I have taken all the photos (I think – I leave space for indecision or panic to prove otherwise) for the “Pairs” Assignment, but have not done any writing up on the getting there. This -four contrasting pairs I had taken before I started this course – is a start…

Busy & Quiet

london underground, 2010 – zorki-s

london underground, 2010 – olympus xa

Young & Old

moldova, 2006 – nikon d50

moldova, 2006 – nikon d50

straight & curved

liverpool street station, 2007 – pentax espio 120mi

kibble palace, glasgow 2007 – pentax espio 120mi

night & day

moscow, 2003 – fujifilm finepix s304

moscow, 2003 – fujifilm finepix s304

My first thought about these, is that they were all taken quite a long time ago. Possibly, I have stopped taking things that distil down to an opposable quality, but I doubt it. A better way would be perhaps to make other connections between the two photos in each pair: the London Underground; people in Moldova; glass roofs with iron framework; a tourist cliche in Moscow. And this then suggests that a contrast is only a contrast if it is seen in conjunction with its corresponding opposite. This seems a good place to start.

And then, there is the question of other contrasts and oppositions between the two pictures. The two pictures taken on the underground are very different by way of “feel”: one feels cramped and crushed (taken with a 50mm lens) one open and spacious (taken with a 35mm lens, which isn’t that much shorter, but I am much further away from the nearest thing you can focus on). “Young” is seen from a distance, but “Old” is a big close up. “Straight” is – just – colour and the main lines run vertically; “Curved” is black and white and the lines run through the frame horizontally.

The two shots of St Basil’s are probably the most one dimensional – what makes them interesting is that they are taken from a high viewpoint (out of the window of my room in the – now demolished – Hotel Rossiya) that is not normally available to people with cameras; I don’t think that is enough for their equivalent to be included in the assessment. Equally, Young and Old would work better as a pair, if they both weren’t standing on the right side of the frame.

So, for the assignment, where do I start? I will accept that the contrast will need more than just the subject matter to be activated, although the abstract state will not necessarily need to be obvious from just one of the pictures. Beyond this, one or more technical oppositions – long lens v short lens; portrait v landscape – will help in expressing the contrast. I will try and introduce formal contrasts to highlight the differences between each photo in a pair.

Other things that may not be necessarily obvious – each photograph in the pair being taken in a place with different connotations, say – can also help with this. I shall take one photograph of each pair in one of two locations. I shall try and ‘rhyme’ elements of various pictures, giving some idea of a series of connections greater than just the contrasting states depicted. I hope overall there will be some unity that ties the whole assignment together.

Let’s see shall we…