This is from the centre of Lund. Pavement is a cloth store, nowadays. As seen on the spectacular sign it has a history of being a theatre. During the nineties, when the competition from the greater theatres became too tough, it had to close down. Somewhat sad, because a theatre is a theatre, where every single room, stairway, corridor, door or window has a purpose. Every stone in the building screams it wants to be a theatre. After the close-down, it became a night club. It was successful for a while, and I can understand that, the environment lends itself easily to all sorts of entertainment. They eventually closed down that business, too, I have no clue why. Maybe they run into problems with complaints from the neighbours, there are people living on the floors right above it. Today, it’s a store. Cool and trendy, for sure. But it’s a damn store. Sad, and a waist of a wonderful building like this.
Exif:
January 10, 2009
1/50 s
f/4,5
ISO 100
Leica Digilux 3 + Olympus Zuiku 11-22 at 22 mm (35 mm eqv: 44 mm)
My hometown had a small downtown, single screen theater. It couldn’t compete with the multi-screen modern theaters and closed. Eventually, because the building was so single purposed, it was demolished to make space for a new building. The lot was more valuable then the old building.
The town I live in now also has a downtown, single screen theater that is being used by a local theater group. I hope they’re are successful or it may go the same way as with my hometown.
I also feel sad to see these old theaters being lost or used for other purposes. It’s a bit of history that is slipping away.
For an overall dark photo you’ve retained an amazing amount of detail…excellent!
Sounds like the path all theatres are heading along…
About the overall darkness, I worked quite a lot with the image to have it this dark, without loosing to much detail in the midrange of the tonality curve. This due to my thoughts around it, which aren’t very light at all. This is a good example of making an image as you see it. I’m sure many will think it’s to dark, but then, they don’t see it as I see it. But, I confess, I do also see that I probably could work another hour on it, improving it a bit with some dodging… Thanks, Earl, it made me happy you noticed the details!
I love that store! It is so nice to walk around there (even though I have never bought anything in there).
I don’t think I bought anything either … maybe I’m blaming them for everything.
These images of yours, where the overall tonality is dark, but with certain areas light, I just love them.
Thanks!!!!
It is sad, indeed, to see those old theatres go. The multiplexes are such unappealing boxes, and I feel a little sorry for younger people who never got to see a movie in one of those grand old theatres. I know of a few cases where some of them were turned into venues for live theatre, but they are almost always in a downtown areas and that isn’t always an easy sell.
Your processing skills have become quite impressive. I particularly like the fact that even the sky has so much detail and helps to pull me through the image.
Yes, it’s sad, Anita. To moderate this a little, many of the old theatres have been taken over by the giant we have here in Sweden (yes, it’s only one left now, incredible) and to some extent renovated and included as one in a multiplex. So, yet it’s somewhat sad, it’s not all bad.
It makes me happy to see that my processing comes through. We all know that it isn’t that easy to get a good b+w image, there is always something that has suffered in the exposure. In this particular case, I believe I had a very good exposure as a starting point. Days with an interesting overcast are simply the best when targeting b+w. Thanks!