Photography On Location: Liminal Space
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
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VIDEO DESCRIPTION
When you get sent to photograph a vacant radiology center in the high desert of California for your biggest client, what do you do? You bring along 2 film cameras so you can make some photos that your client would hate. And you make a UA-cam video about it. And by “you” I mean “me.” Or “I” actually. Or “my” - you know, whichever word is grammatically correct for each of those sentences.
Sure, my artsy 6x6 and 6x17 photos on Kodak Portra may have no appeal to my client, but you know who loves ‘em? This guy. …I’m pointing at myself right now.
That’s because I love some good liminal space photos. You know liminal space? Liminal spaces are empty or abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn, and often surreal. Liminal spaces are commonly places of transition, pertaining to the concept of liminality (thank you, Wikipedia). Well that’s kind of what this place is. So I took pictures of it.
Here are those pictures, along with some video. Enjoy!
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Awe hell naw. We got Nick carver in the backrooms before gta 6.
Ya, I hope he made it out.
@@matthewabacaphotographer always survives???
@@ssfalk41 All the backrooms games I played so far would suggest the exact opposite lol.
We on the uncanny Nick Carver arc
🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
I feel “the technician at the lab may have clicked the plus yellow button a few more times” needs to be the pinned post on every film-related forum.
Outstanding work here. That wide of the X-ray room is just… beautiful.
No one will ever make Portra 160 look as good as you. The shot of the phone on the wall, the x-ray light, and the 6x17 shot will all make amazing prints. I'll have to get serious about my lemonade stand business if you ever decide to make prints of those.
The singing in the background is a beautiful touch. Not only do you capture images of liminal spaces, you integrate it into the actual film itself. Such an outstanding level of duality here. Amazing work!
The 6x17 shot is fabulous.
Yes, and the square version is equally fabulous.
You nailed the background music on this one. I paused the video multiple times to see if it was coming from outside my apartment or my phone. Great atmosphere
When you do these shoots I always think, 'now this is art'. A pleasure to see what you came up with. There's a late period Lewis Baltz vibe, from his time in Europe shooting sites of technology.
0:20 from the Mamiya would make a great book cover, and IMHO looks more compelling than the wide format alternative.
Finally, the music was haunting, which left me imagining the patients who would have passed through these rooms receiving treatment during illness.
Man.. That heavily reverbed opera music really puts the eerieness over the top with this video.
Fantastic work, though! While, yes, I'm sure my TV is compressing THE HELL out of your images' dynamic range and colors, they're still impressive.
"should trigger just the right amount of agoraphobia in the viewer". Sometimes you crack me up.
Great video edit, sublime music, and I love how we can hear the buzz from the lights. Bravo!
This. Was. Beautiful! No surprise the cinematography is so gorgeous because your eye for everything is just genius level. You're one of the best around Nick! I love your work!
The cinematography is just as good as the photography. Stellar video and photos.
There is an old saying in photography circles: “He who makes it to the moon gets to levy the tax”
as someone who is in complete love with liminal spaces, this is incredible. you've done it again, nick.
It's not the lack of AC, it's radiation...
The sub-liminal message of this video: Nick Carver is the best photographer on UA-cam! Rest assured that all images looked great despite the YT formatting and your video/editing work made this video a true classic!
today I learnt that the tripod head he (and most other photographer on YT have) is $1500 (Arca Swiss C1)
I appreciate you pulling the vail back and showing us the behind the scenes. This is a magical video my friend!
LOL! For half a second my mind screamed f22 @ 1/4 sec ? How can that be?
Oh man that last shot was amazing. I also loved the shot with the drawn curtain across the door and the shot with the window with the blinds casting a louvered light on the wall. Liminal Space is some amazing stuff!!
I love a good liminal space photograph, and now I also love liminal space photograph BTS videos too. Nice work, Mr Nick Carver.
This is some of your best work Nick! Looks like it might be an inspiration boost for ya.
Where's your geiger counter and hazmat suit? Are you mad?
Bordering on spooky? Agoraphobic? Yeah, kinda nailed it!! Cool as heck shots, but let me outta here!!
#ReflexTax .... and why are you not stealing those frames for reuse?
Nothing finer than a 6x17 image... unless we are talking dogs
Absolutely love the image set, almost every single one is great, especially the 'hole in the ground' shot is amazing.
