Resurrecting Polywarmtone

Production of photo emulsions is a tricky business; you may have the formula, but the hardware used (mixers, heaters, glasware etc.) also plays a major role in the final outcome. So it is a huge endeavour to reproduce (more or less) exactly the same product-emulsion from the known formula only. The former Hungarian Forte Polywarmtone paper is thus no exception. Polywarmtone paper used to be a big favorite among many photographers worldwide; not only due to its pleasant warm image tone (hence, its name!), but also because it was a wonderful material to tone and even for lith printing.Sadly, as many other photo manufacturers, Forte company closed its doors as well. Its rapid decline began in the early 2000's, the company faced bankruptcy and the production line was dismantled. (I could rant about this for hours, but I'll spare this for another occasion). Anyway, the hardware for making  photo emulsions for the new facility owners proved to have little or no value. Fortunately, this sad story comes to a happy end. The German company Adox decided to acquire the hardware used for »cooking« the Polywarmtone emulsion, to repair it, and to move the whole production line to their facility in Bad Saarow (near Berlin). This effort took some time and costs, due to unexpected problems, but at last, the »resurrectors« of Polywarmtone finally made it happen! The most interesting part, to me, is that they made the whole production line about 4 times more compact (in terms of space required) as it used to be.

The "compacted" Polywarmtone emulsion production line. Image retrieved from www.polywarmton.com

Thus, the production line was quite easily moved from Hungary to Germany by truck. Adox started in 2010 to take preproduction orders for the first batch of paper and they are still open. Now, they are at the last stages before the real production. A pilot batch has been made. Although it didn't come as it should be, they know why it didn't! So, keep our fingers crossed, for the first batch of Polywarmtone to be made soon! Their ongoing activity can be found on this link, where a related blog can be found as well. Hopefully, we'll see soon the Polywarmtone paper reborn, much like the Phoenix is reborn from its own ashes!

p.s. this is by no means an advertising post, I just wanted to express my sympathy to Adox' endeavors!

Mitja

Random Quote

" The soul can not think without a picture." Aristotle

Portfolio of the Week: Rolland A. Flinta

Dear Readers,

This week we feature another photographer from Germany, Rolland A. Flinta. Rolland is a Hungarian-born photographer and director currently based in Bonn, Germany. He has been keen about photography since the adolescence and it was about three years ago that he made a serious decision to dive deeper into it. His re-entrance into analog photography is relatively late, but nevertheless, he shows good mastering of the medium. He mostly shoots in medium format. Below the portfolio, there is Rolland's bio, describing his own points of view and photo-lifestyle.  All I can say is: it's never too late to (re)enter in the magic analog world, and Rolland's work is an exquisite example! Enjoy his work! Rolland's work can be accessed through Flickr and his website.

Silver regards

Mitja

 All photos copyright: Rolland A. Flinta

Rolland's Bio

The plan for my future is to enhance more and more in photography. What pushes me on most is: perfection. There is so much to explore and I have the strongest feeling in me that I haven't reached the end of that discovery process for a long time yet. This is what keeps me occupied in the near future. 

I was definitely inspired by Richard Avedon exceptionally, by Sally Mann and Herb Ritts. But there are several famous photographers who inspire me again and again. 

Taking pictures for me means thinking thousands of thoughts running through my mind, it means escaping the real world and diving into another. With my work, I generally try to bring out the best in my models. Very frequently, pictures turn out to be inspired spontaneously because shooting one picture means having the following one on my mind. Especially daylight is an important factor for me due to the fact that I love shooting without flashlights. Playing with light and shadow fascinates me. 

In summer 2011 I discovered my enthusiasm for analogue photographing. I learn from shooting to shooting and the analogue photos amaze me more and more. The complexity and the effort of analogue pictures is much higher on the one hand, on the other hand it is worthwhile since you have to take care of every cinch, you have to take time, and in the end you are excited by the mood and the patina of each picture. 

All this makes the photo as much as the model, who has to sit still for so long, adorable. It is a fantastic and an amazing world.

Well, I did have requests for several exhibitions but due to the lack of time I unfortunately had to decline all these offers because the locations were too far away. Up to now I was very happy to be published in various papers, magazines and on the internet. 

With reference to my work, I am dreaming of publishing a photo book with my pictures.

