition included email Jemima Greaves at [email protected]. Arthur B Rickery

Eight individual approaches to the subject of collage 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F; 020 7087 9300; thephotographersgallery.org.uk

PROUD CHELSEATo 17 February Debbie Harry: Queen of Punk A collection of portraits from 1977 to 1988 taken by acclaimed photographer and personal friend Brian Aris 161 Kings Road, London SW3; 020 7349 0822; proud.co.uk

PURDY HICKS25 January to 21 February Tessa Traeger: Chemistry of Light New work by the internationally renowned photographer 65 Hopton Street, London SE1; 020 7401 9229; purdyhicks.com

SOMERSET HOUSETo 27 January Tim Walker: Story Teller Fantastical images from the fashion photographer To 27 January Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour Featuring 10 Cartier-Bresson photographs never before exhibited in the UK alongside over 75 works by 14 international contemporary photographers Strand, London WC2R; 020 7845 4600; somersethouse.org.uk

The Rickerby Show: Mid-century American PhotojournalismTo 16 Februaryand Peter Webb Perrins Court, Hampstead, London NW3; 020 7794 1281; zebraonegallery.com

Smoking Woman, from Boston Strangler series, 1964

Vintage prints by renowned American photographer Arthur B Rickerby, himself a native New Yorker

DANIEL BLAU51 Hoxton Square, London N1; 020 7831 7998; danielblau.com

SPRUTH MAGERS LONDONTo 26 January The Vivisector Two bodies of work by Cindy Sherman, curated by Todd Levin 7A Grafton Street, London W1S; 020 7408 1613; spruethmagers.com

A series of 18 monochrome images based on six trees from the Lincolnshire Wolds 28 Plough Hill, Caistor, Lincolnshire; 01472 851 605; 28ploughhill.co.uk

Suffolk; 01508 480477; beyondtheimage.co.uk

MIDLANDSLIGHT HOUSE GALLERYTo 25 January Alina Kisina: City of Home Ongoing body of work questioning changing personal and cultural values in Ukraine The Chubb Buildings, Fryer St, Wolverhampton; 01902 716055; light-house.co.uk

IPSWICH AND DISTRICT PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY26 February to 9 March Annual Exhibition Council Chamber, Town Hall Galleries, Cornhill, Ipswich, Suffolk

LOMOGRAPHY GALLERY STORE MANCHESTER1 to 31 March Lets Play Sardines Collaborative exhibition with the cream of the UKs leading designers, artists, creators and graphic-heads using La Sardina DIY cameras 20 Oldham Street, Manchester; 0161 228 2360; lomography.com

V&ATo 3 March Halfway to Paradise: The Birth of British Rock More than 60 images of leading musicians from the 50s and 60s, exploring photographer Harry Hammonds documentation of rock n roll in post-war Britain To 7 April Light From the Middle East: New Photography First major museum exhibition of contemporary photography from and about the Middle East, featuring over 90 works from artists in the region Cromwell Road, London SW7; 020 7942 2000; vam.ac.uk

SCOTLANDSCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERYTo 3 February Jitka Hanzlov Major retrospective of this Czech-born photographers work To 7 April Lucknow to Lahore: Fred Bremners Vision of India Rarely seen photographs 2 March to 26 May Edith Tudor-Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny Remarkable black & white imagery that is politically charged 22 June to 8 September Man Ray Portraits The first major retrospective of the highly influential artists portraits 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh; 01316 246200; nationalgalleries.org

WHITE CLOTH GALLERY LEICESTER COLLEGETo 6 January Artists Rooms: August Sander One hundred and seventy five photographs from influential German photographer August Sander and a wide range of archival material Aylestone Road, Leicester; 01162 242240; leicestercollege.ac.uk To 6 February Intimacy Revealing and intimate exchanges between fashion photographer Rokas Darulis and his subjects 26 Aire Street, Leeds; 01132 181923; whiteclothgallery.com

EASTBEYOND THE IMAGETo 27 January Caught in Time Group show based around the exhibitions title 13 Red House Yard, Thornham Magna,

ZEBRA ONE ART GALLERYTo 26 January Brown Sugar on Main Street Rare and unseen photographs of the Rolling Stones by Dominique Tarle

NORTHCAISTOR ARTS & HERITAGE CENTRE5-28 January Six Trees by Geoff Powell

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ONE EXHIBITION NOT TO MISSAll pictures The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

ANSEL ADAMS: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEAA new exhibition offers a rare chance to see more than 100 pictures by legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Mark Bentley reportss curator Phillip Prodger put together this big new show of the work of Ansel Adams, he noticed that water was a recurring theme in Adams work. It appeared in the form of rivers, rapids, pools, streams and lakes. By the time I got deep into the exhibition, said Phillip, I realised that clouds and ice and snow

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were also part of the thing. It was photographys capacity to freeze a moment in time that attracted Adams to water. Water is the ultimate challenge for a photographer, said Phillip. A camera is quite different from a painting or drawing. It has the ability to render

with very precise detail exactly what is before the lens in a way that a painter never could. A painter could approximate a scene of spray but a painter would never be able to render with such authenticity every lick of foam and every drop of spray. Ansel Adams was born in 1902

and as a young man trained to be a musician. At one time he hoped to be a concert pianist but instead he turned to photography and became possibly the most influential landscape photographer of the 20th century. His pictures captured the majesty of the American landscape in breathtaking beauty. In 1980 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Americas highest civil honour. He died in 1984. This superb exhibition, which first appeared at the Peabody Essex Museum in America, has now transferred to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, where it continues until 28 April. It includes tiny prints, huge murals and many pictures never before seen in the UK. Some of Adams most famous pictures are on show, including Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite and Stream, Sea, Clouds, Rodeo Lagoon, Marin County, California. Among the previously unseen pictures is the first photograph Adams ever made, taken at the Panama Pacific Exhibition of the 1915 WorldsTOP The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942. Photograph by Ansel Adams. LEFT Untitled, about 1960. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

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Fair, when Adams was about 13. It provides a wonderful glimpse into the early work of the future giant of photography.

