Thank you for showing us this book. Misonne's work is simply magnificent, I can't get enough of looking at these wonderful images. He was truly a master of photography and of post-processing his images. I only wish books of his work were more readily available and not at these incredibly high prices.
Thank you...the books are indeed hard to find and can be very expensive indeed. His works are trully amazing and they lean themself for drawing work with graphite or charcoal. The emotion within those photos are wonderful.
Oh yeah and that picture at 22:46 is in Bruges, I found the place and it’s literally the same scene you can see even in 2023, even when it comes to swans they still hang around that spot on a daily basis, all buildings and the bridge are the same
Nice video, but if anything you underestimate the heavy craftsmanship of Misonne with these pictures. Particularly when it comes to the clouds in his pictures which are simply awe inspiring, they were pretty much all added. He was a master printer, able to use different plaque negatives and blend them together, but he was also very skilled in drawing. His clouds are not real, much like many figures in his photographs were often added by drawing. Much like Demachy and the early pictorialists they definitely used pencils and worked the negatives or the prints heavily, this guy was a true artist, using creation as the base and then shaping it to become an art piece through intense hand working. With that being said its only half the truth, because he was also using different filters to put in front of his lenses which were distorting and creating smoother edges around shapes, but these were not found in the market place, he handcrafted them himself. To me Misonne is the greatest landscape artist of the 20th century, showing mastery in photography, printing and special effects. Misonne was a magician. No matter how hard you try to find these weather conditions you find in his photographs its never going to show up on a negative or on a screen, the answer is found throughout the process. I have been trying for years to achieve similar results and i pretty much found all the answers. Its long exposures, 1sec to 1/30th of a second, small aperture (f11-f22), a light diffusing filter, texture picture overlay, texturized paper, ink, toning solutions, drawing skills and some serious patience. The hardest part is finding places as raw as these were back a 100 years ago. There are still many places in the world where we can find raw nature, old towns and buildings, muddy roads and fishermen fishing on small boats in the fog, but it was easier to find such subjects in his time than it is in our days. In his time he said « the subject is nothing, the light is everything », but it was actually a smoke screen because the magic of his pictures is mostly found within the humbly subjects. You cannot make something similar which will have the same beauty using something modern. If its not a humble subject, pretty much raw in nature, it wont work. If instead of a muddy road you photography a cemented road or a lamborgini you will understand immediately. Light is still a major point when it comes to making images, but its only one part of an image, the subject is actually the strongest part. People are often stunned about Misonne photographs thinking its the effect when in reality its the subject matter, things which are part of the unconscious brains of everyone despite the fact we never got to see such things in real life, and Misonne was able to materialize them in pictures, but really its about the subject first, the light, effects and weather conditions come second because they can be worked out or visited at different times but if you do not have the subject matter you cant make anything as good. Almost all these images were taken around Gilly, which is a very small area outside of Charleroi, Belgium 👍🏼 today it doesnt look like anything as that of the time of Misonne but even if you dont go there yourself, you can use google street and find out about the place, its still rural, still the countryside, but with modern roads and modernized houses
I did not underestimate this I just did not talk about it. Of course he worked later with filters ect..but for that time this was also almost magic what he did. Therefore I said these are the perfect photo's to draw with graphiter pencil. Technique in photography I have no knowledge of and I trust your words for that 100 %. Fact is that Misonne was a master in what he did :)
@@tomvanthienen3716f you truly want to understand the craft of Misonne and of pencil drawing, the dutch painters will lead you there. All Misonne did (and successfully) was to make dutch landscape paintings with photographs.
Tom Thankyou so much for doing this video, and sharing your process. Your explanation is great and I admire your dedication in this. I’ve had to watch it in stages as the ongoing building work on my house impacts my ability to focus on anything for long it has been very disruptive and I will be glad when it’s finished and I can get back to normal. Thankyou once again for sharing this I’m certain it will help me enormously
I’ve just put it on my watch list on eBay, about £59 🤷♀️I think when it’s pay day I will be getting it, I love trees and I love detail and graphite and ink