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July in the Darkroom

TPP — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:08:15 +0000

Most of my recent work has been made using mini-lab developed colour negative film, or paper negatives, so the backlog of black-and-white awaiting hand developing has been quietly mounting. A little work has been made using this Kodak PX, which is lovely stuff, and there’s a similar amount of Fomapan in the fridge of which the one here is a test roll. No idea what’s on it, nor what’s on that roll of Rollei Retro. Eight rolls of 120 including some TMax and a 38 year-old roll of Verichrome Pan, 9 rolls of 35mm, plus 2 rolls of Elite Chrome for a try at stand development. Exciting.

If you don’t do very much film developing, it’s worth taking note that liquid developer goes off rather quickly. That squishy milk bottle of brown stuff came with a box of gifted tanks, spirals etc, and is emphatically off. The brown colour is the clue. Brown developer will clear your film, or actually it may not, but the stop and fix you add afterwards will definitely do the job.

A pack of ID11 lurking in the back of the blackout cupboard, mixed 1-3 makes 3 litres, which is great because the 5-spiral tank for the PX has a capacity of 1800ml. The jug in the background contains what was left over, and that’s a bit dark, but approx the correct colour of fresh, useable developer. Not enough chemistry then, to do the all the film in the upper picture, but more has been ordered from RK Photographic’s Ebay shop, including more ID11 and a bottle of Rodinal-alike. Souper!

The concertina bottle is one of two that contains the drained-off stop & fix, both of which are re-usable. The developer isn’t, unfortunately. That’s why it’s called one-shot.

The little stumpy dev tank on the right contains one roll of Elite Chrome and the rest of the black-and-white developer. Hmm.

The Massive Dev Chart on Digital Truth really has almost every single film and developer combination you might ever need, and most that you won’t. Nowadays I use the iPhone App, which has an inbuilt timer for each step of the process. It even does a little jingle every minute as a reminder to give the tank a jiggle, or a roll or whatever agitation method you use. Fantastic.

Mixical works out quantities of everything. My brain goes like porridge when in the darkroom. It’s a bit like being pregnant: simple maths simply evades. Perhaps it’s the soporific darkness, the rolling running water, Radio 4 burbling softly in the background. If you’re the same, give it a try.

The PX with the ID11 has a blue-ish tinge but it may well be slightly underdeveloped, since the sprocket edges are rather darker than they should be. Nice results though, so far.

There’s a landscape feature in lurking in here that probably needs some 5×4 treatment, maybe even tranny, and quick before it disappears. One of my photographic neighbours is Andy Martin, who is building a darkroom from scratch, and really from scratch. None of this namby-pamby spare room malarkey: a full building job, floor, walls, everything. I’m hoping he’ll go with me, one of these quiet evenings, golden hour, or dawn. We’ll see. definitely worth more visits.

Would you use a lab that returned your 120 neg rolled in an elastic band? Spectrum Imaging is closing its Newcastle Haymarket shop to concentrate on putting your mug on a mug, or your cat on a tee shirt. Four or five years ago, the owner went all crazy over the local Lomo community, producing cross processed livid green or red scans covered in dust and scratches, and that’s absolutely fine of course, if it’s what the customer wants. Great. But his outfit was incapable of supplying a dust-free, grumble-free service to anyone else. Newcastle Lomo has gone too, which is a shame because they were producing exciting work. Somehow I don’t think Spectrum will be missed by anyone.

Choices for colour film developing in the NE currently include RGB in Middlesbrough (who seem to have given up on 5×4), Colorworld in North Tyneside (whose website is currently kaput, but 2 years ago when I was in Newcastle a lot, were absolutely the best) and Digitalab on Stepney Bank in Newcastle, who’re definitely not as good since the frontline staff changeover, but now and again, when they remember, are rather spiffy on Twitter. Current 35mm colour neg developer of choice is Asda in Hartlepool.

