in danger

There is probably some kind of perverse law in the universe dictating that some things have to happen at the worst possible time. Like for example getting a terrible cold when you’re travelling. Although I wanted to shoot a lot, do a lot, see a lot, I actually had to stay indoors for a few days until the worst of the cold was over. And that with 20 rolls of Rollei RPX 400 at my disposal! It’s not fair!

Yesterday I finally made it outside though and went to the Joel Meyerowitz retrospective in Düsseldorf. Let me tell you, it was plainly amazing! The colour prints were mostly made with the dye transfer process and were absolutely stunning. In front of some of his large format prints I stood with my mouth open and just couldn’t believe the colours! I have never seen anything like it! Well, with all these exclamation marks, I think you get my drift.

Getting this kind of colour seems impossible with a digital process. Especially with my digital cameras there seems to be already something off with the colours that the sensors produce and it needs a lot of fiddling to get good colour out of them if possible at all. The only digital camera where I have liked the colours apart from with the occasional fluke was with the Leica M9 results I’ve seen on the web. I’ve seen them posted without any post-processing whatsoever and they hold up! With my gear … imagine me sitting there and fiddling for 20 minutes until I get it right and then only at ISO 200-400. Beyond that the digital noise just becomes unbearable! This is why I hardly ever shoot colour. Printing was a similar disappointment for me. I’ve printed only a few colour pictures, but even when my proofing is correct, the colours just don’t reach the stunning depth of what I’ve seen yesterday. Well, with this kind of quality I would shoot colour too! Maybe I just need to take the plunge and try to develop my own colour film.

This time I show you pictures from another recent trip to Bilbao.

All pictures taken with: Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5.
Tri-X developed in Tetenal Ultrafin 1:10, 9 min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

About to be attacked by Maman … I love this sculpture.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Not sure what the skateboards are doing, but it kinda looks naughty!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Unhappy look!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

I wondered whether I should crop the guy with the mobile phone on the right, but well, you need full resolution to see what he’s doing anyway, so I kept him there. Have I mentioned that medium format is great?

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The Guggenheim is such a cool building. I don’t often take architectural shots, bot here it’s hard to resist.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Tri-X produced some lovely tones here.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

I just couldn’t figure out which line was actually vertically aligned, so I left it like this …

Comments

  • das klingt ja wirklich vielversprechend. die meyerowitz ausstellung schaue ich mir naechste woche auch an, bin jetzt noch gespannter als vorher 🙂
    und klasse bilder!

    • Lilly Schwartz

      Danke 🙂
      Ach, bist Du in der Gegend? Wann denn genau? Ich bin nämlich noch bis Freitag hier und dann könnte man sich ja vielleicht auf einen Kaffee treffen. Aber vielleicht bist Du ja erst am Wochenende hier …

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