Weeks of experimentation in the darkroom

All the posting from how many days does it take to destroy a fine art print to Weeks of experimentation in the darkroom are a result of many weeks of experiments.
I have scanned them all in today because tomorrow I will be starting a new lot of experiments and then there will be even more images to scan in.

Matt paper-looks like a screen print and feels like velvet.

This is the same print as the previous one,only it has been printed on Foma paper (Matt paper )as a text strip with different exposures.

Printing -Zone system

In trying to print a print using the Zone system -Ansel adams I have ran into problems ,and after a number of different attempts I spoke to Nigel ,he does lith Printing for exhibition etc and so after a lenghtly discussion on Friday 17 th March , worked out what had gone wrong and now I have I will be taking som more photgraphy using my wonderful Zeroimage 6x 6 pinhole camera ,brought from the delightful Ebay ,which has been my best buy ever shot No 471 with it last year and how hidden haikus this year, will be using Pan 50 instead of the 125 I have been using ,much richer tones and longer exposure times.

The above photograph is a hard negative to print, beacuse it has been overexposed quite abit.

Why I love Fine art black and white photographs

I know digital is here to stay, but the prints that come out of a Digital printer, after a great deal of colour calibration, don’t move me, in the same way that feels much.
I have worked on for many days, (Forget me not series Photo paintings in progress )there's something about holding a silver print which has been beautifully printed ,that Digital can't reach, this is from someone who does actually shoot a lot of digital ,Space is digital and so is Voyage around Manchester Geological Gardens .
I hope that film and print by hand never dies, like painting didn’t when photography arrived.
I know it’s a losing battle with Paper companies closing down (Agfa which made the most delightful fibre based paper ever, it had a lovely golden brown tone to it) and Forte which I haven’t used, but is also no longer with us, but at least we still have Ilford which has made a big commitment to us traditional black and white printers and of course Kentmere in the lake district which also make wonderful paper.
Anyway this week I am going to coat my own paper, using handmade Fabriano paper and Liquid Light Emulsion brought from Jessops, I want to print A1 size by hand , never printed that large before ,I ‘ll print a few ,and keep one and destroy the rest by Fire, water , wind, anything involving the destruction of the print (landscape) and if it’s sunny I can also start filming my installation of the future of hidden landscapes as well, need to edit over Easter and work on the soundscape as well.

Fine art black and white printing

Test strip for a pinhole photograph made by placing the camera on the ground angled to the grass, working out the exposure for the final print.

Lith print ..the frustration continues

This another creative experiment with Kentment Paper..using KODALITH LIQUID DEVELOPER, PART A and KODALITH LIQUID DEVELOPER, PART Bwith normal water as stop bath and regular fixer, still doesn't look how it should ,look more like Edward Sheriff Curtis's Orotones only dark brown

http://www.edwardscurtis.com/

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lith don't work, neither does the tea, but burning a photograph, which was printed with so much care takes on a new meaning, it becomes a metaphor for the destruction of hidden landscapes, since a photograph is only ever showing the past, this is showing the future too, the destruction which will happen to this little oasis of trees and hedges where birds and squirrels wonder, and where I enjoy exploring.

Kentmere Paper-Lith printing

This paper should work, but hasn't worked at all, so I have had to stain them with tea.

I think the reason it hasn't worked is either the paper has the wrong finish or the chemicals are wrong, and there not so it's either the negatives or the lack of exposure when printing (darkroom) ?

FOMA Bohemia Ltd -Czech Republic Paper

Trying my Foma Lith Paper ,if you don't know what lith printing is the following site by Tim Rudman http://www.worldoflithprinting.com/will give you an insight, so trying out a normal un lith print using normal develop, and fixer , give a textured finish even though it is glossy paper, it looks and feels differnt than the Ilford Glossy Fibre based paper.

how many days does it take to destroy a fine art p2

It takes about three days to destroy a prints, by the fourth there's not much left of an image, but if you look at the pages from my journal you can see the variations.

how many days does it take to destroy a fine art print

I have carried out a number of carefully creative experiments which involve taking a fine art photography print, printed on fibre based Ilford Glossy paper, cutting them up into strips and then leaving them in water.
Yes I have the photography’s to prove it, the thing is because there were a number of prints strips pilled up on top of each other, where thy stuck to each other reacted differently to the water, so the destruction is not even or predictable from day to day or print to print.

Variations of a print

Looks like infrared photography bit but isn't
Splattered water marks add a textural feel to photograph looks like it alive.

Negative contact of paper print

Looks like a painting, there’s a textural feel to it,
You want to touch the paper.

Lith tone ilford fibre based Paper

Lith tone Ilford fibre based Paper
The emulsion failing away,
4 Days in water.

I wonder how long it can
Stay in water before there is nothing

This was printed on AGFA multi contrast black and white paper (fibre based) variable contrast and toned with lith chemicals and then left in water for 4 days and the white spots are caused by the emulsion coming away.
This less than perfect print looks like a memory part of the image that exists in our head is there; the rest fades or is less obvious to work out.

My first contact sheet

This is my first contact sheet, for my personal project taken using a wooden medium format pinhole camera I brought on Ebay a couple year ago,it's been left in water too long and emulsion started to come away.

Hidden Haikus

Inspired by the poetry of Basho Matsuo, I realised that this detachment from life allowed him to examine his world more clearly in the spirit of Sabi-Wabi.

To see the world from an opening in a bush or from under a tree is to imagine all the multiple possibilities that exist in front of our eyes, the world only becomes a small place because we look and no longer see.

I have been exploring the Prints of Ando Hiroshige and Hokusai, drawn to the alternative approach they offer to western composition ideals, I have been exploring the idea of combining negative space with positive space, in the series Space 2006, f the “Negative space” is left black instead of the traditional white, and forms an active part of the composition of the photograph.

This work at present is newly form, it’s too early to say whether it will be a series of photographs, Video or animation with sound, the only thing for certain after the first contact sheet I can’t wait till I get the next, the only problem is that it take so long to create pinhole photographs the way I see them inside my head, so I keep trying to get there until I’m having a wonderful time.
Just short on paper, film and time but apart from I get excited when I imagine how the photographs might turn out.