More gallery reflections

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I recently read that the film, "Ben Hur", is being re-made. There's an old joke about the 1959 version, starring Charlton Heston, wherein someone who is asked what they thought of the film replied, "Liked him, hated her."!

I was reminded of this  witticism (though in reverse) on a recent  visit to a Lisbon gallery dedicated to two painters, the Hungarian Arpad Siznes (1897-1985 and his wife, the Portuguese Maria Helena Viera da Silva (1908-1992). I very much enjoyed the latter's work, especially the abstract city landscapes, but really could not find much that I liked in her husband's work.

The gallery itself has been made from an existing building that faces a square near a section of the large aqueduct (Aqueduto das Aguas Livres) that traverses this area of Lisbon. Its interior is painted white  (see previous post) with the exposed roof timbers and the tiled floor adding natural and muted colour. However, its origins in a pre-existing building mean that it has multiple levels, stairs, walls, lifts and corridors. Walking through the main exhibitions I came upon this glass wall and photographed my framed reflection. When processing the shot it occurred to me that a high key treatment might work with the essentially white details, so I converted it to black and white and then made the necessary adjustments.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 67mm (13mm - 26mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Reflecting on gallery walls

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When I frame a photograph or select a background for a photographic subject the colours I most commonly use are cream, black and white. There are those that argue the latter two are not colours but in everyday parlance they are and most people treat them as such. Their virtue as a backdrop is that they are neutral and interact with and modify a subject much less than any of the other colours. The same is broadly true of cream (and also grey).

In my experience today's galleries also favour these colours, especially white, above all others as a background for art works, particularly framed paintings, and undoubtedly for the same reasons. However, more traditional gallery buildings housing more traditional paintings sometimes go in for other colours such as drab purple, greyish blue, or autumn green, colours that, I suppose, better reflect the opulent decor of the houses in which the works would have originally hung. But, as far as modern galleries displaying contemporary or twentieth century work are concerned white is pre-eminent as a background with, as far as I can see, black a distant second.

Today's photograph shows a gallery with black painted walls in a small Lisbon museum - the Casa Museu Dr Anastacio Goncalves - created from a house and the collection of paintings and furnishings of its owner. The gallery was between exhibitions and lit only sufficiently to allow visitors to pass through safely to the main rooms of the building. The fall of the light and the colours appealed to me sufficiently to take this shot.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 25mm (50mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/13 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Gallery-going

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What do people hope to get from going to art galleries? The answer to that question is many and varied, and though all (presumably) wish to see works of art, each individual brings his or her own thoughts, opinions, prejudices, hopes, expectations and experiences to bear on what they see. Consequently every gallery-goer sees and experiences something slightly (or considerably) different from their fellow visitors.

My tastes in art, as in photography, are wide. I like representational work but also semi-abstract and abstract pieces too. I'm old enough  and experienced enough to know what I like and to be able to make a fair stab at explaining my preferences and dislikes. But, as a photographer, and as someone interested in architecture I always have one eye on the setting of the works of art - the building and the individual galleries. This is not only for the interest and variety that can be found in these  areas, but also the way in which the setting can influence one's appreciation of what is displayed.

On a recent visit to several galleries in Lisbon, Portugal, after viewing exhibitions, I took a few shots of the interiors of galleries as I sat with my camera and my own thoughts. Today's post is the first of a few on this theme.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 67mm (134mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:3200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Penyghent, the hill of winds

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On a day such as the one on which I took this photograph Penyghent looks like a benign, undemanding mountain, somewhere that offers a moderately energetic stroll with the reward of a quite good view at the end of it. And, truth be told, that isn't too far from the truth. On a warm, still, early autumn day such as is shown above (or even one a little later), a few rocky scrambles excepted, it is all those things.

However, the Celtic translation of Penyghent's name - "hill of winds" - is a more accurate summation of this Yorkshire peak. I've climbed Penyghent many times and on few occasions was the weather entirely kind. More typically it is windy, often the mountain is in cloud (sometimes of its own making), frequently it is lashed by rain showers and all to commonly it is drenched by steady rain. The latter appeared in bucket-fulls after a sunny, August walk from Settle to the peak with my wife many years ago. Such was the downpour and the strength of the wind that we were forced to pitch our tent near the summit. A small stream was running under our groundsheet by midnight. The next day compensated for our discomfort by being bright, sunny and warm. I've climbed Penyghent in snow and ice and it is far from benign. Low cloud can make it a disorienting place to be.

