dupont underground

A few weekend ago, I had a chance to tour and explore the tunnels underneath Dupont Circle. Years ago, Washington D.C. had an extensive street car system, with lines that ran underneath Dupont. That system was discontinued in the 1960s, but the tunnels remained. In the 1990s, they were repurposed as a food court, which eventually failed. Today, they are an occasional art space and a neat place for photographers to visit and explore.

Obviously, I couldn't shoot this with film, so these photos are digital.

Camera: Fuji X100T with wide-angle conversion lens. In-camera monochrome filter.

inauguration/women's march/protests

I've been posting photos from the inauguration for weeks, but here are the shots I took on film, using one of my medium format cameras. The sheer size and heft of these cameras means I don't do much "in the moment" photography. Instead, I focus on more composed work, and in this case, portraits. My method is straightforward; I walk up to people, and ask if I can take their picture. These photos come from downtown Washington during the inauguration; the National Mall during the Women's March; and the White House during protests in the wake of the Muslim ban. All but the last two are composed portraits, in which I spoke to my subjects and gave them a few directions before snapping the photo. I used a Fuji GW670 with Kodak Tri-X film for grayscale and Kodak Portra for color.

This first batch is from inauguration, I tried to get a mix of Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters.

This next batch comes from the Women's March. It took me a solid two hours to shoot these five photos, but then, I get very picky when it comes to shooting medium format film. 

And these last two were at a protest near the White House. Not portraits, but I like these two shots nonetheless. 

union station

At some point in January—I have no idea when—I took a long walk around the National Mall and toward Union Station. I'll post the rest of the photos from that walk eventually. For now, here are three shots of the station. The last time I photographed this area, it was nighttime, which made for some interesting long-exposures. This time, I had light and shadow to play around with. Of the batch, my favorite is the last photo, as I think it shows just how ornate and imposing the station looks.

Camera: Fuji GW670
Film: Tri-X 400, lab developed

c'ville afternoon

I think I've said enough about the time I spend in Charlottesville—I'm there a lot—so I'll just say that these photos are from my most recent weekend there, at the end of January. We took a couple of walks, and in lieu of trying to shoot anything with a theme, I just made a few snapshots of scenes or figures that caught my eye.

That included the equestrian statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. In general, I think these are abominations: neo-Confederate propaganda erected at a time of unvarnished and unrepentant white supremacy. At the same time, they are quite beautiful, lovely pieces of early 20th century statuary. My preferred solution for the figures is to remove them outright, and replace them with parks dedicated to the ongoing fight for racial justice. But, if they have to stay, we should at least let people know that they are propaganda. To complicate the beauty.

Oh, and for those of who care about gear at all, these photos were taken with a Fuji GW670II medium format camera, using Portra 400 film rated at 200. For metering, I used a handheld incident meter.