Black and white kent shoots part 2 *

I went back and shot some more images around rochester cathedral as well. the images like the other kent black and whites came out far better then that of the colour images, both in atmosphere and style.

 while exposed for a similar time as the previous shoot these images came out alot brighter (due to the weather being brighter) but  they are not to overblown really. some of the exposures here i really like, and again they have great atmsophere as images, im deffinatly sure that this is the technquie best suited to my images in this project.

Black and white kent shoots part 1 *

Here i revisited the locations in kent that i  shot in colour  with a black and white 35mm film and the difference is remarkable. I really think these images in black and white are a vast contrast to those in colour. i started the film with an revisit to kits coty but again not feeling inspired i left the film and used the rest in rochester, however i do have some great images from both locations, that are possible for use as final images.

Rochester- Location details *

Growing up with an interest in the paranormal and hearing storys about all the haunted locations back home has finally come in handy. Growing up heavily around rochester has allowed me to get to know the locations perfect for this project. the main 'haunts' as it were are the castle and the cathedral. All these locations i have shot before, namely for a commision based around the story of edwin drood. The most famous of ghosts in rochester, said to walk many of the locations including both of those i have shot, is Charles dickens, who lived alot of his life, and wrote alot of his books around the area of rochester. Each year there is a festival in his honar.

Rochester castle
This shell of a norman castle is one of the most well preserved in the country, which is weird as it does look like its going to fall out. many storys surround the ghosts that haunt this castle. There are two more prominant ghosts that are said to be seen. The first is Lady Blanche de Warren. the lady in white who is said to haunt the battlemants at easter. the story goes they were defending the castle against the Black Prince, Simon de Montfort. her husband to be, Ralph de Capo, led the battle against the King's enemies.

One of the rebel's men, Gilbert de Clare, was a rejected suitor of the ladys and he still bore a grudge. During a brief lull in the fighting to mark Easter Sunday, he sneaked into the castle, she fought hard against him and tried to push him away. Ralph saw his fiances plight and, being an excellent bowman, fired an arrow at de Clare. The arrow struck de Clare's armour but bounced off and went straight into lady Blanches heart.and she died instantly. Every Easter she is said to be seen in the castle and grounds with an arrow still through her heart trying to change her fate.

Another ghost that is said to haunt the castle is a roman soldier, even earlier, who is said to be seen walking the now dry moat. Itis assumed that he drowned in the moat during another battle. 

Rochester Cathedral 

Opposit the castle is the cathedral, said to be haunted by the most famous of ghosts, charles dickens. It is said that upon his death he wanted to be burried in rochester cathrals graveyard (which ironicaly stretches into the castles moat), and yet because of his work in literature he was burried among the greats in westminster abbey. Now he in spirit is said to return to rochester. As well as old Charlie, ghosts of monks whom once resided in the cathedral are said to walk the hallways of the cathedral, still in there habits. 

Experiments in colour part2 *

Another location close to home is that of the historical city of rochester. here two of the bigger places that are haunted i have photographed. (see location info) again using colour film to experiment to see if it was the location that didnt feel right on my preivious shoot, or the style of the colour imagery.

While i do prefer these images to that taken at kits coty, i agree with my previous statement that the colour film does not give the same grittyness and feel as the other images taken in black and white. The use of vintage film gives the images a almost retro 70s feel which is not atall wat i want from my images. while some of them have come out interesting they are just not what i am looking to produce from my work. the images that i prefer here are the darker and more monotoned images.

Martina Lindquist- ragskar island

The work of Martina Lindquist has always been atmospheric, but what drew me to her collection based around ragskar island was her use of colour.  In a similar way to Chrystel Lebas' work The images are too dark. they dont look correctly exposed or they look as if they have been photoshopped. however it is this darkness on the images that give them a creative style. they stand out. they feel gritty and dark, moody and brooding. this is a good idea to play around with the contast between light and dark within my images and the effect it would create.

Experiments in colour part1 *

as stated before i wanted to try out an experiement in colour on my holga 35mm, and i decided to purchase some out of date film to try and capture the essence of age within the images. with being at home, i decidedto shoot my first few in colour to see how they would of come out. the location of this shoot was kits coty as the history is stated before.

the only problem with kits coty is there isnt really alot there thats very astetically pleasing to try and shoot, so trying to make the images more interesting i was messing aorund witht idea of double exposures and moveent to see how they came out with the colour film.

Overall i was pretty diapointed with these images. the colours dont really allow the images to have that same sort of atmosphere as the black and white images i was achieving. while some of them did come out interesting i find the colours abit distracting in these images. but then again it maybe that it was more that i found the location overall not that easy to photograph, unlike most of the other locations i have or am visiting kits coty has been reduced just down to a few stones. maybe experimenting with colour in a different location will make the images more inspiring?

Chrystel Lebas- Hidden nature

A fascination with darkness and the unseen haunts the work of London-based French photographer Chrystel Lebas . Using a panoramic camera with long exposure times ranging from two to six hours, Lebas creates sweeping, mesmerising landscapes, which explore photography’s relationship with time and movement. Her work, hidden nature focuses highly on colour and light to create interesting atmos. The images all follow the same palete of colours which is minimal and a cold bluey temperature. This affects the images in a way to create more haunting images. They seem to linger in the darkness and shadows, and even in the light, the images appear not to be in real light, only lighter. Some of the images look more dark then light and looks like the photographer hasnt paid much attention, but infact that is the effect that was aimed for.