47 Photos of Rain

By

Egor

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7

It might be a film. It might be a slide show. It might be a music video. Or it might just be me trying to grunt and babble my way to a new visual language. All that’s really known is it’s a collection of 47 moody, melancholic, phantasmagorical photos of rain, sequenced into an ebb and flow and supported by a suitably elegiac musical score.

©2012 grEGORy simpson

ABOUT THESE PHOTOS: All photos were shot within a 2 minute period using a LomiKino camera loaded with Tri-X film exposed at ISO 400, developed in a 1:50 solution of Rodinal then scanned on an Epson V600 flatbed using VueScan software and sequenced in Final Cut Pro X against a custom score, which was improvised in real-time into Ableton Live using numerous software-based synthesizers. That answers the “what.” The bigger question is “why,” and it’s answered thoroughly in the article, Red v. Green.

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Comments

7 responses to “47 Photos of Rain”

  1. Anjolie Avatar
    Anjolie

    I love this! Not everything in photography needs to be tack sharp. The details are practically lost with all that grain, but then you’re left with this feeling or impression and it’s wonderful. Thanks for making this

  2. Egor Avatar
    Egor

    Anjolie: Thank you for your comments.

    My favourite part of almost every photo is that which is unseen… maybe it’s something just out of frame, or maybe it’s hiding in the shadows, or maybe (as is the case here) it’s obscured by grain, overexposure and a truly awful (in a good way) plastic lens. Mystery can be a powerful photographic tool. Like you, I see nothing wrong with photos that lean toward the suggestive, rather than the literal — unless one is shooting catalog photos, of course. 😉

  3. greycoopers Avatar
    greycoopers

    Masterpiece! Exquisite timing evident throughout – I love how you paced the photos and matched them up to the haunting and dreamy soundtrack. Phantasmagoric is about right. This “video” works for me on so many levels. I’m intrigued to read the “why” in your forthcoming article – but this whole piece is so (bitter)sweet and complete that I don’t really need to know – it stands happily and perfectly on its own two feet.

  4. Linden Avatar
    Linden

    Doesn’t sound at all like Twin Peaks when I checked, but something about it reminds me of that…

    Love the mood.

  5. Timothy Smith Avatar
    Timothy Smith

    Just watched this. Somehow, got me thinking of ukiyo-e, then Moriyama. Yours means more to me than Moriyama, but then I’m not Japanese. Hmm, not Canadian either.

    We need rain here in drought land (CA). So I too can try it.

  6. Pigeon Avatar
    Pigeon

    Excellent those. Music is just perfect.

    I personally love how rain tends to keep the public in check, but at the same time I am always on the lookout for waterlogged squabs in need of a dry roost at my place for the night.
    I want one of those glowing umbrellas like they had in Blade Runner, but I’d never actually carry one and I’m content to just sit on the pavement and get waterlogged with my feathered friends.

    Also, I’ve been trying to figure out whether or not flash photography in the rain is a truly terrible cliche?

    1. Egor Avatar
      Egor

      About once every decade I remember several of my cheap old point-and-shoots have a built-in flash. And about once every two decades I actually use said flash.

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