Those of you who have been following my work will realize that a lot of these are older photos. I am showing them again because I am posting them to my photo-store in conjunction with my exhibit at the Arts Center, and a big showing I have coming up in April. More about that later.
And although I probably should put a little more variety into the images I upload, I can’t help but post another one of Jeanine, this one not oysterfarming but relaxing off Atsena Otie Key. She had invited me to come along with her family and do some photography. That kind of opportunity does not come very often, almost never, so I gladly went. For one thing, I almost never see Jeanine not working. No matter when I drop by her oyster-house I always find her going full tilt, and although dressed for shucking oysters or some other equally messy task, she always looks like she is ready for a cover shot on a glossy magazine.
I mostly worked with my 35mm Yashica SLR and its 50mm Zeiss lens that morning, but I did remember that I had also brought my Holga along, so I waded out into the Gulf, with the ‘plastic fantastic’ over my head trying to keep it dry. Along with the cameras I had brought some fabric and I tossed a white piece of it to Jeanine, who dove with it wrapped around her and surfaced looking like The Madonna of The Gulf of Mexico.
Now I have to be honest and also tell that when I went to develop the film, I forgot to put the stem holding the reel into the tank – with the result that I got light leaks while developing the film. Probably photo mistake #35784.498 – 5a – what can I say. I am not new to this, but I guess it does happen. So, when I looked at the film it seemed that all the images on the roll were a total loss. Fortunately I did not throw the roll away, but finished processing it, and eventually got around to printing it, discovering that with a lot of burning and a little voodoo, I had a very compelling image – at least I think so.
That is a very beautiful portrait Christian.
Hey – many thanks Brendan!
You might remember, Chris, this was the cyanotype I bought from you years ago. I loved it then, and I love it now. Interesting to hear something about the image’s “history” – I had just assumed the glow and the streaks were Holga consequences (good, also, to know I’m not the only occasional darkroom klutz!).
Hi Martyn – how are you? It is good hearing from you and knowing that you still enjoy the print. I am slowly, too slowly coming back to doing more Cyanotype prints.
Oh, I think one has to make every possible photo/darkroom mistake at least once. It is just amazing to realize how many of them are ‘out there’ and i shudder to think what my next one will be.