THE NEW YORKER
PHOTO BOOTH
The view from The New Yorker’s photo department.
OCTOBER 21, 2011
GREAT MISTAKES: VANESSA WINSHIP
Posted by James Pomerantz
Everybody makes mistakes; some people make beautiful ones.
She shares the story of her favorite accidental photograph for our inaugural Great Mistakes post.
In a way, I don’t believe in accidents. But for certain, the image in question was not originally intended this way. I’d made several portraits of boxers, and had to get to this small dance company before I ran out of daylight. I work with a large-format field camera. This kind of working method requires a very specific level of concentration and, I suppose, discipline. You have to remember to turn the slide from white to black after you’ve exposed each frame. I’ve gotten quite good at this. In fact the whole process and procedure has its own internal rhythm and musicality to it:open the lens, look, focus, make a light reading, set the aperture, set the shutter speed, close the lens, cock the shutter, place the film holder into position, pull out the dark-slide, wait … expose the film, turn the dark-slide around to indicate exposed, return it into the film holder, finish.
I set up my camera and asked the first dancer to stand for me. Then I made a few more photos. I was rushed because of the disappearing light, but nevertheless this fading light and necessary long exposure was adding something. I was taken by it. In my stomach, I felt I had a picture. What I hadn’t realized was that one of the film holders I used during this session had exposed film from earlier in the day, and I had created this double exposure … two images on one frame. The magic of the image is the perfect relationship between the two and the way it appears that they are holding hands but at the same time partly disappearing. For me, this image encapsulates something about this place--dancers and fighters at the same time, a kind of romance of the Georgian psyche that is somehow inevitably unsustainable.
PHOTO BOOTH
The view from The New Yorker’s photo department.
OCTOBER 21, 2011
GREAT MISTAKES: VANESSA WINSHIP
Posted by James Pomerantz
Everybody makes mistakes; some people make beautiful ones.
She shares the story of her favorite accidental photograph for our inaugural Great Mistakes post.
In a way, I don’t believe in accidents. But for certain, the image in question was not originally intended this way. I’d made several portraits of boxers, and had to get to this small dance company before I ran out of daylight. I work with a large-format field camera. This kind of working method requires a very specific level of concentration and, I suppose, discipline. You have to remember to turn the slide from white to black after you’ve exposed each frame. I’ve gotten quite good at this. In fact the whole process and procedure has its own internal rhythm and musicality to it:open the lens, look, focus, make a light reading, set the aperture, set the shutter speed, close the lens, cock the shutter, place the film holder into position, pull out the dark-slide, wait … expose the film, turn the dark-slide around to indicate exposed, return it into the film holder, finish.
I set up my camera and asked the first dancer to stand for me. Then I made a few more photos. I was rushed because of the disappearing light, but nevertheless this fading light and necessary long exposure was adding something. I was taken by it. In my stomach, I felt I had a picture. What I hadn’t realized was that one of the film holders I used during this session had exposed film from earlier in the day, and I had created this double exposure … two images on one frame. The magic of the image is the perfect relationship between the two and the way it appears that they are holding hands but at the same time partly disappearing. For me, this image encapsulates something about this place--dancers and fighters at the same time, a kind of romance of the Georgian psyche that is somehow inevitably unsustainable.
Actually I impress of this photo do I'm confused about the effects or there was a problem on the lens of the camera that's why the image appear like this.
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