05 06 13: A Piece of Work

Image size: 11.5” x 17”

Location: 17^th and Chestnut, Philadelphia (Liberty Place)

Camera: Canonet QL 17

Film: Tri-X @ISO 200

Developer: HC110 1:49, 7min at 68F

Scan: Epson V500

Print: Epson 3880 on Moab Lasal/ Piezographic Inks

I was not sure I would get to publish this week due to two shoots in two weeks. If you are curious about what I do photographically when I'm not walking miles with a camera or printing, here they are the photo sets.

Analog on Silver Instant Film:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151422407633589.1073741826.102587023588&type=3

Vintage Digital:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151432072093589.1073741827.102587023588&type=1

When the film receives the right amount of light plus correct development, the pictorial structure makes itself known and it’s just a matter of slight adjustments on the way to the completed print. If the exposure is not within ballpark, especially with 35mm, then it becomes a workout. This photo appealed to me enough that I felt it would be worth going into “obsessive mode” and exercising much time and patience until it was either a success or a spectacular failure and learning experience.

As is often the case, I made this print twice. I ended up re-scanning the negative once I knew what I really knew what qualities I wanted to bring forth. The first print’s file had redundant layers and quickly became a tangle. The only way I could get enough "punch" was to use Cone #5 paper; a beautiful material, but the print’s tone did not match the other photos I’ve printed to date which are all on Moab Lasal. To arrive at the final print took quite a bit of experimenting, in fact, a full day of work and then some.  I will also likely make a third version after I "live with it” a while.  Also, I accidentally killed the full, layered file when I made the web version, so I now have a unique print!  Luckily, I still have the correct base scan.

Photoshop is an amazing tool and covers a multitude of sins, but I never rely on my printing skills; I do my best to get it right in-camera. In this case the problem was the negative was fairly dense. The camera I’m using, by the unlikely name of “Canonet” is going on forty years old, and my guess is it desperately needs an overhaul. The beast absolutely won’t fire properly in the cold and my suspicion is an oil-gummed shutter; the whole roll looked overexposed. 

Having spent years worrying about gear that often was purchased then languished, and eventually sold or given away, I’m a big believer in using what you have and just taking pictures-- lots of them, and not worrying too much about the camera. Still, there’s something about the compactness, precision, and agility of an older rangefinder 35, that an SLR cannot match.  In fact, had I been using one of my film Nikons, I probably would not have gotten this image. My guess is that by the time I got the camera adjusted and focused, the woman would have noticed me (which did, in fact, happen). I am in no hurry to purchase yet another camera and lens system with all its concomitant issues and peculiarities. It doesn't surprise me that photographers stick doggedly with a particular instrument or methodology for years rather than go through the whole learning curve all over again while ironing out the bugs and losing shots. I’m keeping to one film and one developer and only two or three printing papers. Still, I am considering the options. Rather than pouring a chunk of cash into overhauling a camera that only cost $40 used in 1993 that has a decent, but not wonderful Tessar-type fixed lens, an upgrade may be money well spent. 

04 29 13: Razored

Location:  10^th and Vine Vicinity

Print size: 11.5” x 17”

Camera: Nikon FM2n

Lens: Nikkor 105mm f2.5

Film: Tri-X at ISO 200

Develop: HC110 1:49, 6.5min at 68F

Scan: Epson V500

Print: Epson 3880, Piezo inks on Moab Lasal paper

This shot was a second try with the same subject and composition. On the first, I was too far away. The frame had to be cropped too much. The razor wire just didn’t look threatening enough. Shooting 35mm has been a good discipline in that if I don’t utilize nearly the full frame, the photo falls short of the mark; it demands mindfulness from the get-go.

I think perhaps it’s a human tendency to want to pull into an image as much as possible, when what the photo needs is less, reduction to essentials. When we see something that affects us, there is an excitement and a desire to grab hold of it, but in photography a hard-learned translation has to go on. The camera sees a small area and mechanically/abstractly; it doesn't feel the wind or smell the air, the hardness of the pavement, the events that led up to the photo and one’s physical and psychological state. Alfred Stieglitz talked about the photograph, as being an “equivalent” to what the photographer was experiencing, which is essentially the same idea.

Practically, this often means getting in closer and trying different camera-to-subject positions so as to start to approach wherein the subject lies. That the subject is not merely, and may have little to do with, what the lens is pointed at, is the difficult and engaging paradox of doing this kind of work.

Pinhole Images from the Ven and Vaida Show 09/2012

Hide and Seek

Night Studio I

Night Studio II

Reverie

The Procuress

Untitled

04 22 2013

Location: University City Station

Image Size: 11.5” x 17”

Camera: Superheadz Black Slim Devil

Lens: 22mm, plastic

Film: Fuji Superia 400

Develop: Lab

Scan: Epson V500

Print: Epson 3880/ Piezo K7 inks/ Moab Lasal

I’m now printing out each weekly image at full file size. To create photographs but never print them is like cooking a meal but never even tasting what you've made. A fine print, as I wrote last week, is so markedly different from an on-screen image.  My experience is, you don’t really know what you have until you print it, preferably large It’s no fun having to rush through printing a whole slew of images when the time comes to show them. I like to linger over the work. Running the print through various states on the road to the final image is a great way to do that. Getting a better feel for what the whole image-making chain does helps me make better choices even before I click the shutter.

