photo technique

variations on the photographic arts

John Wade

3D: a New Dimensionfor Your Photography

Paul SergeantCameras That Made

History Part I

Daile KaplanPop-Photographica

DOUGLAS COLLINSInterview withPierre Cordier: Father of the Chemigram

JUSTINA HANPhotographing the Land of the Thunder Dragon

MICHAL GIEDROJCDream Portraits Beyond Reality

RYAN SPENCER REEDDetroit: the American Dream Left Behind

Florals On IceRyuijie

Gary VannDouble Transfer

Adds High Interest

Alan RossSelective DigitalMasking Part II

www.phototechmag.com

March/April 2011

Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out Search Issue | Next PageFor navigation instructions please click here

Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out Search Issue | Next PageFor navigation instructions please click here

Portfolios Father of the Chemigram: An Interview with Pierre Cordier The history and startling beauty of chemigram images by the master Douglas Collins

Detroit Forsaken Documentary of an industrial city the American Dream left behind Ryan Spencer Reed

Dreams: Portraits In a World Imagined Manipulated environments transport subjects somewhere beyond reality Michal Giedrojc

Photographing the Land of the Thunder Dragon Documentary of enchanting people and places of the Far East Justina Han

Contents

Commentary Vernacular Spectacular How Photographic Objects Have Changed Our Idea of Photography Daile Kaplan

Insight Cameras That Made History Part I A look at classic cameras from the George Eastman House Museum collection Paul Sergeant

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Feature Ice Forms Traditional black and white plus ice yields uncommon floral images Ryuijie

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One of the initiatives we had when redesigning the new photo technique magazine was that we wanted an expanded representation of inter-national photographers and writers. For many years, the books on the history of photography, other than those about the initial inventors, focused almost exclusively on American photographers. Over the past several decades, and with new editions of photo history books, that trend has obviously opened to include a more worldly look at people who use cameras as a means of expression. I also believe that the unique qualities of different cultures, including American, does influence vision and content. I imagine that this aspect of image content, which adds something specic to that which is universal, is of interest to photo technique readers, as well, because they as a group also represent quite a number of locations worldwide.

To that end, here is a list of international photographers who have been in our year and a half of publication, as well as some you will meet in upcoming issues in 2011.

International writers since Jan 2010:

Abhay Sharma CanadaPaul Sergeant CanadaCornelia Hediger formerly SwitzerlandChris Woodhouse UKGene Fedorov formerly RussiaBarry Haynes CanadaJean-Christian Rostagni formerly FranceScott Linstead CanadaFernando Souto formerly UruguayDominick Chiapperini the Netherlands Michael Poliza Germany and AfricaDouglas Capron CanadaUwe and Bettina Steinmueller formerly GermanyJustina Han The Netherlands - formerly KoreaMichal Giedrojc PolandPierre Cordier (interviewed by Douglas Collins) BelgiumRyuijie formerly Japan

Upcoming:

Jesper Storgaard Jensen Denmark (interviewing Oliviero Toscani Italy)Mircea Badut RomaniaKevin Then MalaysiaUli Staiger Germany

I also think it is important to note that many of the articles we publish are initiated as submissions from photo technique readers. In this way we are building a family of concerned photographers who want to share their experiences and techniques. We are the venue for them. Someone recently told me she found the writing in photo technique magazine friendly, open and encouraging. I hope we can continue inthat direction by welcoming submissions of unique and excellent work and technical ideas from photographers using any process and writing to us from anywhere.

Paul Schranz, Editorphoto technique magazine

EDITORS NOTE:March/April 2011 Vol. 32 No. 2

Publisher S. Tinsley Preston III

Editor Paul R. SchranzCreative Director Lisa Cordova

Copy Editor Bonnie Schranz

Production Roberta Knight

Marketing Manager Janice Gordon

Online Content Coordinator Bree Lamb

Project Manager Norma Vechot

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photo technique (ISSN 1083-9070) is publishedbimonthly by Preston Publications, Div. Preston Industries, Inc., 6600 W. Touhy Ave., Niles, IL 60714-4516. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing ofces. Copyright 2011; reproduction without permission strictly prohibited.

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pg. 43

Tech 3D: Add a New Dimension to Your Pictures

Old-time stereo photography with todays digital techniques John Wade

The Double Transfer Technique in Composite Productions Give your images higher interest Gary Vann

Selected Digital Masking Part II Alan Ross

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News Whats Important and Exciting in the Field of Photography: Historic Photographic Process Workshops

The AIPAD Photography Show New York Wendy Erickson

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Innovations Lexar Echo ZE

Back up your vulnerable files

Black Rapid RS-W1 Camera Sling A camera strap made for female photographersfinally!

Chimera LiteShapers Bend light to your will in the studio

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During the past 30 years photographys status has been dramatically altered. Once a marginal area of aesthetic endeavor that was seen as a mechanical artform ridiculed by the academy and public alike, today it occupies center stage.Contemporary artists uses of digital photographic imagery have been fore-grounded in the media and at auction, which have also heightened awareness of works by analogue practitioners. As the field has continued to develop, mus-eum curators and private collectors have revisited vernacular photography in all its guisessnapshots, family photo albums, commercial pictures, as well as applications of photographs onto three-dimensional decorative and functional photo objects. Such photo novelties were once consigned to the margins of fine art discourse, occasionally dusted off as Folk or Outsider Art, but ultimately dismissed as kitsch. The rich visual language and photographic references of photographic objects, as well as how they reflect a convergence between art and daily life, were overlooked. With renewed interest in vernacular photography, there have been a host of sumptuously illustrated books and fine art museum exhibitions.

Daile Kaplan

Vernacular SpectacularHow Photographic Objects Have Changed Our Idea of Photography

4 photo technique M/A 2011

COMMENTARY:

Heart carvingAfrican-American mementoes like this heart-shaped object, which is lovingly hand-carved and notched, are quite uncommon. Snapshots of proud family members transform this plain three-dimensional folk object into a domestic altarpiece.

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As a photography specialist at a New York auction house, I have come to characterize collecting as an occupational hazard. Since the 1990s I have been collecting examples of one-of-kind itemsjewelry, clothing, furniture, mementos and souvenirs high-lighted with photographs. Perhaps my background as a curator made it inevitable that the myriad ways in which images have been assimilated into boththe private and public spheres would become moreand more fascinating to me. Most of photographys creative objects challenge traditional notions of artistic display insofar as they were literally off the wall, that is, freestanding, unique and handmade items embedded with revered images of family members. They were specially produced for the home environment or meant to be stylish acces-sories. The application of pictures onto items, which dates back to the emergence of daguerreotypy, may be seen in 3D works by photographers and fine art-ists, jewelry-makers and craftsmen, homemakers and hobbyists. This colorful convergence of photo-graphy and popular culture is one Ive termed pop photographica.

Photography has always been directly linked to technical developments in the publics imagination. Think of the introduction of the remarkable veri-similitude of daguerreotypes to the You Press the Button, We Do the Rest Kodaks, to the widespread use of point-and-shoot cameras and the proliferation of cellphone cameras. The medium has also lent itself to a variety of substratescopper, iron, as wellas paper, glass, aluminum, leather, cotton, silk, wood, china and ceramicwhich has resulted inreliable forms of pictorial representation that were ideally suited for material consumer goods. Eachadvance has not only made image making more accessible but, more importantly, influenced ourunderstanding of the extraordinary range of photo-graphic expression.