The exhibition demonstrates the wide range of Adams work and his drive to keep experimenting. It also includes one of his most personal

pictures, Golden Gate before the Bridge, which was taken before the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built. Ansel Adams

loved the Golden Gate Bridge, but this was special because this was the picture of the world that Ansel knew as a young boy, said Phillip. This particular one hung over his desk. It would be the first one he saw every day as he sat down to write letters. Of all the pictures he ever made, this one we can say is probably his favourite.TOP Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, about 1937. Photograph by Ansel Adams. Image Courtesy of David H. Arrington. LEFT The Golden Gate before the Bridge, San Francisco, about 1932. Photograph by Ansel Adams. Image Courtesy of David H. Arrington.

ANSEL ADAMS: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEAruns at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, until 28 April. 020 8858 4422 rmg.co.uk

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AMERICAN CONNECTION

susanburnstine.com

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Susan Burnstine talks to Mark Steinmetz, who captures the mood of being young in the summertimeark Steinmetzs monograph Summertime (Nazraeli Press, 2011) is a collection of entrancing portraits of children and teens photographed between 1984 and 1991. His subjects were among the last of a generation, given that they were able to wander their neighbourhoods freely without supervision, which, sadly, is no longer the norm. As one turns the pages of Summertime, fragments from endless summers echo within each portrait, all of which are born from a complex web of memories rooted in isolation and detachment. The book opens with a photograph of a young boy lying on the grass, smiling, with a school bus behind him introducing a theme of schools out for summer. In contrast, the final photograph in the book displays a boy in full-body cast, which suggests a mishap occurred over the summer, thus allowing the journey to come full circle. Steinmetz photographed the images in Summertime at various locations he has lived over the years, including New Haven, Connecticut, Boston, Knoxville, Tennessee, rural Illinois and Chicago. He explains, To keep things simple, I try to photograph where I live. I wouldnt live anywhere I knew the environment wouldnt suit my photography. The images were photographed using a variety of handheld cameras, including a Leica, a Fuji 645 and a Fuji 6x9. He explains, Most of my subjects were photographed in the midst of some slight activity so

these cameras helped me to make a kind of portrait where some action was happening. Twenty-one years after initially creating the images, Steinmetz decided to publish the work as a book. He explains, To make a book you have to pause. I would say the 90s was not a very good time for the kind of photography I was doing people were focused on the staged work and colour work. I took those pictures in the 80s but maybe they

were meant for our time now, and hopefully the best of them will have a life in the future. As a child, Steinmetz owned a camera at an early age and was largely self-taught until he attended college at Yale in the mid-80s. Despite the popularity of colour photography during that time, he opted to pursue black & white. He admits that he had a variety of reasons for his preference, but mostly he felt colour materials used

in the 1980s were less permanent than they are now. Plus, he was not attracted to colour photography as it competes with reality and the green of the grass or the blue of the sky or the colour of flesh as they turned out in colour photos seemed off to me. He adds, A ll the really good work that was being done was in black & white. Eggleston was fairly interesting to consider, but finally what Winogrand did was so much better.

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All pictures Mark Steinmetz

USALOS ANGELESDNJ GalleryDylan Vitone: New Work Until 23 Februarydnjgallery.net

EXHIBITIONS

NEW YORK CITYPace/MacGill GalleryNicholas Nixon Until 23 Februarypacemacgill.com

PORTLANDNow based in Athens, Georgia, Steinmetz first achieved notice when he exhibited in the New Photography series at MoMA in 1993 and then earned the esteemed Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994. But it wasnt until 2007-2009 that he gained greater public awareness when his seminal trilogy of books, South Central, South East and Greater Atlanta, garnered unceasing critical acclaim. Over the years, Steinmetz has become renowned for his unique, improvisational approach to his work. He explains, Staged photography, overly planned photography, doesnt have much of an edge for me or hold much surprise it cant do much damage. Im more interested in recording my spontaneous reaction to something. It sounds like a simple enough suggestion to be natural but I feel many people struggle with this. Steinmetz has a rare gift for finding quiet, reflective moments in what may otherwise appear to be harsh seclusion within populated recesses. When considering all of his work, theres a subtle theme mimicked within the symbol of a heart found in various unexpected locations. When I asked him to explain this recurring symbol, he specified that hes more interested in the wisdom of the heart than in the mind. Currently, Steinmetz is focused

Blue Sky GalleryVivian Maier: Out of the Shadows Until 1 Marchblueskygallery.org

SAN DIEGOMuseum of Photographic ArtsJessica Lange: Unseen Until 19 Maymopa.org

WASHINGTON DCNational Academy of SciencesDavid Maisel: Historys Shadow Until 14 Januarynasonline.org

on making new photographs and he has been presenting lectures and workshops across the country. He is also hoping to do a series on the Atlanta airport, but is waiting for the legal permission and necessary support needed to pursue the work. Most recently, Steinmetz completed the first stages for publishing his upcoming book, Paris in my Time. The book will be published by Nazraeli and is due to be released in 2013. During February he will have a solo exhibition at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam and a two-person show with Guido Guidi at MiCamera in Milan. marksteinmetz.net B+W

