Mark Power - The Sound Of Two Songs

I visited the Impressions Gallery in Centenary Square this afternoon to attend a talk given by Magnum Photographer Mark Power. The talk was about Mark's recently completed project 'The Sound of Two Songs', a personal view of Poland, which is currently being exhibited at the gallery. I'm always fascinated by the different techniques photographers use to make their pictures and Mark gave us an insight into how he works. He uses a tripod mounted large format (5x4) camera and slow colour film which is unusual for a documentary photographer (he doesn't like classifying photographers as 'landscape' or 'documentary' but if pushed would say that he is a 'documentary' photographer) and often looks around an area without a camera before taking pictures. Mark did mention the cost of using such a camera, around £9.00 an exposure with film and developing costs and over 2,000 exposures made over the five year period of the project.
Mark kindly allowed me to take his picture and suggested the red background, which I like, but boy was I nervous when taking the picture!

(There is also a book available which contains more pictures than the exhibition).