The truth is the project is completed save for a few photos (and we’re talking about 2 rolls of 35mm at most) of specific shots I want to include the book (Loughton and Middleton streetscapes that I have shot before but did not come out very well owing to using bad film back in May 2010), the odd portrait and the odd candid shot which I am arranging.

In all, this means that 95-97% of the book’s images are finalised and in place.

In December 2010 I received the first proof copies of the book to check the colour reproduction which is looking great.

In truth the book was meant to be released in time for Xmas 2010 but clearly that has not happened. Here are the main reasons why:

• Preparing the book has taken much longer than expected, mostly due to re-scans of slides and files somehow going missing on my hard disk (hence the re-scans in some cases) and the general management of the files on computer that make up the book. I underestimated this task severely and I have been working fairly solidly time permitting on the book since October 2010 and I am now about half way through the book.
• Funding applications have not been successful so far but I am reapplying. This funding will help me put on exhibitions, produce the book run and run the book launch. Without this capital, I will struggle to do much of a book launch and exhibitions will be delayed to such a time where I can afford to pay out of my own pocket (which I will do if need be)
• The wish to get some of the above pictures particularly of Loughton (Linceslade Grove) and Middleton (not MK Village) in early spring where there is some colour. These are gaps I won’t be happy to see the book get printed and released without them being present. There are also some portraits of Milton Keynes Development Corporation folks I wish to get if at all possible.
• The need to send Derek Walker who will be writing a foreword a copy of the book that gives him a good enough approximation of the actual project so he may refer to it in his words should he so choose, it’s only now that I am getting close to this.
• I need (as my day job is web development) to build a website for the project. This is the bus man’s holiday part of the project!

As such in order to hit a deadline and get the book launched when I say it will be, it is looking to be around a May/June 2011 book launch. I can already reveal much of the initial pricing:

• Abridged (cut down) version – Paperback 120 pages – price likely to be between £15 and £25 depending on level of funding received
• Unabridged version – Paperback – price around £30-40 depending on level of funding
• Unabridged version – Hardback – price around £60

All books are 10 x 8” landscape full colour. The hardback edition will be an on-line order only item, and will have a dust jacket with the hardback being black linen.

There will potentially be a limited run of 13×11” hardback landscape versions which will be signed by myself and will retail at around £130.00 although this is not a guaranteed to happen item (except for myself on a personal level.)

As such, please don’t think I have disappeared and nothing will happen, it will but all of this combined with me currently holding down a full time job, a part time job and doing this book which is full time job in itself means I am a very busy person, I am so determined to get this book done, out there, launched, exhibited etc. that I’m knuckling down.

As such, details will emerge before May 2011 of launch details and book pricing etc.

Stay tuned!

I have:

Kodak Endura Paper – for sale/to buy

1 x box of unopened brand new Kodak Endura RA4 paper cut sheet 50 sheets. 9.5 x 12″. 2010 expiry date. £20 + Postage.

1 x box of unopened brand new Kodak Endura RA4 paper cut sheet 50 sheets. 8 x 10″. 2010 expiry date. £15 + Postage.

1 x partially used light tight box of Kodak Endura RA4 paper. Cut sheet. 8×10″ size. Approx 40 sheets remaining out of 100 size box. May 2010 expiry. £7 + Postage.

RA4 Chemicals

Kodak RA4 Developer and Blix – Suitable for development at 20C/68F. This is the RA4 Replenisher kit. This will work at room temperature. Supplied in kit form to make 5l of blix and 5l of developer. There are 3 batches of the 4 remaining meaning a total of 15l of blix and developer. These can be split down further to make 1L batches. Unopened and fully in date. £35 + Postage – UK ONLY!

Contact me if you are interested, payment by Paypal if you want to go ahead. Prefer to send only within UK. RA4 chems strictly UK only.

And through that I have been shooting some slide film. Slide film the mainstay of keen amateur photographers, photo journalists and the publishing industry for such a long time. Since the digital revolution we have seen some reduction in Fuji and Kodak’s E6 transparency lines, although curiously Fuji still maintains a pretty broad E6 line, more than perhaps 10 years ago. I am sure that has now jinxed it and we’ll see another shambolic Fuji announcement of this has been kind of discontinued in this region. We think. We’ll ask. If I have time… (This is a reference to the swingeing C41 cuts they announced a few months ago.)

This update isn’t a full one, as I still have a couple of emulsions to try out in fairness but I think I have come to a suitable conclusion for the mainstay of my photography.

Why shoot slide film/chromes?

The simple answer in my case is I like traditional slide shows. I am sorry but give or take the dust, there is still nothing like projected film slides compared to current HD Digital Projectors which are very good, but air a decent Kodachrome, Velvia or E100VS shot on a decent screen, with a decent lens and you’ll be agog at how surprisingly good 35mm can be. I know it makes my jaw drop every time because technically 35mm film is inferior to small-format digital, but there’s more to life than just raw resolution. Anyway, I digress, the main reason is I like slideshows.

