Apr 13, 2024
no escape
by matt
Burley and Ilkley Moor has me firmly in its clutches. And always will have.
BronicaSQA
Kodak Portra 400
Apr 13, 2024
two minds
by matt
When I took this, the couple dancing were lost in their moment. They were gliding forwards and backwards, left and right, without a care in the world. Along with several others, I watched them and I smiled. I contemplated taking a photo but it didn’t feel right initially. It didn’t feel right because several other people were photographing them with their phones or perhaps filming them in 4K video, and I didn’t want to be ‘one of them’. I just wanted a simple black and white shot of the man and woman in their moment to celebrate them and to portray a beautiful moment on the street in Leeds that sunny Saturday afternoon. When I took the shot, I was convinced I had captured just that. I was excited about seeing the result. When I processed the negative and scanned it months later, I was a little dismayed to see what looked like shock and alarm on the woman’s face. She seems to look at me in horror – almost as if I’m taking something away from them, or denying them something, or intruding. It really wasn’t like that when I took the photo. I actually felt like they were enjoying the attention and limelight that fell upon them amongst the endearing smiles, and this gave me confidence that I was doing the right thing (or at least not the wrong thing) by photographing them. I felt bad when I saw the result. A photo is a snapshot in time and while often that snapshot is indicative of what may have been going on at that time, quite often there is a backstory or side-channel which is not so visible. Only I and others standing here at this time knew what it was like, and I’m in two minds whether this was a photo I’d post, or not.