I made another short business trip to London last week and took just the Leica M6ttl, the 35mm f2.0 lens and 4 rolls of film, mostly Ilford XP2, the black and white negative film that is processed like a standard color negative film (C41 Process). Processing and scans by National Photo here in Baltimore.
While I was out shooting, I felt uninspired. I was looking for great images and didn’t see any. What I was forgetting, since I’ve been less consistent about shooting, is the tranformative power of the camera. Ordinary scenes, at just the right moment, can be transformed by the emulsion.
I totaled up the cost this time. It works out to $20 a roll. An M8 is about 250 rolls worth at this point. I’ve shot about 20 rolls this year, so I’m ahead of the game on a cost basis.
More importantly, the film/scanning workflow has a different look to it and requires much less post processing than my color digital work. I think I’ll continue working on this Urban Landscape project using the Leica and C41 black and white film for the time being, while the Nikon 80 brings color to the Suburban Landscape project.
I chose to post this image to remind myself that I’m trying to create a landscape aesthetic in the images, getting away from the flat abstracts as formal composition. I want to portray the space and structure, using people in the urban environment when I can.