Rolland A. Flinta

Monday column: How did I Get Into the Analog Photography

None the less that I’m old enough to start with photography in analogue times, I waited the time that digital cameras was good enough and cheap enough, so I could afford one. Before that I didn’t know how to begin. Black and white photography, with your own developing and printing seemed to me too complicated, colour photography without intimacy and too expensive.  At that time (in the nineties) actually I was photographing with my parents “focus free P&S”. But only sunsets, home cats and dogs. So this time I don’t count as my photographic experience.  So I waited the time when I had enough money to buy my own photographic camera. It was a P&S, and digital. But it was mine own photographic camera. And with it, I could get some photographic experience. But my photographic years (for me) began to counting only when I get a DSLR. Only then, for me none the less, I start the learning of the photographic way.

Agfa Isola 1, a frame from the first roll of film

Then deep into the photography, I started to look at my grandfather’s legacy in different way. I’d remembered that we have an old camera in the cabinet.  I remembered that as a child, from time to time I was taking it from the cabinet and played with it. But wait. It seemed to be in working order. Could possibly be still working? Only film was odd format. The camera was very old, and I wondered could I possibly still get the film for the camera? At that time I have already heard about medium format photographic equipment. But for my surprise when I was taking measures for the opening in camera where the film plane it should be, it was 56 mm in both directions. It was hard to believe it. The camera was too simple to be a medium format! At that time I did not know, that 120 format film was a standard in past times, because of low resolution of film around WW2. Yes Leica format was in use, but at that time (before the war) the only advantage of 35 mm film was portability (and number of frames of course). So when I learned all about 120 format film, I bought some, put it into the camera and start to do some true analogue photography. The camera was Agfa Isola 1. And of course I had to learn how to develop the film after exposure. But this is another story.
Matjaž

The LomoWall rises in London

In honor to the upcoming Olympic Games in London, over 15,000 participants-lomographers (from 32 countries) contributed 30,000 photos, rigorously made only with Lomo cameras. Those photos have been made into a mosaic, a 65-meter long wall. The LomoWall will be on display from 13 July 2012 to 6 January 2013 at the Museum of London.

The LomoWall. Image by twitter user @votredemoiselle.

The LomoWall is a very good example of a joint effort of the analog community. I think it also proves one of the main aims of the analog community-connecting people (sorry Nokia). The link to the original article is here.

Film Matter: The Schizophrenic Ektar

Kodak Ektar might be the most sophisticated color neg film we have ever seen, in my (and also others) view. It was also the latest film emulsion being introduced (in 2008). No surprise then if it incorporates very advanced features, borrowed mostly from the movie film industry (2-electron sensitization from Kodak Vision films, for example). In the 1990's we could only dream about such a (ISO 100) film. While I find Ektar amazing, I never really made up my mind about it. Why? Because in some respects it just »looks too good« to me. Yes, I do really like saturated, contrasty films, but...Ektar's look sometimes almost reminds me of a (high-end) digital photo-it's too "polished" in my eyes. For some people (or circumstances) that might be a good thing, while for some not. Yes, all I have been dealing up to now were scanned negatives (or Frontier-made prints, for that matter). Yes, scanning Ektar is a breeze. I just think I need to make a decent optical print from an Ektar negative to get a fair assessment-hopefully soon...That's the story when your Ektar rolls undergo the standard C-41 processing. But what happens when you push- or cross-process your Ektar rolls? Let's find it out! Here we have 3 remarkable examples of cross- and push-processed Ektar from Hannah, Will and Leo.

Hannah's Ektar processed in E6. Image retrieved from her photostream on Flickr..

 Hannah crossprocessed her Ektar at home in E6 chemistry. The colors are a bit more muted, yet still rich, there's a bit of bluish cast there, but nothing exaggerated. Probably, a light warming filter will compensate the color cast (if you wish so). But most importantly, the film gets an entirely new look. To me, it looks much like the old trichromie photos. It's like we have a brand new slide film to choose from-who did ever say Kodak discontinued all slide films ? -:)

Will's  2-stop push-processed Ektar in C-41. Image retrieved from his photostream on Flickr.

Leo's 3-stop push-processed Ektar in C-41. Image retrieved from his photostream on Flickr

Will and Leo, on the other hand, push-processed Ektar in C-41 for 2 and 3 stops (ISO 400 and 800), respectively. Yes, these negatives inevitably pick up in contrast (corrected after scanning), but their color rendition changes very much as well. In fact, it's like you're dealing with a completely different (uknown?) color-neg film! Another good thing is, graininess remains reasonable. Will's photos remind me of earlier Kodachrome versions, while those of Leo render a more pastel-like color palette. I shall thank all 3 contributors to gave me the opportunity to show a side-by-side comparison of different processing versions of Ektar. It's just amazing how a "vintage" look you can get from the most modern film! Ektar is definitely a film with split-personality and it's worth to try all the processing variants shown (and perhaps some more)!

Silver regards
Mitja