What Would Edward Weston Use Today?

[Gene Crumpler]

I had a chance to visit Wild Cat Hill last fall with John Sexton Workshop. Kim(EW's grand son) and his wife now live there. We got a chance to see the old darkroom and Kim's newer Darkroom. We got to handle a lot of Edward's, Bret's, Coles and Kims work. Really remarkable.

What would Weston likely be using? Kim is using an 8x10 Arca Swiss, B&W film and both contact and enlarging paper. Kim is using amidol for a lot of his work and regular old dektol.

I have a photo of Kim and John with Kim's new Acra Swiss. The Weston's have a guest home that they rent out. Next time I'm out there, my wife and I plan to stay there for a couple of days and photograph Point Lobos yet again.

Look at www.kimweston.com. You will see your's truely picture under recent visitors.

[Gene Crumpler]

<http://www.kimweston.com/guest04/jsexton04.htm>

I'm the guy with the sunglasses.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

There are 3 guys with sunglasses and one with a camera....which one are you???... :-)

[Gene Crumpler]

Second from the right standing!

[MIke Sherck]

Since there seem to be a few EW admirers and perhaps scholars here, and also since I *just* read this passage about an hour ago, please don't be offended if my question seems a little off-topic.

I'm reading "The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Two volumns in one", published by Aperture (2nd ed.) On page 42 of the second daybook (at the beginning of chapter 6, dated January 6, 1928,) he's talking about drymounting with his new (second hand) dry mount press and a little later on, about printing. Then he says, "I use both Gavaert and Illingworth bromide, for contact and enlarging, and an Amidol developer."

Enlarging? On bromide paper? Can you do that? Did he do that?

He's clearly talking about paper and printing here; while I know that he did enlarge negatives to 8x10 for contact printing, this is the only reference I've seen to enlarging prints. Did EW print enlargements in the conventional "enlarging" sense, or does he mean something different which I've completely missed?

[Michael A.Smith]

Edward Weston printed on silver chloride paper. The only silver chloride paper in existence now is Azo. Edward did print on Azo, as well as on many other silver chloride papers. He certainly did print on Haloid, which he preferred when it was available.

Brett printed on Azo, as well as on other silver chloride papers, until he started making enlargements.

The Bergger paper is not a silver chloride paper and hence is not technically a contact printing paper. Of course, one can make a contact print on any paper.

Gregory, try to look at one of Edward's prints next to one of Cole's prints from teh same negative. There is a world of difference. There is a depth and a glow to Edward's contact prints on silver chloride paper that Cole's prints simply do not have. I have made dozens of such comparisons.

You mention having seen the prints of: Brett Weston, Morley Bear, Don Worth, Paul Caponigro, and Ansel Adams but that they don't compare to the EW/CW combo. What prints were you looking at? If you see early prints by Brett Weston and 1930s and 40s prints by Ansel Adams you will see that they are absolutely smashingly exquisite. Their photographs from that time were printed on silver chloride paper. Their later prints on enlarging paper do not have the same quality and I can understand your reaction if it is those you saw.

The issue here is really the type of paper, not the skills of the photographer. Because Azo is the last silver chloride paper, if Edward Weston had the same aesthetic interests regarding his own work (a big if, since he had started using color and seemed to have a sincere interest in it), he would be printing on Azo.

[Gregory Gomez]

Wayne,

Thanks for posting. I think you have helped me a lot.

I believe you're right about the Illford FP-4 film. I spent about 40 minutes examining the two prints I mentioned earlier -- Nude, 1936 and Eel River Ranch, 1937. The grain in both images is very fine, but not quite on the same level as T-Max 100 or Panatomic-X. I have four Morley Baer prints, all made from 8 x 10 contacts, that show more grain than the two Weston images. These contacts were made from Super-XX. If my memory serves me correctly, Edward ended up using Isopan film during the 1940s, which was a fine grain emulsion of that time, and, of course, is no longer available. Illford FP-4 would be the closest thing to it.

I also like your Forte recommendation. Azo has a slightly warm cast compared to something like Oriental Seagull, or maybe even Galerie, but my understanding is that Forte should be warmer than Azo. Do you use Forte Fortezo fiber-based paper, glossy surface? I don't think Edward would have gone for variable contrast paper, or anything resin coated. I understand that Ansco 130 gives a look very similar to Amidol for a lot less money. Is that ture?

"At the time of this publication, Cole was using Amidol and Ilfobrom, so the question may be, what current paper is closest to Ilfobrom? It can't be Azo."

Ilfobrom hasn't been available for sometime. I would say that Galerie might be similar, but Galerie has a colder tone, especially when toned with selenium.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Best regards,

Greg

[robert_4927]

As much as I admire Weston's work ( I never get tired of looking at pepper#30) I think if I could ask him a few questions it would be more along the line of..." So Ed, tell me more about Tina. Is she as wild as I imagine her to be?".....His work on haloid and even his earlier work in platinum is well documented. So instead let's talk about Tina ......lol

[Wayne]

Greg,

I have used both Fortezo and (ahh, reluctant luddite!!) even the PolyWarmtone fiber, both glossy, and I liked both very much. I said Ansco 130, but I actually used 2 similar formulations. One, PF -130 from Photographer's Formulary, a premix that they claim gives results very similar to amidol without the amidol. It lasts about as long as amidol too, once its mixed (It comes in 2 liquid parts). I havent tried amidol so I cant say about the comparison in results but it looks REALLY nice to me on that paper and I tried a number of developers. The other one I liked was one I brewed up in an attempt to match the PF-130. It was basically a phenidone version of Ansco 130 (no metol), and it lasted a lot longer than the PF-130. It gave similar results as the PF-130, which probably is some sort of phenidone A-130 also. Both neutralize the very warm tone of the papers to a considerable degree, but they remain pleasantly warm, more of a brown warm, rather than green. I found regular A-130 too warm/green for the paper. Thats one of the other things I like about the paper is its response to different developers, and I think EW would have too. I dont know if he would have liked the ivory base though!

[paulr]

i think he'd be using a camera phone. one that plays mp3s.