Discussing a Nuri Bilge Ceylon photograph

[Bill Mitchell]

http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com/turkeycinemascope4.php?sid=4

I can't think of anything to say about these except that they are absolutely magnificant!
His prints are 48" wide inkjets. They are obviously made with something other than the usual view camera on a tripod. Does anyone know anything about his technique?

 

[Bill Mitchell]

Well, the silence about these has certainly been deafening.

 

[removed account4]

hi bill

over on the large format forum
there was a thread about this ..
it seems that he uses a d** seitz 6x17 camera
and does some sort of d**/technique - "dragan style" ...

now that THAT is out of the way.
i enjoyed his portraits a lot. one doesn't think of
panoramic format for portraits, but it works really well ..

-john

 

[rorye]

Hi Bill, Missed this thread when it first went up, I'm glad it returned, those are some nice images!

 

[Charles Webb]

Regardless of the medium I have enjoyed the images and am glad Bill brought them to my attention.

Charlie............................................

 

[Bill Mitchell]

I wonder if these may actually be still frames from his Cinemascope camera? Perhaps that would explain the title. You could easily make HUGE prints from the 70mm negative.
Incidentally, I ordered the DVD of his last film, (about a photographer in Istanbul), but haven't screened it yet.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

According to the fellas here: http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-heck-is.html

He would be using a normal DSLR with a wideangle lens, and then would simply crop.

As for the image discussion, I'd say that their Brueghel aspect is fantastic, but the digital manipulation is infelicitous in many instances.

 

[Bill Mitchell]

On the LF Forum, consensus was that he used a swing-lens panoramic camera. Nobody seems to really know.

 

[Ray Heath]

g'day Bill
i also am sorry i missed these initially

outstanding imagery, beautifully seen, captured and presented

images so good that it matters not how and with what they were captured

 

[Ray Heath]

... I'd say that their Brueghel aspect is fantastic, but the digital manipulation is infelicitous in many instances.

g'day mhv, could you please expand this statement a little, i'm not sure i get your meaning

Ray

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

g'day mhv, could you please expand this statement a little, i'm not sure i get your meaning

Ray

Ray, do a quick google for Bruegel's images like "Hunters in the snow" or "Numbering at Bethlehem," and you should see the similarity with the winter pictures (esp. "The Village").

As for the digital manipulations, look at "Boy with a Donkey" or "Street in Birgi" on this page: http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com/turkeycinemascope5.php?sid=5

Or look at "Baker Boy in Urfa" and "Three School Children" here: http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com/turkeycinemascope4.php?sid=4

There is so much dodging and burning everywhere that the tones look like crude CGI. Light seems to come from every direction at once and the shadows do not make any sense. In other words it looks like hell all over. Not all of the images exhibit such heavy handed retouching, so I can't see it as being used to articulate a consistent statement. It just seems as if he was trying to palliate for bad light, which is understandable, but he overdid it.

 

[Ray Heath]

g'day all, Bill & Michel

thanx Michel, i see the similarity to Bruegel but i don't agree there is too much dodging and burning, i've seen worse in many traditional monochrome images, i think he is trying to lead our eye to what he wants to portray as important, which i believe is good darkroom technique

please explain the meaning of "crude CGI"

Ray

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

g'day all, Bill & Michel

thanx Michel, i see the similarity to Bruegel but i don't agree there is too much dodging and burning, i've seen worse in many traditional monochrome images, i think he is trying to lead our eye to what he wants to portray as important, which i believe is good darkroom technique

please explain the meaning of "crude CGI"

Ray

It might be a question of taste, but to me there are way too many local manipulations.

CGI = computer generated imagery