KF article top

23932765184_05ecfc7131_o_crop

Wellington Railway Station is one of the most impressive buildings in New Zealand’s harbour capital. Built in the 1930s on land raised from the sea during a massive earthquake in the 1800s, it’s an imposing, Gerorgian-style edifice.

Before I moved to London in the mid-90s, the station was familiar territory; a vast (it seemed then) station concourse, the gateway to the suburbs that stretched away on the other side of Wellington’s vast harbour. I passed through it hundreds of times.

I was back in New Zealand over the Christmas period, and once again found myself commuting into the station – this time, always with a camera to hand. This is the best of the images I took there.

I’d taken with me enough camera and film to last my five-week stay (as featured on the excellent Japan Camera Hunter recently) and one of those was a Zenit TTL I’d recently bought off eBay.

The TTL is a souped-up version of the ubiquitous Zenit E, a Soviet SLR built in the many, many millions since the late 1960s. the TTL ditches the uncoupled selenium meter on the front in favour of a battery-driven meter which gives a needle readout in the viewfinder. Aside from that, it’s pretty much the same camera; no-frills is a fair description.

NZ in the summer means lots of hard sun and saturated colours, so on this day I’d loaded the Zenit with Kodak E100VS slide film, which I usually cross process. This film creates really strong, punchy images when cross-processed, with plenty of grain and dramatic contrast – it’s almost as good as the original Agfa Precisa.

I wandered out of the heat of the platform til I was in the middle of the station concourse, stretched out in front was the lobby, and beyond that brilliant sunshine. A few people were walking into the station, and I waited until I could Isolate one and frame them between the doors, rendering them an anonymous silhouette in front of blinding, surreal colour.

Support Kosmo Foto

Keep Kosmo Foto free to read by subscribing on Patreon for as little as $1 month, or make a one-off payment via Ko-Fi. All your donations really help.

Become a patron at Patreon!

Stephen Dowling
Follow me

0
0
votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Krystal
7 years ago

I like the very warm colour you are getting there. If you don’t mind my asking, what cross-processing did you use here? I’m thinking of dabbling with some slide film once summer reaches London…