Category: the fora

all that stuff people say online

drilling for silver

Posted on Posted in art biz, art stuff, da net, on photographers, the foraTagged , , , ,

bits of things. if you have to moderate the topic, you have the wrong gathering — 

VCP, bring out the prints. generous support of Mark Tarmy. Joshua Farr and Mitch Weiss  curators

What they announce:

Drawn from a remarkable local collection, these prints invite you to get close—see the paper, the grain, the edge of the negative—and slow down with images that carry time and story across generations. It’s a chance to experience iconic photographs as objects, not just pictures on a screen: how they’re printed, toned, and cared for, and why those choices matter to what we see and feel.

The exhibition brings together 36 works by 31 artists, spanning nearly a century of photographic history, with dates ranging from 1916 to 2004. The selection highlights both silver gelatin and platinum prints, offering a rich material and historical range that underscores the enduring power and evolution of the photographic print

UP TO DATE:

They will discuss specific images in the show and their significance from the perspectives of technique, meaning, and place in history. This conversation opens a window into the relationships between artists and collectors, and why photographic prints continue to matter in a screen-saturated world.

IN CONVERSATION: Mark Tarmy & Lynne Weinstein | VCP

the collector’s start:

Like most American business stories, Vermont Plank Flooring was born of a degree of foresight, a little bit of luck, and a lot of hard work.]

Our Story – The History of Vermont Wide Plank Flooring

Instead of collecting stories of drillbits , rather than collecting boxes of future used\ items, he collected photographs .

the why of this aside: Drillbits from one Plant in China are produced at 20 Tons a day.. packaged and over 100 brand going to the United States Germany even Austria… with Austria importing specialists steal from China for their use in machine tool making..

caution of the long tail: people thinking their experience is more useful than it is; that they bring more knowledge than they do . they have a view of a business — they think that that view, and experience applies across all business… ADDITIONAL. the china syndrome:

the problem is some forums are populated by a very few highly skilled honest members … how can you tell; they give references. they show their work. you are welcome to the table ;their ideas grow. they have new stories…

prejudice is often a mask itself.. revealing itself. prejudice is a mask that sometimes shows;it has dominance…you married an asian to dominate one. prejudice is often inscrutable… I can’t be prejudiced I married one; yet you’re married to dominate; reminder, prejudice is about domination…

see YouTube bit test … left as an exercise.

drill bits.. footnote. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2026/02/ancientegyptiandrillbit/ This re-analysis suggests that Egyptian craftspeople mastered reliable rotary drilling more than two millennia before some of the best-preserved drill sets.

imagine having a collection of prints instead of bits n bobs

Continue reading “drilling for silver” →

seeing magenta

Posted on Posted in alt photo, dye transfer, olden modern, the fora, Theory, Valley HiTagged , , , , ,

ask around the net for dye-transfer information. seek insights, perhaps advice, what you are provided by 2025 search-AI models is counter to insight — confusion is increasing. Dilution over diffusion flourishes. Clicks are the clique formers.

One simple example. Seeking specifics about Kodak’s magenta dye used in Dye Transfer printing.

NB: search used this tree [:: Photrio -> koraks ] getting to an answer about magenta dyes used in Kodak dye-transfer, imbibition printing. Photrio is large site with over a thousand posts related to dye transfer; koraks site is listed as sigline in posts by a moderator taking part in dye-transfer related threads over the past several years. I doubt that K~ has ever made a dye transfer, certainly hasn’t synthesized the dyes. Another example of dilution of knowledge.

The inference engine of AI cannot distinguish quality, meaning accuracy, applicability, from quantity, meaning the number of referral links made over time. [the specific information provided in this conversation is based on general knowledge and does not directly cite specific pages or sections from these references.] Different models often respond that the information on [dye-transfer] is collected from practitioners internet archives.

Kodak CIS-154 Magenta Dye in Imbibition Printing
example response: I want to be transparent that my previous responses were speculative and not directly based on the Kodak publication you mentioned. Providing more details will help me offer a precise and accurate interpretation of the source material.
[I used 5 different engines... none could provide useable, correct answers.. each required, in essence, that I give them direct references, which they then could summarize.  ]

Provided that I correct enough, staying with the multiple AI engines, we get somewhere. However, I had to provide a page, a CAS number, then prompt the answer machine with guidance on selection criteria for synthesis. In other words, I had to know much more than any of the AI engines were able to source. I was provided patent references, incorrect, so taking additional time for me to read, and return to prompt for correction. The initial failure though, the one leading through the darkroom help forums sounded, to the untrained, inexperienced, like a correct answer. An answer which would be repeated by the novice.

Since the process is being used by mere handfuls who do gather and exchange information and support these aren’t significant practical matters. The failures keep the stalled busy, out of the way. The lesson is that small errors can be amplified sufficiently to distort information into a contorted arcade reflection of what was.

gelatin imbibition refsDownload