Opinion With Qualification
Sunday, February 11, 2018
I have some
friends who write this sort of stuff:
I went to see the Isle of Dogs. It was great.
Two presidential busts of JFK arrived in the mail and he isn’t even an interesting
president.
People seem
to have opinions. They voice them but they don’t qualify their statements. I do
not understand.
Or:
I was at
Starbucks this afternoon.
I want to
ask, “Why were you at Starbucks? Was it memorable? Who did you have coffee
with? “
One of the photographs
illustrating this blog was one I meant to take and did. The circumstances that
allowed me to shoot it are not likely to occur in this 21st century (
I no longer teach). Two of my favourite models were hired by the now defunct
Focal Point Photography School on 10th Avenue for one of my classes.
While my
students were taking photographs (following my instructions) I noticed the bare
feet and the patent leather shoes. My only regret is that I did not give the
photograph more of an exposure so I could notice detail on the shoe on the
right. The shoe on the left was too close to the edge. With Photoshop I have
added more.
The other
shot was an accident. All the photographs on that one roll of film I took with
a Canon Pellix (I have used it only once). It was given to me by Abraham
Rogatnick’s lawyer after Rogatnick died.
One of the
maxims of photography is to never use a new camera or one you are unfamiliar
with on a job. Luckily I was not on a job. Before the shoots with the two
models I went to a tea shop across the street from the school. I was not too
sure how to load the camera. I tried several times. Somehow when I snapped a
couple of shots (in the tea shop and at my table) so as to advance the film in
the just loaded camera there was an unintended double exposure which I really
like. It was an accident.
For me the
shoes and the bare feet have enough information to intrigue. But there is not
enough information to figure it out. Why are those two women there? I find the
uncertainty erotic.
I have explained and qualified why I like the two photographs I took with that vintage Canon Pellix.