Recommendations, particularly for 5×4 and transparency developing, would be great. Mail order outfit suggestions are very welcome if you use one, could certainly do with knowing about somebody to do the rest of the Elite Chrome and the Velvia in my fridge, since the demise of 7day Shop’s DLab7. Please do post your favourites in the comments.

In unrelated news, a Durham Brown Argus butterfly visited my little back yard early this morning. It has a very distinguished bright circle on its upper wing, and mine was a lot browner than the one in the picture on that website. Notoriously evasive, as you can see. It’ll be back: it can’t resist the lure of my luscious broad bean flowers.

A fantastic freecyling person has donated some shelving so there was much moving and reorganising today, and the darkroom has been dusted, mopped, cleaned and tidied. After drying overnight, the above film has been sleeved, ready for contact printing. So that’s next, the contact prints. I may even have some for this fantastic project. At last.

What happened with the Elite Chrome? It was left overnight: 22 hours from 1400 to 1200, then rinsed for about 20 mins in running cold water, then stand stopped and fixed for about an hour each, with the odd shake. Probably didn’t need all that stopping & fixing, but it seemed appropriate. It’s dense, probably too dense to shine the enlarger light through, but it’s not reversed anyway, so would have to be copied, or scanned, or something, to flip it. I’ll post a picture of how the neg looks should any of you like to see.

And finally, the mighty Andrew Sanderson is running his advanced darkroom course in Edinburgh on Monday and Tuesday 12th and 13th of this month, and he’s still got spaces at the super bargain price of £100 per day. Go if you can: I’d love to do it! Tweet or email him, but be quick, it’s next week.
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Steve and a C330

TPP — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:28:17 +0000

Several years ago, someone I didn’t know told me my photographs were utter crap, and that I’d better do something, quick. We had quite a long exchange involving me agreeing and asking how he thought I could put it right. A quick flick through his own work showed an amazing range of grizzly trees, dark copses, lots of ’street’ and this, what he called ‘Cheap Foreign Surrealism.’

Phil Coombes at the BBC discovered Steve Harrison’s street photographs a few months ago, and there was a flurry of excitement through the blogosphere, but possibly not nearly enough. Here’s the slideshow they published:

Steve had moved quickly on to digital and couldn’t understand at all what I was doing faffing around with film and developing. Obsolete, time wasting, money wasting, oh he was far more forthright than that. I argued feebly, and the result was his much loved Mamiya C330 arriving tightly packed and in perfect condition, through the post.

Click through any of the photographs above to see Steve’s story, told in his own words, and the words of Rosie, his daughter. I defy you not to be deeply moved. You’ll need tissues.

Steve’s C330 got me into MF and my own black & white printing, got me into college to start my photography degree, and for that and so many other more esoteric, more tenuous and altogether more important things, I will be eternally grateful.

The camera now has a new owner. Lauren Healey is making work that I’m sure would make Steve look again and again, would make him mutter words of encouragement and very probably, of praise. It’s definitely in one of the genres he likes: quirky domesticity.

So, apart from the photographs I took with it, which are refusing to be found, for now, that’s the story. RIP Steve Harrison, we loved you, and we love your work.

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Albury Street

TPP — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:58:36 +0000

There’s a beautiful house where this big hole used to be, built now, not unbuilt. Why there was a gap there before in what was once and is now again a prime location is a bit of a mystery.

As much as these things matter (so, not at all), the film is the last of the Agfa Vista, lovely contrasty winter’s day, and the camera’s a nifty little GR1S with a 28mm lens, perfect wide angle, and pocketable for climbing the ladders. Thoroughly recommended for any aspirant architectural progress.

These were taken more than a year ago, and of course the builders are still here. There are gorgeous hardwood floors, three good bedrooms, a couple of luxury bathrooms, all matt limestone tiling and gleaming chrome. You didn’t think it was actually finished, did you? Some way to go yet, but if you want to buy a gorgeous house in one of the London’s most exciting locations, get in touch.

