For reasons too embarrassing to recount regarding my own attempt to repair my camera, followed by my camera being damaged further at a local repair shop, I have been away a long time. Actually I have been right here. My camera, however, took a lengthy journey to Colorado where it received serious surgery (they basically gutted it and started over) at the Pentax American Division.
Now it’s back, I’m back, and shooting with renewed vigor. I did have my old Sony Mavica. Old in the camera world meaning a little over seven years. I really liked my Mavica. I used it to take some of my best pictures to date. It simply could not do what a DSLR (Digital Single Reflex Camera) can do. For outdoor shots, it was fantastic. It also documented my pets and home life quite well.
When attending an event like Florida MegaCon, though, I came home with several discs of blurred pictures. It was simply too dark and/or fast for my camera to perform like I wanted it to.
Not having my camera, I read about photography. That was how I came across Bill Brandt who quickly became my idol and favorite photographer. One of my favorite quotes about what art is was by Amiri Baraka who stated, “Art is something that makes you proud to be human.”
I have never seen a photographer accomplish this quite like Bill Brandt. He photographed people at all socio-economic levels from debutantes and celebrities to factory workers and school children with a reverence that makes them all equally delightful to see and wish you could meet. In a contemporary world where bright, glossy colors and tack-sharp focus are sought after as the holy grail of “good” photography, I found real genius in Brandt’s old black and white photographs with all their blur, grain and dark shadows bringing them to life in the way only a master of his calibre can.
Inspired by Brandt, knowing a Sony Mavica would be more than enough for such a master, I tried again and got one photograph I like enough to post on the site. This is Katy at The Frosty Mug restaurant in Mount Dora. She is my brother’s girlfriend who came down with him to visit and this is one of my favorite portraits. In post processing, it was altered to appear as a photo taken a hundred years ago.
I was further inspired by Brandt to do more “street” photography. I like events and festivals because they get people out of their homes and doing something fun but I have always liked street photography and realized I wanted to capture people more in their daily lives as well.
This photograph of Katy officially opens the People in Florida gallery where I look forward to photographing the great people we see and meet in this state.
Coming up next will be more black and white photographs I took with my new lens on a windy day in Florida.
~Morgan