The photograph above was taken after a walk that took in Attermire and Victoria Cave. The area looks rugged and remote, but if you look carefully below the trees you'll glimpse the tarmac surface of the road that leads to Malham.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 49mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Stainforth packhorse bridge

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As I travel about the country I periodically come upon a packhorse bridge. A while ago I posted about the example at West Rasen in Lincolnshire. I've seen a couple more since then. In our recent trip to the Yorkshire Dales we had a walk that took me back to the first packhorse bridge I ever saw, one I became very familiar as I grew up in the area.

Stainforth packhorse bridge spans the River Ribble at a point between Knight Stainforth and Stainforth. The river is rocky here and often quite turbulent after heavy rain. The arch that the builders erected is long as such bridges go - 57 feet (17.4 metres) - and much more elegant than most. But, it still has the characteristic low walls on each side of the roadway to allow heavily laden horses with their pannier packs to cross easily. This stone example was built by a prominent Quaker, Samuel Watson (c.1618-1708), owner and builder of Knight Stainforth Hall (1672). It apparently replaced a wooden bridge which itself supplanted a ford. The name "Stainforth" means "stony ford". The bridge is on a route between Lancaster and Ripon, that crosses the Pennine uplands. Packhorses would have negotiated this route more readily than horse-drawn carts and waggons.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3
Image Stabilisation: On

A Decorated arcade

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Existing words are often appropriated by special interest groups to describe something new. Today's photograph is a good example of that. When Thomas Rickman devised his stylistic classification of the periods of English Gothic architecture he came up with the terms Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular to describe the three main styles (as he saw them) between the end of the round-arched Norman (Romanesque) period and the beginnings of the English Renaissance; roughly c.1190 to the early to mid-sixteenth century. Decorated, with or without the capital D, was an existing word with a widely understood, non-specific meaning. But Rickman chose it to describe the ogival forms and naturalistic carving that followed the geometrical, stern precision of the  Early English style.

Today's photograph shows blank arcading in the porch of the medieval church at Osbournby, Lincolnshire. The cusped, "S"-shaped pointed arches (usually called ogee or ogival) are characteristic of the Decorated period and date the work to the fourteenth century. It's quite unusual to have the expense of this kind of decorative carving in the porch of a village church: it is more often reserved for the sedilia in the chancel. The word "arcade", as it happens, is also one that has been appropriated for a variety of uses. It originally meant an arch or a succession of arches, so to describe what we see in the photograph in that way is correct. But, later centuries applied it to covered shopping areas with arched, glazed roofs and later still indoor seaside "amusements" with slot and video games used the term.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:4000
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Repton's Saxon crypt

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The main building material of the Anglo-Saxons was wood, mud and turf. Consequently few of their buildings have survived. However, important buildings, particularly those associated with the church, were built in stone. These often copied, in a debased, rather crude way, the Byzantine influenced buildings of Southern Europe, sometimes with details that echoed in stone the decorative forms that they incorporated in their timber structures. Whole Anglo-Saxon churches are rare in Britain but churches with parts that date from this period are relatively easy to find. Often its a tower that survives, or perhaps a doorway or window, sometimes it is part of a lower wall. Sculpture and crosses are not uncommon.

We recently visited the church of St Wystan at Repton in Derbyshire. Here the chancel, part of a transept and some walling around the crossing survive from the Anglo-Saxon period. However, the most remarkable and interesting survival is the crypt. Repton is today a small settlement but in the eighth and ninth centuries it had a double monastery and was sufficiently important to be the burial place of three Mercian kings.There is some argument over the age of the crypt but it may well date from that period i.e.the 700s or 800s AD.