The second is saturation. Whether you want a more neutral appearance (E100G, Astia, Sensia 100, Elitechrome 100) or to be smacked up sharp with colour (Velvia 50, E100VS/EBX) then slide film just has saturation you can’t get in negative film, perhaps it’s something to do with contrast ratio. I have no idea. They are just different. This is why Ektar 100 as brilliant as it is, is no slide film.

What prompted this search

Again simple : Kodachrome 64 discontinued. Kodachrome was special, it was neutral but a saturated decent film if an old fashioned emulsion as they go. I’ll miss it a lot. It was also very archival. However, I can say with some happiness that I have found three superb replacements that I actually in some ways wish I had been pushed to use before now. See below for what I have been most impressed by.

The downsides to slides?

The obvious one is exposure latitude and dynamic range. Slides are very much like digital, perhaps less forgiving still. Velvia overexposed a stop usually looks bad. Two stops and it’s ruined, just as most slide films are. One stop under, muddy black shadows rule. This isn’t point and shoot, this is either auto-exposure of diligent metering territory. Which is why for street/candid I do prefer negative film, but for landscapes and architecture – I have experimented and Ektar 100 gets close, but slides rule (see what I did there? No? ok…Taxi!)

The other is that on the face of it most are limited to ISO 100, but this isn’t a problem really. For most days with decent weather you’re going to be able to shoot a very decent f/8 1/125th at least. Don’t let the creeping wonderful high ISO performance of digital fool you that ISO 100 is too slow, it’s not. In any instance, ISO 200 on a bright day like yesterday was virtually unusable for what I wanted as I was shooting at f/11 1/1000th, my OM2 and my M2 don’t have faster shutter speeds. That said we still have Provia 400X and that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.

The other slight downside is the lack of high street (main street) E6 processing, all my E6 is sent out now. In fact I had a bit of a shock when I found out that there is possibly only one C41 lab left in my town, and Worthing isn’t that small (100,000 people call it home, biggest town in West Sussex with Crawley.) Anyway, that’s been the case for some time now, and if I desperately need quick E6 processing I can pop into Brighton which has a couple of decent enough E6 labs. All in all, it makes shooting slides a more considered process.

What is available?

Again I am only looking at Fuji and Kodak. There might well be other brands but so far as I am concerned these are the only two worth a damn for consistent work and high quality:

* : Astia is no longer available in the UK but can be imported and Sensia 100 is meant to be the older Astia 100.

That’s a fairly decent range of E6, but all the tungsten balanced films are now dead (Fuji RTP/64T and Ektachrome 64T etc) so this is all daylight balance materials. Many come in all sizes up to 8×10”, some are 35mm only (the consumer/semi-professional stuff) and the rest are generally available in 35mm and 120, with Velvia and Provia being readily available in 4×5 and 8×10”.

Interim Results

I still have some testing to do but at least in 35mm I have found three films I have been consistently impressed by – Kodak Elite Chrome!

Before I properly review the materials here are my observations and why I like them:

• Elite Chrome 100 (EB) : This is probably a bit warmer than E100G, more like the discontinued E100GX I would imagine. This is the closest you will get to Kodachrome I think. It’s also finer grained than KR64. Yes the shadows still err slightly to blue, but I actually like this and actually shadows ARE blue, it’s just that our eyes balance them to greys. It’s just a great film, good for landscapes where you don’t want to be just seduced by colour, but also by smooth tonal graduation. Ideal for portraits too. Genuinely a hidden gem, I hope it is popular because I would struggle to find an acceptable replacement for this one if it went…
• Elite Chrome 100 Extra Colour/Color (EBX) : Everything that EB is above but with more colour. The great thing about this is that the shadows don’t block up like Velvia 50 or as easily. It is a high saturation film and is the semi-pro variant of E100VS. Delivers good neutral greys and better than Velvia skin-tones. If I am honest, I prefer this to Velvia 50; this is an easier film to expose for. I have used a lot of this material and it is a great film.
• Elite Chrome 200 : Presumably analogous to E200, basically everything EB is but 1 stop faster. Can be pushed but apparently shifts magenta a couple of stops or more. But this is one heck of a slide film. Don’t be mugged off by this appearing to be a cheap-ass consumer film, Kodak labels all three of these as Professional films. Does make me wonder how they are cheap as I have found great consistency from roll to roll too.

Downsides? Elite Chrome is 35mm only but you can get E100/E100VS/E200 in 120.

I have the distinct pleasure of being a web developer myself, tongue taken out of cheek I am glad to have a job of course, and I work in local government (my first and maybe only stint.) I know what it’s like when you make a small well tested change and then you get a hardcore group of people who would let you believe the small change you have made is akin to genocide or the holocaust. Witness all the groups when Facebook makes a change which are started calling for the “Old Facebook.” Anyway I digress slightly but the point is that I am sure a few people hate what Flickr have done but to me they have done a splendid job. So what are the highlights?