Please tell me that you had that music playing on location.
Lynne Cohen vibes, first bit of your content I've watched in a while, need to start back tracking, really enjoyed this! Great images!
Man get out of the backrooms while you can
the pictures didn't really give me that liminal feeling. you need to make the viewer feel like they're actually there alone in that scene. to do that you should take pictures at eyes level and tilt the camera a bit, or shoot with a phone in front of your eyes. otherwise it's just a weird picture i think
What if you are 4ft tall ?
Getting a massive Chernobyl vibe off these images ! Wow. Almost see the “ghosts” of previous users walking through.
…. And then Nick says “Chernobyl”. ! Lol
The vibe gave me feeling like some seriously smart serial killer doing photography for his medication but he can flip out any time and then there's coming bloody murder like some Netflix messed up IRL story or something but this vibe was so satisfying for me 😅Like vreepy mental horror but at the same time like meditation and relaxing- This guy should make Netflix horror series
There is no doubt that this place once belonged to the Umbrella Corporation. I was expecting Alice to come around the corner at any minute, trying to escape from this place.
They are great photos, no matter how bad the monitor they are great. Just the composition, oh man.
I'd never heard of this concept or what it means. Thanks for that trip, and for the effort it takes to film these videos and photographing at the same time.
Nope nope. Nick has officially start on level 1 of this own video game. So eerie and so great
Heck yeah!! Those squares are cool, but that 6x17 at the end... chefs kiss!!
Man this is goooooood. A lot of liminal photography has turned into "I thought this place was a little strange." This is top tier stuff.
That music and those shots! 👏👏 This is one of your most artful videos. Also, can you tell us where you got the dark cloth?
*MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* PEEEP PEEEEEP PEEEEEEP
I thought more than once on taking the youtube route, but always had this feeling that the kind of photography I do works better without context. Still conflicted on how I could translate it to video. But your video definitely didn't ruin the "magic" for me, great pictures.
This series is perfection, big fan.
Never seen the channel before but just from this intro… I know this bout to be a banger
I had a TLR for a while and the 65mm was my favorite without question. It’s a 28mm equivalent (with cropped sides) which is one of my favorite focal lengths. I’m glad to see you’re able to enjoy it too!
So.... They look great on my calibrated monitors in my office too. I think UA-cam messes it up but not as much as monitor manufacturers. I can't imagine what these look like on box stock calibration monitors. Ouch!
I was gonna watch this video. I was gonna enjoy it. Because you’re a fantastic photographer, I love liminal spaces, and photos of them. But I hate horror. Enter creepy 20’s (or whatever) music with lots of reverb. Ciao bello, I’ll keep my sanity, thanks!
🙋🏼 excuse me sir.. excuse me,.. do u have pics with the Ilford stuff film ? Cus... Just wondering... Cus I'm thinking which film could be better for some of my trips? 🤗 I mean just in case I can actually go anywhere 🥺... So... anyways... Just wondering. 😁
I freaking love that last shot. Do you ever add/manipulate light in your compositions? It could have been cool to lower the exposure and add a subtle glow from the hole in the ground by hiding a flashlight in it. Make it go from liminal space to sci-fi.
My goodness, this quality in video and photography, you are one of the best, I mean that!
I just discovered you and, let me tell you, I’m already head over heels with your art. You really have a cinematic eye. Wow. Just, wow.
Also, big Navidson vibes from this video. (House of Leaves, by Danielewski).
Specialized buildings like that look SUPER uncanny without the equipment they were designed to house. Especially with oddly shaped floors (read: anything but flat).
Also, those floor plans must look wacky. Very strange corners all about in many of those rooms.
If I'd seen those photos with no video context, I'd have assumed they were fake.
Actually preferred the square format images to the 6x17. To me they have more mystery. All that was missing from some was a set of twins dressed alike looking straight in your direction. As to all print film not caring what the color balance is, I'm afraid my old Domke F2 bag full of Kodak CC filters, and Hoyas FL-W, FL-B, 80A and 40M filters, among others, will politely disagree with you.
