Adventures in research,
learning film processes and large format - DYCP
A Visual Diary
DYCP
This will enable me to able to carve time out to research print process, and will support a focused period of research, training, mentoring and experimentation to gain a confident grip on large format film, Collodium wet plate & tintype and other print processes, reflect on my work and make new connections resulting in a practical and theoretical understanding of these methods of photography.
This will enable me to slow down and have time to learn and develop new skills based around traditional historical process, that will have direct influence on my future work and practice.
The starting point.
This print 'Winter Mist' by Emil Wertheim hung in my grandfathers house. Emil was my great uncle - a refugee in portugal during the second world war, a keen photographer from childhood onwards - and he documented the world around him.
This particular print entranced me and as a small child I would stand in front of it losing myself in the layers and the stories I would create in my imagination as a response to it.
Emil was influenced by the pictorial movement and was recognised for his expertise in the Bromoil print process and was honoured with a fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.
I didn't train as a photographer - I had a career as an actor/director and film-maker prior to ever picking up a stills camera and taking it seriously. When my life changed meaning I couldn't continue working in the live performance field - I lost a sense of direction. I had always been a creative -but due to lifestyle changes I felt lost. One day I picked up a camera - and became obsessed. That was many years ago. As i have developed a career as a portrait photographer -a visual story teller, I look back on Emil's work and the first image that brought me so much magic.
This DYCP has enabled me to explore processes and feel a connection to the first photographer who influenced me and fed my visual vocabluary. I share this print here, because of the power and magic it holds for me; because of the way I am drawn to archives and want to create work reflective of them
On my DYCP journey I have been able to learn the traditional processes involved in creating photographic work. It has been a magical time for me, and one I wish to continue and one I hope imbues my future practice.
Getting to grips with my Large Format Camera
I really wanted to be able to use my large format camera. Understand how to set it up, how to load the film confidently into film holders. Get to grips with the step by step process and learn to record the results, and get the images processed and scanned.
I spent two wonderful days with Alys Tomlinson, who kindly shared her process in a practical way with me. How to setup , and focus the camera on location, how to use my light meter for this purpose. How to record each image taken.
It was invaluable - and I left with a desire to continue making portraits.
Taking the camera - a Wista 45 into the field
Testing camera at City Park Bradford with Alice Parsons. Much to my surprise an joy, I was quickly surrounded a group of young men, who were curious, wanted to know how the camera worked and then want to be in a portrait.
Later on some older people came over to watch and to talk and share there memories of having family portraits taken on a large format camera at a portrait studio in Bradford . Possibly BelleVue Portrait Studio.
The portrait of three of the young men and Alice Parsons, by Bradford City Hall
Learning to Process Film and Scan
After sending my exposed film away to a lab and realising how expensive it would be to send all my exposed film to be professionally processed and scanned, I decided that to learn how to process the exposed film my self would be much more sustainable and I would have more control, and it would be far less costly.
I spent a day with Martin Henson, an expert in processing and scanning large format film.
He took me through all the steps and we looked at the chemistry and equipment I would need to be able to do this a smaller scale in my own studio. It was such a productive day. It took me a while to feel confident about processing - but now I do it myself and love that my workflow includes this.
I also wanted to scan and was as part of the DYCP grant going to buy a big scanner. After research I discovered it is possible to digitally scan the negative on a light box, using my Nikon camera, and a macro lens. It seemed to make much more sense than purchasing a scanner and now I am able to do this myself. I purchased a Pixl-Latr frame, and can do it pretty confidently. I also purchased software that I can use in lightroom specifically for scanned negatives. Negative Lab Pro - this works beautifully.
Having the time to be so immersed in the film processes, from loading film, to making photographs through to processing, scanning and later on printing has really brought me so much joy, and by gaining an understanding on a deeper level, enables me to connect to photography in a way I hadn't been able to before
Portraits
Alys Tomlinson on location, London
Liz Hingley, on location, London
Artist Andreea Chitan - Bradford
Laura Mate - Photographer. Shipley
Sam with Walter and Pluto
Poppy in Shipley
Poppy In studio - Natural Light
Sam in studio, natural light
Alice Parsons and Jack Lynch - Peel Park, Bradford
Alice Parsons and Jack Lynch - Peel Park, Bradford
Alice Parsons and Jack Lynch - Peel Park, Bradford
Alice Parsons and Jack Lynch - Peel Park, Bradford .
Alice Hardman ceramicist in studio - Available light
Alice Hardman ceramicist in studio - Available light
Alice Hardman ceramicist in studio - Available light.
Alice Hardman ceramicist in studio - Available light
Sam
Soryoung
Soryoung and Sam
Soryoung and Sam
Significant People by their Front Doors
Rick Shaw outside his home in Saltaire
Rick Shaw
If you look to the top you can see that there was a light leak on this negative. I looked at my notes and saw that the film holder I had used, had a few issues on other negatives - so have now stopped using it
Debi and Al Dix outside front door
These two portraits haven't been properly scanned yet - but I used my phone, placing Negs on lightbox, taking photo and processing with filmlab app
Al Dix and Deb
Wet Plate Collodium - Process
So I showed you behind the scenes in my last post and this is the result .My fabulous and very talented friend photographer Guy Bellingham made this tintype portrait of me on Friday! I am really delighted with it. We talked about portraits, wetplate collidion, analogue process. In return I took a couple of portraits of Guy using my large format camera. On the streets near where he lives .
