The Analog Photographer

10.7.12

Random Quote

"Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop." Usman B. Asif

9.7.12

Monday Column: Why a Vampire Can Not Be an Analog Photographer

As an analogue photographer you have all experienced how is to be hours and hours in the darkroom. I don’t know about you, but I had, after several hours in the darkroom in the middle of the night at local elementary school, a strange feeling of presence. I knew that I was alone in the school, but... Hopefully I’m not paranoiac, but as part of consumer of modern popular culture, we are all bombarded with stories about supernatural creatures. And one of those creatures fit perfectly in the dark lonely corridors of the empty local school in the middle of the night.

Could be a vampire? A lonely sorrow creature craving for the blood. And a lonely sorrow analogue photograph in the darkroom seems to be a perfect target. Not! As commonly known, vampires have some deficiencies. Among allergy for garlic and UV light is also allergy to silver. Be thankful to that, that analogue photography is all about silver those days. In the modern films, the vampire killers uses bullets filled with silver nitrate for killing vampires. So, if you are afraid of the vampires, just keep some of used developer. After you develop a film or photographic paper, it has a lot of washed away silver from not exposed parts of film in it. So in the case of need, just pour it over the creature. Guarantee success. So you don’t need the garlic wreath on the door of the darkroom. You could be sure that no vampire will come and bother you, when you are printing your precious photos.

But hey! Maybe they are not so bad after all. And after all you could find a brother soul in analogue photography? Oh, there is a problem. Photography is all about light and vampires are allergic to the sunlight. But they could be nightlight photographers and they could produce masterpieces like the Edward Steichen’s Pond – Moonlight?


Edvard Steichen: Pond - Moonlight Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/ThePondMoonlight.jpg

And others could develop and print the photographs for them, as they did for the Henry Cartier Bresson (and many others photographers too). But why they would bother? At present days, for night time photographers, you have are more appropriately suited tools. A blasfemy for analogue photographers, but nevertheless, vampires goes digital. We already stated that when we are talking about soul in photography, it is analogue. Vampires have no soul. So that’s the ultimate reason, why a vampire could not (wont) be an analogue photographer. They don’t even bother about, they have ISO 204,000.

7.7.12

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

No, it's not a post about some Danse Macabre stuff....these were just my thoughts when we took a visit to Helmut Newton's grave in Berlin, back in May. First we took a mandatory visit to his museum on Jebensstrasse which is pretty easy to find, just behind the (in)famous Zoo Station. There, at the museum, you can really get a grasp of his life and work, glamorous and controversial, but also about more intimate aspects. And it takes a while to get through all three museum floors, too. Diametrically opposite is the impression when you visit his grave, unnoticeable and humble, just a few meters away from Marlene Dietrich (it was his wish to be buried there). We were lucky enough to meet two graveyard employees, so the quest was relatively short. I am not saying I was expecting a mausoleum or something, but realizing that one of the greatest photographers (his ashes, actually) is buried there, being visited only by a bunch of visitors, here and there, made me a bit sad. On the contrary, Marlene's grave gets much more visits (if you compare the stones put on the gravestone).

Helmut Netown's grave in Berlin.

Bottom line: take care of yourself and of your dearest here and now. It won't really matter after.

Helmut is buried in the Städtischer Friedhof III cemetery, not really a "high point" of Berlin. Sadly, even many locals are not aware of the cemetery itself, let alone of Helmut's grave. Hint: it improves your chances to get in the right direction if you ask where is the cemetery where Marlene Dietrich is buried, but it's not necessarily 100% proof (that's our experience).
Mitja

6.7.12

Random Quote

"In my experience I've learnt that they make an ordinary scene interesting and an interesting scene ordinary", Tim Hixson on plastic cameras. More about here.

