Shadow & Light Monthly #50

Shadow & Light is a list of curated photography stories, features, techniques, news and inspiration that I’ve come across this month.

Welcome to a landmark issue 50 of Shadow & Light! In this edition we revisit 50s Italy and look at a brief history of Polaroid. We take a look at life on the New York Subway in the 1970s/80s and find out what life is like as a National Geographic Photographer.

So, with no further ado, I give you this month’s Shadow & Light Monthly. Go grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy this month’s selections below. Please let me know in the comments what you think.

Pick of the month – Photographing the Strange and Sunny Nostalgia of 50s Italy

64 summers ago, writer Pier Paolo Pasolini and photographer Paolo di Paolo embarked on a journey along the entire coast of Italy, capturing the idyllic summer of 1959.

The resulting images are absolutely fantastic and paint an incredible picture of Italian life and style. I particularly love this image of ‘The diva at the Venice Lido’.

You can learn more about this trip and see more incredible images over at i-D.

Additional reads

A Brief History of Polaroid

Just this month Polaroid released their brand new Polaroid I-2 camera – A modern take on a classic.

The story of Polaroid is an interesting one. Once one of the best-known brands of all time, Polaroid have suffered to the point of extinction, been saved, rebuilt and reinvented and the I-2 is the result.

Analog Cafe have written up A Brief History of Polaroid which tells the story of innovation, success, luck and persistence. If you’re interested in learning more I can recommend watching ‘Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film’ which is a brilliant documentary about the last year of Polaroid film production (before it was saved by the Impossible Project). You can see the trailer below.

Photographer Spent Eight Years Capturing Life on the Gritty New York Subway in the 1970s and 1980s

Over the course of eight years, Swiss photographer Willy Spiller documented life on the New York City subway. From 1977 until 1984, Spiller amassed nearly 2,000 images of the subway. And in doing so, he was able to create a visual time capsule of this critical moment in the city’s history.

I’m a sucker for street photography focussed on public transport. There’s something about the commute that I think really captures people’s individual stories but this set of images also throws in the incredible styles of the time which adds a whole new angle to the images captured. What would have been images of the mundane at the time have become a compelling visual documentation of the era.

Check out the full article over on My Modern Met for more.

And Finally – What’s It Like To Be A National Geographic Photographer? Bertie Gregory Of ‘Animals Up Close’ Talks Wild Ideas

I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I’m watching programs like Blue Planet, whilst I’m blown away by the photography of the program itself, I’m even more interested in the features at the end of the program that focus on the behind the scenes process that goes into key scenes from the program.

Seeing these photographers spend days, weeks or even months waiting for a specific moment to capture tells an incredible story of a vocation committed to a love of nature and craft. It also gives a clear demonstration that travelling the world, experiencing exceptional adventures and witnessing rare sights isn’t all glamour!

As such this article over on Forbes this month really caught my attention. Many photographers dream of shooting for National Geographic but what’s it really like?

Forbes interviewed the intrepid Bertie Gregory, whose new show, Animals Up Close With Bertie Gregory, premieres this month on Disney+. The series follows Gregory across Antarctica, Botswana, Central African Republic, the Galápagos, Indonesia and Patagonia.

Head on over to Forbes to read the full interview and find out more.

Quick Personal Announcement – I’m the New Flipboard Photographer in Residence

In case you missed the news I’m delighted to announce that I’m taking up the position of Photographer in Residence with Flipboard for Autumn/Fall 2023. If you’d like to know more about what that involves I’ve written a blog post all about my Flipboard residency or you can read more over on Flipboard.

Until next time…

I hope you enjoy the articles above. Don’t forget you can follow my Shadow & Light magazine over on Flipboard if you’d like to see more of what I’m reading if you like what you’ve seen here.