Alan Wilson: Edinburgh-based B/W Street Photography

[MKING]

One of the photographers that sparked my interest in street/documentary photography was this man, Alan Wilson.

Unlike the other links here, he's not a professional celebrity photographer, which I think is important to note.

His work is mostly around Edinburgh in Scotland shot on B/W film but there are a few portfolios from France and New York too. Furthermore, he updates weekly and one one photo taken from every week since 2001.

I can't say what his style is but there's a mix between some classic compositions and the more dynamic, abstract forms of more contemporary street. Decide for yourselves below:

Alan Wilson: Street Photography

[sohrab]

grreat stuff michael
i especially like
http://www.photoaweek.fsnet.co.uk/2002/week34.htm
thanks
take care

[Luko]

Yep Mike, thanks for the link : this site is one of the occasional gems that proves there can still be a genuine interest to browsing on the Internet (and also other websites than online casinos, worldwide shipping Viagra shops, backorder camera discounters or random mortgage pop ups...).

I can feel the ants in my finger, this site makes you want to fit a wide angle, go out in the urban wild and shoot frantically...

I'm impressed with his Edinburgh portfolio... there are so many talented streetshooters out there... they also remind us there's no need to take a long haul flight to get good photos, we all should start with our own TrekHome gallery...

[Galeota]

Oh yes! What a pleasure to discover Alan Wilson's photography. I definetely second every word Luko just wrote.

There are of course several links to well known photographers web sites in this forum, but half of the excitment here, as far as I'm concerned, comes from the fact it is the first time I hear of A.Wilson. Refreshing, inspiring, filled with ideas, sometimes with an accurate sense of humour.

This one goes to my favorite's links. Thanks!

[Midnight_sun]

I like his shots, great website. What film do you think he uses? T-max in Edinburgh? maybe hp5 in Paris? I want to try some hp5 before it becomes extinct...
I liked this shot of his in Paris: Park

Good link, thanks.

[MKING]

I think his Paris portfolio was also done on T-max 400, there's one shot listed in his 2004 weekly updates as such.

If you buy up enough HP5 you might just be able to single-handedly save Ilford... :)(as soon as I can afford to, I'm going to start hunting for bricks of Ilford stuff. My local lab says that there's enough Ilford product in Australia to last 5 years at current domestic consumption rate-- obviously a lot of photography students are using T-max or Tri-X because both are a bit cheaper here.)

[Luko]

Bryan,

I second the opinion that Paris shots are taken on TMAX, I have spotted what looks to me like grittier HP5 shots in his Edinburgh portfolio (see the "Beatles" style pic or the cut two legs walking on the streets).

No Ilford film shortage here so far, we're still living on the stocks.

Cheers
L.

[Midnight_sun]

I didn't realise T-max was this versatille...

I'm wondering about a couple of things about b&w film:

1) Is the amount of grain proportional to shutter speed?
i.e. long shutter speed more grain? or is it just more noticeable on dark scenes which are shot with a low shutter speed?

2)What kind of result do you get if you scan a b&w negative, compared to developing it normally (not lith printing etc) then scanning the photo as usual? does anyone do this?

thanks, B.

[MKING]

You won't gleam much technical info from Alan Wilson's web photographs but he scans the negatives directly (the scanner listed in his tech page is 35mm film scanner). I'd drop him a line.

The B/W negatives I scan-- Ilford XP2 and the discontinued Kodak T400CN-- are both chromagenic B/W emulsions; both are single colour base (grey) C41 negatives which can be developed at any lab. They scan without problems most of the time and keep a lot of highlight detail. Very fine grain and high resolution for their speed.

The downside is that, like colour negative film, they look horrid underexposed so you don't get the pushing ability you can get from traditional B/W films. I can strongly reccomend Ilford XP2 if you want to scan negs cheaply and easily. The negatives straight from the scanner have very low contrast so you can really do some work to them without blowing channels in photoshop. Machine prints from XP2, unless done by someone manually with skill, don't take full advantage of its dynamic range and look mediocre as a result. XP2 can even be printed on traditional B/W paper in a darkroom (which was it's original purpose pre-digital minilabs.) *End XP2 plug*


Scanning traditional silver B/W negatives is supposedly more difficult than slides or C41 negs but still doable with excellent results. The major hurdle here is the film structure-- I think silver particles are still present in silver-halide BW emulsions whereas it is removed from C41-based emulsions. The silver can reflect some of the scanner's light (35mm film scanners use a mirror) and the dust and scratches function doesn't work so they've got to be clean before they go in. You should theoretically get more information out of the neg than from a print-- latitude and resolution wise-- since you're getting it from the source so you should get some sizable enlargements from the scan and have much more data available for photoshop work. I've never tried scanning these films though I am keen to at some point in the future since I'm very interested in trying out Ilford's Delta 100/400 films.

Lastly, you can also try searching the www.photo.net Film and Processing Forum archives for answers since many people there do scan B/W negs and have covered most of the issues related to getting a good scan from them.

[Midnight_sun]

Thanks Mike, I'll have a look. B