Lightbox

How many times have I been frustrated because the full size image preview looked well, horrid because the focus was still on all the browser controls and the general nomenclature of the web. Witness all those ‘View on Black’ links which will soon be redundant. Well the full screen view is now fantastic. It’s on black, the controls are moved out of the way, you can flick through images with the cursor keys or with the neat buttons at the top, you can run it as a slideshow (click the play button) and it resizes to the client browser window width. Bloody good design.

Brilliant Main Photo View

Gone are the small buttons that adorned the top of the photo, now a very neat drop down menu (not sure how accessible this but anyway) and it just works very nicely. Larger preview too (640px across instead of 500px) and generally looks very nice. Clicking the image brings up the lightbox (above) rather than clicking the ‘All Sizes’ button of yore.

Map

The map is a bit special, it reacts to how close your mouse pointer is to the central pin-point, as you home in on it the map zooms into that point, move away, zooms out until you are back at the continental view. Great stuff, very original, a very good idea. Hopefully not patented

Tags

No longer one long list, but a long list but kept all on a few lines with a more link. Much tidier and better use of space.

Right Click

Right clicking the picture gives you the option to view the photo at larger sizes. Simple simple stuff, but the very kind of thing that made Flickr so good compared to your other photo sharing sites (e.g. the AJAX based edit in place stuff which was groundbreaking at the time. Which was only 4 years ago or so but even so. Damnit, I remember when the snazziest thing going for websites was an animated gif, a repeated background image and the ghastly <blink> tag!)

Full Size Image View

This hasn’t changed too drastically, but it’s just cleaner by far. Very nicely done indeed.

General Comments

What you will notice is that I still use a 4:3 resolution because I still use an old Dell CRT (good colour reproduction mind) and the good thing about this is that the new Flickr still works great on us folks on a 4:3 or 5:4 aspect screen.

Overall I think they have done a very good job. There are also many other tweaks but they have done a good job and it’s in the subtleties. That’s what makes Flickr very good for your photo portfolio.

• Read about the changes on Flickr’s blog

So what do you think?

I’ve been really enjoying my OM recently (it’s certainly as nice to use as my Leica M2) but especially since I now have new contact lenses (another story) but this is definitely one sweet camera system.

I recently acquired a Zuiko 100mm f/2.8 to go with my 28mm and 50mm and it’s blowing me away.

Some people describe the OM as a poor man’s Leica and maybe it is, but that shouldn’t deter you, sure it’s a SLR rather than a rangefinder, but it’s a very very good camera system. In fact my OM2n without a lens is smaller than my M2, the lenses are a bit bigger but not by much. Overall, if I didn’t have the money for a Leica M I would say don’t be discouraged, get an Olympus OM, then shoot lots with it and if you want save up for the Leica whilst you’re still able to enjoy taking pictures. My expenditure on OM equipment has been criminally low really:

• OM2n, 50mm f/1.8 MIJ lens and T20 flash £40
• Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 £30
• Zuiko 100mm f/2.8 £79

That’s an insanely low £149. Sure it’s not digital if having pictures on your computer and quickly is important but even if you shot cheap black and white or cheap colour film you could drop the C41 material off to Tescos for develop and scan for £2, albeit with variable quality of results. It’d still soon work out more expensive than a low end digital camera (The Olympus E420 seems to go very reasonably these days with a 14-42mm lens) but there’s nothing quite like a manual camera if that’s what you really want.

It’s a real compliment to my M2 and my Autocord.

One thing I have become a bit worried about is that I have done a lot of chopping and changing of film types that the colour balance and overall aesthetic has lacked some consistency in this time. I have turned out photos I am happy with definitely but I still think that as a point of maturity with my photography I need to have sense of consistency – that would help develop a sense of style that is incredibly difficult to develop as a photographer, it’s hard to carve out your own unique style in photography by the very nature of the beast.

The thing that has brought this to a head is two fold:

1. Kodak’s discontinuation of Kodachrome 64 (and therefore Kodachrome altogether)
2. The Impression Milton Keynes (IMK) project

The two are intertwined as IMK was conceived on Kodachrome and I anticipated being able to complete the project using it. As it happens, about 2/3rd of the project have been completed using it but the rest has seen a bit of ‘whatever was available’ creep in which I personally have not been happy about on reflection and this means I need to do some reflection on what will suitably slot in and keep the consistency. As an idea of how ‘badly’ this has become the case, these are the different films I have used in the project so far:

• Kodachrome 64, Ektar 100, Portra 160VC, Reala, Superia 200, Superia 400, Pro 400H, Pro 800Z, Fujicolor 100, Provia 100

That to me is far too much variation, albeit some like 160VC, Superia 400, 400H and Provia have only been called into action once each. The upshot is that some of the project will need to be reshot because some of the compositions (read : results) have delivered the goods but the colour balance has been disappointing. A good example of this is Fujicolor 100. Admittedly a consumer film and a cheap one. In some things it’s great but the colour on it seems a bit sickly in some shots is the only way I can describe it, almost that it hadn’t fully ripened (and that contains some truth as consumer films are sold unripe essentially so that they mature – colour shift – with age. After all in days of yore, the same 24 exposure film could sit in a camera for months if not years!)

