Winter months are my favorite time of year to make meaningful photographs. Because of the extraordinary events of 2020, travel and safety precautions I was not able to take my annual trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. A close friend and equally talented B&W photographer owns a beautiful home in Bethlehem backed up to a glorious view of Mt Washington. In fact, my wife and I owned an adjacent building lot for 4-5 years with an eye towards relocating in retirement years. We have since moved on from those plans, nevertheless the photographic opportunities that exist in that area are never far from my wintertime thoughts.

    This month’s image is from a pre 2020 December weekend where my wife and I joined our Bethlehem friends. The girls are focused on holiday shopping and the outlets, while the boys are focused on the pristine backcountry of the “Whites”. I’m fortunate in my buddy, aka, Tim, knows the area as well as any life long resident. I’ve included one of Tim’s images this month, both originate in Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

   Later this year will mark 40 years ago that I met Tim at a Connecticut Professional Photographers Association monthly meeting. We became fast friends as “newbies” amongst some very talented photographers, who we both now count as lifelong friends. Our shared love of baseball and raising 3 young children would dovetail perfectly around a passion for black and white large film photography.  If that weren’t enough reason, just recently we learned I’m a distant cousin to Tim’s wife Darlene.  

    This particular blog is the 53rd that I’ve written, the exciting back stories to many of images I’ve made over the years are beginning to wear thin. Bringing a fresh approach to sharing those stories is also an exercise in creativity. Writing the back stories to my images allows my mind to think in different and more creative ways of expressing myself, both by way of the written word and hopefully in future imagery.

    I put a lot of stock into successful “creatives” and how they go about their own art. One who I pay a lot of attention to is Bruce Springsteen, not only for his music, but for the descriptions of how the creative process unfolds in his mind. One story I’ve heard him tell is, the driving force behind the album “The River”. It is his 5th, and, only double album. Springsteen wrote a staggering 52 songs for the River album. Eventually, 20 songs debuted on the 1980 album release. When he began writing the album he had just turned 30 and still uncertain of his life’s path.  He said, “if I write and sing about life, I may find direction in my own life”. To that end I continue to put word to my own imagery.

   Tim is seen here making adjustments to his 8×10″ Deardorff camera before making his image of the Basin. As an aside, the sometimes precarious or unusual vantage points we choose to make an image is always rooted in the optimum angle before any sense of convenience.

   For several reasons I chose not to make an image of the Basin, but decided to make the image seen at the beginning of this month’s Story. My image is about halfway on the trail to the Basin. I tend to gravitate towards closer views that highlight the textures that become lifelike with large film photography, particularly when combined with the method of how I process large, single sheets of film one at a time. Many times, I think of my imagery as “walk-bys”, although, it’s hard to believe one wouldn’t stop to admire the wonders of the natural landscape seen in the two featured images for this month.

   As I look at each image to find their differences, I am first struck by how much they have in common. The blurred sense of water continuing its never ending journey, no matter the temperature is a central theme of each image. Beyond that, there are subliminal elements included which heighten interest and visual response. The textures and nuances of the stone and ice are best revealed by way of large film and careful contrast control. The S curve shape is considered to convey serenity and calm, contrasted by the coarse grain of the surrounding rock surfaces simply adds a sense of almost being there. Our decisions to frame the water off-center simply allows the S curve to be a more dominant part of each image, one cannot help but circle around each image for another look, the sign of a well thought-out image. For those taking time to look deep into the composition will find a more advanced way of portraying a 3 dimensional scene within the limits of a 2 dimensional photograph.

   Tim’s decision to allow the water to fall into the pool adds a sense of dimension that would have been lost had the wonderful curve in the foreground intersected the falling water. In my own image of the ice covered tree branch, the decision to leave a small area on the lower right framing of the water suggests the water travels only where the darker area is and offers a natural boundary to frame the photograph. These decisions are born from years behind the view camera composing an upside down, and reversed image, exactly how our brain receives the image the eye sees. As one famous photographer using the same equipment once said “it’s not what it is, it’s how everything relates to one another”.

   Tim’s image is made with an 8×10″ Deardorff camera and “contact” printed on vintage Portriga Rapid silver gelatin paper which comes in only single grades of contrast. His process to print is more challenging than mine, he chooses this because of a large stock of what we both consider to be the finest silver paper made during our lifetime. Tim’s image preserves the beautiful color of the Portriga silver paper and he only finishes with a final toning in Selenium. This neutralizes the blacks and adds an archival quality to the final print.

   I reached out to Tim to provide his thoughts on his version of the Basin, he offered the following. “What drew me to this composition is the curve of the foreground rock formation that leads you from lower left to middle right then up and around to the water cascading then ending at the dark rock middle left. The near black of the water pool on the left sets off the highlight on the curved rock adding further dimension to the composition. The juxtaposition of the white in the water with the dark water and rock further strengthened the conveyance of the overall contrast of the image”.

   My image is made with a smaller 5×7″ Deardorff camera and printed with Ilford’s Warmtone Multi-contrast papers.  These types of papers allow very small areas of the final print to be portrayed with varying degrees of contrast. My prints also go through a double toning process where the highlights are bleached and then redeveloped to a warmer hue, while the mid-tones and shadow areas tend to remain cool, this process adds a slight impression of depth as the lighter values project while the cooler values recede. 

   Whether from a photographer’s cocktail hour or a White Mt. trail, the memories are deep and rewarding.