Never the wrong time for a specious T S Eliot quote. It isn’t April, or a waste land or even a cruel month. But the photos are of a cemetery and burial and death.
30 years ago I lived right next door to Nunhead Cemetery but somehow never managed to get there. Now it is not quite next door but only takes about 20 minutes to walk there. I’m not quite sure why I haven’t made the effort before because I love visiting these Victorian cemeteries that ring London – Abney Park, Highgate, West Norwood et al (known as the ‘Magnificent Seven’).
RIP Mum
‘Exuding gothic menace’ is one of the descriptions I’ve seen of this cemetery. Perhaps, but there is also simplicity like the photo above. Like most Victorian cemeteries, the architecure is the eponymous gothic which lends itself to that description and the ornate memorials hidden in the undergrowth have a 21st century subtext of the horror film. But I found the place really quite peaceful.
For a change the sun was shining brightly. I should have remembered about heavily wooded cemeteries in strong sunlight, there is intense light and shade, full of contrast. Particularly here with rows of towering lime trees forming a canopy. I forgot to bring the lumisphere for the Sekonic 358 so I had to rely on reflected rather than incident light readings which wasn’t ideal.
I was using FP4+ at box speed (ISO125) so in some cases I was having to use the Planar lens wider open than I would have liked just to get an acceptable hand-holding speed with the Rollei. However, wide open, the lens seems extremely good:
A bit of gothic menace?
There are plenty of typical cemetery type shots waiting to be photographed:
Angel
Typical graves
And some more quirky:
There are also new graves in the cemetery, making up in poignancy for what they lack in gothic menace. I feel a bit uncomfortable with this photo:
If the grave was older or not of a child there would be no question. The grave is not hidden and everybody can see it. The partially buried fading waterlogged photo of the child in the newly turned earth is cuelly recursive and I personally found it very compelling, far more so than the ornate statuary surrounding it.
This is not an unusual dilemma for a photographer. How far can you go? Will this photograph intrude on private grief? From a subject/composition POV I think it is good. Perhaps I shouldn’t worry about it, it is hardly going to make front covers.
Less problematic is this simple memorial to ‘Grandad’:
I was itching to try the Rolleinar the right way round (see earlier post…) but I only had one shot left.
Absolutely no depth of field at f/5.6 which works for me. I was trying to focus on the spiders web but an inconvenient breeze kept moving the stalks and the sun was going in and out like a demented light switch.
On the way there I couldn’t resist this photo of a barcode on the bridge over the railway on Vesta Road.
Looks like a flying pig to me…
And why the barcode?
I’ve been itching to use Rodinal effectively on 120 film and finally got my chance with the FP4+. I really like the results. These web photos really don’t convey the smoothness of the grain, tonality, lights and darks and general ‘zing’ of the originals.
And oh yes, I’m in awe of the Rolleiflex.What a joy it is to use. Have I said that already?
I think I must be one of those people who ‘see’ in 6×6, I totally relate to the square format and rarely crop the resulting images. This could be because the methodology of medium format, and in particular the Rollei, means that I spend more time composing, so the results are what I expect. I haven’t done any ‘grab’ shots with the Rollei. Medium format photography is so much more thoughtful, helped a lot because of the complete lack of automation in this case.
And those huge negatives… oooooohhh.
by skinnyvoice
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