I’m now printing with a system marketed under the Piezography label that Jon Cone sells through InkjetMall.com   Instead of having eight color cartridges, various shades of gray plus black are substituted and you print via special software. (That is way easier than Epson’s snaggle of settings.) Cone sells various configurations and formulations depending on the printer and the print tone you want. I chose the warm/neutral ink set. The results have been impressive. The light to dark graduations and detail rival darkroom prints and the carbon-based pigment inks are ultra light-fast  Using bulk ink reduces the cost of feeding the printer by about sixty-six percent. Since I’m a perfectionist and experimenter, constantly running small proofs and large outputs, this savings is significant. I've had absolutely no problems with clogged print nozzles. Really my only objection, if you can call it that, is that the refillable cartridges came without reset chips and it was a bit of a DIY operation to remove the Epson electronics without damaging them, so they could be affixed to the new ink units. 

04 15 2013

Location: Pine Street, Antique Row

Image Size: 11.5” x 17”

Camera: Nikon F100

Lens: 35-70 f3.5 zoom

Film: Kodak Portra 400

Develop: Colourworks, Wilmington, De

Scan: Epson V500

Proof at full size: Epson 3880/ Piezo K7 Inks/ Moab Lasal

This print hangs via magnets on my steel-clad kitchen door. Enlarged onto 13 x 19 paper, it visually fills the space.  If only my audience could teleport into my studio! The Internet is really an impoverished place to view photography. Most peoples’ monitors are inaccurate and clip the tonal range of photographs, often at both ends, the dark and the light tones. Given that nowadays people browse and view their email on tiny phones, it’s even more the case. The depth of a fine print gets lost and becomes a flat pattern. No wonder that digital photography, that often looks flattened is now the accepted norm and prints which look like they were made at the corner CVS have been known to adorn gallery walls.

Bottom line: Forgo the easy route that demands little and delivers even less; go see photographic prints in person. I want to thank all those who did just that this last Saturday and came to the opening at Frame Fatale. That a number of the works also became part of your personal collections thrills me. It makes the long hours and dealing with the temperamental Philadelphia weather all the more worth it. Your support is vital. In case you could not attend, the full complement of works is up through May.

04/08/13: Our Six Month Anniversary!

Location: 23^rd and South vicinity, Philadelphia

Print size: 11.5” x 17”

Camera: Canonet QL 17

Film: Tri-X @ISO 200

Develop: HC110, 1:49, 7min @68F

Scan: Epson V500

Print: Epson 3880/ Piezographic K7 Warm-Neutral Inks/ Moab Lasal

Come celebrate the first half year of The Concrete Muse! A show of small prints will be opening up this Saturday, the 13^th from 6-9 pm at Frame Fatale, 1813 E. Passyunk in Philadelphia. This is a chance to see what the work looks like “live” and exquisitely framed, albeit on a more diminutive scale (this week's image will be featured in the display window at full size) and to pick up some ready-to-hang art for what it would cost to have it matted and framed-- in other words: cheap! More importantly, this will help support the project as it goes into its next half year! 

I believe that longevity is a big component of creative success. Too many projects get abandoned without ever being pushed to the edge IMHO. The Concrete Muse is six months old this week and it feels like it’s jut beginning. Going back to film and working largely with 35mm in a hybrid film/digital printing set up is an education in the best sense of the phrase. My overall methodology is continually changing and refining, but more importantly, new things keep on entering my field of vision. This seriously appeals to the part of me that’s a real learning junkie and loves to tinker. 

This shot was taken last summer somewhere in my immediate neighborhood. My guess is I grabbed it quickly. The Canonet QL17, often described as “the poor man’s Leica” (I paid $40 in 1994) is very good for shooting on-the-fly. It wasn’t until I got into the printmaking that I realized there was a person looking out as well as the canine. It required three separate negative scans that were then put together in Photoshop.  The combination of the white dog and the very dark background, printed on the lower-contrast paper I use for working proofs (Moab Lasal), made this a particularly thorny printing problem.

04/01/2013: The Lonely House

Location: 17^th and Carpenter, Philadelphia

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2

Lens: 14-42 zoom

Crop to 6 x 9 format

Print: 11.5” x 17”@240 dpi /Epson 3880/ Piezo K7 inks on Moab Lasal  paper.

Philadelphia seems to be abuzz with renovation and construction and these sites and sights draw me in. One of my undergraduate art teachers, Charles Eldred, used to say: “What’s bothering you will find its way into the work.” I’m not worrying about that too much these days; however it’s not uncommon to see where a whole row has been replaced with modern buildings, yet one lone, original holdout somehow remains to remind the future of what was.