More than a 150 years before the digital revolution facilitated a customization of the photographic ex-perience, the first photographic articles were created in photographers studios. During the daguerreian age, Victorian-era practitioners advertised services applying images to luxury goods, quietly working with artisans to explore unprecedented ways of sat-isfying consumers. Daguerreotypes and ambrotypes were integrated onto a plethora of beautiful luxury goodsperfume bottles, bracelets, rings, broaches, earrings, watch fobs and fountain penswhich were

seen as fashionable accessories conferring both social standing and fine taste. Queen Victoria her-self, an avid photographer and cultural taste-maker, was the Royal familys photographer. She enjoyed publicly championing the medium and was habit-ually depicted wearing daguerreian jewelry.

Mid-nineteenth Century upscale goods featuring formal portraits typified a moral seriousness linked to high standards of workmanship. But by the turnof the 20th Century, pictures became more fam-iliar, viewers looked for a new dimension to the photographic experience. Specially made artifacts embraced the zeitgeist of the proto-modernist per-iod, where imagery took on a casual appearance and objects became more spectacular and idiosyncratic. After all, the public has never tired of making pictures and wanting something more from the photograph: a desire to control not only the picture but the end-product itself.

The upscale market associated with the early Victorian period was supplanted by a more demo-cratic version, which was linked to a new gen-eration of photographers and hobbyists who were comfortable using a camera. Homemakers who re-lied on the still fashionable domestic arts and were photographers themselves affixed snapshots, cyanotypes and paper prints onto commemorative objects, such as samplers, sewing kits, clothing and jewelry, enjoying their pictures anew. The aura ofpreciousness, status and value associated with the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype gave way to a newsocial reality characterized by a plethora of photo-graphs, which underscored the mediums populist

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Daguerreian Hair Bracelet, Circa 1850Luxury goods with daguerreotype portraits were introduced in the 1840s and available until the early 1860s. This image of a child was set into a bracelet made of woven hair, a popular Victorian-era hobby.

VERNACULAR SPECTACULAR DAILE KAPLAN

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impulse. Again, the public looked for something more from images, which were recycled onto a host of familiar objects.

Although it may seem that small-format cameras obscured the hands-on virtuosity demanded of thephoto technician, true aficionados of photography never lost sight of the importance of darkroom tech-niques. A wonderful book with the unassuming title,Photographic Amusements, Including a Description of a Number of Novel Effects Obtainable with a Camera,which rst appeared in 1896 and was in its 32nd printing in 1936, provided countless tips to the enterprising photographer. Long before critics andcurators recognized the shotgun marriage betweenpopular and high art culture, it emerges as the def-initive crossover tome. A chapter devoted to photo-graphs on apples and eggs, for example, evokes thedeadpan tone of a 20th Century conceptual artists statement:

To make a photograph in green on the red skin of an apple is a wonderful but simple feat. Tie up the selected fruit on a sunny bough in a thick yellow paper bag for about three weeks before harvest time. Paste a contrasty negative to the apple with white of egg. Clear away leaves, so the sun gets clear access to the fruit, and leave it on the tree until it becomes red. If not then ripe, put it back into the opaque bag for a day or two till ready to pick. The negative may then be soaked off. Dont use a valuable negative, but make a duplicate for this experiment.

Other chapters addressed Distorted Imagery, Col-lage and Composite Photographs and Photograph-ing Snow Crystals, all of which were blueprints for modernist practice of the 1920s. Interestingly, the trajectory of photography continues to evolve inunexpected ways, insofar as such amateur experi-ments often lead to the high art practices. Think of Andr Kertszs distortions of female nudes, Wilson Bentleys capture of snowakes, and Moholy-Nagys photoplastiks (montages). Part fine art form and populist phenomenon, the collective experience ofliving in an image-based culture continues to change our ideas of what photography is today.

By the 1930s the integration of photographs ontofine art works was an emerging practice. Julien Levy envisioned his New York gallery as a show-place where examples of both fine and applied artobjects were sold. He intended to introduce a host of artifactswastepaper baskets, decorative screensdemonstrating this new direction and commis-

Childs Pillow, Circa 1890This lovely blue-toned pillow shows how cyanotype printmaking was revisited in the looser style of Kodak-era picture currency. It also demonstrates how photography was frequently employed in tandem with what is traditionally characterized as womens worksewing or embroidery.

Phone, 1975With cellphone users increasingly reliant on mobile devices to access pictures, this scarce home phone from the 1970sdemonstrates the ways in which consumers enjoyed employing customized imagery of friends and family members on mass-produced household products.


COMMENTARY:

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Daile Kaplan is vice president, director of photographs and auctioneer at Swann Galleries, NY and photographs specialist on PBS televisions acclaimed Antiques Roadshow. An essayist for the Smithsonian Institutions website, Kaplan is also author of Premiere Nudes, Albert Arthur Allen (Twin Palms Publishers, 2001) and Lewis Hine in Europe, The Lost Photographs (Abbeville Press, 1988). She curated the exhibition Pop Photographica, Photographys Objects in Everyday Life, 1842-1969 for the Art Gallery of Ontario, 2002.

To ask a question or comment on this article, visit our online Forum: www.phototechforum.com

sioned Berenice Abbott to develop the prototypes. Surrealist Man Ray was interested in dissolving the boundaries between traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture and photography) to create mixed media, hybrid forms. His original metro-nome entitled Object to be Destroyed, which created in 1923 (a facsimile was produced in multiples in 1964), features a cut-out eye affixed to the pendulum. Marcel Duchamp employed photo-graphs in various artworks, including the Belle Haleine Eau de Voilette perfume bottle on which he appears as Rrose Slavy. Soon after, Robert Rauschenberg embraced the vernacular, utilizing snapshots and silkscreened images from both his personal life and the mass media. His remarkable Combines from the 1950s through 1960s are free-standing sculptures featuring street and studio detritus, as well as found and family photographs. Like the anonymous makers of pop photographica, Rauschenberg recognized that his work was in-spired by the narrow space between art and life.

In the last quarter of the 20th Century, visual artists further blurred the line between photography, ne

art and popular culture. Cindy Sherman created a magnificent Limoges dinner service featuring herself as Madame de Pompadour. Vik Muniz pro-duced upmarket ashtrays with his signature trompe loeil images and Jack Pierson, ceramic curios. Today shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, handbags, wallets and sportswear adorned with pictures are ubiquitous. The future of pop photographica is one in which the interdisciplinary nature of photographic expression will continue to manifest, further reducing the gap between art and life. Technology is the new motivating force in popular and mass culture and, yet again, photography has unprecedented potential to change our under-standing of the world.

Gordon Parks Pajamas, 2002A photographer, painter, filmmaker, and artist, Parks enjoyed a multi-faceted career. His self-portrait appears on these (never worn) silk pajamas in a personal and artistic colorful montage.

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VERNACULAR SPECTACULAR DAILE KAPLAN

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Its difficult to avoid 3D these days. Movies at your local multiplex are in 3D, television in 3Dis the latest innovation and Fuji has introduced the first digital 3D camera. But theres nothing new about three dimensional, or stereo, photography. Stereo cameras have been around for years and are still usable and very effective when you com-bine their old-time shooting methods with modern digital techniques.

John Wade

3D: Add aNew Dimension to Your Pictures

(Figure 1) Stereo pair from the Realist camera. Note the perspective differences between the two images, how the one on the right shows more detail than the picture on the left.

The reason we see in three dimensions is because each eye sees a slightly different view. The brain takes those two views, combines them and gives us the illusion of depth. A stereo camera has two lens-es, shooting two pictures at a time. When the pic-tures are viewed so that the left eye sees only the one taken with the left lens and the right eye sees only the one from the right lens, the brain does its magic and you see a single image in three dimensions.


