1995 Colour – Part 2 – Greenwich Meridian

1995 Colour – Greenwich Meridian: The second of a series of posts on my colour work, mainly in London, from 1995, 35 years ago and when I’d been working extensively with colour negative film for ten years, though still continuing to work with black and white.

Obelisk, Trig Point, Pole Hill, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-841
Obelisk, Trig Point, Pole Hill, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-841

In 1992 I began making colour panoramas using a Japanese Widelux F8 swing lens panoramic camera – and later I used a Russian Horizon which gave similar results. Both worked with normal 35mm film but produced negatives that were a little under 60mm wide rather than the 36mm of normal cameras. Both use clockwork to swing the taking lens around a third of a circle exposing the film through a narrow slit behind the lens. The film was held in a curved path – again around a third of a circle – with the lens at the centre of the circle so that the lens to film distance remained constant.

Peacham Hall, King's Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411
Peacham Hall, King’s Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411

This arrangement avoided the change in distance from the lens to film that gives some stretching of the subject towards the edges of the frame – and begins to become very noticeable in ultra-wide lenses, particularly wider than around 18mm focal length on a 35mm camera.

95p03-552-Edit
Level Crossing, Highams Park, Waltham Forest, 95p03-552

Using the curved film plane avoids this distortion and enables a much wider field of view, while using a fairly moderate focal length – the Widelux has a 26mm f2.8 lens and gives negatives 24x56mm with a horizontal angle of view of 123 degrees.

Bridges, North Circular, Hale End Rd, Hale End, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-463
Bridges, North Circular, Hale End Rd, Hale End, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-463

But there is a downside. Creating the image in this way gives a curvature to objects which is unlike our normal vision which is particularly noticeable on any straight lines, though lines parallel to the axis the lens rotates around remain straight – so if you hold the camera level, verticals will remain straight. But other lines become curved with the effect increasing away from the image centre, giving what is often called a “cigar effect“.

Raglan Rd, Lea Bridge Rd, Whipps Cross, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-373
Raglan Rd, Lea Bridge Rd, Whipps Cross, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-373

This is a constraint which makes composition far more difficult using a swing lens camera, and was not helped by a rather poor viewfinder on the Widelux. Usually for landscape work I tried to visualise the effect of the curvature and chose a suitable camera position, levelled the camera on a heavy Manfrotto tripod using the spirit level on the camera top plate, lining the camera up using two arrows on the top plate to show the extent of the view (more accurately than the viewfinder) and then pressing the cable release to make the picture.

Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford,, 1995, 95p4-922
Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-922

For photographing events and some creative effects this is a camera you can use handheld, but you have to remember that even when using its fastest speed of 1/250 second the camera actually takes quite a lot longer to scan around the curved film.

Crowley's Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672
Crowley’s Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672

These pictures are from a project I began in 1995 with the approaching Millennium in mind. It seemed to me to make sense to carry out a project based on the Greenwich Meridian.

Greenwich Boating Pond, Park Vista, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1431
Greenwich Boating Pond, Park Vista, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1431

So I set about walking the Meridian, photographing it at various points in London and used some of these pictures in an attempt to get public funding for a Meridian Walk with some markers in pavements and a web site and publication. Panoramic images seemed a very appropriate format for illustrating the line.

Greenwich Meridian, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1242
Greenwich Meridian, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1242

Unfortunately my grant application as usual was unsuccessful, but I did go on to take some more photographs. In 2009 others produced a Greenwich Meridian Long Distance Path covering all of the Meridian in England from Peacehaven to Sand La Mere which of course goes through London and we also have The Line Sculpture Trail. Quite a few more Meridian markers were also added in London since I made this walk.

Many more panoramas from my Meridian project and other colour images from 1995 in the album 1995 London Colour.


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One Response to “1995 Colour – Part 2 – Greenwich Meridian”

  1. […] I rejoined the Meridian where it made landfall in Greenwich – where I made some of the pictures at the end of my earlier post. […]

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