Thoughtfactory: Leica poetics

Leica, film, snaps, chronicles, cliches

miners hut, Andamooka

This picture of  an  opal miners hut  at Andamooka in South Australia, which  is from  my film archives ---  an example of  ordinariness or a deadpan aesthetic that was made whilst  travelling on the margins of modernity.

Like the previous images  the picture was  made with a Leica M4-P, with a 50mm  f.2 Summicron lens and Kodak 400ASA film.   As previously mentioned in an earlier post  I discovered a roll of film I'd exposed whilst I was  visiting  Andamooka circa 2004-5.   My film work at the time--35mm and medium format--- was usually developed and scanned by a pro-lab, but for some reason this roll hadn't been scanned.  This was  several years prior to  buying my first  digital camera. I had no knowledge of digital cameras. 

The deadpan aesthetic  draws attention to the neglected, the unseen and the idea of the unseen. It is a  gaze at the ordinary architecture  of  a frontier mining landscape. This aesthetic deploys the meta-framing of documentary  photography in its traditional form whilst  refusing  its drama or being nostalgic for a lost reality.