Behind the Work for the 47 Nearby Gasoline Stations Project - Vision and Aesthetics

This is part 1 of a series of articles describing the planning, the technical considerations and process that I used to complete the project. This article covers the film stock selection to support the vision and aesthetic I wanted.

Vision and Aesthetic

The tone of the project called for black and white, high contrast photographs. The absence of color makes sure the viewer would not be distracted by the brand colors of the gasoline stations. High contrast, with areas of dark black does convey, in my view, a sense of danger, of unease. I also wanted the sky to be overcast for pictures made during the day: a nice sunshine would detract from the vision.

Film or Digital?

Digital is a nice, the workflow is straightforward: once the pictures have been captured, they are ready to be edited and processed. However, the digital workflow comes with its limitations:

• Most digital cameras have a limited dynamic range even with raw files. Techniques, such as HDR, can be used to artificially extend the dynamic range. It’s a lot of edit work if moving objects are present in the composition at the time of capture (such as cars). Some black and white film stocks have a large dynamic range and are especially forgiving in the highlights.

• Converting a raw image to black and white requires different settings for each picture, even with presets. And even more so with HDR images. This is obviously not required when using a black and white film…

One way to achieve high contrast black and white photographs is to push-process the film, that is, intentionally underexpose the film only to keep the film longer in the developer. Some film stocks respond very well to pushing.

With these considerations in mind, it comes down to choosing a film stock. Availability in various formats is an extra consideration and existing experience with film stocks do influence the selection as well: Kodak Tri-X was used. With its ISO rated at 400, pushing it 2 stops will keep exposure times relatively short in addition to increasing contrast.

Format

Pushing film naturally increases grain, which can be a nice design element added to the composition, adding to the high contrast/dark mood to be conveyed by the photographs. The size of the grain does not change with the format of the film, i.e. the grain will appear smaller on medium format and smaller yet in 4x5 film. Too much grain would, as I viewed it for this project, be a distracting element.

Medium format was therefore the best tradeoff: 12 images per roll (in 6x6), easy to handle and carry around.

Camera

Well, the choice is easy: I own a Hasselblad 501CM with a couple of lenses (80mm, 50mm, 150mm and 250mm). However, some compositions worked better in panoramic format. For those I used a Da Yi 6x17 back (medium format film again) that mounts onto my 4x5 Intrepid camera.

In the next article, we’ll go over the planning, i.e. scouting, weather checks, etc.