Way of working

While at times I just take out my camera on a stroll and get surprised by the surroundings, most of the time the image I create is already conceived in my head before I have the opportunity to actually make it.
After the conception it’s a matter of actually creating that imaginary image in reality, just as I want it to be.
The image ‘]RoodGroenGrauw[‘ (shown on the side) is a perfect example of such an image.

This image existed in my imagination for weeks before I had the chance to make it real.
When I had the chance I took an apple, a pear, a set of knitting needles, background paper and a 1000W halogen light, and started to create this image in reality.
A couple of hours later, it was there.

Photography = Sculpting

Ever since photography was discovered the technical side has evolved a lot. From the daguerreotype involving a mirror-polished surface of silver bearing a coating of silver halide particles to high-tech high-resolution digital sensors, from huge and expensive devices to affordable creditcard-sized camera’s, etc.

The basic principle remains : the photographer selects a scene or composition which is projected through a lens onto a photosensitive surface.
The photographer carefully applies a combination of exposure-time and aperture-size, and takes the picture.

As the heading implies, in my opinion photography and sculpting nowadays have a lot in common. A sculptor carefully selects a piece of rock that already contains the sculpture in essence. Then, using equipment such as a hammer, a chisel and picks, the sculptor reveals this essence from the raw material, using finer tools with more finesse for each ‘layer’ being revealed.

A lot of people think that a photo is made the moment the shutter closes. However, this is far from the truth ; this moment should in fact be compared with the moment the sculptor selects his piece of rock. Everything is captured on the photosensitive surface but the essence is still hidden between the ‘noise’ of the raw capture.
It’s only within the development process – when the sculptor chips away at the rock – when the essence is revealed, bit by bit.
In the old days this phase was accomplished in the dark room, with the chemicals such as toner and developer, contact prints and techniques such as ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’.
Nowadays, this can be done completely digitally, and in my case it’s my PC running Adobe Lightroom which turns my attic into a fully fledged digital darkroom instantly.

I work exclusively with the DNG format; the high end digital equivalent of the negative film we used to have.
All information captured by the CMOS sensor is carefully preserved, without the camera dismissing or misinterpreting this information. All colour, luminance (and lack of it) is recorded in this file.

This allows me to get as close to my originally intended end-result as possible during the development phase, where I achieve the colouring, sharpness and ‘grain’ which is typical for my photos. Every once in a while colours and shades that appear during that phase are more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. Photographers who’ve used (or still use) the good old-fashioned darkroom process will agree with me that the moment the photo appears on paper (in my case on-screen) is a truly magical moment.

While the digital age also brings along other possibilities to develop the photo in my case no ‘Photoshopping’ is applied – there’s no retouching, copy/paste, or layers involved in my photos.
The reason for this is two-fold : I’m too clumsy to handle Photoshop, but also I think it’s important to keep a close distance to the photo and its composition.