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READERS PICTURES

This is your chance to see your photographs on the pages of Black+White Photography and win a superb prize of your choice worth 50-100 from The Imaging Warehouse. Turn to page 87 for full details of how to enter

100PAUL BENTLEYPAULS KITCanon EOS 1D MK II & IV Canon DF 28-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses Canon extenders EF 2x & 1.4xAll pictures Paul Bentley

I took these pictures at live jazz performances at club evenings and festivals in the UK. I wanted to capture the varying emotional involvement and absorption of the individuals in their music22 February 2013 B&W

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TAKE PARTFor full details on how to submit your pictures to this or other features turn to page 87

Michael Copsey

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MICHAEL COPSEYMICHAELS KITPentax P30

Under the Pier, Brighton I was really pleased to capture this coastal landscape which I feel encapsulates the essence of Brighton!

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LIVING PICTURESIn the second of his three-part series on Julia Margaret Cameron, founding head of the National Media Museum, Colin Ford, looks at how her work was influenced by the art of the dayJulia Margaret Camerons First Success, taken in January 1864, was a portrait of a young girl, and Cameron continued to take dramatic and searching portraits of men, women and children for the rest of her photographic career. But within weeks of that first attempt she also turned her attention to making pictures which often taking their cue from the painters she most admired illustrated scenes from the Bible and literature. Soon, Cameron had made several versions of a Madonna and Child (like most of her Victorian circle, Cameron was a devout Christian), illustrations of popular books and a photograph after the manner of Michelangelo. She had been familiar with the work of such Renaissance painters since her cultured education as a child

JULIA MARGARET CAMERON FEATURE

in Paris. As an adult, she visited Londons National Gallery (which opened in 1824) and subscribed to the Arundel Society, founded by the eminent critic and writer John Ruskin in 1849 to distribute high quality reproductions of Italian art works. So she had plenty of examples to inspire her when she began making endless Madonnas and May Queens and Foolish and Wise Virgins, and I know not what besides, as Camerons neighbour Emily Tennyson, wife of the Poet Laureate, wrote to Edward Lear in 1865. In the century and a half since Camerons death, most of those who have written about her work have consistently admired her portraits, and disparaged her illustrations. Bernard Shaw, writing 10 years after her death, called them childish trivialities; Helmut Gernsheim, the collector and historian whose 1948 book did most to revive Camerons reputation in the second half of the 20th century, accused them of being affected, ludicrous and amateurish.

National Media Museum / SSPL

Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / SSPL

FRIAR LAURENCE AND JULIET 1865 (Henry Taylor, Mary Hillier) In this scene from Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence gives Juliet the potion which makes her fall so deeply asleep that she seems to be dead. Apart from Laurence, Cameron cast Taylor as Prospero, King David and other Shakespearian and Biblical patriarchs. One thing which particularly suited him for such roles was: ... conspicuous in these photographs ... my beard. In 1859 my hand was so liable to be shaken by asthmatic spasms that the razor was not safe in it, and was laid by. Given the number of Cameron photographs in which Taylor appeared, and their lengthy exposure times, it seems he managed to get those spasms under control!

ELAINE 1874 (May Prinsep) The story of Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat, is told in Tennysons 1870 poem Lancelot and Elaine, based on the 15th century Le Morte dArthur. Elaine is in love with Sir Lancelot, but her love is unrequited, and she dies. In this image one of four made by Cameron Elaine is seen with the cover she made for Lancelots shield: A case of silk, and braided thereupon All the devices blazoned on the shield In their own tinct, and added, of her wit, flower, And yellow-throated nestling in the nest.

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Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / SSPL

THE ROSEBUD GARDEN OF GIRLS, 1868 Nelly, Mary, Christiana and Ethel Fraser-Tytler with unknown girl in foreground The art critic Roger Fry wrote of Camerons illustrations: ... they must all be judged as failures from an aesthetic viewpoint. He made an exception for this interpretation of a line from Tennysons Maud : On the whole, how successful a composition it is. It is, however, almost the only case of a group which has come near to artistic success. The Fraser-Tytlers were daughters of a Scottish landowner. Mary (second from left) became the second wife of George Frederic Watts and, after his death, wrote a three-volume biography of him.

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Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / SSPL

KING ARTHUR 1874 (William Warder) Cameron went to great lengths to find exactly the right looking sitters to portray characters in the Idylls of the King. The model for King Arthur, here posed in his helmet, a golden dragon sparkling over all, was William Warder, a porter at Yarmouth Pier, near Freshwater, from which steamships sailed for the mainland.

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Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / SSPL

KING LEAR ALLOTTING HIS KINGDOM TO HIS THREE DAUGHTERS 1872 (Lorina Liddell, Edith Liddell, Charles Hay Cameron, Alice Liddell) King Lears three daughters in Shakespeares play are here represented by the three Liddell sisters, to whom Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) had first told the story of Alices Adventures Under Ground 10 years earlier. Cordelia, Lears youngest daughter (Alice Liddell), refuses to flatter the king (Camerons husband, Charles) when he decides to divide his kingdom between them. This results in her being disinherited and banished.

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Royal Photographic Society / National Media Museum / SSPL

National Media Museum / SSPL

WHISPER OF THE MUSE 1865 (Elizabeth Keown, George Frederic Watts, Kate Keown) The inspiration for this theatrical photograph, a copy of which was owned by Queen Victoria, was an 1860-65 painting by GF Watts, The First Whisper of Love. In this, Cupid put a spell on Apollo by whispering amorous words into his ear. Cameron casts Watts in the role of a musician inspired by his muse.

