Driving me nuts

© Magnus Andersson

The Ansel Adams exhibition was quite special. Seeing his exquisite prints reminded me of my own feeble attempts at applying the zone system to my early dark room experiences. Of course I didn't get anywhere near his results but that didn't really matter to me though. It was the magic of seeing the image - the one I had had composed and shot earlier in the day - appear from the blank paper right in front of my eyes, this time as a monochrome image.

The image above is of a decimated forest on the west coast of Sweden, early 90's I'd say. I shot it on my dad's SLR, a Konica AutoReflex T, purchased during my parents honeymoon (I think), somewhere around 1969. I remember using a 35/2, tripod (ha! daylight), and a red filter, using T-Max400 (or possibly Tri-X, but the grain looks a bit more like T-Max).

I'd cycled from our hometown on the coast into the countryside to join two of my friends in their summer house. They'd taken the car out earlier, but I was desperate to join them so I hopped on the bicycle instead, not quite realising it would nearly take six hours to get there...

I'd been on the bike for four hours when I saw this scenery and decided to take a break and set up the shot. When I got off the saddle I got the fright of my life. I'd been riding with a backpack full of beer plus the camera, and the blood flow to my balls had been stemmed by the added weight. My nuts had gone numb, quite literally! I had to stand by the way side massaging my groin for along time before I could continue. Read what you want into that, but I wasn't nice at the time.

Anyway, I think the Adams' show is part of a touring exhibition that normally 'lives' in Germany, so keep an eye out for it, it might come your way. Well worth it.