Day 220

April 26, 2016

Day 219

April 25, 2016 in daily

I tried developing a Polaroid negative or two recently. It's a simple process really but involves cleaning it with bleach. Actually, you clean only one side of the negative film with bleach. If bleach gets anywhere near the side with the actual image on, you get to watch it fizzle into oblivion as you cry and hurl curses and abuse at the harsh world of analogue photography. I like the gnarly look of this picture now and still have the original photo. The solarised green at the bottom of the bottle is actually how the Polaroid came out and not due to my clumsy dark room skills.

In case you thought Polaroids were just for kids and hipsters, here is a bit of closer detail of the above image. The negative is a lot bigger than a 35mm photo or digital sensor at roughly 9 x 12cm. It's possible to see the beads of condensation on the glass and the feathers that are part of the DHC logo clearly. I read about some photographers using Polaroid negatives for magazine and poster prints and can believe it!

Day 218

April 24, 2016 in daily

this is the kind of door you want to knock on just to see how thin the people inside the house are.

Day 217

April 23, 2016 in daily

Day 216

April 22, 2016 in daily

This old fella was blind in both eyes but there was no way I could creep up on him.

Day 215

April 21, 2016 in daily

there are loads of 24 hr launderettes in the middle of nowhere in Japan but I've never seen any being used.

The Abandoned Hotel

April 20, 2016 in Japan

Last year I started getting interested in the large number of buildings in Japan that are going unused, unoccupied and falling into disrepair. According to a news report there are hundreds of thousands of homes which are no longer occupied. Apart from the prohibitively large cost to tear such places down (I believe it was in the region of 50,000 Euros), if the occupants move out with nobody to replace them, or die of old age with no next of kin, then such buildings could stand dormant for years before anyone even notices. I expect this to become a major issue in Japan in the future as the population continues to age and younger generations move away from the farming cultures and remote locations of their family homes.

an example of an abandoned family home in a small hamlet in the mountains of Kagoshima

I was surprised to find that even holiday resorts seemed to be contracting too. There doesn't seem to have been any investment in maintenance of some spa retreats in the mountains since the bubble burst in the 90s. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough customers to keep many places going and I suspect such a situation befell this hotel. My partner is convinced there must have been a tragic accident or Bates Motel style owner but I suspect it is just the effect of the Japanese economy for the last 20 years that gave this place its final blow.

It is quite sad to see all of the rooms falling to pieces. Some of them are even tidy as if they had been slept in only recently while other rooms were full of objects, furniture and ceramics that really should have been sold on rather than let rot where they were.

Day 214

April 20, 2016 in daily

Delayed post!

April 19, 2016

I seem to have lost a few days due to jet lag and then a respiratory infection which put me out of action. Will post more from the archive until I am back to normal.

Day 213

April 14, 2016 in daily

Day 212

April 12, 2016 in daily

100 Strangers

April 11, 2016 in 100 Strangers

Even though I was carrying two rucksacks and a suitcase and my camera was stuffed in the bottom of one of them, there was no way I was going to let anybody this cool pass by without me asking if I could take a photo. As it turns out he was also really nice and had a beautiful family.