THE MAY QUEEN 1864 (Mary Ryan and Caroline Hawkins) Tennysons popular poem, written in 1832, begins with some of the most often quoted lines of Victorian poetry: You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; Tomorrow ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year; Of all the glad New-Year, mother, the maddest merriest day; For Im to be Queen o the May, mother, Im to be Queen o the May.

hen Gernsheim wrote that, Victorian paintings were also frequently dismissed in the same way. In the last 40 years, however, such art has come back into fashion, and painters like Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Edwin Landseer are highly sought after. So too are the staged photographs of Camerons contemporaries Oscar Rejlander and HP Robinson. Tableaux vivants by both can be seen in the current Seduced by Art exhibition at the National Gallery, including perhaps the most famous and ambitious of them all, Rejlanders 1857 montage Two Ways of Life. In 2003, when I curated an exhibition of Camerons work for the National Portrait Gallery (subsequently seen at the National Media Museum whose wonderful collection is the source for all the illustrations to this article and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles), I determined to give proper coverage to her theatrical scenes. And I was delighted by the number of critics who praised them and picture editors who illustrated them. I use the word theatrical deliberately. Cameron, an enthusiast for amateur dramatics, built a Thatched House Theatre adjoining her Isle of Wight home, and staged amateur plays in it. Her sons, and

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those of her next door neighbour Alfred Tennyson, often acted in these. She was, wrote one participant: ... as severely demanding in this direction as she was in photography. Camerons two interests are so closely linked that a close study of the photographs taken after she built the theatre has convinced me that many of her more elaborate set-ups were taken in it. Her 1870s pictures have a real whiff of Victorian theatre about them. This is perhaps most clearly seen in her illustrations to Tennysons hugely successful narrative poem about the court of King Arthur, Idylls of the King. This had made Tennyson widely read and immensely popular almost the Victorian equivalent of a modern day pop star. Cameron told him: ... I know it is immortality to me to be bound up with you ... In the summer of 1874, Tennyson suggested that Cameron take photographs for a planned 12-volume Peoples or Cabinet (i.e. miniature) edition of the Idylls. When published, however, only three of the volumes used her pictures, and then only as reduced size woodcuts. Tennyson urged Cameron to assemble a large-format edition. Though published by the same firm as the Cabinet edition, it was largely at Camerons expense. It contained 12 full-size original albumen prints, interleaved with pages from Tennysons text in Camerons own handwriting and a frontispiece portrait of Tennyson.

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National Media Museum / SSPL

THE MINSTREL GROUP 1866 (Mary Ryan, Kate and Elizabeth Keown) There are three versions of this picture, illustrating a line from the poem Advent by Christina Rossetti (whom Cameron photographed, but whose portrait I have never been able to find): We sing a slow contented song, and knock at Paradise. William Allingham, whose diaries are a rich source of information about Freshwater life, describes arriving there one day: Meet young girls going upstairs in fancy dresses, Mrs. C has been photographing a group, and appears carrying a glass negative in her collodionised hands. Magnificent! To focus them all in one picture, such an effort.

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National Media Museum / SSPL

National Media Museum / SSPL

BROWNINGS SORDELLO 1867 (Henry Cotton, Mary Ryan) Sordello was a 13th century Italian troubadour. Brownings complex and difficult poem about him, which took seven years to write, deals with the battle between politics and art. It was not well received when first published, but was later praised by the poet Algernon Swinburne, who like Cameron lived on the Isle of Wight. Perhaps this helped to interest her in it. Mary Ryan, Camerons Irish maid, later married Henry Cotton. When he was later knighted, Ryan whom Cameron had first encountered begging on Putney Common became Lady Cotton.

THE GRANDMOTHER 1865 (Sarah Groves and an unknown girl) Another illustration to a poem by Camerons neighbour on the Isle of Wight, Alfred Tennyson: Get me my glasses, Annie, thank God that I keep my eyes, There is but a trifle left you, when I shall have past away. But stay with the old woman now: you cannot have long to stay. The poem was written in 1864, when Mrs Sarah Groves, the widow of a local carpenter, Stephen Groves, was aged 93 and one of Freshwaters oldest inhabitants.

Tennysons hugely successful narrative poem about the court of King Arthur, Idylls of the King. This had made Tennyson widely read and immensely popular almost the Victorian equivalent of a modern-day pop star. Cameron told him: ... I know it is immortality to me to be bound up with you ...

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nfortunately, the volume sold badly, a poor reward for ... three months of unceasing care upon the preparation, as the Morning Post reported. Cameron wrote to her friend Sir Edward Ryan: I have taken 245 photographs to get these 12 successes, it seemed such a pity that they should only appear in the very tiny reduced form in Alfreds volume. As I have never seen more than three versions of any one image, we can assume this was something of an exaggeration (to which Cameron was certainly prone!), but the pictures clearly involved much effort and experimentation. Despite her initial commercial failure, later Cameron brought out a second volume six months later, using the same format but including some of Tennysons other poems. Like the first, it was a serious attempt to demonstrate that photography could be the equal of conventional book illustrations by Gustave Dor, Daniel Maclise,32 February 2013 B&W

John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others. Camerons most famous descendant, her great-niece Virginia Woolf, inherited many of her great-aunts pictures and knew much about her life. One entry in her diary reads: I must note for future use, the superb possibilities of Freshwater for a comedy. Old Cameron dressed in a blue dressing gown & not going beyond his garden for 12 years, suddenly borrows his sons coat, & walks down to the sea. Then they decide to proceed to Ceylon, taking their coffins with them, & the last sight of Aunt Julia is on board ship, presenting porters with large photographs of Sir Henry Taylor & the Madonna in default of small change. And that is exactly what happened. Virginia Woolf wrote her comic play about the theatrical and photographic goings-on in Freshwater; the Camerons retired to their properties in Ceylon, taking their coffins with them. But more about that next month! B+W

