Robert Adams:

Posted on Posted in art school, on photographersTagged

Bibliography (read in light of New Topographics)

Robert Adams

  • Adams, Robert. “Nature Photography Can Include Us.” Sierra Club Bulletin.
  • Adams, Robert. The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range.
  • Adams, Robert. Review of Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy in The Colorado Magazine (Fall, 1974).
  • 14 American Photographers. Introduction by Renato Danese. Exhibition catalogue. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1975.
  • Baltz, Lewis. Review of The New West by Robert Adams. Art in America 63 (2) (March-April 1975): 41-2.
  • Adams, Robert. D Denver: A Photographic Survey of the Metropolitan Area.
  • Colorado: Colorado Associated Press in cooperation with The State Historical Society of Colorado, 1977.
  • Jordon, Bill. “Book Reviews: Denver and The New West,” Photography 1 (4) (July 1977): 30-31.
  • Meinwald, Dan. Afterimage 4 (4) (July 1977): 17.
  • Patton, Phil. “Special Section: Photography Books”, Art in America 65 (6) (November/December 1977): 35-36.
  • Lifson, Ben. “Robert Adams: Notes Toward a Supreme Landscape.” The Village Voice (February 26, 1979).
  • Adams, Robert. From the Missouri West. New York: Aperture, 1980.
  • Armitage, Shelly. “Robert Adams: Post Modernism and Meaning”. Exposure 18 (2) (1981 ): 49-59.
  • Grundberg, Andy. “The Point of Photographs.” New York Times, (November 29, 1981 ): 13-14.
  • Adams, Robert. To Make It Home Photographs of the American West. New York:
  • Aperture, 1989.
  • Adams, Robert. Why People Photograph. New York: Aperture, 1994.
  • Adams, Robert. What We Bought: The New World. Scenes From the Denver Metropolitan Area 1970-1974. Hannover: Sprengel Museum, 1995.
  • Jones Jr., Malcolm. “The Littoral Truth.” Newsweek, November 13, 1995.
  • Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West. Exhibition catalogue. Edited by May Castleberry. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1996.
  • Kemmerer, Allison; John R. Stilgoe, Adam D. Weinberg. Reinventing the West.
  • Belz, Emily. “Western Expansion”. Art New England 23 (5) (August/September, 2002): 18-19.
  • Adams, Robert. Commercial Residential Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range, 1968-1972. PPP Editions, 2003.

Variable Contrast Developer

Posted on Posted in exs notebook, the Lab, The Positive

Dr. Beers is the widely known version of variable contrast developer, but in the 40’s and up to around 1955, D-64 was likely the choice. This was the time that Dupont Velour Black was a significant paper in commercial and industrial photography studios. Ansco Cykora also benefitted from D-64. These graded papers had uneven steps of contrast along with vary different exposure factors; this made changing contrast under production constraints a problem in need of a solution. D-64 was that solution. And the multi tray developing system. (using more than one developer at a time: one ‘hard’ & one ‘soft’)

formulas.002
Beers & D-64 Formulas

Dr Beers (Dr. Roland F. Beers) Developer

In the Beers formula I have used Sodium Carbonate rather than his original Potassium Carbonate. This has been a standard practice since 1963 when I learned the formula. It produces slightly more neutral prints — did on DuPont and Agfa papers; does now on Slavich, Adox, Foma papers. I don’t use Beers as a developer for Ilford papers, instead, I use 2 tray developing using developers from Moersch, LPD, or Dektol.

formulas.003
Dr. Beers Variable Contrast Developer

Kodak D-64

I use D-64 for film positives and internegatives as part of my repro process pipeline. Film, ortho copy and litho films are single graded (none) — their contrast is dependent upon the developer and where the exposure places them on the native response curve of the film.

I also use D-64 ‘soft’ for solarization of paper. This includes ALL papers that I use, even Ilford, my most frequently used paper.

formulas.004
Kodak D-64

To make a 10% bromide solution, add 100.0 grams of potassium bromide to water to make 1.0 liter.