NIGEL'S RAMBLES

Thursday, November 16, 2023

A Game of Chess

I was in Piacenza for work, afterwards, I went to see a building on my Romanesque "hit list". Basilica di San Savino, from the outside, looks like just another suburban neo Baroque church of little interest. But inside there are some wonderful medieval mosaics, including a panel depicting a chess game. At some point in time the interior was brought back to the Romanesque condition. It has some nice column capitals too.

When I arrived, there was a funeral, so I went off and saw some other things in the city. But this turned out to be a lucky moment to photograph the the mosaics behind the altar, as the lighting was still on and when I asked the verger, who was clearing up, where the chess player mosaic was, he kindly removed the carpet that was covering it. and let me get close to them to take some pictures. The crypt was easier as lights turn on when you enter.

San Saviano, Piacenza

First, take a look at the Presbytery

San Saviano, Piacenza

Now down to the Crypt.

San Saviano, Piacenza

The church also has some lovely column capitals

San Saviano, Piacenza

I also managed to fit in a visit to the Cathedral, a huge massive construction. The tradesmen who contributed to its construction are honoured with several little carvings on the columns depicting their trades.

Duomo Piacenza

The Crypt

Duomo Piacenza

Basilica Sant’Antonino, was Piacenza's first cathedral. Much altered over the years, it has a lovely peaceful cloister. Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque are mixed in together in this church.

Basilica Sant’Antonino,Piacenza

I would like to go back to Piacenza to explore the Duomo and the city, a little bit more thoroughly as I am sure there is lots more to see in this town.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Performing the Distant Past

From the late eighties until two thousand, I had a second job gig with our provincial theatre in Reggio Emilia and Aterballetto, which back then was an important dance company in Italy. I also did some photography for other theatres and dance/theatre companies as I met with visiting companies.

The theatre is acquiring my "performing arts" film negative archive for their historic archives. The negs were just rotting away in my old darkroom, so it is good they will be stored properly and preserved. I should have done it sooner, but I have been busy making digital scans of the things that interest me, and that I had not already scanned. My Nikon Z7 with 50mm macro, plus the ES2 attachment, makes it quite quick and easy. I think I have about 80,000 frames to look at, but with a lot of duplication and obvious fails. I used to expect to get about ten good pictures from a dance shoot with ten rolls of film.

It has been quite enjoyable going back over this photography, and I have found things I missed the first time around.

Here are a few quick conversions. The golf ball grain is due to Tmax 400ASA film pushed to 1600 and beyond. Capture One was used for the conversions, as it has dodging and burning tools like those I used in the darkroom. It is nice to have no paper waste and local contrast control. Corrections are quick and easy on the computer. These shots were mostly taken with my multiple Nikon FM2 or F801 bodies, that I used back then, with mostly the lovely Nikon Ai 180 F.8 and a Tamron 300mm 2.8. All manual focus and exposures were guessed as the stage lighting would invariably fool the light meter, although I did sometimes did use a Pentax spot meter.

These pictures are of their time. I was commissioned to take monochrome photographes, as this is what newspapers and magazines wanted. Access was quite easy back then, our theatre had few problems getting permissions to photograph visiting companies. The photographs I took for Aterballetto or Teatro Due where mostly taken live during the dress rehearsal. The little imperfections adds life to a performing arts photograph. A posed dance shot is easy to spot.

I am told things have changed. Companies are much more interested in controlling their "image", and permissions are not easy now. I see much more "posed in a studio"press release pictures now, and of course everything is now in colour.

The ease of the digital darkroom for these old pictures is amazing. I am not tied to a sigle contrast grade paper. I can use local contrast where it is needed. Local "burning and dodging" can be quickly experimented, without wasting a ton of paper. I am able to pull far more out of the negatives than I ever could in the "wet" darkroom.

Aterballetto

Sade, with Massimo di Rossi. The Marchese de Sade meets a Nun.

Riccardo Chailly, great fun to watch from backstage.

A sterner Claudio Abbado

Michele Abbondanza

Romeo e Giulietta, Aterballetto

Creating a choreography, Elleboro

Balletto di Toscana

Carolyn Carlson

Monica Francia, Sangue e Fragole. This dance piece was illuminated with hand held mechanics lamps. Nikon F801 Tamron 300 wedged between two theatre seats in lieu of IBIS or tripod.