The ‘weight of liberty’

I recently read the wonderful book ‘Art Work’ by Sally Mann.

Something that resonated with me was her discussion about Wordsworth and what he termed the “weight of liberty”. This refers to the problems, or difficulties, forced upon us by having too many choices. Sometimes it’s easier to reduce our options to a minimum.

I get that. I like simplicity.

In my career as an engineering designer I always sought simplicity – striving to reduce the number of parts in a design, make each item simple to manufacture, and ultimately design things that were, usually, cheaper to produce and inherently more reliable. I like simple things, those without all the ‘bells and whistles’ or bristling with gadgets. Often times they’ll be the older (outdated) versions, which have been ‘improved’ by adding more stuff, more complication, more cost…

That’s partly why I enjoy owning and wearing mechanical watches from the 1940’s and 50’s, have bicycles from the same era, and occasionally ride my cyclemotor from 1953. Yes, they’re temperamental, and need a bit of fettling, but I enjoy the slower pace you need to adopt. I’m a bit contrary I suppose, going against the tide.

What on earth has that got to do with my photography?

Well, this is mostly what drives me to return to 35mm film and old cameras with their awkwardness, lack of options, and the ‘difficulty’ inherent in getting a good photo from something where you have to do most of the thinking.

Having got the Cosina SLR, which is a decent enough camera with basic metering and full manual control, I wondered where the Zeiss fitted. It got me thinking about point-and-shoot cameras with their fixed shutter speed and aperture – why not try using the Zeiss in a similar mode?

So I will; there’s nothing to lose except maybe a wasted roll of film. I’m putting the light meter away for now and setting the camera to f8 and 1/125. Of course, being an engineer, I do like some data so I’ll make a note of the metered EV readings, but not transfer them to the camera. I’ll assess later how much latitude there is between what the meter is telling me and what setting I used on the camera. It’ll be interesting to see what I learn.

I’ll start with a photo shoot around Lewes with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus…

… so, what happened. The images are HERE.