Fighting the Flood

Flood equipment stored near the closed bridge in Malton, North Yorkshire, UK | Photo by Richard Flint

Twelve years ago i took a series of images about a flood that occurred in the towns not far from me. Both Malton and Norton lie next to the River Derwent, and in early 2000 the sheer amount of winter rain caused a extensive flood. To keep both towns connected, a ferry was started using a tractor and a trailer which transported people back and forth across the main bridge and the flooded areas. 

This year the flood waters returned and severely tested the £10 million flood defence system with the water reaching to within two feet of the top of the flood defense wall. Hopefully the worst of the flooding is over and the waters will start to recede, yet those who live near the river are faced with the huge task of tidying up and getting on with their lives, in the knowledge that a wet winter could easily see it return.

A series of images covering the flood and posted to Instagram can be seen HERE

American Dream

Regular readers of this blog may remember Ian Ruhter's Silver and light video about the photographer who used his van as a camera, darkroom and transport all rolled into one. Like Harry Taylor featured in the last post, Ruhter was looking for something different and found it in the Wet Plate Collodian photography .

This second video follows Ian photographing people he has met in Los Angeles and the images, just like the stories he hears, are quite remarkable. The wet plate images do seem to capture the character of the portrait sitter rather well, but the process of taking the actual images is far from easy. Ruhter has it down to a fine art.

Best of all, the Ruhter wet plate van is hitting the roads around the United States to photograph the people and places. I, for one, will be keeping a close eye on what this photographer captures on his travels.

American Tintype

After the death of his mother, photographer Harry Taylor decided that he had taken film and digital photography as far as he could and discovered a passion for the 150 year old process of Tintype photography. The equipment and Tintype photo process is fascinating to watch. I'd love to have a go.

This short film is beautifully shot and captures the passion of photography perfectly. We all work in our own way to create images and this film just happens to capture a photographer who needed to change his photography. Especially interesting is Harry's mention of digital photography being perfect. Is this maybe why we use the Instagram retro photo filters? A need to inject some imperfection perhaps?

Two Storms

The John B. Caddell, a tanker ship, ran aground on Staten Island during the Sandy storm surge |Photo by Benjamin Lowy—Reportage by Getty Images for TIME

Two storms have raged this week. First came the actual storm in Hurricane Sandy and then came the second storm about how it was covered by photojournalists who chose to use a certain iPhone app.

Much of the argument stems from this post criticizing the use of mobile photography during Hurricane Sandy. During a time when much of the infrastructure was down, people were on the move and people were after information - ANY information - mobile photography seemed not a bad choice of tool to use.

Let's not forget that Instagram is a publishing platform. Earlier today i re-tweeted a comment from @lpvmagazine who correctly stated :-

'The most interesting thing about Instagram IMO is that it's primarily a real time network/platform. Too much focus on aesthetics.' 

 Getting images out to an audience is what the Instagram network is built for. Forget all the vintage style photo filters. Forget all the photos of cats, food and family photos. Instagram is, at core, a real time publishing platform that can distribute imagery over a variety of communication networks. Then consider the challenging conditions facing people who were probably relying on mobile phones for most , if not all, of their communication.

How long does it take to process a DSLR image from the card to the net? Can you do it direct from the camera? How much gear/technology do you need to accomplish the task? Real time? Heck no.

Are we really that surprised that a device that can take photographs AND upload them in real time ( or damn close to it)to a waiting audience became the tool of choice for some photographers? I'm not.

The Brilliance of W.Eugene Smith

The LIFE website really did come up with a masterpiece recently when the decided to produce an extended gallery of W. Eugene Smith's landmark photo story 'Nurse, Midwife'.

The story originally ran in the December 1951 issue of the classic magazine and followed the activities of a South Carolina nurse and midwife named Maude Callen who cared for patients in an area covering 400 square miles.When the story ran in LIFE donations flooded in that was used to build a clinic where Maude Cullen worked until she retired in 1971.

The photography is just brilliant. No other word for it. If you're wanting to study and develop the narrative skills for putting together a photo story, W Eugene Smith should be your first port of call. This photo story and the 1948 LIFE photo essay 'Country Doctor' are undoubtedly two of best you'll ever see.

The excellent 'Nurse, Midwife' by W. Eugene Smith can be found HERE

The iDyssey

Last Spring Stefano De Luigi set out to retrace the Mediterranean voyage of Homer’s Odysseus. The photographer chose to capture the journey via Hipstamatic images and video footage shot using an iPhone. Along the way he also captured the sounds and voices of people he met along the way.

It's an excellent project and a very significant use of the iPhone to retell an epic story. Increasingly we are all trying to tell our stories through the variety of digital tools currently available.  I'd like to think that Odysseus would have used an Instagram account to document his adventures had he started on his epic voyage now.

The New Yorker article can be found HERE. Stefano has also uploaded some video footage to YouTube. There is no English translation but it makes interesting viewing nonetheless. The YouTube footage can be found here.

Three Donans

A portrait of crime

Police identification file for William Jones | Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums

One of the more amazing qualities of photography is its ability to constantly reinvent itself. A photograph is taken for one purpose but it takes on another role or purpose. That's what a series of photographs found in a junk shop by a member of the public have achieved - a metamorphosis from a working police identity photo to a significant historical document that provides valuable social information.

The collection of photographs feature ID photographs of criminals who worked in the north east of England,  around Newcastle Upon Tyne, during the 1930's. Donated to the Tyne & Wear archives and Museums, the images have been added to Flickr in the hope that more information may be received about the individuals seen in the mugshots. The Flickr archive also features some fascinating portraits of women prisoners brought before the North Shields Police Court between 1902 and 1916.

The portraits certainly make fascinating viewing, with the images show a surprisingly diverse set of people, some of whom wouldn't look too far out of place on a film set. Already some of the background to the lives led by the men featured in the 1930's collection is being revealed. William Jones, seen above, was killed after falling off a roof near the Benwell hotel in Newcastle. He was being pursued by police at the time. Jones stands out from the others due to his age and the conviction for shooting a man in America. Of all the men photographed, he appears to have been the most dangerous.

A charge that is often mentioned in the prisoner M.O is larceny, a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person,  and one that was abolished in England and Wales back in 2002.

The Flickr archive for the Tyne &  Wear Archives and Museums, featuring a broad range of photographic work including some superb images of ship building, can be found HERE

The collection of 31 mug shots from the 1930's can be found HERE