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(Figure 3) Stereo Realist, rst made in 1947 and still good today if you combine its use with digital techniques.

(Figure 2) Strong foreground interest and a composition that leads the eye towards a distant object makes the ideal composition for a stereo picture.

Finding and Using a Stereo CameraEarly stereo cameras took glass plates. Later, they took roll lm. But during a resurgence of interest in the 1950s, many were made for 35mm. These are the best to use today. You can nd them at classic camera shows, from specialist dealers, in thrift stores, at estate sales and on eBay.

The one used for this article was an American Stereo Realist, made by David White & Co. Here are its specifications: two lenses to shoot pictures and a third between them to reflect its image to the viewfinder; apertures between f/22 and f/3.5, shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/150 second, andfocusing from 2 1/2 feet to infinity. The knob that focuses the lenses is surrounded by a depth of field scale, and its importance well come to soon. Theres no automatic exposure, but that setting was measured with a Nikon D80 digital SLR and set manually on the Realist.

Stereo pictures are all about depth. A picture where everything is in the far distance, or in which the

3D: ADD A NEW DIMENSION TO YOUR PICTURES JOHN WADE

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(Figure 4) A strip of stereo negatives reversed digitally into positives.

(Figure 5) A stereo pair mounted for viewing in a cheap Vistascreen viewer.

subject is on a single flat plane, does not make good 3D. So the subject is best considered as a series of layers, getting some object strongly in the fore-ground, including detail in the middle distance andletting the far distance take care of itself. Subjects like bridges, long roads or railway lines receding into the distance make good stereo pictures.

A deep depth of field is important to keep every-thing sharp. Depth of field is the area of acceptable sharpness in front of and behind the point where the lens is focused, and it increases as apertures

get smaller. So stereo pictures should be shot at the smallest practical aperture with the focus set at the lens hyperfocal distance.

The easy way to do that with the Realist was to set the infinity mark on the focusing knob against f/16 on the depth of field scale, so that every picture taken at f/16 was in focus from just under ve feet to infinity. Shooting in sunny conditions using ISO 200 lm, the Realists top shutter speed of 1/150 second made an ideal match for the small aperture.

Processing and Scanning Film from a stereo camera can be handled by most processing outlets, but tell them to develop only. Do not have them print or cut the lm. The resulting negatives are unlikely to be the standard 24 x 36mm format. Stereo images are more likely to be square 24 x 24mm images.

Different stereo cameras handle the spacing of the picture pairs in different ways. The Realist doesit by shooting a pair of pictures with space be-tween thats the equivalent of two frames. When the film is wound, the next pair of pictures is exposed beside the first two, leaving a space of one more frame to be filled when the next pair is shot. In this way matching pictures appear three frames apart.

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The next task is to scan the negatives. You can do this with any modern scanner that handles film. Set it to scan negative film, not positive, and the scanners software turns negative images into positives.

You now need to differentiate between the right-hand and left-hand images. Assuming the film is wound left to right through the camera, look at the frame numbers in the lm rebate, and the image with the lower number of the pair is the right-hand one. The Realist has an aid in the form of a tiny notch at the film plane, in the bottom of the right image area, which registers on the film at the top of the right-hand picture. (Dont forget that because lenses record their images upside down, viewing a negative strip in the conventional way means that the right-hand image is on the left.)

Scan each individual image at a high resolution because you will be later viewing them in a view-er that considerably magnifies the pictures. For that reason 35mm images are best scanned at 4000dpi.

Finding and Using a ViewerTo view the pictures, you need a stereo viewer, which can be found in the same places as the cameras. Many viewers of the past were made for transparencies, with the viewer held to the light to

see the pictures. Avoid these and go for a viewer that uses prints. Look for one made by a company called Vistascreen. They were cheap and simple when they were made; theyre even cheaper now, but they still work.

Next you need to make a template for your stereo pictures that is the right size and shape to t the viewer. If your viewer came with some old stereo pictures, you can use one of those as the basis. Otherwise, measure the size of the place where the stereo pairs are to be slotted, plus the size and position of the places where each image is to be positioned. You can do this by trial and error by drawing two squares where you think the pictures should fall on a piece of paper, then viewing your results through the viewers twin lenses. When you find a place where the two squares meld into one, youve hit the spot.

Using Photoshop to Make a Stereo PairWhat follows are details of how to make a stereo pair using Photoshop, but you can use most imagemanipulation or drawing programs for similar results. With the rectangular marquee tool, draw arectangle the size and shape of your stereo card, then put a 2pt border around it (edit > stroke, width 2px, color black). Repeat the action to draw squares within the rectangle the size and position of your stereo pictures). Turn the background into a layer

3D: ADD A NEW DIMENSION TO YOUR PICTURES JOHN WADE

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(Figure 6) Stereo print images placed on viewing card.

(layer > new > layer from background). Then use the magic wand tool to highlight the center of each square and delete it.

Open the stereo pictures, then drag and drop them roughlyinto position onto your stereo card. Send each one to the back (layer > arrange > send to back). Take care to get the left and right pictures in the correct positions. Size each picture to fit the pre-drawn squares (edit > transform > scale). Flatten layers (layer > atten image). Print on suitable photo paper.

The first time you look at a stereo image, you might not see it clearly. But give your eyes and brain a few seconds to adjust, and suddenly the picture pops into focus in all the glory of three dimensions. And once youve seen your pictures in stereo or 3D, youre going to be hooked.

TECH:



Product ResourcesCameras: Stereo Realist Stereo Camera, Nikon D80 Digital SLR for exposure measurement and non-stereo photography; Film: 35mm Color; Computer: Mac Pro OS 10.4; Software: Adobe Photoshop; Scanner: Epson Stylus S21; Paper: Epson Premium Glossy; Other: Vistascreen Viewer.

John Wade began his journalistic career on local newspapers, working his way from junior reporter to deputy editor. He was editor of Photography magazine in the UK for seven years before becoming a freelance writer and photographer 25 years ago. He has written more than 30 books on photographic history and photo techniques and has lately turned his attention to self-publishing his own books on classic cameras.

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FATHER OF THE CHEMIGRAM: PIERRE CORDIER DOUGLAS COLLINS

Pierre Cordier (born 1933) is a Belgian artist. A former lect-urer at the cole Nationale des Arts Visuels in Brussels, heis known in the art world through his practice of the chemi-gram technique. He lives and works in Brussels. After exhib-iting at MoMA in New York (1967), the Muse d'Art Modernein Brussels (1988), the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2008),and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (2010), he is cur-rently having a show of his early photographs of the Frenchpoet and singer, Georges Brassens, at the Cit de la Musique in Paris. New York cameraless photographer Douglas Collins recently interviewed Pierre Cordier for photo technique.

D. C. Youre known as the inventor or the father of the chemigram. Could you explain for us what a chemigram is?

P. C. To explain what a chemigram is, the best way is to de-ne it: the chemigram combines the physics of painting (varnish, wax, oil) with the chemistry of photography (photo emulsion, developer, xer); without a camera, without an enlarger, and in daylight. Ive rened this denition over a long time, and while it seems complicated, it really isnt.

Father of the Chemigram:An Interview with Pierre Cordier

Douglas Collins

Making a chemigram is no more difcult than making an apple turnover.

To decide whether Im its inventor, you have to recall that in 1839, the Anno Lucis, no fewer than 24 investigators claimed the title of inventor of the photographic process. Years later historians decided it was Nicphore Nipce who deserved the title. So while its true that the German, Edmund Kesting, and the Frenchman, Maurice Tabard, made some images in the 30s and 40s by painting xer and developer onto photo paper, they didnt make use of resists. You could say that the inventor is not the rst to achieve a result, but the one who develops the technique. The term inventor matters little for meits the results obtained that count.

