5 Frames From 2020 – a More Personal Retrospective – by Simon King

As many of you frequent readers may know, the focus of a lot of my work in 2020 was on capturing some of the chaotic fallout from all of the various political, medical, and social upheaval which rippled around the globe. My images along with the work of the other members of New Exit Group were distilled into the pages of our debut zine. Since publishing, I hadn’t really taken the time to go through my archive for a more personal retrospective on the year, as my motivation was to continue shooting whatever opportunities presented themselves.

I spent some evenings recently doing just that, and thought it would be nice to select some images with a bit more of a personal feel to them, something different to the work I normally share.

T3200. A firework explodes over the city – very annoying to time, and many wasted frames! The best version of this shot would involve a figure in one of the windows on the right hand side, but sadly this never presented itself for me. The firework itself is also quite pathetic – not the classic bloom that many manage to achieve. However, I think there is something a bit other worldly about this shot, so am happy with it for what it is.

HP5+. Light shining through my bedroom door. One of many still life images taken while very bored and trying to finish rolls. Sometimes I would set the self timer and then rush to figure out some kind of composition with the 10-ish seconds I was afforded.

HP5+. The mask I wore during my first post-lockdown walk. I stuck the message on as a bit of a joke, but no one was around to read it.

Fomapan 400. Long exposure on a highway in Gravesend. I was on my way back to London from Margate, and was playing around with putting my camera on the dashboard of Andrew‘s car, and just holding down the shutter on bulb mode. This was the nicest result – definitely room for experimentation when I find a smooth, straight road to work with.

Fomapan 200. West London. This kind of image made at a popular plane spotters corner became harder and harder as fewer and fewer planes came in to land. Arrivals offer the best opportunities, as that’s when the planes are closest to the ground. Takeoffs happen from a further runway, so result in a more diminutive feeling, as here.

Thanks for reading! If you like my work here, consider checking out my Instagram. I buy all my film from Analogue Wonderland.

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