Conflicted Beauty – Photographing Charleston South Carolina

We drove down to the Florida Keys, an archipelago off south Florida. My wife and I. Three days driving from Ontario. We had booked a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and decided beforehand to spend some time in “The Keys”. The main attraction though was the 10 day Caribbean cruise. Plenty of opportunity for photography or so I had hoped. And there were opportunities, but somehow I was uninspired. Perhaps that will be the subject of another post.

On this trip though, the real opportunity and inspiration came on our way home, after the cruise. We had decided to stop enroute, in Charleston South Carolina. I had been once before, nearly 30 years ago. It was beautiful then and perhaps even more so now. The old town at the delta formed where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers converge, is remarkably well preserved.

The city was founded in 1670 and was significant in the history of the American Civil War and instrumental in the slave trade. Scholars estimate that over 40 percent of enslaved Africans entered through the port of Charleston. Some were sold to owners in the interior states and many to the Lowcountry plantations elsewhere in the Carolinas. I think it’s reasonable to conclude that a good portion of the historic grand homes that line the cobbled streets of Charleston were built from the profits derived from slave labour. This realization came to me only upon doing a bit of research for this post.

Thus, the title of this post, Conflicted Beauty. The history of the place coloured my appreciation Charleston. It is a truly beautiful, historic and well preserved city but its development came at great human cost. I think it’s important to remember this when looking through my photos and indeed when visiting the city.

This small portfolio is rather a departure from the photos I take in my own city.  At home I often choose to explore the numerous alleys that criss cross the older part of town. Parts of town are in decline and evidence of that is best seen in the hidden parts – the back alleys. Film photography it seems, is especially well suited to capturing the unglamorous, the detiorated, the decepit. llford HP5 or the fabulous Film Ferrania P30 and other higher contrast films are well suited to the task.

Charleston presented a different opportunity though. For this early morning jaunt around town I had loaded my Nikon FA with Kodak TMax 100 film. I chose it for its fine grain and its breadth of rich tones. I had two lenses with me, a Nikkor 50mm 1.4 and a 28mm 2.8. The exposed film, was developed in a new to me developer, Kodak D76. I made my own 8 x 10 prints on my Simmon Bros. Omega B condenser enlarger. The enlarging paper was Foma Glossy. I scanned the prints on an Epson V600 scanner.

Of the 38 frames I exposed that day, these are the best. I hope you like them.

I started in Joe Riley Park.

And it ended in familiar turf for me – this is an alley – Charleston style.

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