D. C. Why this word chemigram?

P. C. To me it seemed useful to give a name to these im-ages that were so different. In 1958, the year I registered the name chimigramme in French (and in 1979, the word

Chemigram 1/5/70 III, detail. Collection of the artist.

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chemigram in English), the word chemistry didnt have the pejorative connotations it has for some today. Since my procedure featured photographic chemistry, I coined the word chemigram. Looking back I might have done better to use the word physico chemigram, since the way I work grants great importance to the physical phenomena arising from the resists. But that term is too cumbersome.

I have to insist that were talking about chemigram with an i. If I weren't so pugnacious in late 80s, there would be two ways of spelling it today, one with an i and one with an o. Norman Sarachek, a well known American practitioner, sportingly dropped the o in favor of the i. But its clear that I have never intended to patent the technique itself.

D. C. Give us an insight into what this combination of the physics of painting and the chemistry of photography that you speak of actually means.

P. C. My work is about transdisciplinarity, an intersection of painting, photography and graphic design. Its been that way since my rst attempts back in 1956, when I made a dedication (graphics) on photographic paper (photography) using nail polish (painting) to a young German girl named

Erikaand the rst chemigram was born. Little by little I learned to manage my materials, photographic as well as pictorial, and I developed a procedure: for example, take a piece of photo paper, in daylight, coat it with a resist like varnish, make various incisions, then soak it alternatively, whichever way you want, in developer and xer. This causes the physical transformation of the resist, and the chemigram emerges with a myriad of different details. To explore a chemigram, you often need eagle eyes, a magnifying glass or a microscope. Sometimes, a seemingly insignicant detail reveals a whole world. Like the messages hidden by spies in the dot of an i.

D. C. What is the place of chemigrams in the visual arts generally, and in particular within photography?

P. C. Im neither a painter nor a photographer, but a little of each. Too often theres a temptation to link chemigrams to either painting or photography, or sometimes to whats called lensless photography. But the chemigram is not photography,which means writing with light, because the chemigram is done in daylight. Moreover, this is the dif-ference between chemigrams and photograms; even if both are made without camera or enlarger, the photogram is a

Chemigram 19/2/71 II, detail D4. Collection of the artist.

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Chemigram 14/6/91 from La Suma of Jorge Luis Borges. Collection of the artist.

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Douglas Collins is a printmaker and cameraless photographer. He teaches chemigrams at the Manhattan Graphics Center in New York City. Special thanks to Shirley Chantraine, assistant to Pierre Cordier. http://www.pierrecordier.com.

technique where you write with light, while in chemigrams you write with chemicals. So chemigrams dont t into any preordained category, but share multiple connections with both photography and painting. Also, the role of resists is crucial; most have a function in the manufacture of paint (varnish, wax, oil) but undergo physical transformations, not chemical, such as cracking, eroding, unsticking, dissolving.

D. C. What inuences led you to the creation of the chemi-gram?

P. C. In art Im an autodidact, but many artists have inu-enced me along the way. In my formative years, my favorite painters were Paul Klee and Max Ernst. Georges Brassens also had a pivotal role in my choice of becoming an artist; Brassens is to the francophone world what Bob Dylan is toAmericans. In his song Le mauvais sujet repenti, a youngwoman becomes a prostitute and a man teaches her to really move that place where your back looks like the moon because without technique a gift is nothing but a cheap trick. I would invert this to say: Without a gift, the chemigram technique is nothing but a cheap trick. It's the basis, the backbone, and like the jazz artists who've always inspired me, Duke and Monk, youve got to play riffs along it to make it really work.

Getting back to the art world, I had the opportunity to do a semesters training with Otto Steinert in Germany, and at its completion I was invited to show at the Subjektive Fotografie 3 in Cologne in 1958. I also met Gottfried Jger, who en-listed me as a founder of the avant garde group Generative Fotografie. In 1961 I met the painter Saul Steinberg. By the 1970s I met Aaron Siskind, who introduced me into artistic circles in America and became my spiritual father. I should also mention Manfred Mohr, a pioneer in computer art, with whom I collaborated in 1972and there are many others who throughout my life have given me artistic sustenance and stimulation.

D. C. You've created many homages in your chemigrams, to Muybridge, Marey, Borges, etc. Why?

P. C. The homages were an opportunity to demonstrate my admiration for these great gures, and also to thank them. The idea came to me when I was giving my classes on the history of photography. In 1972 I was among the rst to make a tribute to a photographer, my homage to Muybridge. Then I did one to Marey. At the time photographers were not very popular people and I saw this as a way to spread the word. Other homages were more personal, such as the ones I did for Borges.

D. C. Youve advocated various ways of creating the chemi-gram. Could you tell us more?

P. C. Chemigrams essentially are restrained by the careful choice of resist, and these are limitless. Anything that can stick even a few seconds to the paper can make a chemi-gram. Each resist has its own characteryou can recognize it like a face. I have used in my writings the expression portrait of matter for a reason. A chemigramist knows hewill get fuzzy forms with soft resists (honey, syrup) and sharpforms with hard resists like varnishes or adhesives. And yet, among resists, varnish is king, because it is the most controllable. You can make chemigrams just by using devel-oper and xer, but that moves it closer to watercolors. Illgive you a metaphor. From a technical point of view, if youcompare painting to walking, photography to the automobile and the computer to the airplane, then the chemigram is like the bicyclesimple, quick and cheap. Whoever limits himself to drawing on photo paper with developer and xer reminds me of a bicyclist walking alongside his bike.

D. C. For many years you taught the history of photography in Brussels. You also conducted workshops in France, Bel-gium, the United States, even in Japan. Has this led to a school of practitioners, or are chemigrams still seen as an anomaly, something strange?

P. C. To my knowledge there is no organized school of prac-titioners, but there are a great number of chemigramists practicing around the world. Today, it has become one of the established procedures of alternative photography. Through my workshops and my teaching Ive continuously tried to spread it as widely as possible, and sharing my methods has always been one of my basic values. I feel the chemigram has a long life ahead of it.

Self-Portrait, Saarbrcken,1958. Collection of the artist.

INSIGHT:


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Chemigram 29/11/57 I. Paris, Centre Pompidou

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Detroit ForsakenRyan Spencer Reed


PORTFOLIO:

These are not the ruins of Rome nor the tombsof Egypt. While the echoes of the past resonate, this community is extinguishing in the present. The story of Detroit is one of the most signif-icant representations of a nation in transition. As a photographer, I began an anthropological exploration there in the spring of 2009 and continue today through a kind of architectural archaeology. This is a story about things left behind painted with a heavy heart by dim and murky lighta story told amidst the death of the American Industrial Revolution.

Like the structures depicted, the individual prints are intended as artifacts of beauty, time

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DETROIT FORSAKEN RYAN SPENCER REED

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While Detroit grapples with the dominating remains of abandoned automobile manufacturing facilities, this once fine example of a Packard decays in an abandoned rail yard.

and consequence. For that reason, I chose to capture thisbody of work using film and cameras that, like theirsubject, were built without any planned obsolescence. Ironically, both have found themselves in a world thatstruggles to justify practical uses for them. I find this turn intriguing and discover solace in knowing that some of the last images made of these buildings will have been created with an archival permanence in mind through a medium and mechanism fitting their vintage. Nearly devoid of the human form, these images unveil the Arsenal of Democracy as it remains in the wake of un-sustainable business practices following the aftermath of World War II. As a body of work, they become in-strumental in creating an economic imperative for more sustainable business practices. If this story is evidence of

a countrys misspent youth, then the revelation of peak oil and the long overdue correction to the bubbles that formed following the Great War mark the harsh wakeup call that is adulthood.

