Five diptychs from Kotor Bay

Visual notes in half-frames from Montenegro

Do we have time for another virtual trip to Montenegro?

I do.

While I was compiling the photos to share for the landscapes I shot from the Ladder of Kotor, I actually ended up with too many photos. I came across quite a few nice photographs that ranged from street photography to landscape to simple visual notes. Zooming out some and looking at the group, I really liked how it all fit together, and the particular format of the images got me thinking about making something different for their presentation.

A special format of image

During the summer of 2024, I invested in a half frame film camera¹. After some weekends away testing its viability for travel photography, I took it along on a full week trip as my daily carry.

There are a couple of unique aspects of shooting with this camera. The first is that the orientation of photos is vertical by default.

I have to say that I have really leaned in to this format. I’ve found that I tend to produce images much closer in content and composition to those I would take on my phone. Some of you may, but I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing. After all, I believe the vertical phone photo is now the world’s most-practised photo format. I’ve certainly gotten my fair share of practice with it.

Negatives on a light table processed digitally to a positive image

The second is that each roll being double length means I get a whopping 72 frames before I need to load again.

I mean, this is pretty unimportant for you the reader except that it means I shoot much more loosely and freely. The result again is that photographs I’d typically capture on my phone as visual notes are now on film. These fit really neatly into my process for almost all other types of photography I practise regularly. That’s a big advantage for me creatively.

The Bay of Kotor takes form

Over the years I have seen many people bring half frames together in the form of diptychs. On these specific cameras, shooting any two images in direct succession will create a diptych directly on the celluloid. You may have seen these before as well. It’s really cool. In one case, I was fortunate to get a set I liked without planning it.

A fortunate arrangement I chose to keep

This is the inspiration for how I’ve chosen to show vertical images on this publication as a whole. It is also an inspiration for the series of photographs this post is dedicated to.

From the images I made while walking and boating around Kotor, I found ten that I felt brought forth the best feelings and memories from that time. And as all the images are vertical in orientation, I have arranged them as diptychs in the usual form for this publication.

Five Diptychs

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro, 2024

No-street street photography

Fortified living

High and low

Old Town

Man-made islands

Brought to life

I’ve previously written on this publication about the importance of printing. I even issued a challenge to print your own photos.

But something I have been thinking about since then is the follow-through on that challenge; from my side. What if instead of just posting another digital set of photos here… what if I printed them too?

So I did just that, and I laid them out on my table:

4” x 6” prints on Canon dye-sub paper

I have to say it. These printed versions of the diptychs feel so good to me.

The depth of the blacks and the bright range of colours across the paper transported me right back to those warm thirty degree days in the sun.

And given that it’s winter in Berlin right now, that’s a really great feeling.

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1. A Pentax 17 for the gear bros.