vendredi 12 novembre 2004

More Scenes from Wiltshire Ricardo's Tomb First some of the history... the parish church of St. Nicholas at Hardenhuish (pronounced "Harnish" by local people) stands like a classical monument on the side of a hill overlooking Chippenham and the north Wiltshire plain. One of only two Georgian churches in Wiltshire - the other being the chapel of Wardour Castle - it was built at the expense of Joseph Colbourne, the Sheriff of Wiltshire, in 1779 to the design of John Wood of Bath. Wood, it should be remembered, was responsible for the Royal Crescent, Lansdowne Crescent, the Circus and the Assembly Rooms in that nearby Regency city. This Georgian church replaced and used the stone from a mediaeval place of worship which was situated further down the hill. Although the Wood design was not strictly adhered to (extra windows being added) the light coloured ashlar-faced building, with its small octagonal and domed tower at the west end over a pedimented doorway, is quite noticeable from afar when the sun shines favourably on it. In the churchyard and even more classical in style than the church itself is the monumental tomb of David Ricardo - the economist who died in 1823. Designed by William Pitts, the marble piece is severely Greek in style, but has a gaiety with the four almost naked maidens standing around a central Corinthian column. Ricardo (b.1772) was the son of a very rich Dutch Jew whose family seat was at Gatcombe Park in neighbouring Gloucestershire. He was elected in 1819 as a Radical Member of Parliament for the Irish "rotten borough" of Portalington - with all of twelve electorate! In 1809 as the only Parliamentary Radical who was listened to with much respect he wrote "The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Banknotes" which was an argument in favour of a metallic money system. However, he is chiefly remembered for his deductions, recommendations and essay of 1817 entitled "The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation" which dominated political thinking for many years afterwards - despite what other economists thought! But what about the photography? I started above with what is to me the most interesting image... the toned black-and-white photograph of the naked maidens. The progression of shooting on the day was first the church, then the interior, then the graveyard. The church itself was one subject of a comprehensive commission entitled "Sites of Rites" visited in the county of Wiltshire so was photographed first whilst the light was good. The interior followed because the door key was only available for an hour on certain days... and the graveyard was photographed lastly for myself. And what a surprise was found out there to the rear of the church... Ricardo's Tomb. I photographed every subject in both mono and colour for the commission, but as it transpired my black-and-white images were the ones more often than not chosen for reproduction... and ultimately all in black-and-white for an exhibition which toured for a year. I think you can see why, from the few images I have selected here... the toned monochrome image of the maidens on Ricardo's Tomb stands out from the rest. It was shot on a Leica rangefinder with my favourite 21mm Schneider Super-Angulon wide-angle lens on Agfa 100 Professional and printed on Agfa Record Rapid before being split-toned in Kodak Rapid Selenium toner. Split-toning is a technique used to introduce a second colour into a monochrome print. It is not too difficult to do once but almost impossible to replicate exactly a second or third time... which to my mind adds to the fascination of traditional darkroom printing work... although digital workers would disagree! I split-tone fibre-base prints by using a strong, warm Selenium toner solution in a well ventilated darkroom because the fumes are very noxious... and then snatch the print from the solution just as it starts to turn from it's black through long tonal scale of grays to white... to a chocolate-brown colour, grays and white. The deepest shadow areas turn brown first and as this happens the print has to be snatched from the toner in a second or so before the mid-tones start to turn brown also. If they do there won't be a "split". I generally make two or three split-toned images in the same session so as to have a choice afterwards from this unpredictable post-processing technique. I doesn't suit all subjects and prints, but is well worth considering for exhibition work for the extra dimension it gives to the image... and it looked good on one of my magazine covers - here the image was reversed in scanning to fit the established title position better, although few would realise the change even if they knew this quiet but interesting location. 9:44:03 PM    comment []