Travelling back to the sacred north this afternoon, taxi booked via @tweetalondoncab, ticket sent by text to my phone. We’re in the future already.Similar Posts:

Ducks, Moving

TPP — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:24:16 +0000

That’s Duck, on the left (somewhat less hair yesterday), Rabbit looking enigmatic in the middle there and Awesome Adam togged up for his day job, on the mean streets of Lambeth North, to the well appointed Direct Studios for one of hopefully a mini-series of how-to-do-multimedia seminars. It was good. Really useful. And very enjoyable.

Better probably to jump straight through to their Vimeo pages and have a browse, but here are my notes, more as an aide memoire than anything else, and apologies about the jumble, they are just notes, a smattering of key points according to me, it’s not an official write up, you’ll have to go to one for yourself.

Fundamental to the concept, and something I’d never before considered:

Audio is the key narrative driver in storytelling.

and of course we know this but….

The Power is in the image being still.

• A photo-film is a soliloquy: photos + sound create a sense of place. (eg Hamlet orates direct to audience)

• Do it without knowing if you’ll get paid. Find a story, then tell it. Do that every week.

• People who make great stuff are the ones who just keep on trying.

• Kit choices include new DSLRs which can also make video, but the quality’s still not great, and you can hear the shutter clicks while recording sound. Can’t really do both at once on one machine, not yet.

• Kit doesn’t need to be expensive but an essential is really good headphones. And to wear them.

• Interview style: it’s important to make sure you put your subject at ease. Stand or sit beside, not opposite, don’t put mic on table, hold near but not too near (lots of this, pretty obvious but not until you’re actually told/shown).

• Recording audio is like making a contract with someone, they give their time, you do your best to make it really good quality.

• It’s more important that the interviewee is happy than that the output is personally interesting to you: it’s their story.

• Sound effects help to create the sense of place.

• Music? People hate it in as many numbers as love it. If it’s in your face, it’s not working.

• Sound ‘actuality’ or background noise allows room for a natural pauses or still moments between more active shots. Create about 2 mins of ambient noise/sounds to allow for transitions.

• Avoid sirens, planes, any continuous noises that will stop at odd moments in your soundtrack, but don’t be too anal, take control of situation, but stay relaxed.

• Inside cars, bathrooms etc are dead space for sound and may not work with landscape pictures. Use home made mic sock to baffle out wind noise.

• Who you are and how you approach someone is what works. Hook on their own words: if they mention ‘hope’ ask them to ‘tell me about hope’. Not important to write down questions in advance, but do lots of research so that people know you care about them and their subject/life/passion.

• Nobody else knows what shots/audio you’ve missed. Let. It. Go.

• Detail shots fill gaps. You can rarely have enough detail shots.

• Do not get hooked up on photographers’ pictures ie extreme dof . Kit doesn’t matter one jot.

… and just to underline that last point, Anna Stevens of Panos Pictures showed us photographer Robin Hammond’s Tuvalu photo-film, all shot in square medium format, his frames in threes creating the panoramas. Lovely.

A few more snippets?

• voiceovers can sound preachy

• avoid bad practice in any submission to Anna = no tripod, mic on a table, no headphones. She will know.

• learning to do sound well is the same as learning to do photos well: the viewer doesn’t care how you did it, and it’s the viewer that’s important.

• it’s a new field – everyone is still learning.

• sort out your own workflow according to the kit you have (Mac/PC) and the audience’s needs. Eg MP3s are okay for web only, WAV or MOV files for gallery projections. 44.1 is same fidelity as a CD. Flash may or may not be redundant depending on your audience.

• be clear about what you can and cannot do for an organisation. What’s the message, story, persuasion they are seeking? Tailor to their needs.

• create and use a standard contract specifiying licencing & rights.

• video will have a consistent aspect ratio relevant to standard film formats (might therefore have black stripes down sides or top/bottom). In slideshows (flash) the images will have the aspect ratios of your photos.

Oh yes…

Teach Yourself To Listen!

