Friday 29 April 2011

Magic Lantern Project - Batch #3

Albert Memorial - Hyde Park, London
Bardon Hill Y.H. (Feb, 1940)
Thames Nr. Pangbourne
Laddow - Peak District
Stanage - Peak District
How Bill Adams Won the Battle of Waterloo #12
Matt Stubb's Dream #27 (From a set of 40, Published 1897)
Matt Stubb's Dream #33 (From a set of 40, Published 1897)

Thursday 28 April 2011

McCartney in the Studio

For no real reason I thought I'd share a few of my favourite shots of Paul McCartney during various recording sessions (check out the Guitars / Basses)









Tuesday 26 April 2011

The Retronaut

A quick thanks to Chris Wild otherwise known as "The Retronaut", he kindly posted information and some examples of the Magic Lantern project on his excellent Blog (here).
If you haven't checked it out (and subscribed to it) then I suggest  you do so immediately, link is in the right hand column under "Essential Blogs"

Monday 25 April 2011

Magic Lantern Project - Batch #2

Matt Stubb's Dream #32 (From a set of 40, Published 1897)
Epping Forest
Toad Rock - Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells
The Old Hall - Moreton
Burnham Beeches
Coronation Chair - Westminster Abbey

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Magic Lantern Project - Batch #1

Matt Stubb's Dream #29 (From a set of 40, Published 1897)
Andresey Bridge - Burton (Feb 9th 1940)
Lower Slaughter, Cotswolds
St. Georges Chapel - Windsor

Magic Lantern Project....

I've been quietly amassing a collection of Magic Lantern slides recently...these snapshots from the past encased in glass have a slightly unnerving, haunting quality to them.
All subjects seem to have been tackled at some point or another; Architectural details, Landscape, Portraiture, Group activities and even Staged stories told in a series of slides.
The quality in general is fantastic, very sharp, lots of contrast. Most of them are Monochrome but a few have been hand painted directly onto the glass (something that was also done with postcards of a similar period),
even the faded murky slides still maintain their sense of time and place...in fact even more so. Staring at some of these people and places you start to wonder if you've somehow entered an episode of "Sapphire & Steel"

The intention of starting this collection was to begin a project of cleaning, preserving and recording these fragile documents, However, I soon discovered that they cannot simply be "scanned" using a conventional scanner. The slides are created by transferring the image onto a slide of glass and then placing another slide of glass on top. These are then bound together with the image safely sandwiched in the middle...this means that trying to scan them produces all manner of unwanted shadows and reflections.

Bring on Plan B.

As a Photographer I own a quite a bit of equipment, including a very good Macro Lens...combine this with a Tripod, a Light Box and loads of experimentation and time and et voila!! success...

At last I can begin to document this strange land of the past....

The first four slides follow (I hope I get quicker...it took about 2 hours to photograph and "develop" just these 4!)

Enjoy...

Mark Back

PS: More info about Magic Lantern Slides can be found here