Category: blackandwhite

Posted by Peter Corr on in black and white, blackandwhite, cambridgeshire, fenland, Fuji x100s, monochrome, photographer, photography, photography, UK

White House Road..not a hill in view
landscape photograph monochrome Fenland road
White House Road: Fenland

I think late Autumn and Winter are probably the best seasons for landscape photographers living in the Fenlands.  I know that Cambridgeshire doesn’t have the dramatic landscapes of the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales or even the Trough of Bowland, but it does have something special.

At this time of year the landscape maintains a gritty and determined resolve.  There is a complete absence of pretension and prettiness.  The uneven roads and tilted telegraph poles, the isolated columns of tall trees,  vast skies with fields stretching to the distant horizon makes me feel as if I have been cast adrift on an open sea.

John Clare: The Fens

There’s not a hill in all the view,
Save that a forked cloud or two
Upon the verge of distance lies
And into mountains cheats the eyes.
And as to trees the willows wear
Lopped heads as high as bushes are;
Some taller things the distance shrouds
That may be trees or stacks or clouds
Or may be nothing; still they wear
A semblance where there’s nought to spare.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Architecture, black and white, blackandwhite, buildings, Fuji x100s, monochrome, photographer, photography, Travel Photography

Black Windows

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The late afternoon sun transforms an ordinary scene. Windows and doorways become dark rectangular shapes and intense sunlight reflects from plaster walls. In these images of geometry and order I see echoes of the surrealist Magritte, the mysterious city streets of the Italian artist Giorgio De Chirico and the cool detachment of the American painter, Joseph Albers.

For those of you also interested in the technical aspects of photography this image was taken on a Fuji X100s using the excellent Fuji Acros film simulation setting.

Please feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas.

 

Posted by Peter Corr on in black and white, blackandwhite, Fuji x100s, image manipulation, monochrome, photographer, photography, photography, Travel Photography, UK

Wicken Fen by Peter Corr
‘Wicken Fen’ by PeterCorr

These are the vast open landscapes of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands that influence my paintings. This image was taken with a Fuji X100F a couple of days ago when the sky was particularly dramatic.  I have carried out some basic editing – mainly tonal adjustments and sharpening – using Silver Efex Pro2. I have to say the Fuji is a great little camera, easy to take with you and it produces really good jpg’s with the Acros settings. You can’t really tell from the photograph but it was an incredibly blustery day out in the Fens….the clouds were racing across the sky. Really should have used a tripod and a long exposure to capture the movement; maybe next time.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Architecture, Art, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, Fuji x100s, image manipulation, Italy, monochrome, photography

Saint Bartholomew: Don’t Look Now

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Saint Bartholomew (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:14, Acts 1:13) never set foot in Milan but his statue has been the talk of the town for the past four and a half centuries. Just ask Mark Twain. Then again, the tradition of Bartholomew, which purports that he was skinned alive and beheaded in Albanopolis, Armenia (modern-day Turkey), is the stuff of legends. Bartholomew, now the patron saint of tanners, is usually depicted with a large knife and holding his own skin.

In many ways this image reveals the power of compact modern digital cameras to capture detail. When I took this shot of the famous statue of St Bartholomew in the Milan Duomo I was aware of the father and daughter figures to the right of the frame. However, I didn’t fully appreciate the significance of their body language until I edited the image later.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Art, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, Fuji x100s, painter, painting, photographer, photography, UK

New Forest Paintings

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A traditional portrait of the artist in monochrome. These are the paintings from the first week here in Woodlands, hope you like the ‘moody’ black and white photograph taken by my daughter Louisa….it’s a good option to show the texture of the works.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Art, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, new forest, painter, painting, photography, UK

New Forest Residency: The Forge

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My residency in the New Forest is in one of the most amazing places, I will be working above a blacksmiths workshop alongside skilled craftsmen who produce some of the most wonderful and beautifully designed metal work. From an artists point of view, the machinery in the workshop is an absolute treasure trove of hard edged shapes , structures and surfaces. Now I have a problem, do I continue to focus on the forest and nature or try to incorporate elements of the machine and the man made?

Below are a few shots I collected on a brief tour early this morning. All images taken on a Canon eos M Mirrorless with 22mm lens….unfortunately my Fuji X100S was dropped on the floor and is away for repair at the moment.

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Posted by Peter Corr on in Art, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, Landscape Painting, painter, photographer, photography

New Forest Residency

Photograph New Forest Tree black & white texture
Photograph of New Forest Tree

I have just started a 2 week artists residency in the New Forest in Hampshire and I feel energised by the possibilities. I will be posting a series of images based on my day to day experience of being here, in this ‘place’. My main intention is to produce a series of paintings that say something about the New Forest; not a new ambition by any means….but I will also be using photography to document my thoughts and ideas. I just need to allow myself to be absorbed by what I see and feel, to literally just be here… Let’s see what happens.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Art, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, cambridge, cambridgeshire, Fuji x100s, Landscape Painting, photographer, photography, UK

Inadvertent Christo

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I stumbled across this ready-made Christo in the grounds of Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge. I think they would be delighted.

 

‘When Christo began to wrap objects in 1958, he used everyday objects such as shoes, telephones and empty paint cans to make his sculptures. Once wrapped, the objects would take on a new identity. By wrapping them, he would reveal some of the most basic features and proportions of the object by concealing the actual item. Christo and Jeanne-Claude later expanded this idea in projects such as The Pont Neuf Wrapped and the Wrapped Reichstag, but on a much larger scale. While the intricate details of the structures are hidden, the essence of the structures are revealed all the while making the imposing and solid structure seem airy and nomadic’.

‘The use of real fabric also gives the work a fragile, sensual and temporary character while wrapping objects is definitely an important part of their œuvre, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have done very few wrappings in comparison to their whole portfolio of artworks. It is easier for some to grasp the wrapping concept and refer to their artworks entirely as “wrapping,” but the work is more about altering an environment than wrapping – which is only one way to do that. The last time the artists had an idea for a wrapping was in 1975, when they had the idea of wrapping the Pont-Neuf in Paris, ten years before they realized the work of art.’

http://christojeanneclaude.net/faq