I’m sure we all take inspiration and tips from YouTube, and a few months ago I was watching one of Kyle McDougall’s videos where he suggested everyone should have at least one photography project to give focus on something other than daily shooting. This is great advise as a professional photographer where the work that you do is not necessarily what excites you.

I find something interesting in religious buildings, not only the architecture, but as spiritual places. I am not religious, but there is something calming when visiting and taking a moment to reflect on your own life. When you look further, you come to realize these places take many forms, from the Grand Mosques of the Islamic world to tiny village Christian Churches, from ancient ruined stone structures to the ultra modern.

It could be an interesting project to document, and to take time out to visit and take in the atmosphere. In terms of equipment, I want to use medium format, more specifically 6x6 as I just love it! For gear, the only system I have a choice of lenses for is the Zenith 80 (Salyut-S) - Vitoflex 80mm, Mir 36b 65mm and Mir 26b 45mm - the latter will definitely come in handy. I remember a lecture at University in which we were shown a project where the photographer stuck to one camera and one film stock, and shot solely in overcast light to create a common look to his images. I think Ilford’s HP5 will suit the images in the UK where grey cloudy skies are fairly common and will give a the atmospheric look I want.

I have just got scans back from a test roll to see if this project idea has any merit, and would be an interesting study.

Looking at these images, I think it will be an interesting project, as the places I visited vary so much, but all have one thing in common.

I did shoot a couple in sunny conditions and they didn’t work as well, although I like the composition, they don’t have the same feel to them.

Some of the places I have visited in recent years have probably sparked this idea, but unfortunately am not likely to return to such as St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Grundvig’s Kirke in Copenhagen, or Hagia Sophia in Istanbul but moving forward I will bear this project in mind when going to new Cities and Countries, although keeping a consistent look will be difficult when heading off to hot summer foreign lands.

I still have plenty of local locations to photograph though, so maybe it will be just a UK thing - we will see how it pans out in the future…

New Project…

Zodel 2MTL