To delpeoples: Jozef Vissel.........

[tyro]

Ciao Lisa,

Thank you for your kind remarks about this one. Funnily enough, it was taken at the same time and place as the last one of the horse trotting. The camera settings were pretty much the same too with a very small aperture but, on this occasion, I confess I couldn't really discern any dust spots! Maybe you can, but I can't. Or perhaps my monitor is so dusty I can't see them through all the crud (you like that word) on it.

Thank you for the link to Jozef Vissel's work - very interesting indeed. Although he was born just a year before me, it's amazing what these old codgers could do with old techniques! Sometimes I think we have become too dependent upon modern technology - I mean, you just need to see what happens these days if people have an electricity failure or power cut: how can you survive without a telly or a computer? Or central heating? Or a washing machine or dishwasher? Most people nowadays wouldn't have a clue how to set a coal fire but they've also missed out on the great fun of "dodging and burning" a print under an enlarger in a dim darkroom in which you can hardly breathe for the stink of sodium thiosulphate ("Hypo").

Have you met Joe Vissel? He must be a very interesting fellow and I'm sure it would be wonderful to sit down over a few beers with him and listen to all his stories about photography 30 or 40 years ago. The fellow Philip Dunn with whom we had a photographic holiday in Menorca last year told us that when he started off in his late teens as a press photographer, he used to pedal around Liverpool and other cities on a bicycle with a plate camera and a box of glass plates on the back. One day, he fell off his bike and many of the (exposed) plates were smashed but he still had to develop them in the darkroom later and try to make some reasonable prints from them for the local newspaper!

And, yes, I agree about poor old Muybridge. He sounds a weird sort of fellow (I think the nasty bump he had on his nut didn't do him any favours) but I empathise with him. What I thought was a wonderful story a few years ago came from Germany, I think. A little eight year old girl had been raped but the perpetrator, who was clearly as guilty as sin, was apparently acquitted by the jury. But just as the verdict was announced and the accused was beaming with glee at his acquittal, the girl's mother, who was sat at the other side of the court, whipped out a revolver and shot him dead in the dock. Now that is justice!

Un abbraccio,

Giovanni.

[delpeoples]

Caro Giovanni

To answer your first question: yes, I see the dust spots, there are several in the right foreground corner. I didn't mention them as I'd already busted your b*lls in your previous shot Clean the crud of your monitor you naughty man!

To answer your second question, yes I have had the pleasure of a good old blather with him many years ago. He's a fascinating man and on top of being an excellent artist and photographer, he used to travel to schools in Sydney and speak of the Holocaust. Joe is Jewish and fled Holland during the War. He lost most of his family in the concentration camps, his father in Auschwitz.

His friend, Frank Merchant is my best friend's Dad. Frank was also a commercial photographer and painter - what a character. The two old fellas are like naughty schoolboys together. He's an absolute delight to chat to, in fact, we were only talking last month about the Utzon photo. Although his genre was portraits, Frank has been very generous with his advice on my photography and the use of light. You can see some of his painting work here: http://www.frankmerchant.com/index.html

Well, I'd better get off to the scratcher, big day at work tomorrow.

Un abbraccio
Lisa