I am learning so much and working in this slow considered way is for me a beautiful thing. It counters my busy sometimes frantic life and It informs my work, whether I use my beautiful Nikon Cameras and Lenses or a more traditional method- this becomes part of my learning journey, brings me joy and will enable me to move my work on to the next level. Tomorrow I return to Bradford and am spending time with the Bellevue archives.
Guy Bellingham
As a thank you for my portrait I took Guy out and made a few portraits with my LF camera. I particularly like this one.
Working with Negative Thinking Lab and Jonathan Turner from LensLab exploring Wet Plate Collodium Process
The real magic of photography can be seen so clearly when learning the Wet Plate Collodium Process, and then with Jonathan at the wonderful Lens lab, doing tin type portraits, and also looking at using light in this process.
I spent time in Bristol with Negative Thinking - this was my first experience of using wetplate.
Preparing the glass plate and tin plate - first taking the edge off the glass with a whet stone, Cover plate with collodium solution - allow to dry -Submerge the plate in the silver nitrate solution. This is where the emulsion becomes light-sensitive when it forms silver iodide. Close the lid on your silver box and leave the plate to sensitise for 3-5 minutes.
Then in the dark after remove the plate. Place in film holder - and expose image in LF camera .
Then develop in the darkroom.
Great info here. https://intrepidcamera.co.uk/blogs/guides/rikard-osterlunds-guide-to-wet-plate-collodion
Such a beautiful process
See Video and images below .
Prepping tinplate and developing at Lenslab Project Leeds
Adventures in Wetplate
The Belle Vue Studio Archives - Visits and Research
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See some of the images below
Research at the National Collections Scotland with Geoff Belknapp
A trip to Edinburgh to see the archives and the National Collections Scotland with Photographic Historian Geoff Belknap and Julie Gibbs really gave me an insight into how photographic processes developed. We looked closely at portraits - my particular interest.
Explored Talbots engraving process - By making images directly onto a photo-sensitised zinc or copper plate, Fox Talbot demonstrated the potential of photo-engraving. The principle was simple. A gelatine and bichromate mixture was coated onto a metal plate, then it is exposed to light through a photo-positive or actual object.
Then Photo chemicals 1840's onwards with glass plate etc.
Photo mechanical process used by Karl Klik for newspaper illustrations from 1890's.
Ambrotypes, Degurotypes. I was fascinated by the pictorial portraits from the collections.
All this feeds my minds, inspires me and gives me a much deeper understanding of not only the history of photography but the applications that I can incorporate into my work.
Images from National Museums Scotland Collections
Cyanotypes, Photograms and Print Process
A wonderful two days spent with artist Angela Charmers. I wanted to be able to explore in a practical way, the origins of the photographic process. So spent time with Angela, learning about how to prepare paper and cloth to prepare Cyanotypes. I made photograms, but what I really loved is that I used some of the large format negatives I had already processed - and the transferred them by printing onto transparency paper, and used this to create the cyanotype prints.
From there is was about washing and toning and fixing the image.
As part of the process we spent time doing tests on how much light was needed for this particular negative. For the photograms under strong ultra violet light, it only needed 6 minutes, but for this particular image, it was over exposed so I needed 11 mins for it to work well.
It is amazing to feel I have had the time to learn about these processes - from using my largeformat, through to processing and scanning the negative, and now printing.
Do see the images below
Also I am spending time experimenting with Chlorophyll prints - printing directly on to leaves using positives converted to BW and printed on transparency - then attached to leaves- the idea being to create a print that is made from the sun/uv light and chlorophyll.
Traditional Dark Room Processing and Print
A day spent with Peter Defty.
Making large format portraits on many different sized large format cameras. Then processing the negatives in trays in the dark room.
Followed by making contact prints from the LF negatives I had made earlier on photographic paper. Such an enjoyable process, and one I hadn't done before in the traditional way - learning how much you can work with the negative to effect the final print.
Learning about Thin and Dense negatives, and how to identify them .
'Thin' vs 'Thick'/ 'Dense' negatives - Overexposed vs Underexposed film photos. A thick, or dense, negative appears dark, whereas a thin negative appears transparent. If a negative appears to be very dark overall with limited see-through areas, it has a high density and is an indication of overexposure. learning how to identify this means I can work with the negatives in order to make the final print more sucessful.
Great commentary on this here
Learning and Artistic Development
To slow down and feel connected to the artistic process of making photographic work, has changed the way I feel about photography. I feel connected to the process. In an interesting way - when I get my large format camera out, and put a film holder in, and continue with the portrait - I actually love the process so much, the slowness the way the person in front of me really feels connected and is working with me. In many ways this in itself is more important to me than the developed negative.
Having time to look through significant photographic and historical archives, from the BelleVue Studio Archives through to the National Collections in Scotland, with experts and academics like Photography Historian Geoff Belknap and Archivist John Ashton, has given me a more profound understanding of the history of photography and the development of the photographic processes. This is invaluable in my new stage of work - re-imagining archives using film and digital. Creating far more nuanced reflective work.
Learning to develop the negatives, to not only scan the negatives but also to work in a dark room to print from negative, has been an extra-ordinary opportunity. I didn't learn photography in a formal way - so felt this was missing from my own toolkit. It has made me feel far more self sufficient and creative.
Cyanotypes and Chlorophyl prints
One Year On
A year of DYCP
Developing my creative practice .
Learning about process, using large format and film, film developing, wetplate, photograms , Cyanptypes , researching archives and exploring print process. All feeding into my future projects and enabling me to create more nuanced work. And really enjoying the whole slower process.
A little visual journey.