Salt Printing Again

I am preparing for my winter ‘studio’ months….a time where I find I concentrate more on printing, experimentation, zine creation etc…. The summers and shoulder seasons are for ‘filming’….. So my trek back to my Tucson studio allows me to retool and rethink and of course to experiment.

To my Salt Printing process….. My studio has been transformed into a salt printing studio. It is not total ‘blackout’ so I can’t have an enlarger unless I deaden the light, but I did create my own UV light box which I have taken copious notes on, as well as the process…..if you read my page entitled Salt Printing.

This year I am experimenting with different forms of paper and I think overall paper size as well. I participated in a photography festival selling my zines and books in Philadelphia a few months ago and while there I talked to a young lady from Ithaca, New York (Christine Elfman) who was showing off some of her salt prints. I want to shift some of my future zines into that direction as I have pondered over it the past year or two but haven’t made the shift to actually do so. But her influence has me headed now.

So….paper….paper…which paper? I have used various papers from the ‘cheapo” from Walmart to Arches, to Fabriano, to Strathmore etc… Both Hot and Cold as well as homemade watercolor paper from Mexico. To each, well….to their own.

This year I am branching out the experimentation process hoping to really find one that just ‘hits me’ …although I am almost convinced the process of salt printing is so convoluted with multiple variables that it is pretty difficult for me to say that ‘it is the paper’ man….. No, it is all the other things!

But this year….two new papers. First one up is Hahnemuhle Hot Press, 100% cotton and acid free. I have a feeling it is going to come close to Arches but hey, that is okay….I love Arches and would use it daily but it does get expensive, especially when experimenting. But a professional paper and frankly, I am not saving any $’s over Arches!!!!

As stated…it is hot press so I am know I will get some texture. Perfect…. I want that and feel the textured nature of hot press sets it apart from just a regular photograph, let alone the salt printing ‘look and process’.

The second paper I am trying is printing paper and not water color paper. This will be Lenox cotton printing paper. The texture won’t be as fine since it is printing paper so that has me thinking just a bit. But if I look to soften up some of my prints and perhaps shift from a 6x9” size to a more square 5”x5” size, this paper should be just fine. It is worth a try as without experimentation; well….is there any real growth?

As a backup…and as long as I am in the spending/purchasing mode, I will most likely order some Revere 320 gsm platinum paper which again, is a high quality paper but not hot press, so more a smoother texture as in the Lenox. I believe my first try will be with the hot press Hahnemuhle.

Will see….more to purchase though as I need some more Pictorico and I see it is not in stock in all places I have checked. This means purchasing more in ‘bulk’ and working at cutting to fit. It does come out cheaper that way but I worry with this product; will it curl up on me? Not sure. Many rolled bulk tends to curl.

Either way…I just continue to experiment and grow. I envision that next year I will have my first ‘salt printing’ zine to show / sell. That is my goal. While I prefer to work within a thematic approach, I have a feeling that this first salt zine will not evolve around any one theme, rather….a printing approach.

So…what are your goals? What are you looking forward to do? We all need that, right?

Film? Far From Bias I am, right?

This is a post that perhaps some….well for sure, those who shoot digital…will not grasp. For those that shoot film, well…..you are the ‘some’ that I am speaking to for you will grasp this.

What is art? ;….. art as in photography. For me, it is film and nothing more or not less, yet in my mind, digital photography is a bit less. And why might that be? Questions to ponder and for the most part those questions are responded to by imagery represented within film, and the process one takes to derive it.

Let’s go back, whether to Mathew Brady or Ansel Adams or anyone in between or forth that shot film. It doesn’t make a difference if you are medium or large format or 35mm or even if you are shooting video of the same film line. The process that is needed to truly shoot and capture that ‘slice of life’ in a way that represents true art, humanity…the essence of that ‘slice’….has to be done via the process of shooting film.

I was just in a forum the other day where Ricoh came out with a new GR digital which has a new feature to better capture the look of film. But why….why not just shoot film in the first place? It has utterly been decades since digital photography came out and it seems that the nirvana of many camera makers is still to develop a digital process that produces film-like images. Photographers can sense an image that just ‘gets it’…. or many semi-professional/pro’s can tell when an image is film. Why would manufacturers such as Sony, Fuji, Ricoh, Leica, Canon, Nikon, and Olympus/OM System….continue to want to capture film-like images and do so via digital gear? Because many people like that feel; be it black and white or color. Recent firmware updates and in-camera settings that have the mood and character of film….and use various filters embedded in the cameras that attempt….and I use that word judiciously ….’attempt’ to have as an end product, a filmisque quality about it. Even today, with decades between us and when digital first came on board…..many photographers inherently see a need for the film-look. They keep putting forth new products and cameras and software and mega-pixels and ND filters and mist filters and whatever…. Some digital photographers even return to early. digital such as the Leica M8 or M9, the early versions of Contax or Ricoh GR….all because someone says that they come ‘close’ ….(but never achieve) the quality of film.

