I used a Rolleicord from college and made a box for it with two holes - one for the lens and one for my finger to access the shutter release. I used Kodak Tri x 120 pushed 2 or 3 stops and pre focused the lens to 3.5 or 4 foot. I seem to remember most exposures were 1/8th sec at f8. All I had to do was sit opposite a passenger and wait for the right moment.
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| Sunday Best. Central line, London Copyright Ed Sykes. |
I was a little nervous - for fear of being rumbled. Nowadays if I was "discovered" by the authorities I am sure the police would take a great interest in my work and interview me and not just because they are keen amateur photographers!
Anyway it was laborious work as I could not wind the film on and had to get off the tube, sit down on the platform, open the box, take the camera out, wind the film on and start all over again.
It was hit and miss but strangely rewarding in that old fashioned - I wonder if it came out? way. I am not sure what inspired me but I do remember seeing Walker Evans photos from the New York subway at some stage. His photographs shot over three years in the 1930s were published in Many Are Called
a book which was first published in 1966 and was reissued in 2004.
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| Nun in thought. London Underground Copyright Ed Sykes |
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