Another dip into the archive

Hello again, welcome to another blog from the inner workings of NathanPhoto, as this is the fourth one of the month and in following with my new formula, this musing is going to explore the archive.

As a quick recap I’m planning on dipping into the archive each month and pull out an image from the past that was taken in that month and discuss it. This month is March and casting my memory back I seem to remember them being typically busy, it must be the effect of the spring or spending budgets before April or something along those lines.

Here is the image.

A brightly lit scene with a neon art piece made from a car window with dusk slowly setting behind.

This image firmly fits into the travels with car and camera, it comes from that place down the 580. In looking back I realise that I did quite a lot of work there but not all of it great if memory serves me correctly. I seem to remember some other stories surrounding this work but not specifically about this work, so will possibly discuss that somewhere else. Anyway this image is from the more recent archive it is titled:

‘Stanley-Bar-Kirkdale-100308 Img 001’

I believe it is made of Michael Pinsky’s with his 2008 Winter Lights commission ‘Title Author Genre.’ I also believe it is from the Biennial in 2008, I do remember the job but not sure on the details so a quick google search throws up some interesting conundrums like the date. I have it captured then but official websites challenge that by stating that it wasn’t up at that point so I’m unsure of the actual details. I also can’t remember the actual commissioners as I’m sure that as part of the funding any hires had to be local, but I wasn’t quite, but I did an armful lot of work in that neighbourhood so who knows!!

This is my particular favourite of the set looking out of my beloved Honda’s window as the sky drifted towards dusk and the light details came up, it was a difficult shot balancing the neon’s with the lights, photographing at night always has its advantages and disadvantages, it was a major part of my work for decades, this feels like a crossover point with art documentation and night-time stuff, which adds to its inclusion.

It was also taken on my beloved Canon Eos1dmk2 of which the famous dirt on the sensor incidents happened, again I will discuss that elsewhere as it’s not so pertinent here, suffice to say that I went back to the original cr2s files here and edited them again, and it wasn’t too much of a biggie so maybe I’ll take the feedback from the time and file it in the ‘stuff graphic designers say that doesn’t quite make sense’ folder.

Ok, I realise that I may need to put in a bit of context here and for a bit of background on the “Dirt on the sensor” incidents. Well it’s exactly as described; it was quite a problem then. I was working so many different types of work, changing lenses all the time, so dirt would literally get sucked in constantly. A lot of the work didn’t show it but some, like the pale sky here, would suck it in and display it so very well. Sensor cleaning was a specialist job back then, cost about 50 a pop, while it was necessary, you couldn’t always afford, get it done in time and so sometimes it slipped when you needed it most, ah the joys of freelancing back then.

I do like this image, and it was in my folio for a while, not sure I ever saw it published and I think I recall some animosity towards my work back then so it’s not something I’ve looked for, which is one of the reasons I’m sharing it here. Could definitely discuss what brief it fulfils and why it wasn’t well received in a teaching session, that could be filed under ‘what to do when the client isn’t happy’ and ‘terms and conditions’ that would be an interesting session possibly?

As ever I’ve discussed images, so I’ll leave you with some words from one of the current books I’m reading, this on Marx from Terry Eagleton’s ‘Why Marx was Right’ a great book that takes apart many of the critiques labelled of concern for Marxism thoughts. This is a great read no matter where you sit on the debate. It is a long one but think sums up a thought process:

“On the one hand, Marxists are hard-headed types who are sceptical of high-minded moralism and wary of idealism. With their naturally suspicious minds, they tend to look for the material interests which lurk behind heavy political rhetoric. They are alert to the humdrum, often ignoble forces which underlie pious talk and sentimental visions. Yet this is because they want to free men and women from these forces, in the belief that they are capable of better things. As such they combine their hard headedness with a faith in humanity. Materialism is too down to earth to be gulled by hand-on-heart rhetoric, but too hopeful that things could improve to be cynical. There have been worse combinations in the histories of humanity.”

Terry Eagleton. ‘Why Marx was Right.’ p77.

Think this is the first time I’ve brought politics into the blog so this may bite me in future but feel it’s important to keep these discourses open and honest and to not descend into political infighting that dominates current debates and in turn distracts from the bigger picture.

What do we think? Any good?

Thank you for reading. And if you have any feedback, thoughts, comments or anything’s, then please get me though the usual channels.