Category: the meta

about The

Forum Follies

Posted on Posted in as written, the fora, the metaTagged , , 3 Comments

The take away is more than one, you say. What do forums do… they seem to wonder what they do well; paticularly after they’ve been running a long time. Even the simple questions lead to toxic shock.

Summary: You can’t talk about the meaning, nor the nature of photography. You also can’t see it on the internet, therefore, you are wasting your time and their bandwidth showing pictures on the web. Further, talking tech is pretty much wasted since you can’t tell what the pictures will look like. Even worse, you don’t know if the person offering their instruction is capable of anything other than web boasting. The circle seems complete. Actually, it seems like a spiral. Smaller and smaller.

So, you can offer to buy and sell. That, at least is about as far as we’ve gotten. Except, how do you trust in this circle. After all we can’t know if the words or the pictures of the items are correct either. Do we?

crits are tough. they do require shared language. not necessarily what can be brought from experience as an insurance inspector.

—

Note Mr Katz’s sig asserts his presence on the forum has been since 2008. Membership claims have meaning beyond the factoid they’d seem to have.

They hold desire, and need to belong. Why else would he return.

trust the print, if you have seen it.

web should display what print showed from trusted source

only way to know is to know ahead.

shades of communication theory and post-modern death

perhaps they are headed to a post-forum internet.

Which leads me to a wayback time. Laura Gilpin asked CCA to match a color litho that had been made of her “Rainbow” — it, of course couldn’t be done as a type-C. It would have been very difficult to do as a dye-transfer. One form doesn’t complete an image, nor does it make it less useful.

Gilpin: Rainbow. Amon Carter attempts to show the print. Greyscale on side provides uniform meter for those who try.

“The proof print we sent you of the rainbow more closely matches your original than the litho does.” [12/68]

Even her original wasn’t what she wanted after seeing what a lithographer could/had done with the image.

delta Delta100

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, minimum daily requirement, the fora, the meta

three thoughts. one thing. A film and answers vs my own impulses.

How we get to something else has been a recurring part of my self-questions- those things we pick at between picking apart other things. Forums have strongly structured layouts, they are software impositions upon interaction. Questions seem to have a pattern of responses without regard to the forum goal or forum topic. All self supporting respondents seem to follow a similar pattern.

An instance (from 2017):

an experienced photographer asks: What developer / dilution gives the longest straight line curve on Ilford Delta 100? They have three developers available (TMAX RS, HC-110, D-76)

the response pattern: first response suggests a change in film. Follow-up is ask what the goal of the photographer is. Next, response to follow-ups. Finally, a proposed answer as they use the product.

Reading this 5 year old thread, I had an initial answer; it wasn’t any of the ones given. Why? Probably because I bring the topic a different reason for using the film: I use it as a separation negative component. Separation negatives don’t like compensating effects. No compression, please.

My answer would have been the TMAX RS. That developer isn’t available. The better developer for separations would be DK-50. If you don’t want to work from skratch then use an Ilford ready compound: Microphen.

He seems to have moved onto other matters. his website has a supporting techniques piece as well as a one month blog (2016)

“ that said, most of my contemporaries find this degree of technical application an extraneous exercise, but I find it essential in the process of making art. The accolades once betrothed to the silver saviors of modernism have long-since faded.” [chriswalkerphoto.com/vitae/supporting-techniques/ ]

These found topics hold interest because they may lead to work I would otherwise miss. It also gives me a chance to question my own response system. To monitor my own need to speak up. Save it. If it means enough: write it.

If it really means something: Do that something.