Les Dix - My Entry for FADU 2010

[Dave miller]

My entry for FADU 2010 - Les Dix

In 2010 I decided to try and get some of my prints out into the world rather than have them sitting in boxes in my bedroom. FADU 2010 seemed an opportunity to achieve this resolution so I duly entered six prints that I have produced over the past couple of years. The only way I normally present my prints is at camera club events, where it is a requirement that they are properly window mounted on board. Having selected my six prints, how could I best present them un-mounted? In the end I cropped them the way I wanted and stuck them on white cartridge paper. I was pleased with the result and duly sent the prints off. My feeling was that unless there were more photographers entering than spaces on the exhibition wall I had a reasonable chance of getting one print accepted unless it was decided that my prints were not of the required quality. I was surprised and delighted to see that two of my prints were selected for the exhibition and two were also selected for the book.

For the Exhibition

Clematis and Dish

This was one of a series I did on clematis flowers from my garden. I took various photographs during the life cycle of the flowers, most of them after taking them indoors and photographing in diffused sunlight. I have to give credit to John Blakemore’s darkroom book in which he described his tulip journey.
This gave me the idea to attempt something similar with a different type of flower but I have a long way to go to produce the kind of work he did! This is the only one of the prints that was produced on fibre based paper. It was an added bonus that this appeared in the Silverprint Exhibition.

Clematis Seed Head

This is another one of the series, but this time low key. These seed heads were produced in abundance the first year I photographed the flowers but since then they have been rare. Flower experts may be able to tell me why but it is one of those curious things that you would not notice unless you study a thing closely.

For the Book

Winter Sun

I do sometimes venture out with my camera but find it difficult to produce landscape photographs that are not just a repetition of what has been done before. However, I do enjoy this one. It was taken one February somewhere between Haltwhistle and Walltown Craggs on the edge of the Northumberland National Park in northern England. This was cropped vertically due to a scratch running along the side of the negative but I think this helps the composition. This was given a slight sepia tone.

Paper Shapes

I took a number of photographs of a sheet of A4 office paper and this was what I consider to be the best result. I enjoy trying to create photographs from unusual subject matter indoors.

Equipment Used

If In case you want to know about the equipment etc I can say that the images were recorded on 35 mm Ilford film using a Minolta MD mount camera, except for Winter Sun which was taken on 120 Delta 3200 (hand held) using a Seagull twin lens reflex camera. Apart from ‘Clematis and Dish’ they were printed on Ilford resin coated paper.
It was sad that the exhibition could not take place but I think having a book is an excellent way of showing the world that we produce good, traditional photography rather than just sit around talking about old cameras. For that reason, why not have a go at FADU 2011?



Les Dix.

[Richard Gould]

Very interesting the way you got your entry together, Sadly I missed entering fadu 2010 due to pressure of work, but I already have my first 2 prints for 2011 ready, Richard

[SteveMorales]

Absolutely interesting. I studied History of the Arts and I simply love what you wrote! The entry is very witty and has a fundamental background in research. I love the second flower picture... it is beautiful yet describes the unknown and the world in black and white perfectly clear... all colors vanished, banned. Very melancholic yet very deep. You can hardly find pictures of online flowers like that anywhere... real art is to be found within the heart of a museum, an art gallery...