La Planète Sauvage - Shikoku. A road trip to another planet, WIP.

jbielikowski

jbielikowski

Jan Bielikowski
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Hello dear RFF'ers! Last month I had a chance to go on a ten day road trip across Japan, with main goal to explore rural areas of the smallest of main four islands- Shikoku. While I'm working my way thru scans I want to share them with you, as a form of editing exercise before trying to put together some kind of PDF/zine. Please share your thoughts, insights and experiences, I'm just asking to refrain from posting your own pictures.
My camera of choice was a Widelux F7 (kindly loaned to me by my friend Majki, whom you should know from his excellent ongoing thread Warsaw Daily) loaded with HP5 and developed in FX39. I believe a very distinct look of a rotating panorama amplify the feeling I wanted to deliver- it's a different world, beyond my "western" cultural experience and knowlege. I just tried to "be amazed" like first explorers of a foreign world. And I had more than half a year to prepare myself for the journey (second time to Japan) reading books etc.
Title itself is a hommage to a 1973 french animation, also huge impact on the aesthetic side made the first black&white scene from 1972 Tarkovsky's Solaris, where Tokyo "act" as a city of future.

Enjoy, there is a lot to come!

PDVtZIJ.jpeg

Tokushima Prefecture?

jcZcTTf.jpeg

Pacific Coast near Aki, Kōchi Prefecture.

NyLh9df.jpeg

Sumitomo Osaka Cement Kochi Factory in Susaki, Kōchi Prefecture.
 
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Wonderful work. Thanks for sharing. As for the two alternatives, it depends on what you want to 'say' with the photos. One (the top) speaks to me as 'human', with the carpark suggesting activity. The other speaks to me as 'machine'. Both fine shots no doubt.
 
Thank you Joao!

nightlight said:
Wonderful work. Thanks for sharing. As for the two alternatives, it depends on what you want to 'say' with the photos. One (the top) speaks to me as 'human', with the carpark suggesting activity. The other speaks to me as 'machine'. Both fine shots no doubt.
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I think you have the point, my first choise was the middle one because of the overall balance in composition, but the last one where the cement plant rise straight from tree line looks almost surreal. Good one, thanks a lot!
 
Archiver said:
This is such a good series. Widelux images have something special, it's like the x-pan phenomena and anamorphic lenses. They give more of an impression of what your eye sees at any given time, thus immersing you in the scene.
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well thank you! yes, if you position yourself just in the right spot the distortion can make the scene more realistic, contrary to appearances.
petronius said:
Wonderful, thanks for posting. (This doesn´t help to control my Widelux GAS!)
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Widelux cameras are whimsical. Mine was fresh from CLA (including a rebuild of main ball bearing) and still I got the banding occasionally. Not to mention other ergonomic drawbacks. But even if simple Horizon 202 is a "better" camera Widelux wins being a nicer object.

xX0MtIi.jpeg

this one is actually from fields around Lake Biwa in Shiga Pref, east of Kyoto.
 
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jbielikowski said:
jcZcTTf.jpeg
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Love the curves and angles in this shot.

My eyes travel from the left bank arc, up to the distant mountain range, then down along the bridge, then down to the cement wall, up along the wall to the mountain/hill range on the right, then left across to the distant left-side convergence point (hills/shore, bridge-line), then down along the water/shoreline to the beginning start point (lower left).

Beautiful lines... Beautiful capture! Fun to look at!
 
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raydm6 said:
Love the curves and angles in this shot.

My eyes travel from the left bank arc, up to the distant mountain range, then down along the bridge, then down to the cement wall, up along the wall to the mountain/hill range on the right, then left across to the distant left-side convergence point (hills/shore, bridge-line), then down along the water/shoreline to the beginning start point (lower left).

Beautiful lines... Beautiful capture! Fun to look at!
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Ray, you can have lovely curves in Japan thanks to windy roads:

GwRdkHk.jpeg

near Kuromori Pass, Ehime Pref.

or you can just use Widelux:

LcQGyv9.jpeg

Ishizuchi Jijna, Ehime Pref.

cheers!😉
 
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jbielikowski said:
well thank you! yes, if you position yourself just in the right spot the distortion can make the scene more realistic, contrary to appearances.

Widelux cameras are whimsical. Mine was fresh from CLA (including a rebuild of main ball bearing) and still I got the banding occasionally. Not to mention other ergonomic drawbacks. But even if simple Horizon 202 is a "better" camera Widelux wins being a nicer object.

xX0MtIi.jpeg

this one is actually from fields around Lake Biwa in Shiga Pref, east of Kyoto.
Click to expand...
Mt. Ibuki in the far distance?
 
Such beautiful work, so emotive, so full of majesty and yet humanity.

I confess to being a little overwhelmed by these magnificent photos. I will return to them a few times in the very near future, and try to post something a little more, well, coherent in appreciation of your most excellent images.

In only two words, truly outstanding. Now I too want to return to film with a Widelux...!
 
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