post alternative techniques

[Mark Sawyer]

Mark, your shovel image reminds me of a series of photo-lithos I did back in the late 80s for my grad show. I got tired of all the horse manure that was being shovelled about by other students and profs. I should add that I was anti-photography back then and thought all photographers were hacks...boy was I wrong (as usual).
My question for you Mark: Is it possible to get white whites in this process?

Can't slip a shovel image by anyone anymore! I was wishing I had a cow-pie or two when I was setting that up. Not directed at anything, though, I'd just leave that up to "viewer interpretation". You were right back then about all photographers being hacks. It's just that some are really good hacks.

The answer too your question is "sorta". No, you can't get the bright whites of a baryta paper. On a good day with the collodion at its prime, you can get a very nice "ivory" white, and a good contrast range. The shovel image is like that, "pretty good" whites and decent contrast. The tabletop image doesn't have that, largely because it was a longer exposure time (two minutes) and the collodion was starting to dry. It shifted to a warmer tone and lost the whites, but still has a quality I like in the original plate.

My overall feeling is that film photography is about the light, and tintype/alumitype/ambrotype is about the gloom.

[csant]

My overall feeling is that film photography is about the light, and tintype/alumitype/ambrotype is about the gloom.

Beautiful way of putting this. Of course it is a generalization, and there are exceptions - but I like the image you conjure up…

[Jay DeFehr]

John,

Beautiful work! I disagree with Andrew; I'd like to see more, and I feel no need to qualify it as photographic based on the degree of hand work involved. There is a movement forming of artists who use cameras as a part of their work flow in creating original works that might not conform to the traditional constraints of photography. Times change, tools change, perspectives change, work changes. It's nice to see someone exploring!

[Andrew O'Neill]

What?? How dare you disagree with me!!

[mdm]

You have taken up the shovel yourself.

[jnantz]

jnanian: for me, this is no longer a photographic image, but a hand drawing. I think you need to back off on the other media a tad, so that the cyanotype can still come through. Just my opinion...please don't take it the wrong way

hi andrew

i get kind of bored with using a camera and film ...
and cyanotypes while they are all nice and blue and all that
well i can only take blue for so long until i want to change it to something else ...
haven't drawn anything though ... just removed the blue and added my own colors .. but i know where you are coming from

this is the same sort of thing that happened to me when i made dry plates
i got bored with the images on the plates and more interested in something else
that was going on behind the image


thanks for the comments andrew and jay !
here are a few more

john

[Andrew O'Neill]

Thanks for not getting mad at me for critiquing your work, jnanian. Some people on this forum can't take it. The last two images you posted look very interesting. There is "something" there and is quite compelling.
mdm, could you elaborate with your comment, please? I was only voicing my opinion.

[mdm]

Dont worry, I'm pulling your leg. People do much more radical things to their digital files and even their negatives, just because they are somewhat abstract and dont have a barely recognisable nude figure (in the case of mr gandolfi) dosent mean they are not large format photos.

[jnantz]

thanks andrew

no worries andrew, its all good ---

the red image is actually the same base print, i stripped all the color off
and started afresh after i somehow realized those were the colors the print needed

enjoy ..
john

[sly]

[QUOTE=........

Sly I like your colouring. Which alt process is it?

............[/QUOTE]


Sorry I forgot to mention it - It's Pt/Pd. I think I'll dig out some more and continue the experiment.