To divide this series up I will be looking at colour negative, colour slide and black and white to describe the results of my drive to standardise. To do so I have put together a table of ‘analogues’ if you will:

Colour negative comparables (not entirely ‘accurate’ but near as damn it as I see it)

Now the table above isn’t that accurate as there will always be slight differences, e.g. Superia 200 and 400 can be more contrasty but with the blessing of overexposure or digital processing you can get pretty close to what the neutral colour pro-emulsions from Kodak and Fuji offer. Others sit on their own as there isn’t anything in the UK at least directly comparable to them, notably Gold 200 (saturated), Ultramax 400 (saturated) and Fujicolor 100 (not sure, seems to be all over the shop to me with a funny blue-green-purple hued cast.) To compare Gold 200 and 160VC is too much of a difference to me. Gold gives nice landscapes but alters the colour saturation beyond what 160VC does which does capture vibrance but doesn’t pump it up too much to say what Ektar 100 can offer.

So from this list I have had to do some purging based on these principles which I think many people subscribe to:

• Landscapes / Architecture : I want contrast and colour generally, low saturation and contrast here doesn’t work for me if it is just the landscape and architecture. Different kettle of fish when you blend people in mind.
• Street / Reportage / Documentary : Low saturation, low contrast every time
• Portrait : Either low saturation and contrast or middle contrast and a little saturation if it’s a contextual portrait (read a larger depth of field.)

With these in mind, and my experience I struck these off the running:

• Gold 100 : Never tried it but Ektar and Reala are great so why create another variable
• Gold 200 : Not impressed myself. Didn’t seem as sharp as I would have liked, and only seemed to thrive in sunny conditions, overcast conditions created muddy, brown flat negatives
• Fuji Pro 160C : Discontinued in the UK. Worked great for landscapes in medium format I found but there are alternatives and I was never overly struck on it for portraits.
• Portra 160VC : Don’t get me wrong, I love this film and for portraits it is actually very good, unlike my experience of 160C. I have struck it off as for me there are slide (E6) films that can deliver what this can (see next part of this instalment.) I will probably still use this film on occasion but most portraits and street work that I do is neutral saturation and contrast so this one can be scrubbed off.
• Portra 400NC : Great film, but I use 400H seeing as it is still available in every shape and form, plus like 160NC, the Kodak is a touch warmer than Fuji which is nice, but I don’t go for that look.
• Portra 400VC : Film at this speed for me means indoor portraits and for portraits I like low saturation
• Ultramax 400 : Never used it, but same as Portra 400VC above.
• Fujicolor 100 : Has moments of brilliance but also has a very variable colour balance to my eyes. I know Kodak films don’t have the 4th layer but that does seem to help with the Fuji films which this lacks.

With these struck off this is what I am left with:

Still quite a few variables there. In the case of Reala 100, Pro 160S and 800Z there is a problem for using them universally on both 35mm and 120 – 160S is apparently discontinued in 35mm in the UK, and 800Z is apparently discontinued in 120 in the UK and potentially altogether and we’re just seeing the last of old stock. Shame as it is a good film; as is 160S. Reala 100 is the oddball here as 35mm is still readily available, but like 160S Fuji have for some bizarre reason stopped importing 35mm format Reala to the UK despite seemingly being their best seller!

This leaves a fairly shoehorned list of “interchangeables” as I see it. Here is the distillation of what I anticipate using for each with their positives and negatives:

For Landscape and Architecture, and some Portraits

• Ektar 100 (35mm)
  Positive points : Good saturation but not OTT for general use like Velvia, sharp and fine grained. Good for landscapes and architecture and about as near as Kodachrome in a negative film. Nice reds and blues.
  Negatives points : Very exposure sensitive with about –1 stop underexposure +2 stop overexposure. Because of this it’s not as straight forward as other films where you can manually meter and get it pretty much right. When you enter this territory, I do actively ask myself – why not shoot slides anyway? Won’t use it in 120 for this reason as my Autocord has no meter and I have no desire to start carrying and using one when I use my TLR.
• Reala 120 (120)
  Positive points : Exceptional film, always have liked it. Good saturation but good skin tones as well. Wide exposure latitude, looks gorgeous in most lighting conditions, good skin tones as well. More saturated than 160S and 400H. Very little bad to say about this film.
  Negative points : None really. Only point that is a downside is potential lack of 35mm Reala in the UK and USA (at least in Blighty we still get 120 Reala which the USA doesn’t) and on occasion I have been shooting portraits indoors with Reala it can get quite constrasty, but this is more down to having the wrong film for the job (i.e. camera already loaded and wasting 6 frames of 120 seems well, a waste.)

