Start of the Race
by John O'Keefe-Odom
AgXphoto.info
On Saturday, March 21, 2009, I went down to Ringgold, Georgia to make some pictures of a community run. It was a $25 bucks and a T-shirt run, this time benefitting schools in the area of a local bank. The pictures in this post are from that run.
While I was photographing the race, I overheard someone beside me mention that they would have liked to have had more publicity for the event. Since then, I felt more focused on photographing for reporting the event than I normally would.
Something funny happened on the way to this post: I forgot, and then had to remember, that I had become a fine arts photographer. I was struggling to extract usable reportage photographs from my negatives. The few photos you see here were taken from the rolls for the purpose of showing people more about the race.
I suppose I should apologize to the runners; I didn't set out to report the race to begin with. Also, I had not realized just to what extent my processes have evolved and changed over the past few months. This has got to be the first time in years that I have actually wanted to make a recognizable photograph of a person. I don't often photograph people, and, when I do, I prefer to represent them more as a figure than as a detailed illustration of who they are.
So, in the darkroom, I struggled a little bit; generally felt miserable about the progress, and couldn't really understand why I was having such a time with the photographs. The difference, I realized late tonight, is built in, throughout the process.
It's simply not as noticeable normally because I so rarely take photos of recognizable people.
I know this must seem like a joke to everybody, but I'm serious.
AgXphoto.info
On Saturday, March 21, 2009, I went down to Ringgold, Georgia to make some pictures of a community run. It was a $25 bucks and a T-shirt run, this time benefitting schools in the area of a local bank. The pictures in this post are from that run.
While I was photographing the race, I overheard someone beside me mention that they would have liked to have had more publicity for the event. Since then, I felt more focused on photographing for reporting the event than I normally would.
Something funny happened on the way to this post: I forgot, and then had to remember, that I had become a fine arts photographer. I was struggling to extract usable reportage photographs from my negatives. The few photos you see here were taken from the rolls for the purpose of showing people more about the race.
I suppose I should apologize to the runners; I didn't set out to report the race to begin with. Also, I had not realized just to what extent my processes have evolved and changed over the past few months. This has got to be the first time in years that I have actually wanted to make a recognizable photograph of a person. I don't often photograph people, and, when I do, I prefer to represent them more as a figure than as a detailed illustration of who they are.
So, in the darkroom, I struggled a little bit; generally felt miserable about the progress, and couldn't really understand why I was having such a time with the photographs. The difference, I realized late tonight, is built in, throughout the process.
It's simply not as noticeable normally because I so rarely take photos of recognizable people.
I know this must seem like a joke to everybody, but I'm serious.
If these process differences had been applied to a rock wall, waterfall, or flower photo, they would probably not have been as noticeable. Put people in the picture, and automatically, I noticed, caring this time, that I could not see their faces. At the time, I did not understand why. It was built into the process.
If I had aimed, from the start, to do a good job of reporting this event, there would have been many technical changes that I would have needed to make from the very beginning. I have all the materials to support those changes, yet, shunned them. Why? Because I was following the process I would normally follow for pretty much all of the photographs I make. It's part of the process.
By design, I have moved to make the choices that I know would not make for good reporting; but, they build the kind of photographs that I like to see. It affected: film choice, exposure choices, what developer I used, my choice not to gather information for written reporting, not to talk to people much while I was there, what duration I applied the developer to the negative, filtration choices in printing, cropping, and labwork in general. All of those aspects would have had to have been different if I were to generate a standard Zone Five, mid gray skin tone on every face, in the level of detail required for common reportage photos in black and white.
As soon as I realized this, I stopped trying to print report photos, and went back to doing what I do. Waste and scrap levels dropped back down to normal. Settings made sense again, and the number of photos made in an hour rose dramatically. I felt better about the pictures, and I know I like them.
I'm pretty sure no one else is going to like them. They're too dark; they're too high contrast, and you just about can't tell who any of the people are in the photographs. Not in the black and white ones, anyway.
So, here, posted, are the five normal photos I was able to extract from my process.
Meanwhile, there were also photos in color.