Bro, I subscribed immediately. The amount of knowledge you just gave me, only by watching this video, is outstanding. Great shots btw, don't worry by YT.
this radiology office is full of incredible pictures; I am sure nick was glowing with excitement.
the final one is so good, it should be labelled as x-rated.
🙋🏼 sir, please teach me. I have like this attraction tp these kinda places ... Like shrink places or like i was hoping to be able to photograph like surgeries or go into places like that 😮 particularly neuroaurgeru? Whwre doctora chop brains? Bur sunno anymore... But who knows! Maybe a forensic department 😁
Really love these photos and the video about them! Thank you for making these!
Note on colour balance of slide film for nerds: The old gang would indeed correct in camera, but they were shooting for the slide. Shooting for the digital file, it's true that it's harder to change in post processing than with print film due to the higher density and compressed range. However, with high-dynamic range cameras, you can easily scan with enough range to change the colour balance. Films like Velvia, with high density and sharp contrast curve will give less leeway, while low-contrast slide like E100 will give you plenty. I was surprised when I realised how much range there was. Haven't tested that on the output from Epsons.
personally, i think low-quality photographs fit liminal spaces better, but offices aren't really nostalgic, so i guess a higher quality is better for office related ones like this. but like a house, definitely low quality is better in that situation.
Thanks Nick! Beautiful set.
Curious, how do you deal with property releases on shoots like this? thanks
Hello! I absolutely adored the artistry of the cinematography of this video and of your photography. I was wondering : what's the reference of that thing you were using to measure the light?
How do you compose with the TLR with a tripod. You've said before how you do it handheld with raising the camera slightly after composing. How do you do it on a tripod though? Do you get a feeling where the frame will be? Great video, by the way!
A great subject. I felt every emotion you mentioned. In my mind I heard "It's Alive!". Also made me Google 'liminal'.
Came to see this after seeing the 6x17 shot on Instagram. Great vid but i'm confused as to why I enjoyed something that made me feel mildly uncomfortable, cheers.
Hey Nick. Another great video! Quick question. Which monitor calibrator do you use?
Love most of your stuff but just wanted to make a few technical notes on the whole color balance issue. This came up in an earlier one of your videos, your first cinestill review I think, but I was too lazy to type it out back then.
Negative color film very much has a color balance built in. It has to do with the color filters and dyes that make up an emulsion. The data sheet of each film will specify the colors expected to be delivered by an emulsion given a controlled exposure (both intensity and color). What's mind blowing is that even Tri-X, a monochrome film, has two different ISO ratings, one for daylight color and another for tungsten because of how its emulsion responds differently to various wavelengths. Again, this comes from an era when the film, exposed by a certain amount of light gave a certain density measured through a densitometer and these values were carefully defined and meant to be adhered to, in the same way that a water heater has a designated heating capacity or the engine in a car has a power and torque curve plotted out.
You're right that during scanning or editing, you can easily compensate the colors of a negative film. Technically, with enough brute force you can do this with positive film scan as well. But these digital workflows are relatively recent in the much longer history of analog photography. There was a time when film scans weren't digitized, either at home or by minilabs. When working photochemically, proper color balance is much easier to achieve when corrections are applied while shooting rather than the much more tedious adjustment of printer lights. This was especially critical for motion picture film. Still photographs can have slight variations between them, both in color and exposure because they're presented as individual images. Shots in a movie are meant to cut together quickly and seamlessly. This means exposure as well as color balance are critical. On the exposure side, this is why cinema lenses are calibrated in T-stops rather than F-stops. On the color side you have color temperature meters as well as color filters for lights and lenses to compensate between the available light source in a particular scene and the color range the emulsion expects to receive to achieve the desired density curves mentioned earlier. Until the mid 2000s, all the negatives from thousands of shots in a movie from various locations and lighting conditions had to be balanced photochemically and evened out for a projection print. The more work that could be done to properly expose a negative, the less work that had to be done when printing, especially when multiple projection prints has to be struck. Some changes would have been impossible to make chemically, including the much more extreme color corrections we can do now digitally. Lastly, even outside the cinema world, in certain commercial applications such as product photography, industrial applications or medical imaging, proper color balance and accurate reproduction was much more critical than creative work.
Didn't mean to make this too wordy or to sound like a smartass, just some food for thought. Even though they might seem trivial or outdated, a lot of standards, practices or definitions came to be for valid reasons throughout history.