For Documentary, Reportage, Street and all other Portraits

• Pro 160S (35mm and 120)
  Positive points : Everything that is good about Reala is here but with lower saturation. Gorgeous stuff. Not quite as warm as 160NC from Kodak, but that is easy to add I desire.
  Negatives points : None. Except that it might not be available in 35mm anymore.
• Backup Portra 160NC (35mm)
  Assuming 35mm 160S does go away and my experiments with 400H pulled 1 stop end up miserable, this will become my 35mm neutral colour film of choice. Until 160S in 35mm is definitely gone I won’t be switching.
• Backup : Superia 200 (35mm)
  This is my “Not got anything else” alternative. The good thing about this film is it rather low saturation for consumer colour negative and it is just about everywhere. It’s also nicely balanced in a way that the likes of Fujicolor 100 doesn’t seem to be, 4th layer I guess.

• Pro 400H (35mm and 120)
  All that I have said about 160S applies to this but it’s a faster film and it is available widely in 35mm still. Perfect!
• Backup : Superia 400 (35mm and 120)
  I would prefer not to use this film if 400H is to hand. It’s another last resort thing. It’s good stuff, but I find I have de-saturate my scans to get it to look the way 400H does otherwise it can be quite unwieldy. Some batches are great, some seem to make skin tones look very ruddy. I find it better in 120 than 35mm but this is more down to medium format tonality than the film itself.

• Pro 800Z / Superia 800 (35mm)
  A good fast colour film. I find both 800Z and Superia 800 pretty interchangeable as they are both contrasty films. Had excellent results with both films. Downside is no 120 format for 800Z anymore.
• Backup : Portra 800 (35mm and 120)
  I need to play more with this but Portra 800 is likely to be my fast film of choice for 120 (as that is all there is!) but the downside is that it’s quite a niche item as I often won’t take many pictures in low light using my TLR, 12 is quite a lot, and this speed of film does not lend itself to daylight use. I will tend to use this speed of film on 35mm as I can readily load and unload as I wish meaning I am not stuck with it in my camera as 120 at ISO 800 likely would be. (Depends but sometimes a roll of 120 can take me 3-4 weeks to fully use up if I am not working on something specific or a subject that doesn’t require 12 shots straight off the bat!)

The plan for the rest of Impression Milton Keynes

So what do I plan on using. Well as itemised above really but depending on my trials of slide films (see an upcoming instalment) I do plan on having to reshoot some parts of the project using Ektar where Fujicolor 100 has sucked, and then finish most of the street/reportage work in 160S/400H depending on light.

The next instalment

In part 2 I will look at slide films where despite E6’s downward trend in high street processing options, there are still plenty of choices:

• Kodak : E100G, E100GX, Elitechrome 100, Elitechrome 100 Extra Color, Elitechrome 200
• Fuji : Fuji Velvia 50, 100 and 100F; Provia 100F and 400X; Sensia 100, 200 and 400 (n.b. Astia is no longer imported into the UK)

Photographing a city never ends in reality, you could go on forever. I could dedicate my entire life to the subject trying to photograph that everything that makes a city beat; but there again, you have to draw the line somewhere if you want something to really show people, something that captures something at a moment in time. I plan to have the project completed in August this year (2010).

In good news I would like to tell you about…

Exhibition 2 is coming up!

It’s only a small affair but an exhibition is arranged for April 23rd through May 7th 2010 at Midsummer Place, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3GB. It will be very much a snapshot of the wider project but it will give you a flavour of what is in the final project and indeed book.

The point of dredging this all up is that whilst it makes me flinch at the crap that happened at that time, the short story seems apt. A year ago I started work on Impression Milton Keynes and really if I am honest; it has been my sole focus now photographically for that time and the one thing I seem to have spent more and more of my free time working in one way or another to research the topic, visiting the city for short breaks at a time and really just working on the project in a personal way. What started as a personal project to take a few pictures of Milton Keynes that I would do in a couple of trips after a couple of visits became very apparent that I’d be spending more time in the city than planned thanks to just how much there is of it, and how surprising so much of it is. It started as a project to just take pictures, now I have meaning in them and an entire ethos.

I’ve now let the cat out of the bag with regard to the Milton Keynes press and local community groups and organisations, clubs and individuals as to what I am doing. And the little snowball has become something of a monster flinging open doors left right and centre. I’ll explain shortly.

There are three threads to Impression Milton Keynes:

• Landscape / Documentary : the place. This includes everything from housing to traditional landscape, commercial properties and everything that is the focus isn’t on the people in general.
• Candid / Street : the people. This includes all sorts of candid things going on in Milton Keynes be it people buying vegetables in the market, reading newspapers, drinking coffee, talking to business clients, kissing their grandchild, badminton in the National Badminton Centre – and a lot more. This is the daily life of people. And each photo I have tried to take in something where it’s identifiable as Milton Keynes (this includes its constituent villages and towns that it encompasses such as Bletchley, Stony and Wolverton)
• Portraits : the people again but with a direct message – pride for their city. These are people who either work directly with the community or are just proud to call wherever they live or work in MK as their city and their home. They are the face against the concrete cows and roundabouts perception. They are the market traders, the residents, the architects of Central Milton Keynes, they are the artists in residence, they are the community and sports clubs leaders and coaches. They are Milton Keynes.

When this is merged into a body of the whole, or the synthesis of the whole as I wrote last week they create the project that is Impression Milton Keynes. They are my impression, it is my impression and my monster that snowballed as a project to take a few pictures that now promises to show luminaries left right and centre, but on a level footing with those who are residents.