So… that viewpoint is ‘out there’….it simply exists. Now let’s take a leap into the artistic world. And this is where the split between digital and film take another twist.

They shoot horses (scratch that; I mean film)…don’t they? When shooting film the emphasis is on ‘prior to taking the picture’…as opposed to ‘after the shot has been captured’ which is more akin to digital photography …..I argue there is a certain artistic talent that relies upon that pre-step of the process. For instance, when I shoot film, I know ahead of time what I want my image to become and sometimes I actually achieve it. When in the field….I am forced to truly comprehend the relation of sun/light and shadows. as I read the scene. I am watching and waiting and sometimes that wait corresponds to minutes and half-hours …or more…or I return to the scene later on. I wait….I set my ‘triangle’ of exposure and understand the relationship between all three parts of that triangle. I react to it….. F8 or F2 or F16….and use the exposure comp dial if the lsubject and light might dictate it …. Do I dial in 500 shutter or 250 or maybe a 1000 but no more, since my old camera is limited to no more. ISO (or is that ASA?) is set as I place in the film…… either way, I just go for it. One press of shutter at a time and then, guess what? I do it all over again before I press the shutter for image number 2. I add in other minor things such as if I want to use a ND, depending on my lens…. An ND of 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or ? …. I see the connection between everything. I overexpose or underexpose….. I am not about “post’ processing, rather…I am concentrating on the ‘pre processing element’…. I stand up, or take a step back using my prime lens…. I move and circle my subject and I embrace the situation.

Phew…. I take a shot…I have captured it. But I have absolutely no immediate feedback to tell me what I did right nor wrong as film cameras have no ‘live view’. I just have my intuition as an artist….as art. I move on. I might have captured 1 to 5 photos of the same scene and in most cases, one shot, or maybe two. It isn’t that I negate any post-processing, but with. the exception of a bit of contrast (which film just plains lacks), I am done with just touching up on the contrast, as opposed to…well; read on.

Now…..I am not going to repeat the process for digital, for it is for many….the vast majority now I dare say….an act of placing the camera in ‘auto’….. or….just snapping and going back to photoshop with my thousands of shots taken, and pressing buttons until visually I see what I want. The so called ‘art’ emulating from this process is not a matter so much of skill (yes, bash me…..), but rather which button and which sequence and to which layer in photoshop do I deal with and ultimately accept as art. Or, a digital camera can present ‘live view’ where the photographer sees exactly what the image is and presses an ISO, or Exposure or shutter or aperture and without any real knowledge of why or how they interrelate, the ‘live view’ tells them the image is fine.

But admittedly, there are also excellent digital photographers who bring to the table a finely honed craft and set of skills. I will never diminish them. I simply state that the manner or process of getting images differ from film and digital. And, the digital never quits looks like film and film never looks like digital. Let’s understand that.

To me art…..is the process of creating via my brain and my intuition and my skill….as opposed to having a software program thick with AI, create for the image as many do. AND, don’t even get me started on phone photography.

There …..it has been written….and as Ramses supposedly might have said years back in the ages of the Pharaohs and ancient Egyptians…..“So let it be written, so let it be done”.

The photo below isn’t an award winner….but it is a creation. You see the light or I should say, where it is? I needed to take that into account. I used the shadows below the ladies eyes to my advantage and exposed for what was visible as opposed to getting her entire face and in perfect exposure, for …in this particular ‘slice of life’….this is how she presented herself to me and her unique raccoon look. Why change that? the deep shadows….the darkness…the slightly overexposed chest or the bright nose of her partner….there were all naturally occurring in the scene. That is what the image ‘wrote’ in reality’…and that is what was captured. This is indeed a slice of life; an art exposed and composed to represent what was in front of me (in black and white of course)….. :-), with only one shot taken…one and only one.

journaling

I like project photography….as evident by a few blogs uploaded. To compliment that I want to addressing the concept of ‘journaling’… It is a simple process but one that adds to your overall result.

In life….we meander, don’t we? Today we do ‘this’, yesterday we did ‘that’….two weeks or a month or 6 months ago we did ‘this and that’…. It all adds up, but usually our ‘this’s and that’s ‘ run together and we forget what we did. Like a snake crawling in the grass, we meander, we eventually get someplace but in the process we fail to record in images alone; the big picture.

That is where journaling comes into play. I started to journal about my photography 8-9 years ago when I was leading a group of birders into the jungles of Ecuador to bird. I journaled where we were, what Tom saw, or how Pete tripped on a log etc . Since that adventure, and not so soon after, I began the journaling process for my street photography.

So what is in the box? I journal about the mechanics, the light….what I captured and where. I journal about my thoughts and what worked or what I needed to return to. I journal about my reflections too. For you see, since I enjoy social documentary and I couple it with photo-projects, my journals become one element to the finished product. I carry around a small notebook and make a point to record the day. When my images come to life, not only do they speak to the event recorded on the negative but the journal adds a new dimension to how that shot was taken and why.

I enjoy it….