My passion for storytelling emerged when I fully recog-nized and appreciated the power of imagery to inuence and inform. This revelation came in my last years of schooling, and I soon found myself drifting off the beatenpre-med and physics path, the pursuit for which I firstentered university. For the first time, I felt I had encoun-tered something that would keep me aligned to my principals. The summer following graduation, I set off to East Africa to cover critical social issues with a camera. Once there, I fell immediately into photographing the

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PORTFOLIO:

aftermath of nearly two decades of war in Sudan. I spent the next couple years formulating a visual narrative that portrayed what I had seen while still maintaining, and whenever possible highlighting, the dignity with which the Sudanese lived their lives amidst such trauma.

Coming home, I felt a great deal of responsibility to dosomething with that work. Given the news medias limit-ed interest in the subject, and genre at large, I needed tond new outlets and new audiences. I contacted univer-sities and proposed the concept of building a symposium-like atmosphere where my exhibition could serve as a cultural backdrop. From 2003 to the present, I have been able to bring my work to nearly 200 venues through lect-ures and traveling exhibits on Sudan titled, The Cost of Silence. They helped to raise the level of debate and, in the hands of Sudan advocates, served to illustrate the need for action.

This was a very inspiring time for me. However, as I traveled throughout North America to speak publicly ona crisis half a world away, I began to take interest in the economic situation domestically. I sensed for years that my nation was increasingly disoriented, and what I was seeing while traveling solidied my concern. I was com-

pelled to record what I could of the decline of American power wherever I lectured, building a substantial archive on the subject. The city of Detroit was always in the back of my mind as a necessary destination for this project. In 2008, the requests for the Sudan work had dwindled significantly, affording me the time to finally explore it. I was immediately overwhelmed by the scale of economic decline in Detroit. It took months to become visually and conceptually acclimated to the project, and over a year and a half to work out how to tell its story.

One of the most ominous challenges to overcome was that Detroit had been covered abundantly and for a great many years. I was, however, lured by the sirens of strangeness in the Detroit landscapes. I internalized tremendous respect for the structures and the people who built and once occupied them, and I could not help myself from trying to formulate a visual expression of my feelings upon seeing them left for waste. The history was so incredibly rich, and in some way still tangible; like it could be inhaled through the damp, metallic air of vacant corridors.

I knew the project would stretch my imagination and challenge me to make a different kind of imagery than

Motor Citys stage for Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and other musical giants: The Vanity Ballrooms now hollow dance floor suggests the opulence provided by the manufacturing spoils of the 1930s and 40s.

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DETROIT FORSAKEN RYAN SPENCER REED

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I had made previously in Sudan. Since I was no longer focused on making pictures for news magazines, I was free to explore a far less literal interpretation of a subject matter. For this body of work, I tried to construct a very basic, and more importantly familiar, representation of daily American life using the many relics I found. With help from locals, I sought out the places where people once worked, worshiped and learned, where they were entertained, and where they were taken care of in their old age, in an attempt to nd the icons through which to personify the stillness.

To make the most of the available light in these scenes, I broadened films wide dynamic range by a process using a slight adaptation of Barry Thorntons two-bath developer. By stretching what the film had to offer I couldcontrol the extreme contrast of photographing an inter-ior that may happen to include harsh light sources, suchas windows or holes in a ceiling. I mixed the two solu-tions using powder chemicals procured from The Photo-graphers Formulary. Bath A, comprised of developing agents Metol and Sodium Sulte, soaks into the film with little actual development occurring. When Bath B hits the saturated emulation, however, the developer from Bath A is activated by the accelerant Sodium Metaborate. The magic of this process is that the developer will exhaust more quickly where silver is more prevalent in the high-lights limiting the negatives density. Meanwhile, where sparse amounts of light struck the film in the shadow areas, development will continue to bring out shadow detail. This process allowed me to expose for the mood I wanted to create while preserving simultaneously both highlight and deep shadow detail.

I used a Hasselblad 343 scanner to yield digital files from which to make prints on an Epson fitted with John Cones Piezography K-7 inks. The many dilutions of carbon pig-ment inks in this system yield velvety blacks with smoothtonal transitions. I feel they enhance the three-dimen-sional experience of a scene represented on paper and are reminiscent of platinum prints, which is a process I am currently pursuing for producing a future edition of this body of work.

Whenever appropriate, I incorporated anonymity as a method for these pictures to collectively work on the psyche of the viewer. In one instance, I wanted to includean image of the famed Michigan Central Station. The building is sought after by photographers, due to the phenomenal architecture employed, combined with the high degree of degradation in its current state. It simply has an alluring prominence, and has, therefore, been photographed prolifically. Not withstanding, I still felt the building offered a unique opportunity to contribute

to the splendor of Americas bygone industrial age. I took the approach of less is more by framing only the main entryway instead of revealing the entire building. I obscured it slightly with subtle camera motion dur-ing a long exposure. Finally, I composed the frame to include a white plastic bag caught on concertina wire and moved by the wind to give the appearance of an atmospheric fog.

In another example, creating a slightly distorted image of a house was less an exercise to illustrate that particular house than it was about conjuring the suggestion of the American Dream of home ownership. In doing so, I hope to give a viewer more access to the intended themes, feelings and mood than would be possible with a very literal rendition and an otherwise closed image. I am relying on the viewer to subconsciously complete the picture with his or her own experiencesto see more than just a blurry picture of a house. I hope they will recognize

Michigan Central Station stood as a testament of Detroits grandeur to all incoming rail passengers. This half-million sq. ft. architectural feat pumped thousands along its since diverted rails. As jobs decreased, expressways expanded and affluent areas of the city were left for suburban life, the station was closed in 1988. Despite community support to salvage the building, Detroit City Council voted in April 2009 to have the structure demolished.

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PORTFOLIO:

Product ResourcesCameras: Leica M3, Leica M4-P, Hasselblad X-Pan II, Leica M9; Paper: Ilford HP5; Chemistry: Variation of Barry Thorntons 2-bath developer mixed from raw chemicals, Kodak Fixer, Hass Intellifaucet K375 (water temperature and ow control); Computer: Apple G4 tower; Software: Adobe Photoshop; Scanner: Imacon/Hasselblad 343; Printer: Epson 7800; Inks: John Cones Carbon Inks; Paper: Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308.

Ryan Spencer Reeds work has been exhibited at the New York Historical Society, The Boston Institute for Contemporary Art, the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History and the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. In 2003, he attended the Eddie Addams Workshop by invitation. In 2006, he was awarded the Soros Foundations Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Projects Distribution Grant to help his work on Sudan reach additional audiences. He continues to exhibit and lecture on the Sudan and photograph extensively on the theme of the hubris of power amidst the twilight of the American industrial revolution. The first chapter of photographs on Detroit is now completed and ready for exhibition. He is a native of Ludington, MI. To view the rest of this series, please visit: www.ryanspencerreed.com.


the home where they grew up or another meaningful place in the likeness of that picture, similar to an image in a dream that stays just out of reach. If I can extract that kind of participation within the momentary pause at each photographic punctuation along the narrative arch of my stories, then I will have succeeded in making a connection.

To continue with this project, I now want to delve back into the state of the broader union as it has been impacted by allowing Detroit to falternot the literal city, but the value structure and way of life that made it a symbol for the 20th Century worker. I intend to explore this theme through many of the communities made necessary by Detroit: the former steel-mill, textile, paper, automobile and mining towns.

