Black White Photography - UK (2019-05)

66
B+W

W

hat do we

do when we

are stuck for

a whole day

somewhere

so familiar

it is impossible to find anything

to photograph? This was the

situation I found myself in

recently. To make matters worse

it was a print factory, as I was

waiting for the proverbial ink to

dry. Although the photobooks

that come off press are always

amazing to look at (Salgado,

Erwitt, Koudelka, Natchway)

the factory itself is no thing of

beauty. It’s neon-lit, noisy and

with forklift trucks moving

about, photographs have to be

taken quickly and always hand-

held. Hardly the place to make

an art-inspired photo series – yet

that’s what I tried to do.

I wouldn’t call a pallet a thing

of beauty. But sitting on one were

some elegantly folded, silken

white paper sheets, with a couple

of small images peeking out

from within their folds. It looked

surprisingly beautiful. Looking

closer, I realised the sheets

were from a book about the

artist Christo, who specialises

in wrapping buildings, islands

and all manner of impossibly

huge subjects in giant swathes

of fabric. I was inspired by the

connection between the artist’s

actual art pieces and the images

of them wrapped in those silken-

looking pieces of printed paper.

I started to look for other pallets

to photograph.

INSPIRATION

ONE-DAY PHOTO

PROJECTS /3

MAGIC IN THE MUNDANE

How do we find inspiration in the all-too familiar? When Eddie Ephraums

spent a few days in a print factory it was a challenge at first to find

anything to photograph, but things changed...

All images

© Eddie Ephraums