Dye Film :note

Posted on Posted in dye transfer, labnotes, the Lab

Will a sheet of fixed out arista litho film hold dye? A question from a few days back that I have decided to post more about.

Two sheets of film; both dyed in cyan dye. The upper one with the arch of color is Kodak matrix film partially washed off. That’s what the arch is: no emulsion. The cyan is fogged, age mottled emulsion after being dyed.

The lower, empty, blank, unstained square of film is Arista Litho that has been stained with the same cyan dye as the matrix film — stained for over 8 minutes — that stain drained off with less than 40 seconds in rinse. It didn’t base stain — there wouldn’t be highlight carry over.

This isn’t a stripped emulsion, we aren’t at film base.

What does this demonstrate?

Try it. No matter who you hear an answer from, try the experiment in your studio with your equipment. Set your own standards; have your own goals.

Why did I do this? Because I wanted to know; to confirm my memory of making matrix films from true raw, so ever many years ago. Dye won’t stick if an emulsion won’t, however, a dye sticks to ‘soft’ gelatin — gelatin of a type. It will stick to many types of colloids — collodion, gelatin, albumin, etc. It isn’t easy to get all things arranged: emulsion, dye, receiver; all compatible, durable, useable to your purpose.

Get your own hands dirty.

Dyers Fingers: Cyan Thumb

Dark Mirrors —

Posted on Posted in as written, book shelf, Criticism, on photographers

Dark Mirrors assembles sixteen essays by photographer and critic Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa focusing on contemporary fine art photographic and video practices that are principally, though not exclusively, rooted in the United States, written between 2015 and 2021. Wolukau-Wanambwa analyses the image’s relationship to the urgent and complex questions that define our era, through the lens of artistic practices and works which insightfully engage with the ongoing contemporaneity of disparate histories and the ever-changing status of the visual in social life. — publisher

Deana Lawson, —241
Dana Lixenberg, — 139
Paul Pfeiffer, — 213
Arthur Jafa, —79
Katy Grannan, and — 117
Robert Bergman — 131
Ron Jude — 159
Rosalind Solomon — 147
Charlotte Cotton — 47
Joel W. Fisher — 63
Rabih Mroue —87
Daniel Shea — 107
Kristine Potter — 201
Mark Ruwedel — 187
Jason Koxvold — 171

Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (B. 1980–):

RISD: https://www.risd.edu/academics/photography/faculty/stanley-wolukau-wanambwa

Aperture: https://aperture.org/author/stanley-wolukau-wanambwa/

Light Work: https://www.lightwork.org/archive/stanley-wolukau-wanambwa/

Books by:

and

conversation: Dark Mirrors, reading.