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FEATURE

THE ALLOTMENTEERSVenturing out into the wilderness of growers and their sheds, Charlie Hopkinson discovers that his Fuji 6x8 camera has the power to thaw hostilities and coax a few willing smiles

All photos Charlie Hopkinson

Evie, Sophie and Cesarina Grippaudo, daughters of allotmenteer Kirsty Grippaudo, show some of their mothers produce. Start them off this young, and who knows? The number of grown-up career gardeners who started on a corner of their parents veg patch Photographed on their allotment in Kingston, Surrey.

CHARLIE HOPKINSON is a self taught photographer who has worked for many of the top publications, specialising in portraiture, landscape and still life. charliehopkinson.com

hey come in many shapes and sizes, although a cursory glance might reveal them to be like you and me indeed like anyone you might find wandering the high street during the day. The only strange thing is, theyre hard to spot. During the several visits I made to allotments for this project, I only

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ever saw a handful of folk actually tending their fertile (and in some cases, not so fertile) plots. The announcement of an impending visit by a photographer seems to elicit different reactions among this breed of outdoor workers. Some dress up to look nice for the pictures, some hide in their sheds that litter the spaces, the constructions looking as if theyve been plucked straight from an African shanty town. A few show suspicion theyve heard, or formed opinions, that photographers are a shifty bunch, to be treated with caution and from a distance. Its only after the tripod goes up, and the lumpy Fuji 6x8 camera appears from inside its carrying case, that the reservations are replaced by curiosity. It transpires that a good few (male) allotmenteers have at one point had their own darkroom.

Is that film youre using? marks the big beginning of the thaw, and after a couple of frames, the shyness has been replaced by enthusiastic comments about photography, film, and the good old days. When I say the results are for a magazine dedicated to black & white photography, then the seduction is complete, and Im welcomed in, often with mugs of tea and (stale) biscuits. One charming couple even gave me a photography book to take away with me. Im left with the impression that photographers and allotmenteers share a few things in common, not least a respect for a hands on approach to their respective pursuits and, in some cases, a hankering after the days when getting your hands dirty was a measure of your commitment to your interests.

34 February 2013 B&W

LEFT

Joy Haney and Pip Clancey muck around with an old Polaroid camera, one of many in their collection of old cameras, on their plot on Trewsbury Road Allotments, SE26. Best parsnips yet.BELOW

Rebecca Lewis, lecturer and paralegal at Cricklewood Railway Allotment.

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RIGHT

In the absence of any humans actually a scarecrow (scare doll the urban equivalent?).BELOW

John Clark. Trewsbury Road Allotments, SE26.

36 February 2013 B&W

ABOVE

Diana Fawcett, getting to grips with the new plot she and John Clark (see opposite page ) hope to transform from a wasteland of weeds to something that can be admired by fellow allotmenteers. Trewsbury Road Allotments, SE26.LEFT

Novelist, publisher and activist Jan Woolf, relaxing on her plot at Cricklewood Railway Allotment, a stones throw from her north London home.

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ABOVE

Kirsty Gordon, beekeeper at Heavers Farm Allotments in Croydon, ensuring her smoker (which subdues the bees prior to her handling them) is properly alight.LEFT

Sid, taking a break from keeping the grass down between the plots at Heavers Farm Allotments in Croydon.

All images shot on allotments in South London with a Fuji GX 680 camera, Plus X and Tri-X film, well past their sell-by date, processed by Metro because my darkroom retired from my employment when Polaroid Type 55 and 665 went out of production. Scanned on Imacon 3.38 February 2013 B&W

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THE BIG FOURFacebookFacebooks mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover whats going on in the world and to share and express what matters to them. Facebook newsroom

Google+Google+ is a project that aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world: you share different things with different people.

TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESSHarnessing the power of networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook requires energy and commitment, says Tracy Hallett. Thankfully, there are ways to gain followers and clients without becoming a slave ve to social mediaith so many any demands ds on our time ime these days, ays, its easy y to see why social media a sites such as Facebook, k, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ can seem like just another drain on our resources. However, when used effectively, these platforms can help us to o build brand awareness, keep clients up to date with recent work, attract new w customers, boost credibility, bility, generate sales and share re our achievements. To make e an instant impact online, follow our ur quick guide to social media success. uccess.

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LinkedInLinkedIn has established itself as the place where UK professionals connect, exchange knowledge and ideas and do business. LinkedIn press release

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1 STAY POSITIVEMany people visit social media sites while relaxing at home, so keep your posts as light-hearted as possible. If youve had a bad day, consider phoning a friend rather than airing your grievances online too much negativity could cost you clients.

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock All pictures iStockphoto.com

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30 TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

2 TRY A LITTLE HUMOURThe posts and updates that receive the most attention are often amusing: animals displaying human characteristics, topical jokes, celebrity quotes etc. A touch of humour can go a long way, but make sure the content is relevant to photography.

2 Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock

Try a little humour

3 KEEP IT SHORTIf Twitter is your channel of choice, your posts (or tweets) must be 140 characters long or less. Once youve perfected the art of clear, concise messaging, aim for 100 characters that way people can add comments before re-tweeting your news.

7 GET A HANDLE ON THINGSYour Twitter handle (the name that appears above each of your tweets) needs to encapsulate your business in an instant. Dont try to be cryptic, just keep things simple: @tracyhallettphoto, for example.