To produce a good color shot, I cannot deviate from standardized exposure methods much; still, compositionally, they, too, look more like the photographs I like to make. One of them in particular is pretty interesting to me; I was able to catch someone introspective, and I think the picture shows that. The color slide work will have to wait until Tuesday night or so, because I do my slide scans at AVA; the lab is closed until at least then. I'll put them up when I can.
I will also feel better about shooting some color photos that may not look like reporting.
Truth is, in the future, I will probably shoot what I shoot and be done with it. But, I felt like it would be a good idea to post an explanation, in case the people who wanted to see more written about the race ever came across the photographs.
Some of the high contrast works that I prefer from those rolls are drying now; I'll put them up soon. Probably in a slideshow for easy scrolling.
I don't know who these folks are, but here are their pictures.
The photos feature: the start of the race, the first, second and third people to cross the finish line; and two women who were running in the race. The photos of both of those women were also done in high contrast, and I'll probably use their report photos and their figure portraits to show the difference in the methods and the results through choices in printing in a later post.
Congratulations to everyone who ran the race. I suppose, in truth, I will probably just print what I print and photograph what I photograph in the future. But here are the photos from the race. J.
More photos later. J.
Link to race web page
If I had aimed, from the start, to do a good job of reporting this event, there would have been many technical changes that I would have needed to make from the very beginning. I have all the materials to support those changes, yet, shunned them. Why? Because I was following the process I would normally follow for pretty much all of the photographs I make. It's part of the process.
By design, I have moved to make the choices that I know would not make for good reporting; but, they build the kind of photographs that I like to see. It affected: film choice, exposure choices, what developer I used, my choice not to gather information for written reporting, not to talk to people much while I was there, what duration I applied the developer to the negative, filtration choices in printing, cropping, and labwork in general. All of those aspects would have had to have been different if I were to generate a standard Zone Five, mid gray skin tone on every face, in the level of detail required for common reportage photos in black and white.
As soon as I realized this, I stopped trying to print report photos, and went back to doing what I do. Waste and scrap levels dropped back down to normal. Settings made sense again, and the number of photos made in an hour rose dramatically. I felt better about the pictures, and I know I like them.
I'm pretty sure no one else is going to like them. They're too dark; they're too high contrast, and you just about can't tell who any of the people are in the photographs. Not in the black and white ones, anyway.
So, here, posted, are the five normal photos I was able to extract from my process.
Meanwhile, there were also photos in color.
To produce a good color shot, I cannot deviate from standardized exposure methods much; still, compositionally, they, too, look more like the photographs I like to make. One of them in particular is pretty interesting to me; I was able to catch someone introspective, and I think the picture shows that. The color slide work will have to wait until Tuesday night or so, because I do my slide scans at AVA; the lab is closed until at least then. I'll put them up when I can.
I will also feel better about shooting some color photos that may not look like reporting.
Truth is, in the future, I will probably shoot what I shoot and be done with it. But, I felt like it would be a good idea to post an explanation, in case the people who wanted to see more written about the race ever came across the photographs.
Some of the high contrast works that I prefer from those rolls are drying now; I'll put them up soon. Probably in a slideshow for easy scrolling.
I don't know who these folks are, but here are their pictures.
The photos feature: the start of the race, the first, second and third people to cross the finish line; and two women who were running in the race. The photos of both of those women were also done in high contrast, and I'll probably use their report photos and their figure portraits to show the difference in the methods and the results through choices in printing in a later post.
Congratulations to everyone who ran the race. I suppose, in truth, I will probably just print what I print and photograph what I photograph in the future. But here are the photos from the race. J.
First runner to cross the finish line
Second runner photographed crossing the finish line
Third runner photographed crossing the finish line
Runner
Swishy Woman Runner
Thinking Runner, Pink Shirt; Hand processed E-6; Ektacrhome E100G
Thinking Runner, Pink Shirt; Hand processed E-6; Ektacrhome E100G
This runner was, I thought, one of our better portraits of the participants because this person seems to be looking inside herself as she runs.
Link to race web page
Posts
These particular photos won't be placed up for sale; I'll retain them and publish as editorial content; but, if you were a runner in the race, and you see a photo you would like a copy of, feel free to post a request or email the photographer at:
ReplyDeletejohn@johnokeefeodomphotography.com
Thanks!