The whole project is arranged over the course of ‘a day’ from dawn till dusk, a 24 hour ‘pastiche’ I suppose but quite a fluent one. Of course to really get the feel of dawn till dusk in a city, you have to live that yourself.

So I did

So I did just that. I have had early rises for this project, and late night finishes, but never have I worked flat out from dusk till dawn. I did this Friday and it was quite an inspirational 20 hours on the go, by the end of the day I had this immense feeling that sat in my rucksack were films containing a paean to the city.

I got up at 5am and left the youth hostel in Bradwell where if I can I stay at during my trips as its a lovely place, close to a decent pub and well, I like it. Better than a Travelodge by far (which i have also stayed at for this project, I suppose you do get a bathtub.) I started off at about 5.30 before dawn and headed down to Abbey Road where I started one year ago and took pictures of the Redway where it all began. I walked past dog walkers who said good morning and onwards to the West Coast Mainline (WCML – it’s the main ‘west coast’ route from London to Scotland, even though in Milton Keynes it’s as far as you can get from the west coast really!) and waited under the streetlight for a train to come rushing past, and one did. Snap! Under the WCML and out into the Loughton Valley Linear Park (one of the most successful ideas of Milton Keynes by far is the linear parks which are ribbons of parkland that run through the city uninterrupted by main roads (and indeed most roads in general), follow watercourses and have lakes on the way, beautifully landscaped and often a bridleway runs alongside…) and from there I took in Two Mile Ash and Great Holm capturing people buying goods from the One Stop store at the crack of dawn (milk, bread, that kinda thing) and people jumping on the bus to get to work, getting in their cars so forth. From there I walked into CMK to the station where I took a number of photos of commuters etc. and then grabbed a coffee. Afterwards I carried on shooting and then got myself some breakfast in CMK.

At 10.00am, walked back to Bradwell via Common Lane (one of the old pre new-city roads from Loughton to Bradwell village, now a Redway) and scooted off up to Stony Stratford to capture life up there and of the farmers’ market which was delightful (I bought two handmade pies, and they are yum, really! Best pies I have had in a long time, not these nasty pastry cased gravy and gristle things you get from supermarkets) and also some handmade fudge. The peeps were lovely, snap snap. Pictures of older people chatting, pictures of people looking in shop windows, refuse collectors at work and butchers arranging their goods under the shop’s canopy. Then off to Stantonbury to arrange one of the exhibitions (January 2011 if you are interested.)

After that first posed portrait for that day, Ken Baker, former Central Milton Keynes architect between 1971 and 1980 at Milton Keynes Development Corporation. A lovely man, so intelligent, so passionate and really so many wonderful things to tell. Snap snap with the Autocord. Then down to the Lakes Estate in Bletchley to meet Simon to capture him in front of his childhood home in Fern Grove. Snap snap! Then to Tilbrook (where Red Bull Racing is based) via the 4146 to grab more film from Calumet in case I ran out on Saturday – when they would be closed.) Then back to CMK (I didn’t plan that very well) to take pictures of the wonderful Ali from the Belvedere in Campbell Park where the sheep graze betwixt the shadows Portway and Childs Way dual carriageways to the M1, the theatre district and few hundred yards from the shopping centre. The heavens opened and we were laughing outselves silly at the misfortunte. We got soaked right through. But after the rainbow was something else, I am certain that the photos I have of Ali with that rainbow will be one of the most important pictures in the entire book. It shows MK for all it is, the can do city deep within can don’t England – sheep, parks, dual carriageways and shopping centres, an unlikely mix but one which MK pulls off effortlessly. All you have to do is get out and walk or cycle, then the place comes alive.

After that I dried off (changing in McDonalds toilets, nice! But they had only just been cleaned) and off to see Douglas in Great Holm and hear his stories of MK. A few pictures with them snap snap. Returned to my lodgings to drop some stuff off, off to Old Wolverton to meet Colin and his wife but the light was failing. We should have something but this may be a return visit job as their location of choice, the old locks of the Grand Union Canal is just wonderful. Snap Snap!

After this I grabbed some chips in Two Mile Ash and made haste to the Victoria Inn in Bradwell where I met up with a fellow photographer Simon from MK whom is a great chap to have conversation with on all matter of discussion! The pub was very noisy though but I guess that comes with the whole Friday night thing, snap snap with the Autocord.

By the time I got in and my head hit the pillow it had just gone midnight. I feel asleep immediately. I had been on the go for over 20 hours and hadn’t taken one banned substance!

But that is not all

Of course, this doesn’t recount my hectic Thursday, nor my hectic Saturday either – but it does show just how much went on in one day alone. I really felt the place that day, as I did on the other days, as I am bringing people into the project which is a matter of logistics as much as artistic direction, the place is bursting into life, the project is flourishing. I’m hoping that I can get something of MK Dons, Lightning and Lions on board. That would be a triumph too and round off everything so well.

