How Much Wood …

does it take for an expert to hold your attention.

When you overhear someone on a riddle-me- this, advice for the lost hobbyist forum, how much salt does it take to turn bullshit into stew.

A question was asked about contrast reduction masking making for RA-4 color negatives. They were told that their first thoughts were flawed. They were told this by someone that many, even the mods, consider an expert among them. How did he become that expert. Who gave him that mantle. Simple: there and them. They need to be expert; they satisfy this by believing in each others expertise.

Sometimes, some give very good, well reasoned answers — even correct ones. By correct I mean I would be able to get that to work as stated.

the person did what they should have done — try it.

it worked better than the Forumatti said was possible.


// hc 110, 1995 .. diluted for how many efforts. How much film as masks could someone run using a bottle of HC-110? I leave it as an exercise with these notes:

  • masks are best run singly in trays — one-shot
  • 250 ml solution per mask
  • HC-110 is exhausted at 5ml per 8×10 sheet of Kodak film
  • mask making is at great dilution — D or F

Adage from commercial labs: Mix for 4, use 3 .

The adage means use more developer than you calculate needing; this assures even thorough development.


an expert using 25 year old bottle of concentrate– proof that it stores well — not proof of it being used much.

How many prints does an expert printer make? In this case, not many. His expertise certainly didn’t come from working with this material. Neither the HC-110 for masking, nor the Fujiflex printing.

What does the expert say it takes? How much film? (see: p2.)

rolls of Fujiflex are long enough to make 50 finish prints (30×40).

Making a print a month doesn’t make a productive printer — this is much like the low-use developer expert.

Not much film; not many prints — say hello to the modern, online, snobby hobby expert.

Walead Beshty: RA4 process

Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London, U.K.) Walead Beshty was born in London, United Kingdom in 1976 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at Bard College and received his Masters in Fine Art from Yale University in 2002.

https://www.thomasdanegallery.com/exhibitions/174/works/artworks4495/

“I tend to think of my work in terms of constraints, whether that be context, convention or material, and use their logics to generate the work. I guess that’s because I see life as an improvisation within constraints, and affirmative notions of selfhood, autonomy, freedom, etc., arise through the active negotiation with restriction.” Walead Beshty in Conversation with Hamza Walker on the occasion of Equivalents, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, 2018

Notions:

Objects are given meaning through use, and over time certain uses become naturalized. Through the accumulation of patterns of use, certain conventions become standardized. Painting, for example, has developed a certain set of base conventions (e.g. canvas, rectilinear form, wall as support, portability). These conventions form the starting point for a dialogue, an agreement regarding the nature of the communication that will be taking place. For example, if a painting has a ‘conventional’ relationship to the wall on which it hangs, we would be acting in bad faith if we were to discuss the paint on that wall as part of the work. In art, these conventions designate what is inside and what is outside of the work. The boundary between the work and its surroundings is manifest through its adherence to convention. [from: https://www.actionstakenunderthefictitiousnamewaleadbeshtystudiosinc.com/lesson-notes-for-an-introductory-lecture ]

YT: 2020.

june ’23 auction: Lot 17, Walead Beshty, Six Magnet, Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, September 6th 2009, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C) (WB06709), 2009, estimated at £15000-20000, sold at £44450