I don’t just mean the extraordinary or the unusual. I mean really looking and seeing things or people, often in different lights and angles. Sometimes the photos just appear without me really looking for them.
One such photo was a sieve that hung in the kitchen window of a Pimlico flat I lived in a number of years ago. The flat was well positioned to let in fabulous amounts of natural sunlight at angles that lent themselves to very contrast abstract black and white photographs. I must admit, I felt in my element.
On one particularly sunny Saturday morning, I ventured out of my room only to see the soft morning sunshine fall on the sieve and casting shadows on the wall. The image beckoned me, and I couldn’t say no. Grabbing my 35mm camera, I loaded it with Ilford B&W Delta 100 film.
It was only after taking a roll of film of the sieve did I realise I had rated the film at 200 ASA. However, I appreciated the contrasting effect of the pushed film. It added to the texture and feel of the images.
Without the lights and shadows playing with the steel of the sieve, the image probably wouldn’t have worked. The sieve came to life with the morning sunlight looking down at it. Without it, the image would have been very flat, and I probably wouldn’t have found the image as interesting.
There is a part of me that likes to present interesting images of ordinary things society tends to ignore. I often light to play with light and shadows while shooting black and white film. I enjoy the challenge of having the viewer see things around them in a different way.