Adal, Past Tense

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, about, creativity, on photographersTagged

from the past. He has ended, as I continue. Death is a reminder. To some it calls up life, while to others it calls up fears.

Adál Alberto Maldonado (November 1, 1948 – December 9, 2020), styled as ADÁL, was a photographer who lived and worked in New York City and Puerto Rico. (wikipedia)

Seems so brief. Just a ripple.

making the caption carry meaning across the boundary.

“Draw from your personal experience. Whether it’s a search for an identity, the celebration of beauty, a concern with correcting chaos in the world, or the simple entertainment of a thought experiment, what will set you apart and original will be how you see the world filtered through your personal experience.” Adal

Adal, dropped his last name and his darkroom manipulations after Lisette Modal’s visit to SFAI.

We were, for a few years, known to each other; grad students at San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). After leaving the art institute I went to Syracuse, to EXS as a teacher. Light Work/ Community Darkroom was still installing equipment; still generating self-awareness; coming to define a role. I brought a mailing list of several hundred names and addresses of mostly West Coast, young unknowns.

I gave the entire list to Tom and Phil. And, the list of my “must show these people” … fewer than ten people. Adal was number three on that list.

Teachers, then:

Jerry Burchard. Linda Connor. Henry Wessel. John Collier. Margery Mann. Fred Martin (his class was one of the few required courses; grad students across all programs attended.)

Some Fellow Students:

Ingeborg Gerdes. Bill Arnold. Harry Bowers. Mike Mandel. Larry Sultan.

Light Work

https://webionaire.com/2017/06/23/getting-here-out-of-art-school/(opens in a new tab)

From my 1971 notebook:

the only thing
left to photograph is air. 
smell.

====
misprints are the key. as key to 
time -- fade -- light
(adal) wessel (difference is time, or space place light)
motion --- light dark
outlier -- misprint.

It has taken me too many delays, too many re-writes to get this posted. While that doesn’t (shouldn’t) matter to you, it does bother me. When good artists die, we miss more than anther life.

Remembering isn’t rebirth. Not even for an optimist like Adal.

Foma: RETROBROM Sp

Posted on Posted in labnotes, the Lab

New emulsions are new distractions. They often lead to the same place over a broken trail, which is why I spend very little of my time with them. There are more excuses than bullets in the darkroom. I tested many papers and developers about 5 years ago, and over the years I have printed on papers from nearly a dozen companies. None of them solved all problems nor, more importantly, presented new ideas. Nothing increases vocabulary by providing a variant spelling.

Foma is a favorite paper maker. I particularly like the hand feel to their papers; this makes the time spent in the studio satisfying.

To test a paper, I make use of a simple, easily reproduced setup — this allows me to compare papers. I use Stouffer step wedges (uncalibrated). I also setup my enlarger the same, even though I make a ‘contact’ print of the Stouffer TP120, the same lens and distance from the contact frame mean my exposures reveal how the paper will print negatives typical to my work.

Foma: retro edition

A new paper is an unknown; but not a complete unknown, since the main emulsion companies publish a paper Iso(P) and iso(R) of their papers. [See the reference for what this means.]

According to the datasheet this paper has a paper iso(p) of 100; this makes the paper about the speed of Ilford MG 4 Filter. With that information, I can check my notes for exposure settings in my darkroom conditions for a IMG 4 filter; set the enlarger to that as an initial point and, make a first test exposure. Done.

I will test this paper in two different developers: Dektol (1:1, my standard), and Fomatol PW (1:1, my standard). The Foma PW developer is vary slow acting warmtone developer.

The time for Dektol was 2 minutes; time for PW was at first 5 minutes — this was increased in later tests to 7 minutes.

The test with Dektol went well — I wasn’t satisfied by the Fomatol version, so I ran them again with newer developer package. This gave me much better depth of tone with 6 minute development time. Better.

Dektol gives a neutral range of tones. Highlights showing the characteristic of this paper. To take advantage of this ‘retro’ look, the image needs middle value meaning, since that is where the distinctive color of the paper will be.

Not the case for Foma PW developer. Retrobrom paper in Foma PW is another rich brown tone paper. The brown is ‘woody green’ in my estimate. It is not ‘green’ toned — for whatever reason, Foma describes it as having a green tone, which among several online pieces I’ve read, keep the author from trying the paper.

At this stage, I am ready to print. Testing done; about 6 hours, including drying, evaluating and write-up. I will also try this with lith printing… but won’t report additionally.

These techday notes are not fulfilling enough to me.

REF:

* the ISO-P rating gives the speed of the paper: double ISO value means half of the exposure time. Unfortunately exposure meters that are calibrated in ISO-P values are hard to find. This ISO-P value has nothing to do with the ISO rating of your rolls.

* the ISO-R rating gives the grade of the paper: ISO-R divided by 100 is equal to log(D), which defines the contrast behavior of the paper. E.g. Ilford Multigrade IV has an ISO-R range of 130 for grade 1 and 90 for grade 3 (see details in data sheets, that come with the paper). The higher the ISO-R value, the lower the contrast of the print.

Fomatol PW review on webionaire.

Safelights: check them. use them sparingly. I don’t hang them from the ceiling, since I have never had to find anything on the ceiling. I use them as task lights.

Characterizing Paper: Labnotes

Packaged developers can be modified. In the 1970s the following chems were used as addenda to Kodak, Ansco, Ilford print developers:

  • Hydroquinone, 4oz
  • Potassium bromide, 1-4 ounces
  • DuPont BB solution, or Kodak Anti-Fog No.1, also AF No.2
  • Elon (Metol), 1 pound
  • Sodium Sulfite, 5 pounds
  • Sodium Carbonate, 1 pound
  • Borax, 1 pound

Webionaire Posts about Foma …

Warmtone Bullets