Wendy Stone's cameras range from 60 to 130 years old and she uses roll film, sheet film, paper and even glass plates to create images. Here she tells us about one of her favourite images, 'Oriel Street', which was taken with her Sanderson quarter plate wood and brass camera, dating from around 1910.
How did the image come about?
I was prowling early in the morning with my camera and my bike. The wider streets were getting busy with delivery vehicles so I headed down to Oriel Square and got there just as the shadows were moving down these massive walls.
Oxford streetlamps always catch my eye because of my family history in the city and because they add punctuation and scale to the walls and gateways that line our streets.
Was it inspired by something in particular?
Childhood visits to Oriel College bring me back to this location, and I am always fascinated by the walls and lanes. On this one morning I also spotted that high-up open window casement catching the sun.
As I child I would visit my grandparents in Oxford, and have a lot of memories of the city in the 60s and 70s, when things looked very different. My paternal grandfather was manciple, and before that headed the kitchens, I think, at Oriel College. I have a very vague memory of the old kitchens there and maybe his office. But my main memories are of the tortoise in the garden, Testudo.
My maternal Cowley grandpa worked on the line at Morris. He was a coach builder and did the wooden bits on the Morris Travellers. One of my great-grandfathers was a photographer at Oxford University Press (OUP).
Tell us about the process of making the image...
I had to work fast to capture the scene before the sun climbed too high, or the next delivery van arrived. Then much later, once I had developed the negative and could see it in the light (albeit in reverse) I knew it was the image I had hoped for. The negative printed well in the darkroom onto large photographic paper without any loss of detail, and I had to make very few adjustments to create a powerful print.
How have other people responded to it? Have there been any comments that have particularly stuck with you?
A young person said 'I feel I could walk into that picture along the lane,' and then I knew beyond doubt that it was a successful photograph.
(Editor's note: From Googling Testudo the Oriel College tortoise, I discovered that he not only met Wendy but also the future Queen Elizabeth II, during her first official royal visit to Oxfordshire in 1948, five years before her coronation. History does not record which visitor impressed him more!)
· Wendy's 'Oriel Street' handmade silver-chemistry photograph is available to buy in our shop