Oh I loved it. The 6x17 shot is so E. Hopperesque.
On an unrelated note, what is the tripod you're using?
Hey Nic, I am also pursuing the same type of photography of liminal space with film. Thanks for making this video, it is really good to see someone with the same interest. Really impressive photo that you took. Keep going bro
I showed up expecting spooky. I came away with education instead. Good deal
Hey Nick, love these shots. Sorry for the annoying question, but were all these shots scanned on an epson v700? They look real great!
Something feels... off about this entire video, it feels like you're not actually there, like you were *almost* perfectly placed into the scene after being filmed on a green screen or something.
Specifically, the exit, where there is powerful red and blue light.
Another great Video with a bit of a different feel to it. Love the photos and the little educational element in it.
Sir! 🙋🏼 I think u need to go to Albuquerque, NM . 🤭 I sort of kinda think Ur format might like it 😎
My wife hates me a little bit more for every photobook I buy.
Now I love my wife, of course, but I cannot wait to buy Dead Inside.
Can you please hurry up, but take your time.
I've never seen anything from you before so i wholeheartedly expected this to be a horror short-film,,
Waited the entire video for it to take a turn for the worse, until the very end when i realized "hey wait, ive just been tricked into learning!" lmao
Our MRI and CT rooms looks like these, I'm sure somewhere nearby is the control room for it - albiet stripped.
The big room with the round well, was most likely for a machine that was used for Radiation treatments for Cancer Patients.
I wouldn't say generic, more like in-offensive. Can't make the effort to actually look at it and feel something.
Not familiar with your channel, I just assumed the thumbnail of the weird circular pit room was a 3D render with obviously made-up props! 😆
On those shots with light emanating around the corner under the Exit sign, I imagine you'd get excited to finally see daylight and an escape, only to round the corner into yet another brightly-lit cafeteria...
Absolute perfection! Thomas Demand wibes
Eerie yet compelling, the space I mean. Beautifully filmed video. The photographs are really unsettling - but that's because you captured what you were going for I think.
Amazing photos, the really do send a shiver up my spine, so creepy. A radiology lab is in itself such a liminal place I think, so many people have been there in a state of uncertainty.
Love the slow pace and long shots of this video. As a UA-cam video editor, it's a refreshing departure from the "engaging edit". Great photos as well! Subbbbbbed
Great video! May I know the name of the musical accompaniment?
I like these shots! And your film humidor! Lucky you that there was still electricity for light…
X-ray office, surely he's going to use some x-ray film. Oh here is the tripod, he must have some FPP 120 x-ray film now. Oh nooo, he doesn't. 🤣 Lovely shots none the less :)
In my one attempt at a backrooms-esque photo, I discovered that color film under fluorescent lights really helps sell the uncanny, but familiar feeling. (Aside: I've been using an RB67 as my go-to camera for the last five months or so, but sometimes after walking for three or four miles on cobblestone, I think about supplementing it with something a bit more manageable. The C220 is on my short list. It's reassuring to see what they are capable of in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.)
so glad i just found your channel!!
I was like, why is Nick shooting on an old Mamiya TLR? Awesome story.
Need to call my Mamiya and tell her I learned about print film today. Thanks for the upload! :)
5:09 rhat hallway gives off the same level of anxiety as a loose door knob in a largely empty building.
Surrounding them in white made them worse, I double checked by taking a screen grab and reversing it.
I recently acquired a stopwatch like so that I too could analog while analoging.
Interesting video. I guess I am a frequent liminal space photographer, and didn't know it. With that epiphany came a question. What is the opposite of liminal space? Google has been less than helpful.
But Nick, the frames are worth something. LOL.
At first I thought this dude is stuck inside the Black Mesa facility
Throw something about Fallout in the title and watch this video blowup. Maybe a thumbnail of the door with the radiation sign on it...
Sir... Mr. Brent durand brings ,e here to avoid sin. He's... His hair 🤭🥰
Someone else thinking that the round whole in the MRI room looks like a mini-room with prison cell doors all around? spooky
Casually storing the youtube sub award beside the fridge
Was this a radiation oncology center? Has more of that vibe as opposed to your run of the mill radiology center
I just bought Lynne Cohen's book No Man's Land.