4 BE SELECTIVEConnecting with fellow photographers can provide friendship, inspiration, feedback and camaraderie, but ultimately these people are not your clients. Limit the time you spend interacting with fellow artists, or save such conversations for Twitter.

8 STAY UP TO DATEThings change rapidly in the virtual world, so its important to stay abreast of new developments. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn could easily fall out of fashion, so consider hosting content on your own website to hedge your bets.

5 WRITE A GOOD BIOWhen it comes to introducing yourself, be prepared to share a few personal details. People want to know about the character behind the camera, so sell yourself. Never leave an About page empty youll attract far more followers if you spend a few minutes filling in the blanks.

9 POST CONTENT WORTH SHARINGIn order to create content worth reading and sharing you first need to identify what it is your audience lacks. Some people will be looking for advice, while others will be seeking industry news or expertise in a certain subject. Offering guidance helps to establish you as a credible source, leading to future commissions.

6 DONT EMBARRASS YOURSELFIf youre worried you might be sharing too much personal information with your followers, think of them as guests at a party. Dont post anything that you would be embarrassed to tell a stranger face to face.

10 ISSUE A CALL TO ACTIONEncourage communication by issuing a call to action: ask your followers to like a post, share an opinion, answer a question, or click on a link to view more work. Above all, keep your request simple.

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11 DONT MIX BUSINESS WITH PLEASUREWhile your friends might appreciate (or at least tolerate) regular potty training updates, your clients are unlikely to be as enamoured. As a consequence, its a good idea to keep personal and business matters separate. To assist you, Facebook offers a choice of Business or Personal accounts, while Google+ allows you to sort your contacts into circles before directing content to each group as appropriate.

15 KEEP THE PEACEPeople tend to lose their inhibitions when they join an online community, which can lead to bouts of verbal mudslinging. While its tempting to join in (particularly if the punches are being thrown in your direction) try to resist. If you feel you must respond, offer to continue the discussion in private.

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12 DONT POST INFREQUENTLYLeaving your account dormant for weeks at a time gives followers the impression that youre unavailable for work. To quash their concerns, make a point of posting work regularly even if its an old picture accompanied by a new or topical story.

13 REMEMBER, NOBODY IS PERFECTWhile its never a good idea to reveal your photographic howlers, disclosing your imperfections can actually help to build trust. Be a little self-deprecating now and again it makes you seem more human just dont go overboard.

14 DONT HIDE BEHIND THE CAMERAPhotographers often feel uncomfortable in front of a lens, but hiding behind your equipment can make you seem unapproachable. Upload a bio picture that shows your face in its entirety. Keep the peace Stockbyte/Thinkstock

Dont hide behind the camera

14 Stockbyte/Thinkstock

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30 TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS16

Dont post too frequently Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock

Set yourself a goal

16 DONT POST TOO FREQUENTLYPosting updates too often is annoying, but what constitutes too often depends on the expectations of your target audience. Twitter followers, for example, anticipate seeing four or five posts from the same individual every day, whereas Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ users might feel irritated if they see more than two.

17 BE TRUE TO YOURSELFTheres no need to adopt a new persona when you launch an online campaign youll lose support if you pretend to be somebody youre not. Be true to yourself and dont be afraid to show your personality.

18 EVALUATE YOUR EFFORTSUse an analytics program such as Facebook Insights or Google Analytics to measure your progress. By discovering which posts are the most popular, where the bulk of your followers live, what time of the day you receive the most responses, you can tailor your content accordingly.

19 SET YOURSELF A GOALConducting a social media marketing campaign takes time and energy, so its important to have a clear idea of what youre trying to achieve from the outset. Whether you want to boost your brand, make contacts or keep clients up to date, clarifying your aims and objectives will allow you to use your time effectively.

19 George Doyle/Thinkstock

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20 DONT SPREAD YOURSELF TOO THINWhile its tempting to join every social media network out there, youll soon run out of time, content and enthusiasm if you spread yourself too thin. Each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, so think about how a network will help you to achieve your goals before committing yourself.

22 GIVE IT TIMEIts natural to want to see instant results, but a media marketing campaign requires a fair amount of commitment. It takes time to build up a following and establish credibility, so give any platform at least two months before throwing in the towel.

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23 TRY TO BE TOPICALIf youve just seen an awe-inspiring image in a newspaper, heard about a new camera launch or listened to a photo-themed radio show then let your followers know posthaste just be careful not to divulge any classified information!

24 SAY THANK YOUIf someone has taken the trouble to respond to one of your posts, acknowledge their efforts with a prompt reply a simple thank you will usually suffice. Show your followers that you appreciate their support and that youre receptive to feedback.

25 MOVE UP A RANKGenerally speaking, the earlier your content appears in search engine results, the more visitors it will attract. In order to improve your position, you need to master SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Learning how coding, keywords and content affect your ranking takes time, but Google+ users have a head start content from this channel is rumoured to be prioritised in Google search engine results. Stockbyte/Thinkstock

21 LEND AN EARIts often easier to talk than it is to listen, but if you dont pay attention to what your audience likes or dislikes youll never be able to meet their needs. Make a habit of asking for opinions and feedback, and then act on what you learn.

Its often easier to talk than it is to listen, but if you dont pay attention to what your audience likes or dislikes youll never be able to meet their needs

21 Stockbyte/Thinkstock

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Stockbyte/Thinkstock

30 TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS26

Obey the 10% rule

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26 OBEY THE 10% RULEAggressive self-promotion is seriously frowned upon, so save your hard sell for the boardroom. As a general rule, its okay to plug your business in one out of every 10 posts, but use the rest to provide free advice and inspiration.

