Painting Pictures

Caravaggio and his influences....

Music - Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings op11)

The process of painting with its light and darkness, shadows and brush strokes create images that move the viewer and - at best draw us close into the painting. Caravaggio does this to perfection. Photography can be similar. In dark situations where the 'natural' lighting of the event casts shadows and action takes place in contrasting light and shadows. In the past - in the days of film photography, I used to use 400ASA black and white film and uprate to 1600ASA in the processing. A high spead shutter and a good place in the crowd I would try and capture that precise moment. The moment that tells a story. I would rush home and develop the the uprated negative (1600ASA) and expose the print and develop the print in the chemicals. It was magic watching my captured image emerge in the redish darkness. Caravaggio must have felt the same as the structure and his dark paintings developed on the canvas.

'Crunch!' (1975) was one of my images. An image I entered into a national photography competition in the UK. 'Crunch!' won that competition. The photograph was taken at a Dundee United v Hearts game in 1975.