A city at the intersection of countless geopolitical and socioeconomic faultlines, Detroit was a monolith of human achievement. Few cities have had more influence on the growth of a civilization. Few cities have so rapidly fallen from grace. As an economic bellwether, she now lives a cautionary tale for all those great cities that danced

to Motowns lead, and are most likely doomed to follow in her footsteps. What remains is a drained and evaporated city landscapeone that is haunting, seductive and alive with ghosts.

Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; vacant homes are bandaged with plywood to prevent vandals from entering through wounded windows. Once exquisite homes now invite scavengers looking to profit from scrap metal, masonry and architectural elements.

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DREAMS: PORTRAITS IN A WORLD IMAGINED MICHAL GIEDROJC

Michal Giedrojc

Dreams: Portraits In a World Imagined

My adventure with photography started quite long ago, but I have been taking photographs with conscious en-gagement for just four years. During this time I have learned how to use the possibilities which software pro-grams offer to create my own imagined world.

Creative photography helps me in multi-stage work, and I do not limit myself to clicking the shutter. To this should be added the conceptual stage, the selection stageand the most beautiful for me, the production stage.

Lion

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Several hours, or several dozen hours, spent on creating an image, or rather on photo manipulation, is a kind ofpurication for me, a kind of journey to my imagin-ation, and this time gives me real happiness in the pro-cess of creating.

Most of my Dreams series photos are connected with dream subject matterthese are visions of the world which exists only in my imagination. People presented in my photos are entangled between something that is real and what is hallucinatoryencountered only in

dreams. They ask themselves the question of whether the reality they live in is the authors vision, or perhaps it is their own. The situation in which they nd them-selves is uncomfortable. Apparently, they feel like stran-gers in this sleepy reality, and they probably would not like to nd themselves in this situation in a real world. Truthfully, I am often tired of situations which I observe in reality, so I try to imagine them as if they were happening in my dreams, as if my imagination would transform a real vision into a hallucinatory one. I create situations that might materialize in actuality, and

Fly


PORTFOLIO:

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DREAMS: PORTRAITS IN A WORLD IMAGINED MICHAL GIEDROJC

I wait to see how my imagination and sensitivity will filter them so that for a viewer they become pictures straight from someones dream. In my imagined world there are often very prosaic situations, performed byordinary people. My photographs offer a lot of pos-sibilities of interpretation. I do not expect one proper way of understanding my photographs; I want them very much to be interpreted individually and separately.

Another aspect of the Dreams series is creation of aveil of secrecy. Dreams are similar to that secrecywe

know that they exist, most of us have dreams, and wehave a general scientific knowledge about the dreaming process. However, the bigger problem appears when it comes to interpretation of particular dreams.

There are countless methods of interpretation and levels on which dreams operate, and so it is with my photographseach image is a different story, which can be explained in any number of ways by the viewers. The photographs which I create have a common den-ominatorthe dreamand I create my images upon

Fly II

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these foundations. This gives me a wide field of possibil-ities to present the world the way I perceive it when I squint my eyes.

People I photograph are not professional models. In many cases, they are my acquaintances, friends, family, as well as people who like my photographs and wanted to be photographed by me. I really like working with people who do not have any experience in professional modeling. This challenge is definitely much greater for me because it requires a totally different relationship with an inexperienced model. Working on this series, I often had to explain the reason why I wanted to take a particular photograph. Then I described the project and everything connected with that particular image, as I had to inspire condence so that the person could open up and start to pose the way I wanted. There is no objectivity or attempt to present the real character of the people who stand in front of my camera. Ill turn beauty into ugliness and ugliness into beauty. Ill let the beauty be beautiful and ugliness to stay ugly...let the mood decide the outcome. Several people do appear as subjects in my images more than once, because these are people who I like to collaborate with. Every moment of these sessions is an unforgettable experience in itself.

I am sure that I will disappoint those who are waiting for the information about what kind of equipment I use to create my photographs. I believe that equipment is

only a supplement which helps us in work. I do not surround myself with several dozen lensesI do not have one piece of equipment for this occasion and another one for that one. Whenever I talk about the equipment I use, I can see great curiosity in peoples eyes, and when I talk about what I use to create photographs the curiosity turns to disbelief. My rst photographs (or trials) were made with a Canon 300D reflex camera and I used the kit lens which came with the Canon camera. Now I use a Canon 50D with a lens, with which I have taken most of my photographsa Tamron 17-50/2.8. This is the perfect focal length for me because it gives me lots of possibilities. I have never used lenses with focal lengths bigger than 100mm. The equipment I have now fulfills my expectations, for the most part.

None of the Dreams series photographs was taken with the use of professional studio lights, but only with the use of a Canon 580 EXII flash, which I think is the best flash for Canon cameras available on the market. I tried to use available light as much as possible. If I could, and in many cases this was not possible, I would only use available light, especially when the sun gently peeps through clouds or fog sends delicately diffused light, which in an unbelievable way intensifies sleepiness of my photographs and creates atmosphere.

My images arise with the help of photomontage. I put myself into the role of a director of dreams, both mine and those of the people in the photographs. This technique allows me to interfere freely in the creation of the reality, as well as to move people from one landscape to another. It is a unique connection of technique and dreams which co-exist, creating the climate I desire.

My photographs are printed on Hahnemuhle 310g paper, 40x40 inches, in limited editions of 15 prints.

Between

PORTFOLIO:



Product ResourcesCamera: Canon 50D; Lens: Tamron 17-50/ 2.8; Flash: Canon 580 EXII; Paper: Hahnemuhle 310g.

Born in 1980 in Slupsk, Poland, Michal Giedrojc may be considered an emerging artist with impressive accomplishments in his four-year career. His photography has been published in Pokochaj Fotografi, Hebe, Descry, Digital Camera, Eyemazing and Soura. Honors include first place, International Competition of Young in Jarosaw, Poland; silver medal, International Digital Biennial Ripolette Image, Spain; Honorable Mention, International Photo Awards in 2009 and 2010; and Honorable Mention, Prix de la Photographie, Paris (Px3), 2009 and 2010. He exhibits internationally. Visit his website, http://giedrojcmichal.com/.

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NEWS: Wendy Erickson

George Eastman House workshop image, made with a modern-day historic process.

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS WORKSHOPSInterested in historic photographic processes? Make a journey to the George Eastman House where you can participate in a workshop in Collodion emulsion printing-out-paper, The Carbon Print or perhaps The Nipce process, which are among many workshops they offerusing historic photographic processes. An ad-ded bonus, participants view vintage examples of the historic process they are studying from the George Eastman house collections.

How about a trip to England? Additional work-shops are held at the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey, the historic home of Fox Talbot, located near Chippeham, Wiltshire, in the UK. All workshops and schedules are posted on the George Eastman House website, but here is a sneak peak at just a few of the offerings in 2011:

Collodion Emulsion Printing-out PaperMarch 14-16, at George Eastman House

Learn how to formulate and coat paper by hand and process this silver chloride emulsion. Instructor: Mark Osterman, the Museumsprocess historian

THE AIPAD PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW NEW YORKIf you are up for some wintry weather, ornd yourself in the Big Apple the beginning of March, why not visit the AIPAD Photo-graphy show March 17-20 at the Park Ave-nue Armory in New York City?

You'll get to see work from more than 70photographic galleries from around theworld. Showcasing 19th Century to currentday photographs, this show is never disap-pointing. Admission is $40 for exhibition access Thursday through Sunday and in-cludes a show catalog.

For more information, visit the AIPADwebsite at www.aipad.com.