27 GO BEHIND THE SCENESConsider uploading video clips, text or snapshots telling the behind the scenes story of a photo shoot: the equipment being set up, the creative decisions made, how to light a particular subject etc.

28 PLAN YOUR DAYChecking and updating your social media accounts can turn into a full-time job, so it can help to plan your main posts in advance. Listing content at the same time each day can also implant an air of expectation in your audience.

29 PROTECT YOUR PICTURESMany photographers are unaware that the images they upload can sometimes be licensed for other purposes by the network. To discourage this behaviour, add a copyright notice to each file and include a link to your website.

30 PERFECT YOUR TIMINGTheres no point posting updates when your followers are offline, so time your entries to coincide with periods of peak activity Twitter receives the most attention between 11am and 8pm, for example. If you want to attract an international following, dont forget to factor in different time zones. Martin Poole/Thinkstock

Perfect your timing

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B&W February 2013 45

WHICH CAMERA ARE YOU?Is the camera just a compliant work tool or does it affect the way we see and therefore the pictures we make? Over the next six issues Eddie Ephraums hopes to find out, working with a range of cameras, from smartphone to large format 10x8hy did I recently take pictures with an aged 1930s Leica, guessing the focus and using my last few rolls of extremely out of date, fogged ISO 3200 film? The results were unpredictable and totally unrepeatable. And why will I blow

W

up the grainy negatives larger than any Ive printed before? What about the plan to shoot my daughters shoes with a 10x8 camera Ive bought specifically for the job? Ive kept all her footwear from when she was born and I will make a single in-camera direct

positive print of each pair. And what about a three year abstract boat project Ive shot with the same compact camera, always returning to the same small boatyard? Then there are the pictures I take with my iPhone. How does that camera affect the way I work?

There was a time when I knew so much about B&W photography. I wrote books and articles I even set up my own B&W magazine. I gave lectures and visited innumerable photo colleges with Ilford and Kodak, yet I always worked in the same predictable way, with

MANY WAYS OF SEEING

CASE STUDIESIn this introductory Many Ways of Seeing article, I have included a selection of pictures taken with some of the cameras I am going to use and included some simple examples of how they might be presented.

All pictures Eddie Ephraums

About this seriesIn the Many Ways of Seeing series I will explore my relationship to B&W photography through a range of cameras. I want to see how each affects the way I see if indeed they do or to find out if there is one that is especially me? Maybe they all are? I will start my quest with the humble smartphone, working my way up through a range of cameras that include compact, micro four-thirds, APS, DSLR, 35mm film, medium format film/digital, 5x4 and 10x8. It is a journey I would encourage everyone to make. I will process and print the pictures using a variety of printing and presentation techniques, to see how craft and process also affect my photography. The plan is to print the photographs in the way that each dictates, drawing on 25 years experience of B&W, which also includes editing other photographers work and printing to exhibition standards. Finally, my intention is to conclude the series with an exhibition and print seminar-workshops.

Dominic Bird

THE CHALLENGEFor a friend to take my portrait with a 10x8in camera: to see his view and learn from it.

THE SITUATIONI was having my head cast by my sculptor friend Max Caffell. It was an extraordinary experience: gradually being covered in warm plaster, with just a straw to breathe through, imagining what my photographer friend was looking at with the 10x8. Fully encased in plaster, I vaguely heard people laughing, muttering something about going to the pub and leaving me there.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONThis contact print was made on Bergger Silver Supreme which is sadly no longer available, though it is quite similar to todays very best photo-rag inkjet papers. In future issues well explore the difference between darkroom and digital printing.

LESSON LEARNEDI ask myself how I would have taken this portrait if I wasnt the subject? What you see here is only half the frame. Ill reveal the full image in the final part of the Many Ways of Seeing series.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYI love the ceremony of working with a 10x8, setting it up and adjusting the finely knurled knobs. With the lens wide open, the camera sees like we do, focusing on a tiny portion of a scene.

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MANY WAYS OF SEEINGjust one camera and one type of printing paper. Who or what was challenging my singular view of life? One day a penny dropped. It happened waiting for some students to come out of the darkroom. Pinned to the noticeboard was a photocopied article, written by someone who knew more about B&W than me and who wrote better than me, but at least his picture wasnt much good. Then I read the name at the end of the feature. Those words and that photo? They were mine. What use was knowing so much about B&W if I didnt challenge my own photography or make a decent photograph? As for that photocopy? I always took pride in my printing. As Bill, my old B&W mentor (who printed for Bill Brandt, Sarah Moon and the like), would say: The prints the thing. It still is. Or is it? Elizabeth Roberts recent editorial (B+W 143) about whether she still needed to print, got me to question this. I realised I hadnt been printing. Why not? The darkroom print had always been my thing. Thanks to Lizs question I began to see how the computer screen had surreptitiously taken its place and I began to question whether viewing the image on a digital camera back had gradually created a distance between me and my photography, quite literally putting it at arms length. As for the camera I use: I want to feel a connection to it, to experience it more than just as an extension of my arm. I want it to stir up my photography, to surprise me with the way I can see and for it to affect the prints I subsequently make. Sometimes I even want a camera to make me feel self-consciously awkward and out of my comfort zone, like working with the upside down and back to front image on a 10x8 ground glass screen or an unfamiliar camera that feels like a strangers hand in mine as I go out for a walk. Do I expect a particular camera to make me a better photographer than another? Probably not, but if I am very familiar with that camera it might make me less aware of photography and more able to focus on what Im seeing. Do I expect the effect of working with a variety of quite different cameras to make a difference? If so, what? Theres only one way to find out. You can judge for yourself over the next six issues or better still, try it for yourself. You might be pleasantly surprised to discover the photographer you are meant to be. Elizabeth Roberts

THE CHALLENGETo take an inconspicuous picture of B+W editor Elizabeth Roberts as she took my portrait.

