Activity: Place Over Time
- Step One: Choose a previously made image that relates to your project / subject of interest. You might wish to select a few images as alternatives.
- Step Two: Revisit your chosen image. Feel free to approach this in your own way or make use of / adapt one of the strategies introduced.
- Step Three: Display the original image and the new one together in a space / place of your choosing. Photograph the result and post it in the discussion box below.
- Step Four: Describe your approach and experience in no more than 180 words. Perhaps talk about how the image was chosen, why a specific strategy was adopted and what compromises you had to make in achieving it. Perhaps also mention the impact that the space had / has upon the two images and their relationship.
I am the slave of time on this activity as I am about to head off to the Somme with a group of Year 8 pupils! This prevented me from focussing on a chapel or aspect of stained glass, however, I have managed to produce a crude interpretation in the style of Ahn Sungseok (I am not including this in the 180 words!):
The original image was an 1898 postcard of the main school building – a façade that is almost unchanged to the present, barring some alterations to the grounds. This I placed digitally within the current view, including two generations of new buildings to provide a sense of change. It was interesting to note how wide the original lens must have been, as I needed to shoot at 17mm.
Unable to use a projector in the available time and in the absence of a screen, I was forced to print and matt-laminated the image. This I planted in the appropriate location and quickly realised the error of having used a 17mm lens: I now needed something for the final step in which I intended to replicate the style of the original postcard. At just 30cm from the print, a 12mm lens at f/22 just about coped, but I would have liked to include far more within the final picture and without the significant edge distortion.
It was surprisingly windy this morning which proved demanding when photographing a laminated card sheet.
A couple afterthoughts… the original colour image:
Following feedback requests, here is more technical data relating to the shoot: Unless I am travelling light, in which case I use a Canon G3X, I always shoot full-frame, with a Canon EOS-1DX MkII. The 17mm shot was taken using a Canon 17-40mm f/4 L. The 12mm image was courtesy of a Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM (who decides upon these names?!). I don’t use the Sigma lens very much, but in controlled environments (i.e. indoors) the image quality is pleasingly good and distortion surprisingly minor).
Despite my best efforts, and perhaps unsurprisingly, research in the archives has failed to reveal any record of who produced the assorted school postcards in the 1890’s and as a result, I am unable to elaborate on the kit used for the original image.
