This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #361 is ‘Doors revisited’. That theme was also the brief for LAPC #20. A door is a pass way to another space behind it. That space can be something we know already. Or something we like to imagine to see there when we go through. And in books you can end up in another world. In this post a few doors I met in my life. One I used for a long time, most I just passed by or passed through on holidays.
The word ‘doors’ for me is also linked to the band The Doors. The name of the band came from a book by Aldous Huxley, The doors of perception. And Huxley took it from William Blake, who used it as a metaphor:
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern . Doors lead you to another side or space, break on through to the other side.”
So a lot can be said about doors. Luckily, we still have the photos. Here are a few from my conscious memory.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – November 1991
This is the front door to the house I was born and lived in for 25 years. The photo is shot on Ilford XP with a Pentax K1000.
France, Caylus – September 2005
This door in Caylus is ready to be knocked. Shot on Nikon D70.
Greece, Karpathos – September 2009
I looked through my archive. It struck me that lots of the doors I saw there are doors of small or bigger churches. This one is on Karpathos. Shot on Nikon D70.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
This week’s Lens Artitsts Photo Challenge (#321) is Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). These photos are from a workshop in 1997 in France, where we had to create movement with a low shutter speed while following the subject. Basically a fun excercise but done on film. So the result literally came to light after developing the film. The excitement and anxiety about the possible results were out of scale! Patience.
These film archives are the source of my B4 retouch series.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed andMarksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
LAPC 309 is about balconies. I have to admit that I do not pay special attention to balconies, unless they trigger me as I look around and they catch my eye. I do however ‘collect’ French windows. So occasionally they pop up in a frame. This is one of those, in one of my favourite cities, Paris. From the analogue archive of December 1993.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta . Click the picture for a bigger version.
Today we remember that 80 years ago thousands were willing to pay the highest price to give us our freedom. John Steele landed on the pinnacle of this church in the early morning of June 6 1944 in Sainte-Mère-Église.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed andMarksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta . Click the picture for a bigger version.
The views of the landscapes are taken from the car in the passenger seat. And sometimes that leads to seeing surprising objects in the front of the picture. LAPC #209 is surreal.
LAPC #209 is surreal. In the north of France on the west coast, just over the border with Belgium, is a wood of pylons with powerlines. Like an army stepping into the world, over a field of ripples, in St. Georges-sur-l’Aa.
LAPC #209 is surreal. In the north of France on the west coast, just over the border with Belgium, is a wood of pylons with powerlines. Like an army stepping into the world, in St. Georges-sur-l’Aa.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a bigger version
Pont de Normandie is a beautiful bridge over the river Seine between Le Havre and Honfleur. It towers over you as you approach it. The first time I passed it I was in admiration and also in awe. This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #181 is double dipping: send in a photo that is related to another creative challenge on WordPress. This photo is a response to the monthly Thursday special of Lost in Translation. A beautiful blog with great creative photography. Each month one can enter photo’s portraying words: in December 2021 Introspective, Anticipating, Befriending, Choices, Wish. This photo describes anticipation and choices. If you choose to cross a bridge like this, what will it be like?
Mona Lisa is one of the most famous and genius works of art in the world. I was lucky to view it for the first time when the Louvre was not modernized. On a Monday morning in February 1984 me and a friend were the only persons in the room to admire her mysterious smile. In 2008 I saw her again from a distance, in a sea of pressing people, holding up phones and camera’s to get a glimpse of her. I have not been there since, but I can imagine what it must look like on a normal day before the pandemic. A wave of smartphones will be raised towards her, in a never ending stream of people on visiting times of the Louvre. Apparently 80% of the visitors of the Louvre come to see her.
I read in an article that at present people seek personal attention in combination with important objects and/or moments. A selfie is the instrument to gain that attention on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or Tiktok. Mona Lisa/Lisa Gherardini never wanted that attention, a brilliant artist painted her portrait. And the rest is history. She must feel lonely now, no one is coming to see her. Or is she finally getting her well deserved rest.
Le Mont Saint Michel is an old village on a rock in a bay on the west of France in Brittany. It is positioned in between Normandy and Brittany, and is famous for its abbey.
One from the archive. Père Lachaise is a famous graveyard in Paris, with lots of celebrities being rested there; another one for this week’s lens artistists challenge #168: seen better days. You can buy a map with the names of the famous on it, to find their graves. One of the youngest to be buried there was Jim Morrisson. Lead singer of The Doors, icon. The first time I visited Père Lachaise was early in 1985. Together with a friend we took a look at his grave; which was not that difficult to find because ‘helpful’ signs on gravestones, with arrows, pointed one in the right direction. At his grave we found a very young girl mourning. I asked her why she was so sad. “Jim is gone!”, she said. She must have been very young when he died in 1971. But her grieve was real. And years later in 2021, on a walk around the local lake, young people were playing The Doors loud on a big ghetto blaster like device. They looked at me as I walked by, smirking at me because they thought I did not like the loudness nor the music. “Great music boys”, I said as I walked by. They were surprised and replied: “Yes, this is great music sir!”. We grinned together, two different generations but the same love for The Doors. Break on through to the other side.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Originally shot with Nikon F301 on Kodak TriX, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
Originally shot with Nikon F301 on Kodak TriX, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
The picture was originally shot with Pentax K1000 on Kodak Plusx, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
The picture was originally shot with Pentax K1000 on Kodak Plusx, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.