brow of the hill

I’m not sure how many sheets of film i’ve exposed now, quite a bit.  I’ve approached shooting quite pragmatically, keeping a rhythm to the work, and dividing it up into sections with sub-sections to stop me from just aimlessly assembling new shots with no pre-visulisation.  I’ve managed to draw up a final list to help me conclude shooting.  This list is a further 15 sheets which should keep me occupied for the next week.  As long as the shots aren’t a disaster, i feel like i’ll be able to stop there.  Or at least for this chapter.

There’s still a fair way to go, but its a great feeling unloading all my film holders and having a decent stack of film to develop.  It had become a bit monotonous looking at contact sheets of the same shot, constantly.  Whats great is that i’ve done so many shots now, i can’t really remember any of the first 15-20 shots, so i’ll have that element of surprise when they are developed.

beginning of the start

Been quite a long time coming but i can finally say I’m in a situation where i feel ready to shoot.

As i learnt last year; the more clean and perfect you want something to look - the harder it becomes.  Some of the minor changes i have made to the aesthetics have drastically demanded more time than i could have ever imagined.  A simple enough change from using paint to paper gave me all sorts of problems such as air bubbles and wrinkles.  Mounting a large sheet of paper is hard enough, only to find the surface has minor imperfections that wouldn’t show up when using paint.  Relative humidity of the paper and substrate doesn’t help too, especially as temperatures peak and trough throughout the day.  Below is a picture of what happened.  There were also problems of glare and reflectance off the background that wouldn’t occur when using a matte finish paint.

My latest problem was my negatives again not giving me the desired contrast.  Its really great to have a pre-visualised image in mind before you start, so you can tailor the variables to achieve this.  I am now effectively overdeveloping the sheets to give me an expansion called N+2.  This is a technique developed by Ansel Adams with his zone system, but to cut an incredibly dull technical story short - its given me more contrast.  I’ve done this along with other various techniques, and its giving me negatives that print perfectly on Ilford MGIV.

I’ve also bitten the bullet and decided to tray develop all of my sheets, one at a time.  Its not the most fun thing being in pitch black for around 10-15minutes per sheet, but it provides me with the consistency in developing i require.  I’ve wasted a lot of time and film with the HP combiplan and newer MOD54, and consider them to be a false economy.  It seems illogical to spend so much time shooting large format, only to rush the processing.  Drop me an e-mail if you want some help with developing sheets.

Infra

My copy of Infra - Richard Mosse arrived today and i am thoroughly impressed by not just the images, but the simple essays accompanying a book that hasn’t been over designed but extremely well laid out; a welcome break from a large amount of photo books and zines in circulation currently.

The essay by Adam Hochschild, giving a brief history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its colonisation offers some great conclusions to the series of images.  Its quite rare to see a book include an essay that is addressing the subject, rather than the photographs and critical theory.  To finish things off there is an afterword by Mosse himself.  This reads similar to a narration track on a movie, filling in the minor questions about the project.  Its quite well documented that Mosse used Kodak Aerochrome for the project and this acted as a space to discuss the other aspects of the film choice, without the banality of the technical side of it.

Under the dust jacket, the hardcover of the book depicts a re-imagining of the DRC flag.  The diagonal red has shifted to a magenta more alike the hues in the images, and the star has shifted from the left to the right.  I’d like to think these subtle changes are a reflection of Mosse’s thoughts about the project.

I’d appreciate seeing many more books like this.  Every diptych makes sense, every image size and position coherently ‘adds’ something.  On first thoughts, i didn’t agree with the opening photograph, but after looking again, after reading the texts, it made perfect sense.  There’s a small sequence of images i don’t particularly agree with in the book, but captions at the end of the book help, but its still problematic.

Highly recommend this book, not just to admire the project, but to study the book and understand how brilliant it is when there is a discourse between the format of the book, and the images within.

Books

This is the latest book from Paula McCartney.  I’ve been a close follower of McCartney, especially since she released her previous book Bird Watching.  When i saw this new work i sensed an even stronger rapport, as it was all darkroom based.  I don’t want to give too much away about the book but this is a really strong spread for me.  Visually similar to RJ Shaughnessy’s These Photographs will heal your soul, another strong favourite.

I’ve recently finished reading Picture for Women by David Campany.  I was quite disappointed not be able to attend the talk between Campany and Jeff Wall last month, but the book has made up for it.  Its a welcome relief to see a piece of critical writing that in length discusses a single photograph. As opposed to a whole project, or oeuvre of a photographer, in a sort of psycho-analytic attempt of looking at the life and work of an artist.  It is quite extensive,  15 pages of endnotes should give a sense for it.

Campany discusses the motif of models staring directly at the camera, drawing out conclusions about what ‘direct address’ really means.  A concept that seems to have been lost in translation or simply isn’t being addressed.  Campany sums it up perfectly with a quote from Roland Barthes.

There are also references made to an essay by film critic Manny Farber about two different types of art, and its production.  A worthwhile read:

White Elephant Art and Termite Art (1962)

long time no…

Kodak

It was announced last evening that Kodak are in the process of filing for bankruptcy protection.  It seems that Kodak are a sinking ship that haven’t been able to adapt to new technologies and demands.  Their main income is from lawsuits and the sale of patents.  If they win these pending lawsuits and sales, then they will be okay for a while, but i sense it is delaying the inevitable.  Kodak recently sold their gelatine business, an action familiar with any business selling off its assets.  Its stock has also been trading on the NYSE for less than $1.00 for more than 30 days straight.

I’m not so concerned by the lack of Kodak in the future, it will be easy enough to switch back to shooting on Fuji.  The future of Fuji is also more stable as their main source of income is through digital cameras and lenses.  I’d really hope that if Kodak do go bankrupt, Fuji would recognise their role as the sole provider for professional colour film.

Project

I’ve now got a bit of spare time to be getting on with my project.  Lately i’ve been doing a lot of drawings to visualise how i want the work to look.  Its just trying to find the right background. The last work lacked any texture and depth so i guess that is what i am trying to bring in.  I don’t think theres a clear ‘correct’ way of doing this, but theres some ways that work better than others.

here’s a photo i took, not of paper or nests:

Starting Over

Ive been working on re-shooting my major project from last spring.  Ive been struggling to get good scans from the negatives, but seem to be able to get adequate scans of the same film in 35mm format.  The reshoot will give me a chance to iron out a few creases in the project, and possible improve on some aspects of it.

I am hoping to be able to start shooting properly within the next 2 weeks.  I can imagine as soon as i start, i will not stop until i run out of film.  That may well turn out to be a good point to end the project.  I’m hoping to get it a new edit out and a new portfolio printed by February 2012.  As soon as this is done, i will be able to finally start on various personal projects i have been thinking about for the past month or so.

You can expect the new photographs to be a lot cleaner and more consistent. It will closer resemble the sterile look of On Failure to Arrive.

Test Print

I thought i’d have a go at doing a print with my new tank.  I wanted to take some time thinking about what i wanted the print to look like.

Started off by doing a straight print with pure light and a basic exposure time.  This gives you a very good starting point to what the negative is naturally like, i.e. is it too flat, too contrasty, too dark, too light.  This is effectively my RAW file.

I had a go at testing the limits of the colour filtration, just how much contrast i can get, or take away.  Then with that in mind i made a print.

I’m quite happy with this.  Felt like i was in complete control the whole time.  Also surprised by the Ilford RC paper i was using that must be at least 5 years old.

New print tank on its way, this time 12x16 and with a built in forced-wash slot.  Fingers crossed this one arrives without being smashed up in the post.

Another session in the darkroom. Prints for my sister.