Drawing with Light: 2009

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tonight! La Jete'e

The Third World War is over. Paris has been destroyed. The Earth is no longer habitable. People cluster in underground caves as scientists conduct experiments. The film explains, "The only hope for survival lay in time: a hole in time through which to send food, medicines, sources of energy. The aim of the experiments was to send emissaries into time to summon the past and the future to the aid of the present." A man (Davos Hanich) "volunteers" because he is haunted by an image from his childhood. In his mind he sees a woman (Helene Chatelain) standing at the edge of a jetty at the Orly Airport while a man runs toward her… a shot rings out…the man falls…dying. The volunteer travels back in time, then forward, then back again. Images morph into one another, haunting, frightening. It is over in 29 minutes.

Using black and white still photography (except for one shot) and a voice-over narration, Chris Marker's 1962 film, La Jetee, is one of the most enigmatic and thought provoking science fiction films ever made. The film takes us into the mind of a man and looks at memory, loss, dreams, and destiny. Sent back to try to save the human race, he and the woman meet again. He sees the world as it was before the war: with "real children", "a real bedroom", and "real birds". The narrator speaks: "They are without memories, without plans. Time builds itself painlessly around them. Their only landmarks are the flavor of the moment they are living and the markings on the walls." They fall in love. She calls him "my ghost". Is this happening only in his mind or is he reassembling the past? They go for walks and to a strange museum filled with mounted representations of extinct animals. Then it stops.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

From the PBS show Creativity, 1982. An excellent segment featuring interviews, commentary, and shots of Winogrand shooting on the street.

Friday, February 27, 2009

ViC MUNiZ

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Controling Contrast in Your Prints:

Contrast Filters

Contrast filters are necessary for increasing or decreasing the amount of contrast in your print. If your test prints are coming out much too gray, then increasing the number of your filter will increase the contrast, making the whites whiter and the blacks blacker. Everyone has a different preference when it comes to deciding which contrast filter to start with, but I have always found for my purposes that a contrast filter of 2.5 suits me well when I’m working on a black and white enlarger.

Changing your contrast filter as you do test prints will also affect your exposure times, so don’t expect the same results in exposure when changing from a 3 to a 3 1/2 or a 4.

The first photograph here mimics the effect of a lower contrast filter. The second illustrates the effect of using a contrast filter higher in number.

Photo by De Buysser

Making a test strip - a traditional darkroom technique

To save wasting a sheet of paper you can make a test strip using a smaller piece of the same paper first.

1 Set everything up as you intend to print - height of enlarger head on column, stop the lens down a couple of stops to the optimum aperture, usually around f/5.6. Focus the negative on the baseboard.

2 Then switch off the room light and turn on the safelight.

3 Pull out a sheet of printing paper and cut it into smaller pieces. A 10x8in can be cut into four pieces. Keep one piece out and place the others back in the light tight packing.

4 Place the sheet on the baseboard in a suitable place on the print. Try picking a spot where there's a good range of tones to assess when you've made the test strip.

5 Now get a piece of black card that's bigger than the test paper and hold it above the paper so that it prevents any light reaching the paper when the enlarger is switched on.

6 Switch the enlarger on and move the card to reveal a strip about one fifth of the area of the paper. Hold steady for three seconds and move the card to reveal another fifth of the paper and hold for three seconds. The first strip has now received six seconds. Repeat this process exposing for three seconds each time you move across the remaining three parts of the paper. The part that was first exposed will now have had a total of 15seconds exposure and gradually steps down to the last exposed strip with just a three seconds exposure.

7 Develop the sheet in processing trays and when rinsed turn on the room light and check to see which strip looks best. It could be that the best exposure falls between two strips, one being too light, the other too dark. If this is the case, set a time that falls between the two. In our case about eight seconds would be best.

Tests strips can also be used to check how long you should burn in areas such as sky or a white dress and how long you should dodge to maintain detail in shadow areas.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

John Pfahl: Cleverly Undermines Landscapes:

John Pfahl is a master at preventing viewers from easily comprehending the spatial relationship before their eyes.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Pure Photgramic Bliss:

Adam Fuss

UNTITLED, 1988
Unique gelatin silver print photogram
36 x 28 inches
91.4 x 71.1 centimeters

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A super amazing photogramic project:

*Cut and paste into your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTKyDwGU-rY

A brief description and history of photograms

As Wikipedia states:

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.^[1]

This method of imaging is perhaps most prominently attributed to Man Ray and his exploration of rayographs. Others who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy, Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and even Pablo Picasso.^{[citation needed]}

Man Ray's rayographs

Photograms were used in the 20th Century by a number of photographers, particularly Man Ray, who called them "rayographs". His style included capitalizing on the stark and unexpected effects of negative imaging, unusual juxtapositions of identifiable objects (such as spoons and pearl necklaces), varying the exposure time given to different objects within a single image, and moving objects as they were exposed.^{[citation needed]}

Procedure

Like all photographic processes, photograms require light. The most commonly used source of light for this purpose is the enlarger used in conventional negative printing, but any light source can be used, like, for example, the sun. The figure below shows how the image is formed. In the traditional darkroom setting, the paper is held in place using a printing frame. The objects to be used in making the image are placed on top of the paper. When a suitable composition has been found, the enlarger is used to expose the paper (tests will have to be done to check the exposure time and aperture required). Finally, the paper is processed, as normal, in print-developing chemicals, and washed and dried.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Master of photograms: Mohaly-nagy

so darn good.

First Print in the New Silverton Darkroom!

Not bad but I'm excited to see what is done next week.

Welcome to the First Week of Traditional B/W Photography Class

In the upcoming weeks students will learn the functions of their camera in regards to capturing light in many situations. Through a combination of assignments and projects students will begin to hone their abilities to make striking images in the tradition of black & white darkroom processes.
The following is a rough guideline to practices, assignments and projects. With a small class we have the opportunity to explore many different aspects of photography. Once familiar with your camera and the darkroom, I hope that personal projects will be created and explored using the wonderful world of black & white photography.

Week One/ Jan. 22nd.
The anatomy of a camera.
How the aperture and shutter works.
Introduction to the darkroom.
Photogram presentation
First film assignment/ film test.

Week Two/ Jan. 29th.
Photograms/ darkroom time.
Historical photographs PowerPoint.
Film processing presentation.

Week Three/ Feb. 5th.
Short Film Screening.
Printing Demonstration.
Darkroom time.
Second film assignment.

Week Four/ Feb. 12th.
First group critique.
Darkroom time.
Contrast filter demo.

Tools of the Trade: Implements for the Photographer

35 mm camera
Preferred film stock*
Preferred photographic paper*
Paper scissors
hand towel
Apron and rubber gloves (optional)
Can of air (dust-off)
Negative sleeves (35mm)
Three ring binder to hold negatives

The material fee of $25.00 will go towards initial chemistry and start up paper. As we use this up we will all need to pitch in and replenish what was used to continue printing in the darkroom. Once familiar with the printing process some people might want to purchase different grades and sizes of paper on an individual need. In trying to cut costs of an expensive art practice I will do my best to find the best prices.

* I will go over certain types of papers and films and a good online store for purchasing them.

Drawing with Light