There’s something about the aging of wood that adds to its visual interest. And when the paint on it also starts crackle and split, then the surfaces really begin to excite me. I know this all sounds a bit daft, but bear with me!
So often the photography you see in the media thrusts the ‘shiny-new’ at you and more often than not that ‘shiny-new’ results in a bright, ageless, plastic finish – it’s all a bit in-yer-face. This growing collection of doors, shutters and windows, (all shot near our media centre for photography holidays in France), are the antithesis of the ‘shiny-new’, as they perfectly describe the aging process, or rather the passing of time. Their current state of repair, or disrepair, is not what the maker originally intended, as time and the elements have taken its toll. A collection of brand new doors and windows would look like an advert for a building supplier, as there’s no narrative, whereas these have a separate poetry and tell quite different stories. I’ve included the “before’s” to show you that that story is there even before I started to edit them.
You can see/read how I processed the Blue Door and Handle, (the second set of images below), in a Step-by-Step Guide which you will find here.
I'll be demonstrating how to make images like these on our Photo MAESTRO Courses - to learn more about our photo holiday courses and workshops please go here.
