Sinister: Silver Nitrate

[Caitlin Pigtails]

Andrew Nicol said, in the dim and distant past:

> if anyone in edinburgh has a couple of hours to spare, take a look at 
> "facing the light", an exhibition of david octavius hill and robert 
> adamson's calotypes, at the scottish national portrait gallery.  the 
> pictures in the final section alone are worth the entrance fee, which 
> is exactly no pence.

I've been to this exhibition a couple of times now.  The first time 
(before I read this post), I was slightly disappointed.  The second, 
slightly less so.

For those of you who aren't interested in photography -- hey, what sort 
of list is this anyway? -- Hill and Adamson were extremely early 
photographers, and were certainly the first in Scotland.  Mr Hill 
started in photography so that he could use portrait photographs as 
studies for paintings; Mr Adamson, much younger, seems to have just 
been Inspired.  Over a couple of years, until Mr Adamson's death, they 
took several thousand photographs, mostly portraits.

If you forget all of the above, they are not good photographers.  Not 
at all.  Calotyping -- which uses a negative made of thin paper -- was 
not ideal for portraiture, purely because of the time for which you had 
to stand still.  On some of the photographs you can see men's arms 
propped up by sticks, to try and keep the picture sharp.  It's only 
when you remember these limitations -- and that they were making 
photography up as they went along -- that their good photographs become 
incredible.  Nearly all of their best pictures are the ones that aren't 
portraits.

In the same gallery is a rather nice exhibition by a chap called 
Stephen Lawson.  He takes long, thin pictures made over a time-lapse, 
from a few seconds to a whole year.  Lovely pictures, like a photo 
taken of a whole day on Berie Beach, which (as scottish people will 
surely know) is near Cnip, Bhaltos, and is one of the nicest beaches in 
Scotland.

Of course, you have to remember.  He wouldn't have done it without Hill 
and Adamson, whatever I say about the quality of their pictures.  You 
always have to have someone to think of something first.

I've thought about taking photos in an Old Style.  Sometimes, they have 
a wonderful effect which can't be equalled by modern film and shutters, 
never mind about digital thingys.  The best I have come to so far was 
through scanning the picture, though, not through film and paper.  I 
wan to take pictures of water that take several minutes, pictures of 
breaking waves that turn into an image of a cliff rising through 
ghostly mist.

Anyway.  Enough pictures.  You can't write about photos for any length 
of time without needing illustrations.  I had a discussion with someone 
recently, that if you can write about one thing well, then -- with a 
bit of practise and maybe a few reference books -- you can write about 
anything at least fairly well.  That's still true, but it's hard to 
discuss a photograph if the other person can't see what you're talking 
about.

Now that gives me an idea.  I should write a story about a blind 
photographer.

I want to write lots of stories, and lots of them are about 
photographers.

And, for my next trick, several words selected randomly.  See if you 
can work out what it means:

Formalin pickpocket, autoclave put up mind-numbing squirearchy 
Duenaburg gradation.  Schongauer pilotfish disappear give in trellis 
progesterone.

I never realised my dictionary had so many German proper nouns in it.


love
xx
caitlin (who must be having One Of Those Days)



--
http://www.joannou.net/topofthestairs/

"When life gives us lemons, we just sit there and sulk about it, in the
  corner of the room, in a fetal position."
         - Matthew Henderson, on the Sinister mailing list.
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