Blast From the Past no. 7

Hollywood Comes to Oxford, April 1980 

Blasts From the Past 


The corner of Catte St. and the Broad in Oxford, April 1980, Kodacolor II with a Rolliecord TLR.
This is one of my earliest photographs. It's from the first roll out of the Rolleicord TLR I borrowed to document my final term at university. I don't expect I'd have used the word "document" at the time; rather I would just have said "take some pictures". That was in April 1980. The image shows the corner of Catte St. in Oxford dressed up as Divinity Rd. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the filming of Michael Cimino's western, "Heaven's Gate". Note the anachronistic graffiti bottom left.
The film itself was a commercial flop which ruined both the studio and Cimino's reputation. There is more about it here, although the photographs have since been removed.
The original scan is shown below. I've tweaked tone and contast in Lightroom, then B&W conversion with Silver Efex with a light warm tone, which I hope suits the 20th century filming of 19th century events amid Oxford's ancient architecture.

The corner of Catte St. and the Broad in Oxford, April 1980, Kodacolor II with a Rolliecord TLR (original scan).

 

Location: Oxford, UK

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