FORM|ETHER
PRESS
PROMO
GG Peney
, London 2014
Lifelong Audio, London 2014
Noname, London 2015
Noname + the MPC, London 2015
Jimmy James + "Setting Sun", London 2013
London 2013
GG Peney & Karl Sage, London 2014
Confucius MC, Forest Hill, London 2014
Skams Twice, Forest Hill, London 2014
Stig & Fuji + Bonafide
Kashmere and Jehst + Dolph Lundgren
Various photographs from between 2013 - 2015.
LITH
..the dark infectious lith printing process
..with old brown + pyro
+ selenium.
lith is an infectious process, the bromide paper is over-exposed under the white light so the invisible image on the paper is a essentially a black block. The shadows are governed by agitation in the developer.. as the paper is agitated the blacks begin to 'come through', but as they do the process speeds up and the blacks begin to show and solidify at a faster and faster rate in relation to the gradation of the various mid-tones.
PYRO
- Distilled Water 750 ml
- Sodioum Metabisulfite 10 g
- Pyrocatechin 50 g
- Phenidone* 2 g
- Potassium Bromide 1 g
- Distilled water to make 1000 ml
- Distilled Water 700 ml
- Potassium Carbonate 750 g
- Distilled water to make 1000 ml
Stock Solution A
Stock Solution B
Advocates of pyro claim the benefits of pyrocatechol film developers lie in the chemicals ability to increase highlight separation, sharpness and acutance. I mixed working solutions of 1:1:250, 1 part stock solution A to 1 part stock solution B to 250ml of water, so for every 35mm film roll I would mix 500ml of working solution to give enough to completely submerge the film. The working solutions were more diluted than working solutions I had previously used with other chemicals such as Rodinal where in most cases I was mixing 1:9. I was also increasing development time to between 45 and 60 minutes with no agitation, to allow only time to develop the film rather than time plus agitation.
Lith being an infection process of development/ printing (the spreading of silver development beyond the exact image boundaries), I was interested to see if the pyro balanced in certain ways the infectious development process of lith.
Pyro tanning of the negatives gelatin acts as a variable contrast filter which helps to reduce printing contrast. I was interested to see if this quality of pyro complimented my preference for high contrast lith.
Adding selenium toner into the process gives an orange colouration to the image through it's reaction to the bromide in the Foma paper. It also adds a grey tone into the highlights that compliments that orange colouration.
It was really an experiment into trying to balance aspects of my photographic chemical process and methodology through trying to visualize the subjective outcome by understanding to a greater degree how the objective elements such as the chemicals interacted.
PROCESS//
CONTACT//
SEE/FORTY/ONE
... darkrooms and processing are what informed me the most about photography..the science of the process, the space between the compartmentalized elements of the negative or file type, the chemical, the paper, the enlarger and the final image, like a sum or formula where how the numbers make sense depends on how the interaction of those numbers is dictated by the mathematical symbols..
..I like printing contact sheets. I would shoot rolls of film as a sequence of images, with the idea of printing a contact sheet where the sequence from frame to frame form a narrative and the contact was that visualized moving still image...
light is energy, a propagation of oscillations between an electrical field and a magnetic field..it is interesting to consider the idea of how electromagnetic radiation as energy not matter can be transferred through the medium of the photographic process to create an image of that original captured energy..light.. to consider the difference between electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves in process...
.. no sequencing mode on my Contax T2...the feeling of each frame being shot from the eye rather than through a set mechanical function of the programming of the camera.. sequencing modes on the camera allow faster reactions and smoother transitions from frame to frame but I like the feeling of slowing the process down..
...they are a measurement of a consideration where in a moment this pose or that expression will transition from what is on the previous frame and at the same time offer inspiration to visualize what is going to be on the next., it's like the narrative constructs itself with the act of photographing.
..a recollection of the image in my mind attached to the moment that the light was captured through the lens. When I look at one of my photographs it's that image looking through the viewfinder I remember..
Contact sheets form a proactive part of the photographic printing process, to see the images as negative sized thumbnails..the contact for me became the visualized image, with rebates and film branding all part of the image as a whole.. the methodology of how the film was shot as a whole sequential narrative, frame to frame rather than as single, compartmentalized images is part of the visualized contact print, where the shooting methodology is part of the printing process and vice versa...
...'if you don't like the image then you can delete it'?..
..visualization allows you to 'delete' the image before you've taken it.. digital and analogue processes offer scope when combined to evolve process, there was for me an ethereal beauty to analogue process like contact printing..
..and digital processes seemed to free the analogue process, to form a new way of working by combining methodology..
..you can see a revival of analogue process presented on social media platforms like instagram with hash tags like #filmisnotdead,.. analogue process is evolving within the digital processes, production methods and ways of presentation on platforms like Instagram...
..Frame 7 is missing because it was the actual image sent to the publishers for the cover shot of Maximum Magazine. The image itself was reversed in print for the benefit of the layout.
I spent 2 years working with Mick Hutson and was assistant photographer on shoots for Metal Hammer magazine. He asked me to archive about 30 boxes of negs and transparencies covering about 25 years into 2 filing cabinets in band and alphabetical order. He offered the contact to me for doing this archiving.
To think that somewhere in the archives of that magazines publishing there is the missing frame from my contact sheet, like a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle, floating around somewhere, where the incomplete contact sheet continues to tell a more interesting story than if the missing frame were to be returned to it's place as 'frame 7'.
The End of Print + Process
The End of Print by David Carson and Process by A Tomato Project are 2 books that inspired me to write about my processing and thoughts about photography.
I remember the work of David Carson in Transworld and Raygun magazine in the 1990's, his use of colour and photographic images in layouts. I think the discussions in The End of Print about how digital process and the advent of the internet, bearing in mind the book was first edition in 1995, was at the time interestingly speculative, no one could accurately predict how quickly or in what way digital media would change things, now that book seems retrospectively prophetic.
A question of process and adaptation, I would say that one of the most notable benefits of the internet is the ability it gives for individuals to form their own networks and systems... it endorses the notion of self awareness and conscious activity..
...technology changed much for photography,.it has enabled the idea of photography to be a more accessible and universal practice..not just in how photographs are captured but also in how they are shared and presented
..I thought it important to learn at least the foundations of how to write HTML and CSS. When considering programming languages and constructive digital languages like Javascript, HTML and CSS as a kind of evolution to modern languages, they appear to represent a move towards some kind of universal language structure where algorithms bridge the barriers between modern spoken and written languages..
I began using Notepad++,. I learned the basics of the structures and built a site using static HTML and CSS.. which I have rebuilt 2 or 3 times, eventually using CMS and Wordpress..this website, see41.com is the product so far of that process of learning not just the language of HTML and CSS but also the systems of publication, SEO and analytics..a development of the darkroom and chemical processes, a continuation of a journey through process.