• clarity

• be prepared to kill your babies

• use simple transitions: crossfading is hard to stream (buffering issues with big files)

Love, just love this firefighting promo/edu photofilm. David ended with it, leaving us with a warm feeling of potentiality and a wee creative frisson. Really. Don’t you wish you’d gone along? Only £45 too. Go to the next one. Keep in touch with Duckrabbit via twitter or their blog.

Word of the day: authentic with 7 incidences, plus 1 inauthentic + 1 authenticity = 9
Runner up: awesome with 4 but all by Adam, who is awesome, and in one sentence, so not sure they count.

Helpful question of the day: “what’s Vimeo?”

Quote of the day:

“change our way of relating, and we change the whole trajectory of the illness” (Cathy Greenblat said this… interviewed by the Duck on the soundtrack of an unfinished photofilm about people with Althzeimer’s.)

We love Duckrabbit. And so will you.

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The Problem With These

TPP — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:58:29 +0000

.. is that they’re too understated.”

Comment about this pair of fibre prints made as part of my Deep Sea Diving collaboration, currently on the walls at Darlington Media Group’s Decisive Moment Gallery. Am about to print them on gloss paper, with a #5 filter to whack up the contrast. That might over-state them, though.

They’re on the walls until 1st June. Would be interested to know what you think, if you’re passing.

Since this fixed width template is a tad narrow, I’m using the JS Lightbox Plugin again. Click to embiggen. It embiggens a bit, but not much. I think that’s probably okay.Similar Posts:

Contact Editions and Cheese

TPP — Sun, 16 May 2010 06:56:35 +0000

Anyone with a blog with regular, slightly coherent posts must get a huge mailbag of offers to enhance our search results, requests to feature stuff, and yet more requests to enhance other things. Most of this is off topic, or commercial, or plain cheeky, but a couple of months ago we got this:

Contact Editions is a dynamic online space selling affordable edition prints of emerging artists’ work. Edition releases will be accompanied by a video interview with the photographer about the creation of the image and their creative process, allowing visitors to the site access to an ever increasing archive of contemporary thought in photography, which can be downloaded, embedded in blogs or other sites and viewed over and over again. We want to provide insights into the artists thought processes, the stories behind the images, the intellectual motivations; presenting not only the visual but emphasising the context. Alongside the photographers talking about their work, we have asked professionals within the industry to talk about their roles and to offer advice to artists. By doing this we aim to create an accessible community and resource for both photographers and those inspired by photography.

We also hold regular events to build an off-line community, such as informal crit evenings (next crit is 14th April at 3 Kings pub in Clerkenwell, London), slideshow evenings (next event is 20th April in London) and are soon to start hosting talks.

See here:
www.contacteditions.co.uk

And our blog:
www.contactcollective.blogspot.com

The image above is from Hin Chua, who says his approach is to: “to pick a spot on a map that could be considered ‘the middle of nowhere’, get there and walk around for several hours photographing what I find”, and it’s part of Contact Editions’ series of prints for £30.

So, a belated congratulations to Emily and Anna on their fine start and their general approach. I’m not 100% sure there was a need for yet another big fat online photography showcase but they are doing it rather well, so keep eye on them, and put their blog in your reader.

Falmouth students wrote too, with this rather clever fundraising idea. They’ve asked photographers to donate recipes, from which they’re making a book to sell. They haven’t worked out how to reply to emails yet, but good luck to them, and their rather sweet polaroid.

Anyone observant might think I’ve stopped completely, stopped blogging, stopped doing anything interesting at any rate, and you may be right, but I am slowly emerging from a state of intense doubt and deep ambivalence and into a state of lesser ambivalence, and somewhat milder doubt. That’s good, or at least it feels less dark.

