For most the past week I've been printing some negatives shot back by The Brother way back in 1977 when we were both spotty teenagers. An old school friend of his had requested prints from the Stranglers concert that we all went to - my first 'real' concert and from that moment on I was a Stranglers fan. The group themselves evolved from the 'punk' label to, well, I don't know what exactly, but evolve they did and are still going - albeit with only one original member playing. Two have passed away and the lead singer left a long time ago to pursue a solo career (Hugh Cornwall, who is still touring). Hard to believe that was almost 50 years ago. Where does the time go, eh?
Anyway, the printing was challenging as the negs were very thin, low in contrast. A good bit of dodging and burning was needed to try to inject some atmosphere into them. Here's the final offerings, which included a wash in pot ferri to tease out those highlights and bring the contrast up. On Fomabrom112 paper, which might not have been the best choice but it's all I had to hand.
These have terrific energy!
ReplyDeleteThe Stranglers were great on stage. I was lucky enough to see them live a few times. They were unusual for ‘punk’ era bands in that they had a very good keyboardist, Dave Greenfield. “Golden Brown” was a big hit for them here in the UK
DeleteI was triggered by the last photo . . . the microphone is covering the drummer's face! Sloppy timing!
ReplyDeleteIn seriousness, I didn't even notice the t-shirt when I clicked through the pictures in slideshow(?) mode.
Great prints.
Haha yup, sloppy indeed! Shame we can't go back and retake it. The last shot needed some dodging around the drummer, burning in of 'that' t-shirt and then some additional burning in above the drummer, to lessen the intrusion of the background. The old hands got contorted in all sorts of shapes! I do use bits of paper stuck on wire as well at times (for dodging small areas) but there's something nice about using hands.
DeleteAnd thanks!