The four columns and pilasters that support the domical vaulting show crude bases and capitals with spiral and other decoration copied from classical and Byzantine precedents. The builders may have seen continental European examples or travelled in the Mediterranean region. On the other hand they may have based their work on drawings they had seen. Interestingly, for centuries the crypt was unknown. It was rediscovered in 1779 when a workman who was digging a hole for a grave in the chancel floor broke through into the space below! Today it is open to the public and to descend the stairs into the columned space makes for an evocative experience.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/15 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Breedon Angel

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The Breedon Angel is one of a number of fascinating pieces of Saxon sculpture to be seen in the church of St Mary and St Hardulph at Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire. The style of the pieces - small friezes, panels and individual figures -  is notably different from continental European sculpture of the period. Some is quite weathered and must have originally been placed on the exterior of this originally monastic church: it is all now inside for protection from the elements.

The "Breedon Angel", probably a depiction of the Archangel Gabriel, is the largest of the sculptures. The figure is framed by an arch and gives a benediction in the Byzantine manner. It is carved in stone quarried at Barnack near Peterborough. Dating the angel is difficult but it is thought likely to have been carved around 800AD.

The fame and value of this early and fine piece of sculpture is such that the piece on display in the church is not the original but a replica. It was made in 2001 by a process involving 3D laser scanning. Because Barnack stone is no longer quarried a very near match was sourced from Monks' Park Quarry in Wiltshire.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photos from hill and dale

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Today's photograph was taken on 1st October on an unseasonally warm and bright day with scarcely a cloud to be seen. We were walking from Settle to Knight Stainforth upstream alongside the River Ribble. The water was lower than is usual for this time of year due to a dry spell and with very little by way of breeze its surface was quite mirror-like. Looking at my photograph you could almost imagine it was high summer, such is the brightness of the light and the clarity of the scene. Only the hint of the trees turning to autumnal colours reveals the later date in the year. Weather of this kind isn't what I usually look for when I'm out with my camera; I prefer more interesting skies. And yet this light on this scene was sufficiently attractive for me to take the shot.

As I reviewed the photographs taken during our time in the Settle area I realised that a couple of days before I took this photograph we had been on the limestone above the Ribble Valley near this point. A shot I'd taken of the valley side with its medieval terrace remains emphasised by the slanting light also included this stretch of river and the prominent tree (the first of a line of five or so). If you enlarge the small photograph and look near the centre you'll see the location. What I find interesting about this pair of images, from hill and dale, is how the second photograph contextualises the first and shows the topography of the setting.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Dales sheep

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The last major outbreak of foot and mouth disease to hit the sheep population of the Yorkshire Dales occurred in 2001. It led to the cull of the vast majority of the sheep in this upland area, most of which were of the Swaledale breed. Farmers had to bring in other breeds from unaffected parts of the country, sometimes varieties that were not as well suited to the rugged terrain as the Swaledales.

I grew up in Settle in the Dales and have visited the area regularly since work took me to live elsewhere in the country. On my returns after the disease was eradicated I found that I was unable to identify most of the breeds of sheep that took the place of the Swaledales, and I wondered if the native breed would ever return in the numbers that I remembered. I'm glad to say that it seems the flocks are being re-established, that many farmers are breeding them and re-introducing them into the limestone dales and high moorland. Some of the varieties that I don't recognise are still very evident, but I have a clear impression that as a proportion of the total Dales flocks they are declining.

Today's photographs show Swaledales on the hills around Attermire and a breed I don't know on a gated valley pasture very close to Upper Settle. The latter photograph was taken early in a walk that also included the second, and the height of the sun makes all the difference between the two shots.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 31mm (62mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Attermire

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Many keen walkers know that some of the best under-foot conditions for their pastime is limestone upland. The relatively free draining surface, that is often farmed with sheep, frequently has a short, mud-free turf, and offers conditions that contrast greatly with the wetter conditions found on less permeable rocks such as millstone grit and granite.

That is not to say that water isn't found on limestone: it is, particularly in areas where it has been glaciated and till was spread and dumped in the distant past. And even where these conditions don't prevail heavy and persistent rainfall can produce temporary streams and pools. But, all that not withstanding, water and wet conditions are much less frequent on limestone and it makes good walking country.

