Out & about - From Lendal Bridge

sb000792                                From Lendal Bridge, York  

There's a lot of windy debate about how photojournalists should present their work at the moment. One school appears to think there exists some absolute standard of purity of an unmanipulated image.  From a discussion last week some also seem to think 'photojournalism' equates to conflict photographer.

I disagree. 

I use photography to make a journal of life around me. My life is quite comfortable, northern European. I also, like every other photographer use post processing to make the final image represent what I saw in my mind's eye. 

This image is perhaps a case in point. A grab shot from years ago. It's slight, granted, but I like the effect. The original image was a colour slide; I used Aperture to apply a monochrome preset as a start, tweaked it a little then added vignetting. I manipulated the image at every single stage. Where I stood, the camera lens/film/developer, the exposure, the focusing, the composition, the scan settings, the work in Aperture. Overarching this is the manipulation from my weltanschauung.  Just like every other photographer, everywhere.

For me it now feels about right. It also stands as an honest record of that moment, of my response to what was before me.