I love black and white images and I have spent many years shooting black and white Kodak TRI-X 400 film using just a Leica M6 and a 35mm lens trying to get close to my subjects and open up their lives to my camera.
I still continue to do some documentary work outside of my weddings - it allows me step into the world of my subjects and experience their lives, which is an absolute privilege and I do at times have to pinch myself and remind myself how fortunate I am.
So the reason for the post, I was commissioned recently by an art magazine based in New York to document two of the worlds most powerful art buyers. My subjects were Daria Zhukova (girlfriend of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea Football Club owner and Russian oligarch) and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst (art collector) visiting the studio of Antony Gormley (the artist/sculptor). These are the kinds of projects that I really enjoy. You are given the freedom by the picture editor to do what you want and be as artistic as you like and your subjects know to ignore you and let you get on with it.
The magazine Art + Auction is now on-sale and can be viewed on-line here. Below you can see my cover picture and a selection of images taken from the project. |
Gail and Keith
Friday, Oct 17, 2008 Weddings
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| Gail and Keith were married in the gorgeous setting of Lake Bled in Slovenia. It was my first time in Slovenia and I was really impressed by the beauty of the place and how friendly the locals were. |
Helen and David
Friday, Oct 17, 2008Weddings
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| Helen and David's wedding took place at the National Maritime Museum's Queen's house in Greenwich, London. It was our first wedding at the venue and both Andy and I really enjoyed working there with Helen and David. They are a great couple and left us to do what we do best which is to document the reality of their wedding day with a couple of arty portraits as well. |
Sui Lin and Kelvin
Friday, Oct 17, 2008Weddings
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Apologies for my lack of postings recently. September and October have been really busy months for us.
We were very lucky to photograph some wonderful couples in September and very honoured to be asked to shoot both Sui Lin and Kelvin's traditional English white wedding in Wadhurst Castle followed by their Chinese celebrations in Greenwich. They are a really fun couple and certainly know how to enjoy themselves! Everyone at their weddings had such a great time!
Here are some of my favourite images. |
Fine Art Platinum Prints
Thursday, Oct 16, 2008Weddings
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We have some great news for those of you that LOVE your black and white prints because we are now able to offer, and my master printer assures me that we are the only ones doing this in the UK, your images printed as Fine Art Platinum Prints. Now for those of you that do not know what a Platinum print is please read below.
Although difficult and costly to create, platinum prints are the sine qua non of photographic art. Over the years, the only obstacle to widespread enjoyment of platinum has been lack of access to this rare process. Once experienced, it is usually a visual revelation! And it is the visual value, the tremendous tonal range, that makes platinum prints so extraordinary.
Unlike the silver print process, platinum lies on the paper surface, while silver lies in a gelatin or albumen emulsion that coats the paper. As a result, since no gelatin emulsion is used, the final platinum image is absolutely matte with a deposit of platinum (and/or palladium, its sister element which is also used in most platinum photographs) absorbed slightly into the paper. In 1873, thirty-four years after Louis Daguerre in Paris and William Henry Fox Talbot in London presented the discovery of photography to the world, the platinum process of printing photographs was patented.
Two aspects that make the platinum print so special, so loved by photographers and so treasured by collectors and investors are beauty and permanence. The unique beauty of a fine platinum print involves a broad scale of tones from black to white. The delicate, rich platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are unobtainable in silver prints. In the deepest shadows the platinum print still presents information; the platinum whites are delicate and the depth of the image is alive and three-dimensional.
Platinum prints are not only exceptionally beautiful, they are among the most permanent objects invented by human beings! The platinum metals (platinum and palladium) are more stable than gold. Incredibly, a platinum image, properly made, can last thousands of years. It is as enduring as steel or stone and will even outlive the fine paper it is printed upon.
Throughout its history, photography has used many methods of expression, such as daguerreotype, albumen, carbon, gravure, and most commonly, silver emulsions. But for master photographers, platinum has always held a special place. In spite of its enormous extra labor and cost, platinum is often preferred for the photographer's most personal, special and rare images. Alfred Stieglitz referred to platinum as "the prince of media." Frederick Evans, one of the best platinum printers in history (whose prints of medieval cathedrals in Britain and the Continent are still regarded as quintessential), refused to use anything else and gave up photography when his beloved platinum became unavailable due to the war. His friend, George Bernard Shaw, wrote that platinum is "on the extreme margin of photographic subtlety." Contemporary Santa Fe photographer Joan Meyers(Salton Sea series, Santiago, Saint of Two Worlds series) agrees, and works almost exclusively in platinum/palladium. She chooses platinum both for the joy of it—because it is a "hands-on" process, and for the inherent qualities of platinum—notably its ability to hold the detail that is all-important in her documentary photographs.
In recent decades—with the appreciation of photography as an art, and its accelerating value as an investment to collectors—platinum is again in a renaissance among fine photographers.
Image and text excerpted from a history of platinum photography by
John Stevenson of the John Stevenson Gallery in New York City.
Needless to say that I love my black and white images and am so delighted to be able to offer this to my clients. Because of the exclusivity of the product, the rarity of the materials used and the amount of hours it takes to produce the final Platinum Print this product is not cheap, however, the cost of the print is far outweighed by the quality of the materials used to produce the print and the knowledge that your Platinum print will be round for many many generations of your family.
Below is a photograph of a recent platinum print. The computer screen doesn't do it justice I am afraid but will give you a idea of the final product. |
© 2010 Christian Keenan Photography, All rights reserved. Blog by infinet design
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