Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Frank Gehry at the Serpentine Gallery



It's taken 77 years of Frank Gehry's life for the first of his buildings to come to London and England, the Serpentine Gallery is the site. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to photograph the newest structure with my oldest camera - the 1937 Voigtlander Bessa.

(warning: photographic ramble follows)

This is an astonishingly challenging building, both to experience and to photograph. The whole edifice (which doesn't leak) strains your ideas of what a building should be. And yet, it is there: wood, steel, glass, massive and foursquare. I didn't look at any photographs before I visited and looking at them since, most fail to convey the sense of the place. My digital effort is here, (from a similar angle) but this shot on film using a seventy year old camera with a fixed lens is my favourite. Not just because it is the only film shot I took - I walked and looked for a while before shooting - but because it seems to contain an sense of the improbable, that combined with the richness of tone from the film greyscale make it for me.

Do you prefer the film or the digital version? do let me know. I'm particularly interested in what you think if you've seen it - do let me know (don't forget to click and look at the larger version, please).


Which version of the photo do you prefer?
The B&W film one
The colour digital one
Neither are very good
  
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posted by Ham at 01:13 -- Comments here: 0

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Name: Ham Location: London, United Kingdom View my complete profile