F:64 -Sharp is Dead

[paulr]

In my new body of work, I have chosen to eschew lenses altogether and expose for a smooth, uniform grey, so I can concentrate on the classical essence of large format photography: uneven development, dust in the film holder, and light leaks...

Mark, this is hilarious ... partly because its reducto-absurdum touches on something interesting. These are intrinsic qualities of the medium, and are really just the tip of the iceberg when you think of all the quirky things our materials and toys can produce on their own.

I often think of my friend Anne McDonald's work ... she makes photograms of the body on mural paper, prints them out in direct sun, and develops and bleaches with an insane array of chemicals. The results are unique, chaotic ... partly her ideas, partly the materials doing their own thing.

Her work is much more uniquely analog than any straight photograph could be. There are other media that can capture nature, but her murals are innately the product of these wonderful traditional materials.

I'd like to see a series of light leaks, development streaks, and dust!

[srbphoto]

Mark - I was going to do the same thing but I am going to fix the dust in Photoshop!

[Frank Bagbey]

Here we go again. Why can't there be a "digitial large format forum" for those who want to swing that way? The piano comparison is a good one. Much as I love electronic music, and that is what I listen to the most in the darkroom, I have yet to hear any electronic artist compare to a symphony orchestra. Until someone proves otherwise to me, I have yet to see a great digitial print compare to a great cibachrome or optically printed photograph. Here we go again. Yes, it is boring. Everyone should just shut up and do their own thing. Fine art production may be more important that yacking about fine art production.

[BrianShaw]

Everyone should just shut up and do their own thing. Fine art production may be more important that yacking about fine art production.

You might be right, Frank, but if so... this wouldn't be a very active discussion forum, would it?

[Vaughn]

You might be right, Frank, but if so... this wouldn't be a very active discussion forum, would it?

And some of us need something to do in between our various stages of the photographic process. Right now I am waiting for my glop* to de-gas so I can pour some tissues for a workshop I am giving next weekend.

Vaughn

* -- highly technical term for my black jello (a mixture of gelatin, sugar and lampblack).

[BrianShaw]

And some of us need something to do in between our various stages of the photographic process. Right now I am waiting for my glop* to de-gass so I can pour some tissues for a workshop I am giving next weekend.

Vaughn

* -- highly technical term for my black jello.

And I'm sitting here dreaming about my kids getting old enough and not costing so much to feed/clothe so I can take one of your workshops.

[Vaughn]

And I'm sitting here dreaming about my kids getting old enough and not costing so much to feed/clothe so I can take one of your workshops.

The workshop I am giving in April in Yosemite will be fun. I'll have my three 13 year old boys with me and they'll probably be on their own during the day. I am half-expecting a ranger to interrupt the workshop, "Mr. Hutchins, are these your boys? We found them rockclimbing up the side of the Ahwanee."

Vaughn

My gawd...three 13 year olds. (They turn 13 at the end of March) I'd better stop thinking about that. I guess I'll go and develop a few 8x10's I took up in the redwoods this week and take my mind off of that!

[paulr]

I have yet to hear any electronic artist compare to a symphony orchestra.

I take this as a statement of taste, not as anything that bears on the quality of the artists in question.

For one thing, the younger generations of musicians today aren't so easily pigeonholed; the categories don't make sense anymore. My good friend is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and symphony percussion player. He has written music for symphonies and for digital sequencers. He's written a piece for dueling, diaphanous, james-brown-style funk bands, and a concerto for orchestra and electric guitar.

Is he an electronic artist or an acoustic one? I'm sure the question would be meaningless to him; he'd just assume you're not listening. And he assures me his ecclecticism is pretty minor league compared with what he sees in his students.

The world of photography isn't much different. I don't know too many people doing interesting, new work in photography who would think the digital/analog question is especially relevent.

[paulr]

I regret to say that unsharpness is NOT a prerequisite for "Atmosphere".

If I didn't know better, I'd think the original post had been written by Mortensen about a hundred years ago.

I really hope the book is researched enough to see that the debate between sharp and fuzzy, if it's about anything at all, is about fashion. Every decade or so people get sick of one and go back to the other.

Most recently in the fuzzy camp there was the diana/holga toy camera craze. Before that was the vintage lens/platinum ressurgence in the mid '90s.

I think it would be easier if we thought of sharpness the way a painter might think of the color blue: it serves some pictures very well, others not so much.

As far as sharp pictures being incapable of emotion ... I think someone would have to be seriously stunted emotionally to actually believe this.

[Jay Allen]

Three sizes of accessory focal Plane shutters were built by Graflex. 8x10, 6x8 and 5x7. I assume they were primarily marketed to fit Cycle Graphics but they also could be used on a 2D or a Century Studio Camera.

Also it is interesting (for a new member)reading the jibber jabber. I wonder how many of the writters still have wet darkrooms that they use?

How many of the LF writers actually have wet darkrooms that they regularly use? How can one be busy on the internet and be busy doing darkroom work?

Years ago most photographers became lazy and gave up the wet creative side of photography. Half the quality of what I produce comes from there and knowing how to use it. An the best tool in the darkroom is the waist basket. These are the prints, the ones in the waist basket that the commercial labs sell to most photographers.

Jay Allen