Today's photograph shows three prominent corallian outcrops of limestone. On the right is Attermire Scar, in the centre Warrendale Knotts, and on the left (in the shadow of cloud), an unnamed (or unknown to me) outcrop. They exhibit the typical cliffs, caves and scree of  this type of landscape. What is less common is the large, fairly flat area of grass and marsh in the centre of the landscape. This is called Attermire and is the mire (marsh) after which the area is named. It is an area of little use for livestock but a great place for birds, plants and insects. I have spent more than a few happy hours sitting on Warrendale Knotts with binoculars, scanning the area for wildlife, listening to the curlew's warbling whistle, the lapwing's plaintive cry and the raven's harsh croak.

On our most recent visit the weather was what I consider to be perfect for photographing this kind of landscape - cloud with sun periodically breaking through - conditions that give saturated colours, contrast and interesting skies.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (36mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3
Image Stabilisation: On

A Dales lane

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Lanes, like footpaths, B roads, A roads and motorways etc fulfil a simple purpose - they connect places. However, a distinguishing feature of lanes is that they rarely do so in the most efficient manner. This is because they are often of great age, and some of the places that the lane originally linked no longer exist. Or, the farming carried out in the area through which the lane passes is no longer the same.

The lane in today's photograph is a small affair that links two bigger lanes. This lane rises across a hillside where pasture gives way to scattered trees, rock outcrops, rough grazing and woods. It passes close by an isolated cottage that must once have been the home of a gamekeeper. And perhaps therein lies one of the main reasons for its existence. I'm sure that once it was well marked and maintained. Today it is part footpath, part lane, in some places without an edge, elsewhere with millstone grit drystone walls and trees marking its course. The photograph shows a section with a wall on the right and the remains of a hawthorn hedge on the left. A large beech tree is also a feature, and the lane appears to be wide enough to accommodate a horse-drawn cart.

I took the photograph to record the line of hawthorn, but also for the yellow of the early morning light. The beech had lost some of its leaves, but the hawthorn were still clinging on to theirs, the unseasonally warm weather perhaps making them think that summer was still here.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 29mm (58mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3
Image Stabilisation: On

Reflecting on silhouettes

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One of my early blog posts had the title, The eponymous silhouette, and reflected on how the finance minister of Louis XV, Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767) spent much of his retirement with paper and scissors making that to which others gave his name. The piece accompanied a photograph of my wife and some small trees in silhouette form in front of a view across a stretch of water in the Lake District. In those early years I posted quite a few photographs featuring silhouettes, often including my wife, but also of gulls, street lights, ducks and much else. Silhouettes in images are very strong forms with heightened impact. Shapes that are of little consequence when brightly lit assume much greater significance and become more attractive as a photographic subject when seen in silhouette, no matter how mundane the subject might usually appear to be.

Consequently, on a recent walk in the Yorkshire Dales near Langcliffe, the sight of the silhouettes of trees and a couple of gates with a distant valley and mountain beyond, immediately drew my eye. I took a shot of the subject and then, realising how much stronger the image would be with a person in silhouette too, I asked my wife to step into the shot.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 42mm (84mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0
Image Stabilisation: On

Changing corporate faces

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Whole industries are devoted to the design and implementation of corporate images. Everything from the font, logo, mission statement, colours and more are carefully constructed, tested with focus groups, modified on the basis of feedback and rolled out to what the company fondly believes is a waiting world. I'm sure some take an interest in such things, and I have to say that, up to a point, I do. But, most people, in my experience, care little about them.

However, it doesn't matter whether or not you consciously think about the corporate face a company projects because, through repeated advertising, the public gradually absorbs the information the company requires. There can be few people in the UK who don't know that the Co-operative now uses light green as its main corporate colour, and quite a few of those will remember that it was preceded by a distinctive turquoise. Familiarity with a company's corporate image doesn't breed contempt so much as indifference, and yet despite that it still does its work.When I studied today's photograph I wondered what prompted the "refresh" of the Co-op's image, and when I first came to realise that it had changed. All I remember is that I eventually came to notice the transformation. My other thought concerned Total's logo and colours - when did it change from three oblique strokes in red, blue and orange into the swirly ball shown above, and why had I not noticed in this instance? I put it down to the relative rarity of Total petrol stations compared with their competitors and the fact that as far as fuel for my car goes, like most people, I'm price-sensitive rather than brand-sensitive.

I came upon this petrol station as we walked through Settle in the Yorkshire Dales one evening. It was nestled in its own pool of light, one of the brightest points in this part of a quite dark market town.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On