Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

single frame: Along the north wall

Jim Grey
4 comments on single frame: Along the north wall
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Along the Wall

Along the north wall
Olympus Stylus
Eastman Double-X 5222
2017

I have way too much film in the fridge. Way too much. I moved a bunch of it to long-term storage in the freezer and am systematically shooting the rest.

The first roll I shot on Operation Shoot-Em-Up was some Eastman Double-X 5222, which I liked pretty well the last time I shot it. It tended to blow out in bright sun, but under the right conditions the blacks were so deep you could fall into them.

I dropped a roll into my Olympus Stylus, a camera I don’t shoot often enough. I didn’t shoot any terribly important subjects, but I did experiment with perspective a little bit here and there, as in this photo.

Comments

4 responses to “single frame: Along the north wall”

  1. bodegabayf2 Avatar
    bodegabayf2

    I have a good supply of Eastman 5222 as well. Your work makes me want to get it out of cold storage and shoot it up.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      It’s pretty good stuff. I think I like the Ferrania P30 a little better though.

      Reply
  2. Mike Connealy Avatar
    Mike Connealy

    A certain amount of ambiguity can be a strength in a photographic composition. I think that is the case here where the viewers are invited to create their own narrative from the image’s graphic components, including the wide tonal range and the textural contrasts. The left side of the frame is dominated by pillows and carpets of foliage, The right features a relentlessly geometric rush of lines terminating in an abrupt, knife-edge vertical which emphasizes the fact that this is a portrayal of a fraction of a second in which there was no movement seen and likely no sound to be heard. We know that a second snap of the shutter an instant later might have revealed a very different scene, perhaps with the car moving out of the frame, or a dog walker or skateboarder entering from right or left. Which, I think, is what makes photography interesting; we are reminded that each instant of time puts us at an intersection of infinite possibilities.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I really enjoy it when you break down what you see in one of my photographs. I like to kind of blur my vision a little bit as I look at a photo, and when I do that with this one I see dark shapes to the left and right but in the center a stream of light from above, reflecting off the wet driveway, guiding the eye to the back of the car peeking out from around the edge of the house. It elevates this unremarkable automobile, gives it importance, makes it seem like it lacks the confidence to show more of itself in the frame.

      Reply

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