along the south bank
January 17, 2007
On Sunday I went photographing with Andrew around Charing Cross and along the South Bank. Here are some pictures I took:
A long exposure in which I appear as a ghost with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background.
This man was sitting on a bench, speaking into a dictaphone and looking at his watch. Perhaps he is a spy.
A view across the river to St. Paul’s.
Posted by Mayee — January 17, 2007 at 6:07 pm
lovely sights… particularly the ‘spy’… love the blue… and the ghostly you. eeeeeks!
=C)
Posted by lva — January 19, 2007 at 1:49 am
Thanks May! The spy was pretty interesting: I watched and took photos of him for several minutes. I do wonder what he was up to. Perhaps he was observing me observing him, and using his dictaphone to record his observations for counter-espionage purposes…
Posted by graeme — January 31, 2007 at 7:51 am
the ghost photo is great! i have been trying to pull that off recently too, with varying results… there`s a whole idea for a series there!
i saw a `spy` on the subway in osaka last autumn. the car was busy, and i was sat down. at one station, this wierdo guy stood in front of me and clicked on a dictaphone. i thought he was taping the ambient noise of the subway at first, but the way he was pointing it was really wierd and something seemed suspicious about it. i got paranoid he was trying to tape people`s (my) conversations… then i looked at the dictaphone more closely, and noticed it wasn`t audio at all… it was a remote mini-dv tape recorder! it took me a while before i noticed he actually had mini spy cam in a hole cut in his shoe! he was taping up girls skirts! he ran off and switched cars at the next stop.
later, i saw such `security` cameras and recorders for sale in akihabra. they are pretty expensive. there was a big documentary about it on tv last week too, particularly spy cams in hotels, so it`s been quite big news here! i like japan, but the perverts here are out of control… give me a muttering london spy anyday…
Posted by lva — February 6, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Yeah, the ghost stuff is fun. I took quite a few but that was my favourite. I’ve actually been trying to think about how to get that effect in video: I’d really like to make a video for one of The Unrecorded’s songs, with ghost-people walking around London.
High technology plus perving — that’s such a Japanese combination! Your story reminds me of that incident we witnessed in Kyoto, involving a girl in a short skirt, a pasty young man with a cameraphone, and a policeman. Only your camera-in-the-shoe story is even weirder. Modifying his shoes, for Christ’s sake! Surely that sort of talent would be better spent cheating at roulette or stealing top-secret blueprints or something.
Spies and peeping toms: so similar in so many ways.
Posted by graeme — February 7, 2007 at 8:38 am
ah, but what mystery is more captivating to history`s greatest talents, minds and artists than the forbidden delights that lie beneath a girls skirt… mind you, i`m sure if you cheat and roulette and win you`ll get a lot more out of it than some grainy lo-fi video…
speaking of which, i know how to make ghosts on video!! i was going to do it in a film i`m hoping to make this spring! it`s really easy, you can do it on a mac!
Posted by lva — February 7, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Put like that, it’s hard to argue… I also like the way your first sentence there sounds like the voiceover for a commercial for Ferrero Rocher or Nescafé or something. “What mystery is more captivating…”
The ghost thing — I’d like to know more. The thing I’ve been trying to figure out is how you could make some people ghosts but not everyone. I mean, I guess if you film a place empty and then film it again with people, then overlay the two you get ghost people, but what if you want a single ghost? Any ideas?