It seems my view that Milton Keynes is far from a soulless place is being vindicated. It’s a very modern interpretation of English society and it seems we are catching this city up and this is probably why it’s so misunderstood. Herein lays two points though – one: not everyone has to and will like it still, that’s fine – we all have our preferences. Two: It’s not all good. There are some problems in MK. But you show me a town or city with a population of almost quarter of a million that doesn’t. The good does seem to outweigh the bad and the residents, businesses and everybody I have talked to all are very proud of their city, only 2-3 people I have spoken to are happy to move out and are fed up with it. That compares well with the more than 100 people I have randomly talked to on my travels.

It started as a few pictures, it’s now a monster

So we’re back at the beginning. A few rolls of Kodachrome should do it I thought in 2009. I was wrong, very wrong. I have quite a beast on my hands here now, it’s a monster. And it’s gathering momentum. I’m quite amused in some ways, to sit back on the sofa, half eyeing those undeveloped rolls of 120 on my desk realising that I created this, and never have I once felt as though there’s a limit to the heights I could plumb with this project. I’m just me, snapping pictures with old cameras, making my way round in old jeans and an old car (although I have a newer 15 year old car now, but the project started with my 22 year old beat Ford), thinking, snapping, reflecting. I’m not famous, this project isn’t guaranteed to be a saleable success, but my god what a personal little project I have accomplished so far.

And I am proud of this monster.

So where did I actually start, what was my first frame? I don’t actually know as it seems that frame 3 is the first slide I have from April 24th 2009 when I started. I would have only thrown the slides away if they had nothing of use on them (ie: overexposed start of the roll or completely black) but the first photo appears to be in the Loughton Valley linear park. It would make sense, as that evening, a wonderful warm April evening I left the youth hostel in Bradwell where I was staying and made my way down towards the Redway which comes out on Abbey Road (Google Street View of the first steps) in Bradwell Village.

The rest as they say is history.

I started in March 2009 a month before my first visit by first looking at a few books I could easily get hold of, including More of Milton Keynes and a few others. This gave me some views new and old that I recognised from the 80s and indeed the present day. I then read Mark Clapson’s excellent A Social History of Milton Keynes : Middle England / Edge City – this reading culminated in Terence Bendixon and John Platt’s Milton Keynes : Image and Reality which is now out of print and virtually unobtainable but it was invaluable to understand just what had gone into the design and construction of the city. From that I made much better sense of The Plan for Milton Keynes (the original Llewellyn-Davies masterplan from 1970) – this background reading when I revisted for the first time in April 2009 gave everything such a great context and I would be able then to judge for myself whether I felt it had worked or not.

From those first steps

From that start on Abbey Road down towards the West Coast Mainline, under the railway, under the A5 and out into one of MK’s linear parks, I had no idea that I’d still be working on the project in a year’s time. In fact, I wasn’t even really clear what I was doing. I really was just taking pictures of nice things I saw, lakes, wildlife, boulevards, greenery, streams… As time has progressed the idea in my mind has cemented itself as a documentary of the ‘entire city’ which is done by me walking through every grid square and constituent town/village of Milton Keynes to build for me an accurate impression. From Old Wolverton to Oxley Woods, Tinkers Bridge to Old Farm Park and Wymbush to Lakes Estate I will have covered them all by the time the book comes out. I won’t have driven through, I will have walked it, felt it, watched it and talked to those around me.

This has lead from landscape into candid street work and from there like fireworks sparking in the night sky, it became clear in October 2009 that this was not just going to be a landscape project but an entire appreciation of the city. By then I had seen enough to know there was a lot of good, but also some weeping wounds in the suburban paradise as I saw it. Having also had my car broken into during one stay in the city I had experienced this rough edge first hand; but it didn’t stop me (I did consider packing it in though at the time.)

Pride

One thing I have found from most people I have talked to, and that’s a lot, is that they can all think of things that MK doesn’t quite get right, but all of those people have found more than enough to outweigh their negatives. I have also talked to 3-4 people who couldn’t wait to get away from the place although their circumstances didn’t help them too much. But I have been very careful not to pitch this as a project that’s trying to paint MK as some model of perfection. What I have seen has convinced me that it wouldn’t be great if all cities were like Milton Keynes; but on the flip side Milton Keynes is great for being the city that it is and that my impression of it is very very favourable. My experiences of the city have been so far removed from the notions of soulless, desolate, concrete jungle, banal and depressive that the project has also taken in the desire for residents, some famous, some formative to Milton Keynes to stand up in front of their home, their city to say that you might knock Milton Keynes, but I am proud to call this home and I am proud of my city. There’s a lot of pride in MK, and I can largely see why.

It’s a desperately misunderstood place, as this programme on Channel Five, sorry, Five showed at the end of 2008. In fact I am pretty certain that the green bit they are walking through is the Loughton Linear Park  in Loughton, it’d make sense as it’s close to CMK where they’d have started filming from and I can hear the A5 in the background (a downside in the busy hours of the day, road noise is a bit of a problem on the A5 corridor, it’s not too bad but you can hear it in the background when you’re close to it.