The Carbon Print: History & TechniqueApril 11-14, at George Eastman House

Learn how to make carbon tissues from scratch in your own home using common materials and easy-to-make equipment. Instructor: Mark Osterman

Dawn of PhotographyJuly 11-15, at the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey

Learn the process of photogenic drawing.Instructors: Mark Osterman and France Scully Osterman

Wet & Dry Collodion on GlassJuly 18-22, at the Fox Talbot Museum atLacock Abbey

This is a rare opportunity to learn how to coat collodion negatives and work in a portable dark-room to make images on the grounds of beauti-ful historic Lacock Abbey.Instructors: Mark Osterman and France Scully Osterman

The First Photograph: The Nipce ProcessesNovember 7-10, at George Eastman House

A unique hands-on workshop exploring the veryrst permanent photographic processes, partic-ipants will learn the fascinating evolution (and how to make) heliographs and physautotypes. Instructor: Mark Osterman

The workshops ll fast, especially the ones in the UK.

The George Eastman House900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607 Tel: 585-271-3361www.eastmanhouse.org

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Ryuijie

Ice Forms

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I began photographing in the mid seventies. The Monterey Peninsula has a vibrant photographic tra-dition (think Ansel Adams and Edward Weston), and has attracted many photographers to its stunning landscapes and shorelines. Surrounded by this kind of community, I became obsessed with photography. I spent every spare moment with my camera or locked away in the darkroom. Those first few years were amazing; each new print seemed to be getting better, and my understanding of the medium was expanding. Then one day nothing seemed to be working. I could not make a photograph that satisfied me. The harder I tried, the worse it got; I started to panic.

Its been over 30 years since that rst creative block. Ive learned that during these lulls, if I focus my energy in other directions, such as the practical business side ofphotographygetting my work out therethat inspir-ation will eventually return. The first 15 years of my

photographic career were spent photographing land-scapes, still lifes, nudes and abstractions in the West Coast style of large format straight photography. In 1990 I was introduced to platinum printing, and spent the next two years obsessively producing 4x5 plat-inum prints until I hit another creative block. When I had regrouped, I came back to the camera with a new idea: it became the body of work I call Ice Forms. The work involves freezing botanicals in blocks of ice and photographing them. My inspiration for the work is simply my love for still life, plus an accumulation of visual experiences: looking through a piece of amber or watching the light streaming through my glass of iced tea.

I began mentally juggling all the variables. What size tray could my freezer accommodate? What owers should I try rst? The camera would denitely be my 4x5, since I envisioned the photographs as 20" x 24"

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Ice Form 113

ICE FORMS RYUIJIE

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FEATURE:

Ice Form 51

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Ice Form 76

ICE FORMS RYUIJIE

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Camera: 4x5 Galvin view camera; Lens: 150mm Sinar; Lighting: Bowens 4000 strobe; Film: Ilford FP-4; Chemistry: HC-110 developer, Kodak Dektol developer; Paper: Ilford Multigrade IV.


Born in Japan in 1954, Ryuijie came to the US as a child. After serving in the military and college graduation he entered a career in lithography in Monterey, CA until viewing an exhibition of Jerry Uelsmanns work propelled him into the practice of fine art photography. He is known for exquisite platinum and palladium prints, as well as traditional black and white work. In addition to exhibitions and collections, he has published portfolios and three books and has been featured in photography magazines including Lenswork, Black&White and View Camera. See www.kanchiunderwater.com and www.ryuijie.com.

Product Resources

silver gelatin prints. I wanted the printed subject mat-ter to be larger than life and I wanted the color of the prints to be warm.

I use an 11" x14" stainless steel darkroom tray to makethe block of ice. The botanicals are placed in the tray,covered with water and put in the freezer. Occasionally the plants will float, and in this case I place the plant in a thin layer of water, which freezes quickly. Once the ice sets, I add water to the desired level. The block of ice is usually about three inches thick. I have been asked many times if I use any special water. I dont; it comes out of the tap. I do add a small amount of Photoflo to the water to break down the surface tension. The quality of the ice is never the same. Sometimes it freezes clear, sometimes milky. Sometimes bubbles or fractures will form. Also, there are two sides to the ice, the surface against the tray and the top surface. They are always different. All of these variations make the outcomes unpredictable.

The first flowers I photographed were tulips, purch-ased at a local grocery. I placed a few of the flowers in a tray of water and a day later brought them out of the freezer to photograph. I heated the bottom of the tray with hot water and the block of ice slipped right out. My first photographs were done with natural light. I put the block of ice on a windowsill, just as light from the sun was beaming in. It soon became clear that using natural light was not practical, given seasonal changes and my daily schedule. It was often impossible to be home at the opportune moment. All the lighting of the Ice Forms is now done with a Bowens 4000 strobe. The block of ice is placed on an acrylic stand with the strobe three feet behind it.

I photograph using a 4x5 Galvin view camera and a150mm Sinar lens. My lm of choice for almost 30 years was Kodak Ektapan, developed in D-23. Now that Ektapan is no longer available, I am using Ilford FP-4, rating it at ASA 150 and developing it in HC-110 mixed 1:30 (from the concentrate) for 14 minutes at 70 degrees.

The 4x5 negative is placed in a Beseler 45 MCRX en-larger equipped with an Ilford 500H variable contrast head and 150mm EL Nikkor enlarging lens. In the early eighties I was printing on Oriental Center paper, split toning the photographs in a very strong selenium solution. This produced a print with tones that went from a reddish brown to a cool blue. As with so many silver papers, Center is no longer available. I had to nd a substitute, so I chose Ilford Multigrade IV ber

base paper. To obtain a similar toning effect, I bor-rowed a technique from my friend Hal Gage, a ne art photographer working in Alaska.

The print is developed in Kodak Dektol developer at a dilution of 3 parts water to 1 part developer, withtimes ranging from 2 to 3 minutes. The print is stoppedand put through two baths of plain hypo. (My xer formula is 2000 ml of water, 200 grams of sodium thiosulfate, and 10 grams of sodium bisulfate). The prints are xed for 5 minutes in each of the two baths.After a short rinse, the prints are put into a bath ofKodak Hypo Clear, (mixed according to the manu-facturers specications) and selenium. I use 60 ml ofselenium to 2000 ml of clearing agent at 90 degrees, and tone the prints for 2 to 3 minutes. After a 15-minute wash, the prints are toned again to obtain their nal color. According to Gages method, I use Kodak Poly-toner, with 20 ml of toner to 1000 ml of water at roomtemperature. I place the print in the toner for 30 sec-onds and then transfer the print to a water bath. The print stays in the water, without agitation, sometimes up to 20 minutes, until the desired color is obtained. (Note: Kodak Polytoner is no longer available. You can nd a substitute formula in the Darkroom Cookbook by Steve Anchell, third edition). The prints are then washed for one hour.

As I mentioned before, the nal result of each image is unpredictable. Ill be alternately delighted or disap-pointed by the results. One thing Im sure of: unex-pected outcomes keep me coming back! This process becomes my opportunity to create order from chaos.My newest body of work nds me careening in a tot-ally new direction. The current work, entitled Kanchi(The Quiet Place), combines my love of free-divingwith my skill at platinum printing. The images areimpressionistic portrayals of the life and landscape be-neath the oceans surface.

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Fine art and commercial photographers generally produce high quality images, but sometimes the intermediate or final product is lacking in viewer appeal or purpose. Creating as much interest as possible in images is becoming more important when presenting concepts to clients and print op-tions to viewers. Often various objects and figures, when added to a scene, provide an extra dimension, making the base image more interesting and plaus-ible. Objects and figures may be added by a staged production, as a cinematographer operates a set on location, or they may be imaged separately and transferred directly by editing in Photoshop.

