Time travel

Posted on Posted in coursenotes, film, Theory

imagine you can travel back to the 1940s. You will be an early producer of matrix emulsions. You cannot take equipment with you, although you may take your curent knowledge, as well as  being able to lookup  patents issued before 2000.

Most importantly: you know it is possible, even limited to the engineering,  mechanical, and chemical systems of the 40s, 50s. Always an advantage second movers have — certainty.

If I say “film” how far does that word take you — where? if you are an Internet generation film might only take you to Kodak and Hollywood.. your search might also only take you to saran wrap.

however if you know of more than one film maker and you don’t run that word on or hyphenated you may know of Ilford, Dupont, Ansco,  Agfa, Defender or more. If those names are in your dictionary then you’ll understand the time travel exercise and you’ll understand the notion of film being discussed.

How does the emulsion become — what is included in the kettle, how is it mixed, how does it become a coating on the base, why doesn’t it fall off upon drying… many more questions will sprout — but they were all answered robustly even by 1940. 

Every bit of knowledge needed to make a matrix film was common trade knowledge by 1941 — panchromatic films remained closely guarded insights until 1950. 

There were enough solutions to the problems that engineering and industrial chemists were selecting choices for cost-market reasons.

why don’t you gather a group of three travelers around a studio table to plot your journey — I won’t be going. Safe travels.

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2018 Pan Run

Posted on Posted in dye transfer, labnotes

End of run. The final bit of anti-halation black made for making panchromatic matrix emulsion. This washes out with a pre-soak as part of the processing of the matrix film; goes back to the 1950s method . After processing thru wash-off, the gelatin relief is clear, no black. This permits dye preview as in the “slip sheet” manner from the 50s. During transition of technology times, a manufacturer does not know which way the market will glide. Should we stay true, compatible with existing methods, or do we change product with expectation that the labs/market will adapt. Can we manage that risk: meaning absorb the cost and correct directions.

The initial Kodak relief, imbibition films, were clear-ish after wash-off. Previewing the color through a process of dyeing the mat, laying them atop the final support covered by a clear overlay (that 25th sheet) had become routine way of printing. A new matrix film should support that standardized lab method. Initially, PM did. But then, it didn’t. At first, PM relied upon a different tanning developer, and required a pre-wash to remove the acutance-black (sharpens by controlling “internal flare”). It was slightly blue, as was Defender-DuPont’s pan-chroma product. PM quickly moved away from the dye to a “pigment” dispersion throughout the coating. It didn’t wash out. Kodak also switched to a single tanning formula, dropping the specialized three part pan matrix developer. Soon after, PM got a number.

A long time ago doesn’t mean Y2K to me. 1950 is my long time ago.

Frank, November 2000:

During my initial years of making separations, I used Super-XX since a contact at Kodak’s Visual Research Studio suggested my PM exposures would be comparable. They were, within a step test.

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Rosalind & Joan

Posted on Posted in book shelf, creativity, studio tableTagged , , , ,

Is Rarity or scarcity of greater value . Is a topic Infrequently discussed. A topic with more power of attention. There are two loaded subjects: death and sex ..[topic point in EXS, 1974]. If we add aging, have we multiplied a value by its scarcity.

Most artists are interested in self as youth, after all, that is where and when they began . One of the most common pictures seen in freshman photography classes are self portraits from the women students — common trope is legs in tub; while the male students photograph themselves before a mirror holding a camera. The women have taken the picture from their eye view. Men and women place themselves into different environs, engaged in different actions. These transactional differences seem to apply universally across art schools.

One arc: FROM LOOKING AT OTHERS.. TO LOOKING.. looking to seeing?

Fox Solomon says she knew of only two photographers by name when she started making pictures: Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams.

–[At thirty-eight, while living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Rosalind Fox Solomon began a new life as a photographer. Studying with Lisette Model in the early 1970s, she honed the photographic voice which would define the prodigious half-century of work to follow. After moving to a loft in New York City in 1984, and travelling to Peru, India, South Africa, Cambodia, and beyond, she became renowned for her unflinching photography of everyday life around the world.

www.mackbooks.us/products/a-woman-i-once-knew-br-rosalind-fox-solomon

With Camera

–[ The With Camera series (2001—06) marked the first time Joan Semmel purposefully posed in front of the mirror with a camera. Like her earlier Locker-Roomworks (1988—91), these paintings celebrate the aging process through their accurate portrayal of the artist’s body. Semmel continued to develop these ideas in her Framed series (2005—2006), which presented images of her taking photographs framed inside a mirror

I want them to be more than they are… they serve as stand ins for something yet to be filled. My understanding is incomplete. They have a presence I failed. Of course, some of their standing is because of the “Big Empty;” things unexplored. Age happens to be the Box they are filling in. No matter how many items they put into it, it will never be filled.

They do what they do well. That they have done so for so long is sufficient reason for engaging their work.

>> Rosalind Fox Solomon (April 2, 1930 – June 23, 2025. In 2007, the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography acquired Solomon’s archive, which includes her photographic archive, books and video work

>> Joan Semmel (born October 19, 1932…Semmel states, “While my work developed through series, the connecting thread across decades is a single perspective: being inside the experience of femaleness and taking possession of it culturally.

  • Moreland, Quinn (2026-04-15). “‘I wanted my work to be shameless’: 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel on her trailblazing nudes”. The Guardian
  • Richard Meyer, “’Not Me:’ Joan Semmel’s Body of Painting,” in ‘’Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Joan Semmel’’, edited by Helen Molesworth. (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2008).
  • “Joan Semmel Self-Portraits Offer Vibrant Affirmation of Aging”. Hamptons Art Hub. 2016-09-29
  • You Have to Get Past the Fear”: Joan Semmel on Painting Her Aging, Nude Body, Hyperallergic Magazine September 9, 2016