Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

At the time this picture was taken, high speed color slide (diapositive) films had quite pronounced grain. This particular film was the fastest one on the market then, but it was very grainy and undependable. Each emulsion layer in the film had its own streaks and holes, and often the image was unusable. It did, however, allow me to work in lower light situations and with longer lenses, and sometimes the grain created a pleasing effect. Even with all of its technical problems, this is one of my favorite images. As the impressionists discovered in the nineteenth century, absolute clarity is not always desirable. Softer images can often carry more of the mood of the original scene; they invite participation by the viewer who must use imagination to fill in the blanks. By the summer of 1978, this film was out of production and the Kunduz Valley was well beyond the reach of the traveler.


The Lone Rider

Kunduz Province, Afghanistan, April 1975