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“The picture made by the camera is a more or less faithfull representation of what a single eye might have seen, and from the patches of light and shade in the positive photographic print the eye and the mind working together can arrive at a reasonably accurate interpretation of the form and nature of the objects portrayed.”

Ilford manual of photography, Chapter I, The mechanism of image formation

 

“Well, it would be nice if it went to Greece…” Gordon replied to my query. That led to conversations on cameras, our countries, people, the world. Also led to this series of musings that will be hosted here. Gordon Christie, a Scotsman. Nasos Papathanasiou, a Greek. Both on a camera bug.

The same object will have a different appeal photographed in Scotland and in Greece due to diverse light conditions. The blue sky of Greece Gordon wishes for, is a beautifull sight. However the sun is strong and direct, this translates to harsch shadows and colours. Scotland on the other hand, may have way less sunny days but the sun is almost always in angle. This makes up for friendlier shadows and saturated colours- a remark from Antonis, a good friend, a good photographer and photowalk companion.

You win some, you lose some…

But, enough with the light. The light was not “the trigger”.

As I was growing up, a distinctive sound was bringing a sense of joy and triggered my curiosity. A Sankyo sound 700 super/single8 projector was sending light through celluloid, forming moving images of my childhood on a Perfecta screen. I still have them, as I also have my father’s small metal rangefinder camera, his Yashica J.

I believe most of the scratches on the Yashica’s front element were made by me, wiping it, a common mistake. Eventually I grew up, and the triggered bug came to life.

Nasos Papathanasiou