Mixing memory and desire

[Gianluca Drago]

Title quote: T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (I. The Burial of the Dead).

 

[Paul Taylor]

Beautiful shot.

Was this using one of the B&W modes in the LX100? I own a couple GF1s and the "Dynamic B&W" setting is really great.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Beautiful shot.

Was this using one of the B&W modes in the LX100? I own a couple GF1s and the "Dynamic B&W" setting is really great.

Thank you. No, it was shot in colour and then converted to B&W. I don't use the B&W presets of the LX100, but I set the viewfinder and display so that I always have a B&W preview. But only when I'm at the computer do I decide whether to go for colour or not.

 

[Peter Roberts]

This has been playing on my mind all evening. But I've got it now:

"Nobody watched me before, now I am watched" Tulips: Sylvia Plath

 

[Gianluca Drago]

This has been playing on my mind all evening. But I've got it now:

"Nobody watched me before, now I am watched" Tulips: Sylvia Plath

Fantastic! It could have been her, I suppose, she also won the T.S. Eliot prize, but no. I had put a clue after the photo: it was T.S. Eliot.

Every year, in April, I think it is the cruellest of months because Eliot said so. The slightly blurred tulip staring at you (I liked it that way, a little soft, not too well defined) in its bulb carries the memory of winter death, but its flower gives you its lips. Memory and desire, for a photo taken on the first day of spring and published in April. I could have chosen another title, e.g. 'A kiss from a flower to a garden', almost paraphrasing Donovan, to make the lips of that tormented tulip more obvious.

Anyway, a good suggestion, @Peter Roberts!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I love this shot, Gianluca, especially as it is not crisply in focus. This way, it draws us in and becomes more dreamlike. Nice composition too, within the square format. I doubt I would have liked it had it been in colour.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Beautiful image, Gianluca.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

A fine image! You're getting very proficient with B+W, Gianluca!

 

[Gianluca Drago]

I love this shot, Gianluca, especially as it is not crisply in focus. This way, it draws us in and becomes more dreamlike. Nice composition too, within the square format. I doubt I would have liked it had it been in colour.

Indeed, Rob, I had a crisp take of the same subject, but I wasn't convinced about it, and the colour version was just prosaic. The square format is the out of camera one (with the LX 100 II you have a ring that lets you choose the proportions a priori, and sometimes I like the 1:1).

 

[Beth Carter]

can't go wrong with creamy tones and soft focus on a flower.