Maria Mochnacz

(c) Maria Mochnacz

I was listening to some early PJ Harvey as I worked the other day, and was admiring the photography on the record sleeve. I did a bit of googling and found that the photographer was Maria Mochnacz, a lo-fi fine art photographer – just the type of photographer we like here at CorkAP!

On the photo above, the cover of PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me”, Maria says

This is the cover of “rid of me” pollys first album for island records.when I took this image to the record company & said this is what we want to use for the cover they said great,dont worry we can clean up the muck on the wall,the drips & the plant & I had to say,no – its supposed to be like that – its part of the picture.it was taken in pitch black in my bathroom with a flash i remember my housemate Mark who I shared with at the time banging on the bathroom door while we were in there & i was shouting back “fuck off, we’re making art” – in a friendly manner,of course.

Here’s my own copy, in it’s glorious 12″ sleeve – cd covers just ain’t the same (and as for downloads…) !

PJ Harvey sleeve by Maria Mochnacz (c)

Check out Maria’s website for more great lo-fi photography – musicians, fashion and personal work

Barry & Deb (c) Maria Mochnacz

– Rory

Holga Tyres

Tyres by Rory O'Toole

Did a bit of scanning this morning. This is a typical Holga shot, of a wagon full of tyres down at my brother in laws farm in Limerick. The Holga is the cheapest most rubbish camera I own, and yet for the past two years I have much preferred the work I have produced from it over my 35mm Nikon. Maybe I live in a blurry world …

– Rory

Mmmm more camera porn!

Tokyo Camera Style

I can’t help myself … I keep going back … it’s an a ddiction … but ya gotta love Tokyo Camera Style for its gratuitous display of sexy camera’s!!

Bessa R and Bessa L

Says the site owner, John Sypal,

“…I “create content” for this site by approaching people with cameras around their neck or over the shoulders when I see them on the street.  After a brief and not terribly (in a grammatical sense) great explanation about this site in Japanese I snap a shot of their camera with their approval.  Now, I’ve been doing this enough to know to ask if they might have any other film cameras with them and often they do.  He had the Bessa R over his shoulder and the L in his camera bag.  He too went to see the Bresson show and if you were going to take a camera* (or two!) a small silver rangefinder would be the one to go with.

My friend however, brought his Pentax 67.

*I don’t know how it is outside of Japan, but if you are in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and you don’t see a dozen other people  (men and women ages 15 to 80) viewing exhibitions with a camera on them then it is probably a weekday morning or you are actually in the museum of painting or possibly even a convenience store of some sort.  …”

Keep it up John!

– Rory

Olympus-flex TLR

Mamiya C330 with Porroflex finder

Yashica Mat 124G

Glucksman Craft fair

Pinhole by Brian Barry

Reader Brian Barry sent in the following in the comments section –

“…I’m from Cork and I take Pinhole Photos. I exhibited in Lismore a year ago in the same place The C.A.P. did. It was a show about Cuba.

Anyway, I’m writing to let you know that I’m now making Pinhole Cameras and will be selling them for the first time in The Glucksman next weekend (Nov 6,7,8) at the annual Craftsfair. My cameras each contain a photo etching from my Cuba Obscura collection. I’ll also have my prints available over the few days.  …”

I had a look at his website, and the pinhole photographs are great. If you are out and about in Cork this weekend, the Lewis Glucksman craft fair looks like an interesting place to spend some time.

– Rory

Camera Porn!

Leica M4

I don’t think about what camera I should use that much. I just pick up the one that looks nicest on the day

— William Eggleston

Olympus Pen

Nikon F3

More gratuitous pictures of some damn sexy cameras from Tokyo Camera Style !!

– Rory

Portable smortable

More eye candy camera porn from Tokyo Camera Style !

– Rory

Only one film camera left …

Michael Johnson at the Online Photographer has been publishing a list of his top 10 cameras for the past few years. Mike these days is a digital photographer, but he writes about all things photography related – art, history, journalism, cameras – anything that touches the subject. His writing is very subjective and personal, and all the more enjoyable to read for it. Of course it means when he does review cameras, he gets a lot of stick from the techy nerdy wing of photographers who will berate him for preferring one camera over another, despite the ‘nother camera being more technically advanced, or having better IQ (know what that is??) or whatever. Mike takes it in his stride and makes no apologies, so I come back to read him almost daily.

Anyway, the one and only film camera on this years top 10 list is the new Zeiss Ikon (pictured above). It’s a thing of beauty and desirability, and probably produces great photographs in the right hands. But if I was spending that kind of money I would be thinking of a second hand Hasselblad, a couple of lenses, and change left over for film. Looks like a camera for wealthy collectors – recession or no recession.

– Rory

camera truck

Shaun Irvine went back to basics, and built himself a very large camera – in a truck. What a great idea. The truck has travelled around Spain and the States. Read more here

The images that he has produced look fantastic. The negatives measure about 7 feet by 3.5 feet! I’d love to see a print

(c) Shaun Irving http://cameratruck.net/files/ct06_images/CT0665_0.JPG

– Rory

Like film cameras?

Then this website should have you dribbling – http://tokyocamerastyle.com/

I don’t think about what camera I should use that much. I just pick up the one that looks nicest on the day
— William Eggleston