Synthesis of the whole

Gene Smith’s Pittsburgh Project was distilled down into 200 (or so) pictures that he described as the synthesis of the whole. It’s also worth putting here that his Pittsburgh Project isn’t so much a project on Pittsburgh, but a statement on life in the USA, post war, mid century, the human condition described from birth to death, from celebration and jubilation, learning and aspiration, work, strife and toil. It’s just how Gene Smith saw life I guess.

Now that I am able to begin to put Impression Milton Keynesl together, the landscape, the architecture (or the place as I would dub it), the street candid work here and there (the people), and the portraits, I have emerged with something that for me has created something a bit more compelling than just the subject itself. It becomes a project to synthesise the whole from those landscapes and places, to the steps in life from birth to death, the creation of joy and dreams, to the pin prick of dashed hopes and desperation, and the tedium that may lay between all these things.

Never did I imagine one year ago I would be photographing so many proud residents, an architects directly involved with the original Central Milton Keynes design, or artists who have contributed to the arts scene in MK and in a wider sense in such a profound and deep way.

This as much as it being my story of Milton Keynes, a place I have found a great deal of admiration for and in fact even for its weeping wounds that can’t be ignored, is a place I have fallen oddly in love with. But the project is also my wider reflection of suburban England, my impression of that, a tidemark of this point in time.

This is only one part of my jigsaw, but as synthesis of the whole go, this is a pretty good start for me and one that though I try not to say it, I find myself quite proud of too. I look back on a year ago, taking a picture of that redway in Bradwell, a picture far too underexposed to appear in the book, but I look at it and think, this journey really had only just begun…

So I have been asking myself lately : is it time to get a digital camera, why should I consider it?

The answer is no. I gave it some serious thought with something like the Canon S90 (I have very little time for SLRs, modern ones that is) or similar like the Panasonic LX3. I could use it for snaps and have the convenience of uploading pics, fiddle in Lightroom, and send them down to the lab for my prints. Easy! And yes it is easy and yes I can understand entirely why this suits most people.

There again, I love the simplicity of using film. And that is where my idea of getting a digital camera fell flat on its face.

Digital cameras are simple, but if you want to push them a little beyond the program auto mode, there’s menus and histograms and flash modes and white balance settings, not to mention ISO set through a menu and the aperture (what control you may have) and so forth – and I really cannot be bothered with all that. Some cameras are better at this than some.

What I like about my Leica and Autocord (and by extension OM2n largely) is that I am experience enough to more or less manually meter in my head, I don’t need auto exposure. (I.e. I know on a bright day in the shade or undercover, ISO 400 film that I’m gonna get a good shot at around f/8 1/250th, maybe 1/500th if the shade isn’t too deep. So all I have to do is load the film (easy), and just set by some knobs or rings on the lens my settings and of I trot, focus, snap, focus, snap. I love this. I love the fact that I’m not shouted at by an LCD screen with all the stats reminiscent of a James Bond or Mission Impossible gadget sequence. Colour negative film is so good these days that I don’t need to worry about white balance, and the colour reproduction is great so all I gotta do is meter accurately, that’s it. That’s what I love about my old equipment.

It does of course need some skill and for most people the digital camera is a godsend, making money from photography is probably much easier by using digital in the most common sense e.g. photojournalism, weddings, portraiture etc. But that’s not for me, I like my no fuss antiques!

And here comes the double whammy for me – I love the look of film. Sure you can replicate it in Photoshop, but I like the physical part of the film process, from loading that camera, processing that film and working in the darkroom to make that print with my hands. I like all of that. I like the fact that I can experiment with different processes, from working in colour to looking at doing lith prints.

All of this suits me just fine. I know what computers can be like, so the fact that the worst that can happen is that the enlarger bulb blows or a fuse blows is trivial for me to sort out. If I have a camera problem with the Leica or the Autocord, I can send them off for repair as they are all entirely mechanical with no electronic components that are no longer manufactured. It’s all pieces of metal and parts which with a suitably skilled pair of hands could be recreated.

So in the end for me, the simplicity of it all is a big winner. That doesn’t suit everybody, some people love the histogram and all the other gubbins that helps nail a shot, for me I don’t give a monkeys about any of that as its not my style and my work isn’t critical to my income or reputation – the joy of been an amateur.

If I worked professionally, I could foresee the need for a digital camera but you can bet your bottom dollar the moment I get back home and back into my own thing, film’s the only thing for me. Yes it costs more per shot than digital, but I enjoy the whole process so much it doesn’t matter. 20-40p to develop a film, a few pence literally for a 10×8 RC print (this is including the cost of chemicals) or less than 50p per colour RA4 10×8 print, maybe a bit more for fibre prints – all in all, I’m much happier doing it this way than changing printer cartridges and solving printer driver or paper jam issues.

Though I wish I could solve the issue of having my arm in the way of the enlarger light source when I start a print, d’oh!

This is a personal opinion, if you feel offended by this, please grow a thicker skin and understand I also appreciate your opinion. I’m not trying to change yours.