StreetSoul

Category: Black and White

  • Before / After: Bringing Him Back

    Before / After: Bringing Him Back

    The original was too dark. The face was almost gone, the shirt was flat and the harbour pulled the eye away. I opened the shadows, lowered the background a little, cropped tighter and added some grain. Nothing clever. Just putting the photograph where it should have been.

    And that little Brightin Star 28mm f/2.8… bloody hell. It is tiny, cheap and far better than it has any right to be. Sharp, but not sterile. Good contrast, lovely grey tones and a bit of character around the edges. I bought it out of curiosity. It keeps giving me reasons to use it.

    Leica M10 Monochrom · Brightin Star 28mm f/2.8

    Before / after editing
  • The People Were Part of the Show

    The People Were Part of the Show

    At an opening, the paintings stay on the walls and people do what people do: talk too much, block the way, glance sideways and occasionally remember to look properly.

    At Enrique Mestre’s exhibition, the room had more layers than expected. The paintings, obviously. But also faces close to the frames, gestures left hanging in mid-conversation, a dog moving under everyone’s legs and Enrique himself, briefly caught inside the scene.

    I went in with the Leica and a 35 mm, close enough to be slightly in the way. The opening carried on around me: late arrivals, someone leaning too near a painting, someone else already thinking about the next drink. The work stayed on the walls and took it.

    That was what I photographed. The small friction between the art and the people looking at it. Or pretending to.

    Technical: Leica M10 Monochrom · Summicron-M 35mm f/2