Monthly Archives: May 2012

Robert Mapplethorpe – The Complete Flowers

By Chris | Published May 22, 2012

Robert Mapplethorpe is possibly best known in the UK for his iconic portraits of Patti Smith and for the shock value his homo-erotic work brought to the ICA in the late eighties.

Robert Mapplethorpe The Complete Flowers was published by teNeues in 2006 in hardcover and features 53 colour and 227 duotone photographs ranging from his earliest work right up until shortly before his death in 1989.

His portraits of flowers are possessed of many of the same qualities as his erotic work, managing to suggest and emphasise a sexuality that some would argue is inherent in flowers in any case. Whether you agree with that or not, this book is breathtakingly beautiful. Mapplethorpe brought a fine art sensibility to photography and it is very evident in these pictures.

Quite honestly, as a birthday present this book is fabulous. As a body of work, this sets the standard.

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Even the Grey Days Are Good!

By Chris | Published May 17, 2012

Brighton Bandstand

The Bandstand on Brighton Seafront

Sometimes, even photography is hard work! I strained my back last weekend and couldn’t get an appointment with the osteopath until tomorrow. I’ve been pretty much immobilised for nearly a week and living on pain killers and toast. As is usually the case with these things, the pain and stiffness has gradually receded and I’ve been pushing myself out to exercise over the last three days. Of course I’ve taken my camera or at least the lighter of my cameras, the Canon G1 X!

This photograph is one that I’ve been meaning to take for ages. The bandstand in Brighton is one of the most popular venues for weddings and if there isn’t a wedding there’s usually a photographer cluttering up the view. Today, I walked past and sure enough there was a photographer. It was a very grey day and as I walked, I started to think of ways of getting a good image.The flat grey sky wasn’t going to do me any favours, so I decided to go for a high contrast, bleached out look in post production. I stopped and looked back and the photographer was packing up. As an added bonus there were very few people around so I went back and took a series of shots quite fast, not worrying about the colour, but trying to get the geometry right.

This shot was desaturated and the contrast boosted in Lightroom, then converted to black and white. I used Silver Efex Pro to get the high contrast, bleached out look and was pretty happy with the result. Sometimes even the bad days are good!

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