I’m really loving using my old Pentax ME. It used to belong to my Father, and I used it for seventh form photography twelve or so years ago with very mixed results… I remember spending a lot of time trying to take the perfect late-afternoon photo of the old art deco armchair that lived in my bedroom – the curlicue indentations in the tapestry reminded me of the flowers in Botticelli’s La Primavera, and I thought I could capture the imaginative transposition of that millefleur carpet. Really, though, I just kept ending up with black, dust specked photos with a brillant strip of sunlight that illuminated nubbly wool and the ghosts of flowers.
I wonder where the space in photography between realism and imagination is. This must be an art. At the moment though I’m just practicing the skill – making sure I get things in focus and have enough light. I am a lazy photographer often, though… I like to point and shoot and hope that the magic of the moment will carry over onto film somehow.
My friend Cassie lent me a Diana camera recently, and Dave thinks it might suit me well… I imagine I will quite like the imperfection and the dreaminess its images. I look forward to stalking him and Milla around the house and taking photos of them with it.
They are my favourite subjects at the moment.