A change of blog template is great to mark a new beginning, so here we are, emerging from a dark period of soft, pale darkroom prints and into the colours and contrasts of summer. The template width is narrower to fit smaller images here, so it might not hang around for long, but it’s a big change, and here’s hoping for many more. Hoorah.Similar Posts:

The Seaham Dive Survey

TPP — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:24:14 +0000

This is pertinent in so many ways to much of the micro-local work I set about doing while I was pondering whether or not to stop. The video was made by members of Seaham Sub Aqua Club and narrated by diver and Marine Biologist Yvonne Townsend. What a delight to find. I hope they do more.

Busy, busy times. An exhibition of members’ work opens at Darlington Media Workshop’s Decisive Moment Gallery today, but there’s another spring wedding at Dawdon Church and this morning the Hope Not Hate newspaper delivery effort begins in earnest. But more to come on darkroom work in progress: there’s quite a bit to report.

These are the wet straight-out-of-the-water version of the prints, two of which are on the wall at DMG today.

The previews are always a great chance to meet Darlington’s lovely and damnfool crazy enthusiasts, and good luck to them all, the work looks pretty good. Go and see it.

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Volunteers and The Lumleys

TPP — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:41:15 +0000

Arthur COATES, born 27 Jun 1904 in Willington Co. Durham, died 21 Oct 1969 in Willington. He married Cora Lina LONGSTAFF, married 1925 in Durham District, born 1902 in Co. Durham, died 10 Aug 1981. They had 12 or so children, the eldest my father. Arthur and both oldest boys were coal miners, but that is only part of this story.

Arthur’s parents were George William COATES, born cir 1881 in possibly Crook, died ?. and Margaret Hannah LUMLEY. They were married 1901 in Lanchester District. Margaret was born 1883 in Darlington.

Margaret’s parents were Christopher LUMLEY, born cir 1845 in Burnley Lancashire, died ?, occupation carpenter. He married Ellen MOSES, on 27 Dec 1864 at St. John’s in Darlington. The 1871 census has them in Seaham Harbour, Durham, and the 1891 Census at 22, Chapel Street Darlington, and the 1901 Census at 49, Durham Road, Esh.

Ellen and Christopher’s Children:

i Eliza LUMLEY, born cir 1866 in Seaham Harbour, Durham, died ?.

ii Mary LUMLEY, born cir 1867 in Stockton Durham, died ?.

iii John LUMLEY, born cir 1869 in Stockton, Durham, died ?.

iv Frances Ellen LUMLEY, born cir 1872 in Seaham Harbour, Durham, died ?.

v James Christopher LUMLEY, born cir 1874 in Seaham Harbour, died ?.

vi Thomas LUMLEY, born cir 1878 in Darlington Durham, died ?.

vii Louisa LUMLEY, born cir 1881 in Darlington Durham, died ?.

viii Margaret Hannah LUMLEY, born 1883 in Darlington Durham, died ?. (She married George William COATES, married 1901 in Lanchester District.)

ix Robert LUMLEY, born cir 1885 in Darlington Durham, died ?.

The barely readable Census listings for Christopher and Ellen Lumley’s family has them living in Frances Street while they were in Seaham Harbour. According to baby Eliza’s date of birth, they were there from at least 1866 to 1874, so possibly a mere 8 years, maybe a year or so either side, but probably not earlier than 1864 or later than 1878. During this time, Seaham Harbour was at the beginning of its own industrial revolution. However:

The decade from 1871 to 1881 was one of almost continuous disaster for the ordinary people of Greater Seaham. It seems that no sooner was one tragedy over than another began. The Seaham Colliery explosion of Wednesday October 25 1871 occurred at 11.30 pm, otherwise the death-toll of 26 would have been much higher – by now the pit was employing 1100 men and boys. The shock was felt at Seaham Harbour. John Clark, aged 9, sitting on the surface in a cabin near the pit shaft, was blown 10 yards by the explosion. The force of the blast was such that many ponies were killed in their underground stables 1.5 miles away from the epicentre.

And:

A terrible storm occurred on December 17 1872. Newspapers of the time reported that six Seaham-based ships were lost with all hands but unfortunately they gave no names. It may be that dozens of Seaham men went to a watery grave but there is no record of who they were. The sea had not finished yet. On Tuesday June 26 1873 a dreadful boat accident took the lives of five men within hailing distance of the end of the pier…….

