Birmingham 2008: Postcards of sorts . Sorte de Cartes Postales.

My favourite taken during a brief halt in Birmingham in 2008. Ma préférée prise durant un bref passage à Birmignham en 2008.

cropped below / recadrée ci-dessous

Black and white photos of Birmingham by Christophe Chevaugeon. Photographies noir et blanc de Birmingham par Christophe Chevaugeon

At Sea En Mer

Ferry crossing to Amsterdam from the UK. Traversée en ferry pour Amsterdam depuis le RU. Digital. Numérique. 2012

Ok, I rarely go for a reduced tonal range but here I felt it fitted for this photo. On the other hand, I felt that the flagpole image needed something more subtle. D’accord, je vais rarement pour un éventail réduit de tons mais ici j’ai pensé que cela convenait à cette photo. en revanche, il m’a semblé que l’image du mat pour drapeau avait besoin d’un traitement plus nuancé.

As for the next two images of a father and daughter, a classic treatment seemed best suited. Et quant aux deux images suivantes, un traitement classique m’a paru le plus approprié.

I enjoyed putting a gif together from the sequence of photos of this little magic moments. The last one is my favourite of the series. All these photos link back to my portfolio site chevaugeonphoto.com, page “Here and There”.

J’ai aimé créer un gif à partir de la séquence de photos de ce petit moments magique…C’est la dernière que je préfère de cette séquence. Toutes ces photos contiennent un lien vers mon site chevaugeonphoto.com, section “Here and There” (page “Ici et Là).

Farms,wind turbines, sheep and big sky : a landscape. Fermes,turbines à vent, moutons et grand ciel:un paysage.

Hard to keep life in this very downsized for web version. Difficile de faire vivre  cette image dans cette version reduite pour la toile.

Northumberland UK  D800 and 35mm Black and white photographic documentary landscape. Photographie noir et blanc documentaire d’un paysage.

C’est la dernière image que j’ai éditée cette année,aujourdhui pour être précis, le signe d’un tournant vers une approche plus documentaire. Merci d’avoir interagi avec moi tout au long de l’année et vous souhaitant une année 2015 qui fasse sens. Et merci beaucoup de continuer à partager votre travail !

Last image that I’ve edited this year,today to be precise,a sign of a turning point towards a more documentary approach.Thanks for interacting with me throughout the year and wishing you a meaningful 2015. And thank you very much for continuing to share your work !

Les Garçons The Boys Paris 1984 J’espère que vous allez bien. I hope you’re going well.

From a 35 mm negative, digitalised using a D800 and 105 mm macro and then processed in LR and PS .D’après un négatif 35 mm, numérisé avec un D800 et un 105mm macro puis édité dans LR et PS

Although taken 30 years ago, I remember these boys well, even their names. Bien que prise il y a 30 ans, je me souviens bien de ces garçons, même de leurs noms.

La Bastoche

From a 35 mm negative. Place de la Bastille or the Bastoche as we call it in slang.

Taken on a cold winter morning. It’s an image that I prefer to sanitised postcardy views, it says Paris to me.

Brussels Bruxelles La Grand Place

A post card of sorts…

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, another street and architectural photographic encounter.

Until yesterday, I can’t recall using a camera stand on the streets and setting up a photograph as carefully as I’ve done here; with the exception of rare sutdio work, I’ve always taken photographs hand held  ( note the careful use of words here:I hate the expression “shooting” when it comes to photography). There was something quite pleasant about the whole process: looking around, setting up the stand, triple checking focusing thanks to a loupe, setting the f-stop manually, ,waiting for some interesting alignment/arrangement of people passing by, using a release cable, shifting the lens for a second frame, packing up sometimes to only move a few yards further along and starting all over again.

My aim was to get to grips with the 24 mm PC Nikon lens mounted on a D800 and come back with very basic no thrills views of buildings in town whilst taking care to work with either the sun behind me  to avoid complication with uneven skies and the likes (I took a few chances with the sun coming in from different angles). I didn’t bracket in view of possible light touch (realistic) HDR  treatment  for the simple reason that the D800’s range at it’s native 100 ISO is quite remarkable!

Anyway, I was hoping to also capture something more personal than asceptised brochure type views of buildings and if I am pleased with the twenty odd such views that I came back with, it is this photo and the ones in the previous post that matter to me. I am looking forward to printing them soon. A2 is a minimum:the resolution of the D800 is phenomenal.

These modern spaces are not always as lonely and cold as it appears here, but most often are. With that in mind, I consider this an effective portrait of a this space,created to encourage encounters but where people pass by each other most of the time without ever exchanging a glance or a word. With my stand I created some interest and had a lovely chat with a man who wanted to knoow what was interesting me in this particular place that he didn’t even notice anymore…

Victor Hugo La Comédie Française Paris

Read les Misérables or Quatre-Vingt-Treize ( Ninety-Three ) :his last novel .

 

A portrait of J. France 2014

A portrait doesn’t have to be up close and personal to be personal: love you J.

La Piscine rue David d’Angers et Près de La Gare du Nord : Paris un début de projet de livre/ Paris book project

A few months ago I started an ambitious project to put the photos of Paris that matter to me the most in to book form. I’ve almost finished phase one of the work:selecting and editing the photos, many of which where captured on film.

Phase two, the layout, is seriously underway. My options were either to place the photos in more or less chronological order or to link them somehow: I quickly opted for the link them somehow. Furthermore Bruno Chalifour, photographer and critique prompted me to think in terms of series as opposed to stand alone approach.

It’s been a fascintating journey that has revealed to me how much, and sometimes, how little, I ‘ve changed my approach to organising the elements of a photograph leaving aside all considerations of content, lighting and rendition of the black and white.

“La Piscine rue David d’Anger”s is one of my favourite personal photographs. Everything comes together: subject, key elements, light and tonal range. “Près de la Gare du Nord ” I only edited recently (it’s been sitting in my archives for years). It works for me too. Because my archives are not organised , I don’t have a clear idea of how far apart in time they were taken( I suspect not very far ) but no matter how different they are in terms of content, it struck me that they are linked and  need to be on opposing pages:  of course they share obvious features but most importantly in my view they work in similar ways to create a feeling of space and of time captured.

 

 Black and white street photography by Christophe Chevaugeon  taken at the Piscine rud David d’Angers in Paris probably around the mid 90s

 

Black and white street photography by Christophe chevaugeon taken Près de la Gare du Nord in Paris probably around the mid 90s too