THE SITUATIONLiz had asked if she could take my portrait with her modified pinhole DSLR. I was intrigued: she had no viewfinder, sensing the picture by moving around my studio until she found the right situation. Instead of asking me to look a certain way for the camera, she invited me to hold whatever thought was in my head for the eight second exposure.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYLiz almost seemed to be in a trance and it was her religious-like stance that I wanted to capture: she was utterly focused, as if in prayer. I managed to take four or five iPhone pictures without her noticing. This was the ideal smartphone situation; a normal camera would have been too intrusive.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONIll discuss the printing and presentation in the next article. Its a surprise for Liz. In the meantime, you might like to visit my blog to compare this B&W picture with the iPhone colour original. They convey quite different messages.

LESSON LEARNEDSitting for Liz was a revelation. How often do I get the chance or give myself permission to focus on just one thought for eight seconds?

Who or what was challenging my singular view of life?Pinhole portrait of Eddie Ephraums by Elizabeth Roberts

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THE CHALLENGETo photograph a series of my sculptor-photographerplatinum printer friend Max for a platinum iPad publication I want to make.

THE SITUATIONPlatinum printing can be carried out under subdued artificial light, so I needed a camera that had excellent high ISO performance, with which I could work unobtrusively in a confined darkroom space.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYI wanted to shoot in a traditional documentary style, with a 35mm lens and handholding the camera. The whisper quiet Fuji X100 was an obvious choice.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONThe image quality only needs to be good enough for an iPad, yet this ISO 1250 picture will print beautifully at A3+. The question I ask myself: should I print with a traditional baryta, darkroom-type, semigloss inkjet paper or a rag cotton one, like that used for platinum?

LESSON LEARNEDI used to platinum print. Nowadays I print digitally, but with the darkroom firmly in mind. During the series Ill share my printing techniques.

THE CHALLENGEFor my assistant to photograph me the way I visualised: holding my portrait print of Bill, my old B&W darkroom mentor.

THE SITUATIONI had this picture all worked out in my head, except I couldnt shoot it myself, so I art-directed my assistant Anna. In the background of the original picture is the famous 1952 Brandt nude that Bill printed, which I tried to echo in my 35mm composition.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYMy original portrait of Bill was shot with a wideangle lens. I wanted just my fingertips in this picture, to balance the original cropped hand.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONI have lost the original negative and only have a resin coated darkroom print of it. I have scanned and printed it digitally, to make the print you see here. I want to hang it in my studio as a reminder of my B&W roots. Im thinking about what type of frame would be most suitable something traditional or more forward looking?

LESSON LEARNEDIn future Ill ask Anna to shoot this type of illustrative picture the way she wants. It will be interesting to compare our approach.

Anna Bonita Rose Evans

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MANY WAYS OF SEEINGTHE CHALLENGETo take a self-portrait that revealed something else about me.

THE SITUATIONI found my bust sitting on a shelf in my sculptor friend Max Caffells studio. I studied my head from all angles and liked this view of me in thought or perhaps Im free of thought: a reminder of how I would like to be.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONIm still working out how I want to print and present this picture. For that, I need to work out who Ill be making the print for.

LESSON LEARNEDSelf portraits can be quite revealing if we use in-camera creative filter effects to draw out and play on subtle nuances of character. They present alternative views of us that we might not see or think of playing on by ourselves.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYThe only camera I had with me was my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app. A workshop leader friend quotes a student saying of himself, Hipstamatic is a better photographer than I am. Well explore why in the next Many Ways of Seeing article.

B&W February 2013 49

MANY WAYS OF SEEING

The Fuji X100 was perfect for wandering around our friends olive grove feeling totally unencumbered, while the f/1.7 lens of the G3 was great for photographing the portfolio box, just getting the matted print in focus.

THE CHALLENGETo photograph a glass framed print using available light.

THE SITUATIONThis olive tree print of mine hangs in our kitchen, illuminated by overhead recessed spotlights. I prefer to work with ambient light, so it was always going to be difficult to get some drama into this picture of it.

THE PHOTOGRAPHYI shot this with a Panasonic G3 and 20mm (40mm equivalent) lens, viewing the image on the camera screen, which I find easier for composing verticals than using a viewfinder. The framed olive tree picture was shot on a Fuji X100.

I shot the original scene on my Panasonic LX5 compact, poking it into a rocky crevice. I was able to handhold this type of small sensor camera without worrying about camera shake. The easel-mounted print was shot on a Panasonic G3 with the 20mm (40mm equivalent) lens wide open for limited depth of field.

PRINTING AND PRESENTATIONI want to print the framed image larger. There is depth and movement in it that gets lost at a small scale. Also, I will change the traditional black frame. It is too dark and heavy; the picture would benefit from a lighter, airier touch.

You might be pleasantly surprised to discover the photographer you are meant to beFIND OUT MOREWebsite ephraums.com Blog ephraums.tumblr.com Facebook Eddie Ephraums Twitter @EddieEphraums Email [email protected]

LESSON LEARNEDIts important to live with pictures. Looking at a framed print provides fresh insights into our photography that a picture stored on a hard drive cannot.

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50 February 2013 B&W

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