Both of those extracts are from one of the pages at Durham Records Online, a magnificent resource, thank you. It’s quite possible that by the mid 1870s the Lumleys had seen enough of all this tragedy. [Look who else was living in Frances Street around the same time? A Judson master mariner.]

Frances Street is named after Frances Anne Vane Tempest, who was married to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry and recovered her wealth and her Seaham estate after ‘the old tyrant’ her husband died in 1854. Benjamin Disraeli visited her at Seaham Hall in 1861. He wrote:

…on the shores of the German Ocean, surrounded by her collieries and her blast furnaces and her railroads and the unceasing telegraphs, with a port hewn out of the solid rock, screw steamers and four thousand pitmen under her control…she has a regular office…and here she transacts, with innumerable agents, immense business – and I remember her five-and-twenty years ago a mere fine lady; nay, the finest in London! But one must find excitement if one has brains.

Frances Anne died on January 20 1865, well within the time that the Lumleys were in Seaham. Maybe baby Frances Ellen Lumley, born in 1872 in Frances Street was named after this major celebrity of the day, everyone’s paymaster.

So. One of my big projects of 2009 has been St John’s Square and its redevelopment. The Volunteer Arms (in the photograph above) is the only building that remains of Frances Street, the rest having been knocked down to make the library, bus station, Magistrate’s Court, Health Centre in the 1960s, all of which is now being demolished and rebuilt. There are some inspection contacts: the work has mostly been in 35mm. These night photographs taken in the snow are taken from what would have been the top of Frances Street.

And the Volunteer Arms’ gable end, the line of Frances Street:

The teens posed for the camera. Great spot for skateboarding, bmx-ing, rollerblading.

Of course, until today I didn’t know that I’d been standing in what once was the street where my great-great grandparents lived.

And on a completely different note, a Reading newspaper reports a photographer given an ASBO for photographing graffiti.

More St John’s Square from the contact sheets, and a new set in MF when this amazing weather clears and we get back to the diffused northern light we all know and love.

Please do let me know if you think you’re connected to any of these Coates/Lumley/Moses/Longstaff people. The full tree is on the internet somewhere. Or if you know any more about Frances Street and goings on around there in the 1860-70s. We’ll meet for a pint in the Volunteer’s Arms if you do.

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Unboxing the Dye Transfer Print

TPP — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:17:01 +0000

Discovered these photographs while sifting through this year’s archive to make a review of 2009. In April, the internet-famous Ctein offered to use the very last of the world’s supply of chemicals to make a final edition dye transfer print series and in a somewhat rash and foolhardy moment, one was purchased.

It is very beautiful: minutely detailed and with a resonance to the colours that’s quite astonishing. I have not seen anything like this before. A delight, in fact.

Laura Goodman came to stay and her partner and the Studio’s Mac guru James did the unboxing. It was a rather magnificent event, with a good organic Merlot wine and some tinkly music accompanying. It’ll be on the wall somewhere for one of the Open Studio afternoons, probably in the summer, along with a bromoil, some cibachromes (prints from slide film) and inevitably some liths, so you’ll be able to come and see it. There’s an incomplete interview with Laura on this HD somewhere… she has a new darkroom and studio, so there’s more to add.

There’s also the possibility of some results from a Gum Bichromate day course in January at Photofusion in London. We’ll see.Similar Posts:

So Much To Photograph, So Little Time

TPP — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:19:10 +0000

Not for me the glossy ballrooms of Wynyard Hall, oh no. These are a few from the day of the last wedding, the one with the four miniature flower girls, live as jumping beans, and the groom who cried while making his vows. Wonderful day. And here, the other rooms of this vast venue, where there’s a proper theatre, bars galore, dog clubs and toddler clubs. Must go back with a big camera when the light lifts a little.Similar Posts: