Silver Bullets: Darkroom Rumors

Posted on Posted in coursenotes, labnotes, the Lab

The biggest detour is the detail. Paper clips and pencil sharpeners are the enemy of good writing; so too the enemy of good photography is the search for a better developer, lens, film, or, worst of all, opportunity.

Opportunity doesn’t knock, it hides right behind you.

Students teach their delays to their teachers. In teaching adult learners, while also teaching full time students, I noticed a significant differences. Those people who had to use the picture made better pictures earlier. The just followed the notes on the wall; used the chemicals provided; bought the student pack from the local store. At the end of a month they were making prints and talking about elements other than the ‘how do I’ of photography.

There were some who took to the process quickly, effortlessly absorbing details of the process, while also shooting. Shooting a lot. In fact, that was the secret of the successful student — they advanced themself — dedicated effort. They took the assignment: ‘a roll a day for a month’ in earnest, even extending it to the entire first year.

Basic Silver

richard.L6980webionaire
Three Kings

…. In the chemical age, in every age of commerce, we move among choices; are moved, actually, thinking we have choices, so there is the belief that we can be better, newer, improved with only another mixture. Rarely is that true.

These developers are my at hand mixture. LPD, Dektol, & D-76. I keep them mixed because they are useful, and are delivered as a powder. These days, LPD is also sold as a a liquid. I always suggest to the novitiate that they buy liquid, even though you are paying for water, you are getting freedom from air borne chemical dust. This is as close to magic as we get.

Basic Bullets

My key point is that those who pursue a better developer/film/camera/ .. anything such as that, lose sight of the image; what it is, where it is, and why. To cover the lack of understanding of the power of an image, or in being lost to understanding aesthetic growth, or “shock,” those folks cover their lack with a homily about being after the process or the print. They are only lost, and covering their tracks. They are only addicts, not artists.

The magic bullet isn’t something you will buy; it isn’t something outside you that is missing. You lack the magic.

Besides, silver bullets always go bad, and actually carry little impact.

The Magic Beans, as exchanged in the halls of the camera cult, are Amidol, Pyro, and Glycin. I have posted about Amidol; while Pyro has so many vocal advocates, just ask ‘google’ … however, Glycin is do some airing out.

GLYCIN

In the beginning there were several beginnings — however, the history of the Camera Crafters is drawn across the landscape in the Zone Shades of Ansel Adams.

This: “With some papers glycin gives a light “stain” to the very high values and  this appears as a “glow” which I have found rewarding at times. Usually a slow-working developer, glycin is sometimes preferred when a considerable number of prints are to be developed together.” Ansel Adams, The Print

His first series of technical articles was published in Camera Craft in 1934, and his first widely distributed book, Making a Photograph, appeared in 1935. Most important, in 1936 Stieglitz gave Adams a one-man show at An American Place.

So, Glycin — a trademark, which is close enough to ‘glycerin’ which was used in the darkrooms of dye-transfer printers, but definitely not the same stuff.

this is glycin the developer

/// BACKFILL CHEMISTRY NOTES

Haist: 174, Catechol (1,2-Dihydroxybenzend) ; Pyrogallol (1,2,3-Trihydroxybenzene)

catechol has been reported to be capable of image development even in the presence of considerable amounts of silver halide solvents, making this developin agent suitable for combined developing and fixing solutions.

Pyrogallol.. in developers containing low concentrtions of preservative, the oxidation products of pyrogallol development produce a residual yellowish-brown stain. This stain reinforces the silver image and is expecialy effective in obtaining maximum emulsion sensitivity and fine grain from the photographic material 

the possibility of providing developers that improve both the graininess and sharpness was the objective of a study by Alman and Henn. [Effect of developer composition on the structure of photographic igmages. Phot. Sci. and eng.,5:129 1961

converting a developing agent into better surfactant will improve it electron-transfer capability and, hence, its ability to serve as a developing agent. [haist, 170]

developing agents

  • glafkides [69] photographic chemistry, vol1, 1958, 112-131.
  • mees [70] the theory of the photographic process, 1942, pp 331-373
  • henny and dudley: [71] developers and theory of development, handbook of photography, 1939,ch. xi.
  • Lambert, Pyrcocatechin, Anthongy’s Phot. byull, 33:74 (1902)
  • Archer, 1851
  • William Evan, New Ways with Pyro, Am. Phot., 39(5) May 1945
  • Behrens, A Versatile Developer: Pyro, Am. Phot., 43(7) 1949

1948: Kodak lists SD-1 for pyro stain. SD means special developer; little use. Kodak needed a tanning developer (they had one) but they didn’t want stain.

Gossip As Knowledge

Posted on Posted in da net, M&Ms, the fora

Specialist forums occupy a large part of the internet; they are presumed to provide a place for increasing the knowledge of a field. Photography has always been an “outlet” for the temporary, ie, weekend artist. Serving that thirst, acting as bridge between seller and consumer has rewarded many people with small skill but large appetite. Those folks formerly  put on workshops, now they host web forums for the seeker.

as wee all know: There’s a Seeker Born Every Minute.

LFF Thread
thread link here

 What Knowledge

Caution: restricting topic restricts growth, resulting in in-breeding, as well as in-fighting

If you restrict your discussion to technical in a field with no growth, you have no growth. You have reached saturation. Adding more examples of addition doesn’t increase the field of mathematics.

The newer members come to the photography forums for two broad reasons. They contribute, first as question – easy ones. But who answers them? The stays are likely the ones to answer first, and frequently. Who are they? What questions can they answer; do they answer?

Q: point me to technical, and aesthetic books limited to Large Format

The first responder was a high-post participant. He provided the technical book list, which was repeated by several of the later posters, who, apparently, hadn’t read the answers already provided.

  • ‘Looking at Photographs’ John Szarkowski, 1973 MOMA
  • ‘Landscape: Theory’ published in 1980 by Lustrum Press
  • ‘The Nature of Photographs’ by Stephen Shore. 1998
  • “Andreas Gursky’ MOMA catalog from 2001, essay by Peter Galassi

28 year span of opinion about photographs. The time period covered the rise, as well as the changed status of photography as an artform held within established museums. It is a good answer – its only problem – it is incomplete, but it will not be added to by the Large Format participants. They don’t grow that way, preferring instead the procrastinator’s aesthetics. They switched from answering the question to opining about a (famous) photographer atop his car with, keeping it large format oriented, a big camera.

Enter the discussion about Dog Houses in the Boardroom. When a topic the meeting members can’t discuss is broached, there is little discussion, however, when a topic of little consequence is raised, everyone can, and will, offer a point on the matter. Group unity with the result being that no important matter is ever settled; no important question answered. This produces an organization that is comfortable but static; passive. It is at its end stage.

Film is dying  because the Forums are Dead-ends – or, maybe Film is at a dead-end so the forums are the gathering ground of the bachelor herds – those without heirs, just stains and limp standards.

What More

There are two current resources that could be used to enlarge the imagination of a View Camera photographer:

  • “Lori Nix — The Power of Nature” ISBN-10: 3868322744

  • “Unspeaking Likeness”  Photographs by Arne Svenson.  ISBN-10: 1931885729

 

Baltz – Brief Read

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, book shelf, old bones, on photographersTagged 1 Comment

Views enlarge what they engage. Whenever primates look in one direction, they see two views, one through each eye. The camera blocks parts of the world; words the other.

“Untitled” Baltz : (1974 ) first published in  Image volume 17 number 10 June 1974 . George Eastman House. This was published the year before ‘New Topographics,’exhibit held at Eastman. In this short essay of 8 paragraphs Baltz provides summary estimates of “typical” industrial sites; where, why, how. Reading it all these years later, I don’t remember it from then, though I subscribed to Image, there is a desolate tone. And, the final paragraph does offer a (mild) condemnation, as well as an erroneous assumption about likely economic actions.

“Panegyric” Baltz. The praise is of Larry Sultan, from the “Larry Sultan” book. A brief, but strong statement of appreciation of Larry as the person. Recalling time with Larry, Henry Wessel, and Baltz playing racquetball; avoiding talk of their different work.

These are pieces of Lewis Baltz, discovered as I was looking for something else. I knew Larry – I went to school at SFAI in the same class as him, Mike and 6 other people.

I never knew Lewis Baltz, but feel I know much more about him now. We are lucky he left us so many words.

  • Sultan July 1946- December 2009  (aged 63) cancer (wife Kelly)
  • Baltz September 1945- November 2014 (aged 69) cancer & emphysema

ISBN-10: 1934105295 &  ISBN-10: 3735600697

Eat your vitamin A, C, D, exercise doesn’t prevent cancer.

Lewis Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was a visual artist and photographer who became an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s.[2] His work has been published in a number of books, presented in numerous exhibitions, and appeared in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.[citation needed] He wrote for many journals, and contributed regularly to L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui.

Publications

  • Landscape: Theory, Lewis Baltz, Harry Callahan, Eliot Porter, Carol Digrappa and Robert Adams, 1980 ISBN 0-912810-27-0
  • The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, Lewis Baltz and Adam Weinburg, 2001 ISBN 0-9630785-6-9
  • The Tract Houses: Die Siedlungshauser (English and German Edition), Lewis Baltz, 2005 ISBN 0-9703860-4-4
  • The Prototype Works, Lewis Baltz, 2010 ISBN 3-86521-763-X
  • Mario Pfeifer: Reconsidering The new Industrial Parks near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974, Lewis Baltz, Mario Pfeifer, Vanessa Joan Mueller, 2011 ISBN 1-934105-29-5
  • Lewis Baltz: Candlestick Point, Lewis Baltz, 2011 ISBN 3-86930-109-0
  • Lewis Baltz: Rule Without Exception / Only Exceptions, Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-110-4
  • Lewis Baltz: Texts., Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-436-7
  • Lewis Baltz, Lewis Baltz, 2017 ISBN 3-95829-279-8

References