Creating composite productions has become com-mon practice in commercial photography for many years, but is not generally practiced in fine art photography. However, while editing it is possible to transfer a specific selection of a base image to a secondary image and then back to the original base image.

This double transfer can enhance the value of the final product. Many times the double transfer is used during the work-up process, to identify one of several options available for use in a specific scene. The second image or multiple secondary images may arise from inventory, or more commonly may be produced specifically for the base image. In this way, the final print becomes a composite production of multiple images, which will have greater value for viewers.

I have used as an example of this process a base image (Figure 1), which was captured at night. This

image was technically satisfactory but not espe-cially interesting for most viewers. In this case, the windowpanes were selected and transferred into the second image, which was captured nearby (Figures 2 & 3) and then transferred back into the base image. The resulting composite production of a man peering onto a lighted window at night creates an extra element of mystery and interest (final image).

The initial selection of the panes in the base image was made with feather set to 0, and each pane was added to form multiple selections of the window. A second image (Figure 2) was captured of a man peering into a lighted window nearby. Since thisimage was acquired on site, it has roughly equiv-alent spatial relationships to the initial image, so no resizing was needed. For other secondary images, resizing may be necessary. If multiple layers remain on this second image, merge them using layer/merge visible. (The PC shortcut is shift + ctrl + E, and the Mac shortcut is shift + cmd + E). Where multiple layers are involved with the base image, it is necessary to reselect the panes by right clicking on the mask thumbnail in the layer and choosing Add Layer Mask to Selection. With the panes re-selected and the background layer active, use the move tool (V) to drag the panes image over to the second image and position it appropriately. If the

(Figure 1) Base image, made in an alley at night showing interesting shadows and architectural details.

Gary W. Vann

The Double Transfer Technique in Composite Productions

phototechmag.com 33

THE DOUBLE TRANSFER TECHNIQUE GARY W. VANN

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Camera: Contax 645, Phase 1 P45 back; Lens: 35mm Carl Zeiss Lens; Tripod: Gitzo 1227 mk2, Arca Swiss B1 monoball, Other: Kapture Group Multishot Long exposure control; Software: Adobe Photoshop.

Product Resources


Gary W. Vann has received awards in PX3 & IPA, together with excel-lence and merit awards in B&W magazine. Public collections include the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, Orange, CA; and the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL. He conducts workshops on digital editing techniques, night photography and the art of bookbinding. He is the author of Hand Made Photo Books - A Complete Instructional Guide.

(Figure 2) Composed in the same alley with a man peering into a lighted window.

Final Composite Image

(Figure 3) Selection of windowpanes, transferred from the base to the second image and adjusted into position. The panes have been reselected for the double transfer.

background is active, the background information will be moved to the second image. If only the panes layer is active, only that layer will be moved. Either will work fine in most cases. (See the first transfer.) After making this transfer, depending upon how it looks, it may be necessary to resize the second image.

Then reselect the panes by right clicking on the layer mask and choose Select Layer Transparency. Activate the background layer and drag the image back to the base image. The second transfer can be moved, so it will snap into position. To adjust the transfer exactly, it may be necessary to use the

magnication tool (Z) and the move tool for exact alignment. Once the second transfer has been made, the resulting image can be further adjusted by double clicking on the layer using the blend modes or by using any of the adjustment layers.

When using filters, it is a good idea to create a new layer. After reselecting the panes by right clicking on the layer mask and Select Layer Transparency, click on Layer/New/Layer via copy. This produces Layer 1 Copy. Reselect the panes again and click on Filter/Distort/Glass. The parameters of this fil-ter were adjusted as: Distortion 6, Smoothness 4, Texture Frosted and Scaling 135. This produces a slightly better visual effect. By using the Double Transfer technique, the final composite production will provide a marked improvement over the initial base image.


TECH:

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INNOVATIONS:

phototechmag.com 35

GEAR FOR WOMENBlack Rapid RS-W1 Camera SlingIve spent the better part of the past 30 years making photo-graphsall the while carrying my camera like anyone else: neck strap, no neck strap, hand strap, no strap. Before I got my DSLR, I had been using medium format for many years and just carried the cameras in a bag, using them without any straps. Goingback to a 35mm format camera presented some challenges. The darn strap constantly fell off my shoulder, especially with a longer lens, and the camera usually went ying. Then I got a hand strapbetter, but not perfect. What to do?

The RS-W1 Camera Sling made by Black Rapid is a camera strap designed specifically for women. Worn diagonally across the body, its an innovative way to stay hands free while still carrying your camera, and it makes picture making instantly accessible. Its especially good when you are on the move. The RS-W1 is an adjustable and comfortable tting sling with in-stant camera access. The camera stays near your hip (attached at the tripod socket) and slides up as you raise the camera to eye level. You can easily adjust and use it over a coat in cooler weather, or withouteither way, it works well.

Black Rapid offers an award-winning array of sling straps for all photographers, (male and female), using the same principles, including the new RS-DR-2 slim double strap model for carrying two cameras. Also available are Mods, add-ons (such as pockets for cell phones, memory cards, straps, buckles and more) that make it easy to have everything at hand. Visit the companys website for video demos on t and use and ordering information. http://www.blackrapid.com

Reviewed by Wendy Erickson

Lexar Echo ZE A Small Backup for Vulnerable FilesWhen you download image les to your computer in the eld, there is a dangerous time when, if you reformat your card im-mediately, those computer les are the only existing les of your work. Lexar has released the Echo ZE back-up drive to give you a small but powerful piece of insurance.

This USB drive measures approximately 7/8 inch encased. It sticks out of a laptop only about 1/4 inch when placed in the USB port. When you rst use this plug and play drive, there is an application software for PC and MAC that allows you to select the specic type of les you want to back up, i.e., just your RAW format les. In many cases, the drive can just stay in the computer. From that point on, the backups are automatic. If you need to retrieve a le or les, simply select Restore, choose your les and destination, and click Restore.

The Echo ZE comes in 8, 16, and 32GB sizes. The les can be encrypted in case your drive is lost. You also get a free 2GBonline backup space that makes a virtual copy of your drive asan additional backup. Additional backup space is also available for a fee ($69 per year for unlimited use or $34.99 for 30GB use). www.lexar.com

Reviewed by Paul Schranz

Chimera LiteShapersAnyone who has tried to control lighting to a specic shape willappreciate Chimeras new LiteShapers. These four Velcro-at-tached panels t into the Velcro on the edges of a light box. These panels can be used in one or more groups and they have a wired core that allows you to bend them into innite shape congurations that can change the actual shape of the light source. The four-panel sets come in small and medium sizes. Studio photographers will nd LiteShapers amazingly useful.www.chimera.com

Reviewed by Paul Schranz

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Angkor Wat, Cambodia

I began photographing in Asia about ten years ago. I started doing documentary photography in New York when I was studying photography, and moving on from there I photographed in Vietnam, Cambodia and, ofcourse, Korea, where I was born and raised. In the past four years, I have photographed very extensively in Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom of the Himalayas, and that work has resulted in two gallery exhibitions and a book, called Simply BhutanLand of the Thunder Dragon.

I think all my Asia work is similar in theme. I like to photograph people in their everyday lives, not posed.

Justina Han

Photographing the Land of the Thunder Dragon

I dont do landscapes or architecture or abstracts. I wantto show how people live, and their emotions and exper-iences. I find that its harder and harder to get pure im-ages like that, even in places like Cambodia and Vietnam. People pose for you, and they want money in exchange for being photographed. Its not like that in Bhutan. They are very open and curious about you, and the

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