Maputo in B&W - Photo Exhibition

On the 12th of March I will be participating in a group photographic exhibition at the AMF Gallery (Associação Moçambicana de Fotografia) together with other members of the Kupfula Photography Movement .
The exhibition is titled "Maputo in Black and White" and our pictures will be.. in black and white. I am still busy choosing which pictures to put in, and frankly, am not having an easy time of it. I haven't really been photographing the city lately, so I'm probably going to have to resort to some old work. Pity my Sofobomo project hasn't started yet, otherwise I'd have loads of material to work with. Alas I have another month or two before I actually start taking pictures for that project.

So, anyway, if you're in Maputo between the 12th and 22nd of March feel free to drop in and have a look at our photographs. There are 11 of us and there should be some unique perspectives to this city we all live in. If you can't make the show then I'm sure we'll have a virtual gallery at our website.

SOFOBOMO - Chapter 1

I read back through my post and I see that my approach has more to do with the method of collecting my pictures and less on deciding on a theme or idea.. I guess that is true to a degree, because most of photography has to do with finding an image. I don't want to sound like I'm generalising, and this approach obviously doesn't apply to ALL photography. But I think most of it is found, not "created".

So, I'm out to find images. How does that process work? Well, basically, I get in my car.. drive around and look for things to photograph.. look for situations, juxtapositions. I have to climb into my photographer's suit to do this. And no, it's not a photovest! It's a frame of mind. I try to clear my head and let my eyes see, and sure enough they will see something. I'll raise my camera to my eye, and take a picture. If I have time, I will explore the subject (object?).. I will think of different perspectives.. different juxtapositions. I will try more often than not to simplify, to exclude the clutter so I can concentrate my eye, and my viewer's eye on what really interests me. Sometimes a photograph is more about feeling, about what it felt when I take the photograph. These are the hardest pictures to explain, but sometimes the most satisfying ones when they work. I rarely get a feeling like that, but sometimes I will get an excitement, like a child on the morning of Christmas racing down the stairs and in eager anticipation of presents.. I will feel the image, it will move me, and I know I have something incredible (that is.. for me. You may just not get it, and that is also fine).

Some photographers talk about hunters and fishermen, to describe themselves. Do they seek out an image, do they have an idea of what they want (pre-visualisation) or are they content to cast a line and see what comes up? I am probably a mix of both. I am content to fish, but once an image starts forming in my mind I think more in terms of what I want, how it must look as a printed picture, and I start manipulating what I see or am looking for so that it can fit with my ideal. Which is why my approach may seem haphazard, of searching aimlessly. however the process of refining images happens en-route. Photography is a process, not a “thing”. One doesn’t DO photography. One IS a photographer, and this interaction between subject and photographer is in a constant state of flux. Sometimes we are receptive to what our subjects offer us, and at others we seek the subject out, our ideal.

More on the project.. As I wrote yesterdays piece, some ideas started floating in my mind. Using film will slow down my picture taking, and using a medium format camera will slow me down even more. I expect to take maybe 10 to 15 pictures in a day. My success rate will be fairly low, so in order to hit the magic number of 35 prints I’m going to “cheat” and bring along a digital camera as well. Once I’m happy that I’ve got a good image, I’ll re-take it with a digital camera.. that way if the film fails I will still have an image to work with. Ideally though I will only end up using film images. Once the pictures are taken I will have the negatives developed at a local Photography school and then scan them at home. I’ll do 2 weekends of shooting, and two weekends of scanning, editing, manipulating and layout. It’s tight.. but doable.

As to the subject.. I’ve just bought a neutral density filter.. so I think I may do some water studies, as well as time/motion studies. Normally these have to be done at the edges of the day because of the light.. but this filter is around 16 stops so it should slow down the film nicely, which will allow me to shoot in broad daylight but still capture the images I have in mind.. At least I hope so! It looks like very few people in this book.. unless they stand very very still.

Over and out

SOFOBOMO - Foreward

My first blog entry, and my first SOFOBOMO book project (http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/). Starting off 2009 with some changes! Well, I've chosen to do a SOFOBOMO book because I think it can unleash my creativity at a time when I'm not really being very creative. I need a challenge, and the one-month limit for producing the book (that's pictures, text and layout ALL in one month) certainly is one. So far the project is looking like a photographic exploration of Maputo, capital of Mozambique. I'm thinking of doing it with an old 645 film camera, whcih will be an added challenge considering that I've been shooting digitally since 2003. The square format of the film is also another challenge, as I've been shooting 35mm all my life. Looking through squares instead of rectangles might be the biggest challenge of this project! As far as subject matter, that's the one item I've given the least amount of thought to.. I guess once I decide what my equipment constraints are I'll just go out there and see what I find, and take it from there. If any particular image looks good in the viewfinder then I may explore that avenue, and restrict what I am shooting. I have to produce at least 35 photos for the book, more if I can manage it. The one month starts anytime between May and June, with all projects due by the end of June. I have two months to start practicing with my camera and selecting subjects.. More on this later..