Announcing "Dapper", Coming April 14th 2012

Hey folks! It's been many months in the making, many sheets of film, and a whole slew of paper, I'm now proud to annouce to you my latest show, "Dapper - A Distinct Photography Show".

Graphic Design by Anthony ZartDapper – A Distinct Photography Show - opens at Aperture on April 14th.

This outstanding show will feature the work of Mat Marrash, who you may know from the Film Photography Podcast. Mat’s show at Aperture is a documentary exhibit on the world’s second oldest profession, barbering. Mat toured the Northeast and Midwest in search of old-school barbershops, and shot his images with an Eastman Commercial B 8×10″ camera. He then meticulously processed and printed each image in the darkroom, by hand. He used Ilford HP5+ film, and all the prints were made on silver gelatin fiber paper, then selenium toned for archival permanence.

This are some of the most unbelievable images we have seen in a very long time. Mat even made a special trip to the Barber College in Ohio City!

Dapper will run from April 14th to April 28th, with an opening reception/party on April 14th. Aperture’s opening receptions are always a blast!
The Facebook event page can be found here.

Hangers & Tanks, Hangers & Tanks! (Film Processing)

                                                       

Ok guys, usually I'm pretty adamant about whatever system I use when processing film. Up until this past week, 8x10 film had always been processing in trays, sloshing a stack of sheets for a pre-determined amount of time. Now that x-ray film has entered the field of play, the entire game has changed! Where tray processing modern film emuslions such as Ilford HP5+ and Kodak Tri-X could afford me processing loads of up to 8 sheets, x-ray film slowed things down to a meager 1-2 sheets at a time. In turn, this lead to uneven development, inconsistent processing, and a whole lot of wasted developer. None of these things are good, to be expected, or something I can live with.

Little did I know, the most simple, elegant solution for my problem had been invented well over 50 years ago! 8x10 film hangers and tanks; those stainless steel, chemistry devouring film hangers and processing tanks were designed with thinner based, orthochromatic films in mind. Simply load the x-ray film under red safelight, place film into pre-soak for 5 minutes, semi-stand process for best compensating effect and acutance, and reap the benefits! At the moment, I'm without a stainless steel drying rack, but since the Pyrocat HD developer further tans and hardens the double-sided emulsion, after final washing, I remove the film to photo-flo and dry it in a cabinet.

So how are the results? There's still a little bit of the backlog to be uploaded to Flickr, but for now, here's a sneak peek at the works in progress.

Stay tuned for more updates on X-Ray film, B&W processing, YouTube videos, and more!

I'm on an Alternative Process Kick!

It may have been this past weekend's 24+ hour carbon printing spree, or the buzz from reading three different books on it, but whatever it was, I'm stuck on alternative process photography.

If you're reading this and have never made any sort of print by hand, I encourage you to try it yourself some time. There's a sense of accomplishment to it, maybe even a hint of pride that comes with knowing that start to finish, the reason the print turned out the way it did, was all because of your own actions. And when working with film from the start, even the negative used for printing was meticulously controlled, from concept to finished print. Messed up a print? In alternative process, you can't blame a printer, a monitor, paper stock, or brand of ink; at the end of the day, the success of the process depends on you and your experience.

 Let's take the following video playlist for example, featuring Norman Gryspeerdt (1911-1998). Credited with the revival of Bromoil Printing, a previously lost alternative process, Mr. Gryspeerdt was a true master of his craft. With over 50 years of this laborious and contemplative photographic process under his belt, Gryspeerdt guides the viewer from theory to finished print, in an incredibly detailed, informative hour of video.

If you're not one for lengthy video, start at #3 on the playlist, the "action" starts there.

So, what did you think of the videos? A little slow for your tastes maybe? Like 'em or hate 'em, you can definitely appreciate the time, talent, and creation that's being displayed with the alternative processes. And though bromoil is by far one of the most labor-intensive, it's a fine example of just what alternative processes are doing for me right now. In these now fading photographic techniques there's no right or wrong, heck there are hardly any rules to speak of! And in 2012 where we're snapping, uploading, and sharing more images per week than were created in the entire 19th century, it's good to have images that can stand out from the crowd.

Hope you enjoyed this little gaze into just one of the scores of different processes geared at expressing a photograph outside the norm. And again, if you haven't tried alternative processes, they're really fun, and most of them can be done with the tools you already have handy (plus the sun).

As always, long live film!