One River, Two Seasons

 

Come June, the great mowing begins. All the spring grass that has been growing waist high in the fields and along the river banks, transforming the landscape into a lush green, so refreshing after the dreary winter, is cut down. By July, the yellow of hot summers dominates the scenery.

I hadn't been by the Rhine for a month. This morning, August 1st, I jumped on my bike and pedalled down to the river, eager to see how much the waters had receded as result of the ongoing drought. It wasn't too bad. As expected, the banks were hay coloured, and there was a delicate cloud cover. The river was flowing without a sound*. Indeed, it was utterly quiet all around. I set up my tripod and made a photo, just meters away from where I had made another picture in April.

 *Did you know that "The Rhine flows in E flat major"? This saying, originally in German, goes back to Wagner's Rheingold and also Schumann's 3rd Symphony ("Rheinische"), both of which are in E flat major.

Living With The Dead

 

Scattered around Istanbul are small patches of Ottoman graveyards from bygone glorious days, that are accepted - with reluctance or reverence, I'm not quite sure - to exist in close proximity to the wild urban sprawl. If I'd consider this photo as evidence, I'd hazard a guess that neither the living nor the dead are happy with this arrangement.

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In this bizarre case I found a sycamore tree determined to take some kind of revenge from the dead...no matter how long it would take.

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The first photo is from 2022 and I printed it back then in my darkroom in Istanbul. The second one is from 2023 and I printed it for the first time just a week ago, in my new darkroom in Düsseldorf. It always caught my eye on the contact sheet, but for one reason or another I was never quite sure that it was worth printing. Now that I've printed it, I'm convinced that it was worth it...go figure. That's the power of  contact sheets; you come back to them again and again, and you might decide to give a picture a chance after all. In comparison, I've no idea when I'm going to look through all the photos from my digital camera again. I make a cull immediately after I’ve downloaded them, and that’s it. Those that didn’t make the first cull I put in other folders. They might as well be lost forever.

By the way, the second print is on graded Fomabrom N 111, a paper new to me. I'd decided to give it a shot and ordered a 24x30 cm packet of 25 sheets. It took some time to getting used to, but I like it now.

I was surprised to see how fast the Foma paper is. I have to expose Ilford MG Classic  around one and a half stops more. But then you don't have a filter in the light path of graded paper. So I guess it evens out.

And although it's graded as Normal (hence the "N" in its name), I find it's still slightly soft, even with the condenser light of the Focomat. The Foma webpage says they produce a C(ontrast) version as well, but my retailer doesn't stock it. Still, all is good, because these days I like my prints with a longer grey scale anyway. And I haven't explored selenium toning with this paper yet. I expect a good response, so this should be another option if I want a slight contrast increase.

When dry, the surface is slightly duller than Ilford's glossy FB, which I actually prefer.

FWIW, here's an iphone pic of the wet print.

So, my favourite season, summer is finally here. I was all set to enjoy it until I read that the experts are predicting a strong El Niño with all accompanying calamities: extreme heat, forest fires and what not. The planet hasn't much time left I'm afraid...well, the planet actually has, those living on it don't; apart from cockroaches maybe.

The Lives of Others

Very rarely were the curtains drawn back. When they were however, a group of framed colour prints, lovingly arranged, revealed themselves on the wall. I never saw a person in the room, only an occasional flicker of a shadow. I imagined a photography admirer, possibly even a soulmate, living close by, who made himself/herself comfortable in a couch and, looking at those pictures, dreamed themselves away.

*I've borrowed the title of this post from the same named film. Well worth watching.