Portfolio of the Week: Hans de Bruijn

Dear Readers,

Every week we feature an outstanding photographer, but Hans is also a particular one somehow else-he is entirely dedicated to gum bichromate printing. Hans is from Gouda, Netherlands. He's also been in the professional photo business for a while in his youth years, as he finished the Fotovakschool in The Hague in the 60's. Then, after a long carreer in the IT industry, the ancient photo techniques raised his interests in collecting vintage cameras and literature, and gum bichromate printing. After a course in gum printing, he was totally hooked on it. Being a perfectionist by nature, he really strives to bring the gum bichromate printing as close as possible to the original photo. Therefore, he sometimes has to bring up more than six layers of pigment to achieve his goal as close as possible. The artistic look of the photo is of secondary importance. But hey, how can we define what is artistic and what's not? Gum printing is definitely an art in itself. Anyone who has ever tried it will agree. These are just a few of the many beauties of gum printing-there are no rigid rules, there is a lot of freedom in choosing the color palette of your choice, the paper texture etc. And, as Hans states: “The making of gum bichromate prints, aside from working with beautiful materials, is so time consuming that it forces a person to de-hurry. And the result will always give satisfaction.”

In recent years (sadly for us), many of Hans' gum prints are derived from digital photos. But which is also a good proof of how gum printing can be also a nice linkage between traditional and contemporary photo techniques. But Hans was very kind to provide us with gum prints derived from film only. Hans is now happily enjoying his retirement by avidly making gum prints. He also gives gum printing workshops from time to time. You can find Hans' work and other info on his website and on Flickr. Enjoy his photos posted here, but I also openly invite you to visit his websites too!

Silver regards

Mitja

All photos copyright: Hans de Bruijn

Portfolio of the Week: Jochen Abitz

Dear Readers,

there's no completeness without the other half, right? So it's my pleasure to introduce 4Spo's »partner in crime«, Jochen Abitz, from Germany as well. Jochen started his photographic journey about a decade ago, with digital gear. Then, as it often happens, he got »infected« with film photography and with medium format (also thanks to 4Spo), and stuck with it (oh, how I like to tell such stories!).  Similarly, he also likes fine cameras,  many different films, mostly BW, developed by himself. Besides sharing a common website, Jochen also performs some photo projects, editorials etc., together with 4Spo. As he states, they have quite a similar taste when it comes to photography. And obviously, they are quite a tandem! You just cannot find every day photos with such a masterful lighting as in their work (besides other aspects)! I urge to reinvite you to visit their site, there are many analog goodies to be found there! Jochen's work can also be found on Flickr. Enjoy the photos!

Mitja

 All photos copyright: Jochen Abitz

Portfolio of the Week: Niccolò Barone

Dear Readers,

This week we feature another Italian photographer, Niccolò Barone. He is an autodidact photographer. He works essentially in medium format (Hasselblad 503/500, Rolleiflex 2.8f, Pentax 67, Minolta Autocord, Mamiya 645 and some others) and 35mm (Leica M2, M4, M5, M6, Contax II, Nikon fm and some others) as well as with polaroid and Holga cameras, with available natural light as his favorite lighting source. His preferred films are Kodak Tmax 400, 100 and 3200. He develops BW films by himself, usually with Xtol (Kodak) or Gradual (Ornano) when he shoots at low film speeds, and HC110 or R09 when exposing film at high ISO. Yes, noise and graininess is a matter of choice for him.

Niccolò’s photography really focuses on many diffrent things, but essentially on the female form, most images are solitary and the most part is in black and white. When you look upon the photographs you get the feeling as the portrayed women have all endured some kind of hurt, not the physical kind though. All seem lost in their thoughts, gazing out toward distant lands, even those gazing right through the camera lens, are not really seeing, expressions are vacant and glazed.
Most of his inspiration comes from the classics, and some from the web where there's a great number of talented photographers and beautiful photographs. He has already been featured in a number of publications, including Vanity Fair. His work is certainly one of the most accomplished you can find on the web. Niccolò’s work can be found on Flickr on his first and second photostream and on his website. Enjoy his photos!

 All photos copyright: Niccolò Barone

Portfolio of the Week: 4Spo

Dear Readers,

We have moved back to Germany and feature another great photographer from this great country, 4Spo. Of course, 4Spo is not his real name, as he wanted to preserve his privacy, but that's his username on Flickr. And that's OK, we respect your privacy-it's your work that counts. He is with no doubt a modest guy, even though his work tells another story, and he mainly defines himself as a fan of Peter Lindbergh.  No doubt he is a die-hard guy as well! After a few years, he happily came back to film, using the many fine cameras in his possession: Leica, Plaubel, Hasselblad, Nikon etc. He has no particular preferences for film brand or type, but he likes very much expired film for its unpredictability and the effects it gives. Possibly with the lens wide open-another bokeh fetishist, I would say. He states that he likes the subtle eroticism in photography, with a nice bokeh, with the great help of film medium. And he obviously makes his job right! Also in the fashion/editorial field.  Enjoy his work! 4Spo's work can be found of Flickr on his website, along with his colleague work.

Mitja

All photos copyright: 4Spo

Portfolio of the Week: Gaston Torres

Dear Readers,

This week we move to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to meet another one-of-a-kind photographer, Gaston Torres.  First, I must state something about his person: as I found out during our correspondence, he is an exceptionally cooperative and kind person (well, all photographers so far have been so, not to be mistaken), in his very own way. He is primarily a 35 mm fashion photographer, using different cameras and mostly color neg film, even for many of his commercial assignments and editorials. His talent is instantly obvious, once you see his work, as he is capable of handling both very complex and also very simple photo setups. By simple I don't think it as a diminutive, on the contrary. And especially in those »simple« (film) photo shoots I think he really excels in. He did a very good job on the  recognizability of his style, although I am having a hard time how to clearly define his style.....since his photos emanate quite some ambiguity. After a long thought, however, I think the best way to describe Gaston's style is a »an elegant mix of Terry Richardson and Nobuyoshi Araki, with a pinch of Helmut Newton«. I openly invite you to visit Gaston's work on his website and on his photostream on Flickr.

Mitja

 All photos copyright: Gaston Torres