Raymond Moore, a Nikkormat FT, and a roll of weird film

 

About two weeks ago, I came across a YouTube video about the life of British landscape photographer Raymond Moore. It looked like a copy of an old VHS recording of a television broadcast from the 1980s. Two things immediately jumped out at me: one, Raymond Moore is a damn fine photographer whose work deserves a wider (current) audience; two, money was not plentiful for him back in the 80s and he was working with a Nikkormat FT camera. In other words, he was producing great photographic art with some pretty basic equipment, even by the standards of the time. These days, a decent working copy of a Nikkormat FT can be had for $40. You know where this is going. I bought one that also came with a copy of the old version of the 50mm f/2 lens for $100. One fine morning, I grabbed a roll of something called Washi Z, a 400 speed near IR sensitive film. After shooting the roll on a hike through the woods, I made the fateful decision to process it in a monobath solution. The first sign of possible strangeness ahead was when I poured out the monobath, which had changed color from clear to bright yellow. The negatives were pretty thin and contrasty with a short tonal scale, not unlike a film from the 19th century. I decided to embrace the aesthetic, and, in the end, ended up with a set of images that I think are pretty cool.

Here's to shooting in good light this weekend!

Work with what you have

I made this image using my original Leicaflex camera and an old 50mm Summicron. I shot it on a roll of cheap expired film. I don't bother to use the light meter when shooting with this camera, preferring instead to use Sunny 16. Keep it simple, stupid, and trust your experience. I'm lucky to have a nice range of film cameras to chose from when I go out shooting, but even if I had nothing else, the Leicaflex + Summicron combo would be a very fine little set-up for art making. 

I recently came across an old documentary about the British landscape photographer Raymond Moore that I think was made in the mid-1980s, near the end of the artist's life (available on YouTube). Moore is a favorite of mine, along with Fay Godwin. Anyway, I noticed that he was working with a Nikkormat, which was an entry level F-mount camera introduced in the mid-1960s (same vintage as my original Leicaflex).

Moore sure made some incredible work with that old Nikkormat! His eye for composition is pretty much unmatched. His work deserves to be more widely known.