Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Who remembers the ‘Small Faces’?  They were a great British Rock and Roll band from the 1960s. One of their most famous songs was ‘Lazy Sunday’ [1968] and the chorus went:

‘Lazy sunday afternoon, I’ve got no mind to worry,

Close my eyes and drift away, Close my eyes and drift away.’

I’m singing it to myself as I write. It’s what I think of every time I look at these two images because to me they sum up the concept of a lazy Sunday afternoon, lazing around on the grass soaking up the sun.

For what it’s worth I remember where these were taken – Sidmouth, on the green area above Jacob’s Ladder beach.

As you can see I took a series of images as the figures shifted ever so slightly. There was a bird flying overhead too.

The printing was tricky – the first image involved repositioning the bird in the right top corner as the paper sat under the enlarger.

Trickier still was the second image – and this is a digital photograph of the 20×16 inch print. Three images were printed on the same sheet of paper, showing a bird circulating (not always the same bird). It was a complicated set up.

In the digital era this would not be difficult. In the wet chemistry era it was an afternoon’s work. But the sense of achievement at the end of it all as one emerged bleary eyed but triumphant from the red glow of the darkroom carrying a developing tray containing the finished print for the final wash was worth the graft.

This image is from a collection of images from my old Print Archive that dates from the mid 1970s to mid ‘80s approximately. To see more from this series go to Categories in the Rt sidebar and click on Print Archive, or quicker still click here.