Cottage Tip: Keeping Humidity under Control- Part 1

Humidity is one the worst enemies of your cameras and lenses! We all know that under prolonged humid conditions, especially if stored in the dark, fungal growth can begin inside your beloved lenses! The best cure is, of course, keeping your equiment in constant use (fungal growth is quite sensitive to light). But most of the time, our beloved toys reside in a bag or a case, in the dark. Unless you live in an arid environment, we need to make sure there is not enough moisture inside to initiate the growth of the evil fungi! Fortunately, fungal growth is quite a slow process, and won't happen overnight! Many photographers just put (intuitively) inside a bag or two of silicagel they recycled from a shoe box or other purchased goods. The problem is, this silicagel is probably already exhausted, so it has no capacity left to absorb the moisture. Plus, it usually has no color indication whether is exhausted or not. Most of the people just put inside these little bags and forget about them for good! Fourtunately, most people don't have problems with fungi, but some of them do, sadly.

This is all you need: fresh silicagel, a film canister and a sharp tool (e.g. scissors). Rightmost: a bag of exhausted silicagel.


This is how a punched canister looks like.

Left: film canister with fresh silicagel. Right: canister with exhausted silicagel, notice the color change.

The real solution to the problem is to buy silicagel beads with color indicator in bulk-you can buy half a kilo or so for little money online. As the silicagel gets too wet, it turns its color from orange to dark blue (it looks like caviar-before and after-salmon before, beluga caviar after J). So, buy silicagel in bulk, and you can regenerate it many times by (re)heating it! Next problem is the container; I simply use a (translucent) film canister, finely punched along its surface. Pour the dry silicagel inside and close the lid. A canister or two will do their job for a few weeks or months inside the bag (or case), but not forever! Moisture penetrates more than you can imagine inside your bags and cases (unless you have everything sealed with plastics-not really practical), so a regular check is advisable. When it comes to regenerate, simply put the silicagel in a shallow (glass or metal) container or pan inside the kitchen oven for an hour or so around 100 °C. When it turns back orange in color, you're done! When not in use, keep your silicagel well sealed against moisture. The humidity in your closet or drawer, where you keep your gear, is also important. We'll cover this in the second part.

A note of caution: with time, some fine dust will occur, due to silicagel's self-abrasion. Do not breathe the dust, it's not friendly to your lungs!

Mitja

About Cottage Tips

Dear Readers,

As already promised, we'll feature a series of technical contributions, and among them there will be the so-called Cottage Tips. Essentially, it will be a »how-to« series of short (or longer) posts, dealing with various inexpensive technical solutions for improving your photo-gear, upgrading on a tight budget, or even making a piece of equipment not available in the stores. Not necessarily all contributions will be strictly dedicated to film photography, but also for general photographic usage. I am sure some of the contributions you'll find very basic or redundant, something you've been knowing about for ages, but most of them not. We also need to keep in mind the newcomers to (film) photography; they need all the information we can give them. On the long run, I am sure with these tips we can make our photographic endeavours a little bit more comfortable, easier, and hopefully cheaper, too.

silver regards

Mitja

4.7.12

Portfolio of the Week: Martina Woll

Dear Readers,

This week we feature a German photographer, Martina Woll. Martina is an autodidact photographer from Saarbrücken. She works in 35 mm (Canon EOS 3, Minolta SR-T 101, Yashica Electro 35GTN and others) and 6x6 (Mamiya C330S), as well as with Fuji Instax and Holga cameras, with available light as her primary lighting source. Her preferred films are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Agfa APX 100. She develops BW films by herself, usually with Caffenol-C. Her photographic work and interests range widely, very widely; from portraits to still life, to a variety of vehicles, vessels (aircrafts), and other subjects. She also loves the imperfections film has to offer: lightleaks, fluff, blur etc. Most of her inspiration comes from the web, since there is a great deal of talented photographers' work to be seen online, as she states. And she's right! Thus, she has no rigid or exemplar rules about. She has already been featured in a number of publications, including Playboy USA. Besides her portfolio, I personally like very much her Smoking series of photos.