"Vases. East and West." --- 12"x16" in-camera ilfochromes

[Marco Annaratone]

This project started about six years ago and was supposed to be over in a few months. It's over now :-)

I am emotionally attached to it for many reasons. First, the subject, i.e., east-and-west. The past fifteen years have been an intoxicating roller coaster inside Japanese culture, my wife has become a scholar of ikebana and transferred an appreciation for Japanese aesthetics, especially re: volumes and (a)symmetries. Second, the age of the Ilfochrome, which has passed its prime time and can only produces pastel colors, and not those screaming hues of when it was young and full of energy. She (he?) too has aged, but I like it the way it is now: old and a bit beaten up. Third, the nature of each unique and irrepetible print, that has stolen an instant and allows for no encores.

In spite of our hard work the two of us are still many miles away from gaining even that minimum of understanding of what drives Japanese visual arts, of course.

All of the above has nothing to do with whether the project is any good :-) I just wanted to put it in a somewhat personal context.

There we go.

http://12tonephotography.com/Vases.-East-and-West/1/

Cheers

[Vaughn]

You worked within the materials way of seeing color very well. And I enjoyed seeing how the tall vase with the gold and cyan on it was rendered in both the cooler and warmer print series.

[Paul Metcalf]

Marco - great post. I've almost made if through your video (up to the development of the paper). Lots of good info, and now I have some motivation to go a different route with the rest of the Ilfochrome paper I have left. Instead of making more prints of all the transparencies I have, I like the idea of making one-off originals. I can always scan the transparencies and then go into infinite-printing mode from the digital files if I ever move that way. I have many questions, and will post them as I work through this. You've put a lot of thought into this process, that's for sure. Where did you get those great tables (exposures, filtration)? Are they something I can use or get (I can do screen shots of the video, but won't if you would not like that)? Bravo.

Paul

[Marco Annaratone]

Paul,
the tables are my own, it took me several months years ago to put them together via experimentation. I think they work fine if you can afford not to be absolutely precise in the rendering of hues. These formulas are the result of an infinitely recursive process that however after only two iterations has been stopped (by me 'cause I am not an*l retentive). In other words, if you have an assignment to take an in-camera ilfochrome picture of a Ferrari :rolleyes: and you must reproduce its famous red perfectly, well, I can assure you these formulas will serve you poorly ;)

I do not have the tables handy, but I posted them in an APUG thread some time ago. At the end of this thread

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/41252-ilfochrome-directly-shot-camera.html

you will find them. I am "mammolo" there.

Have fun with your Ilfochromes!

Cheers



Vaughn,
thank you, I appreciate your interesting comment. I actually started with the warm rendering, but it did not look ok for different vase combinations so I switched to a cooler cast. However I still like those three so I kept them.

Cheers




P.S. Oops, I just realized I posted it in the wrong section ... it's definitely LF photography :-) ... if the moderators want to move the thread I have no problem whatsoever, of course

[Paul Metcalf]

Thanks Marco. I'll use your tables as a starting point. I'm not out to make perfect color images so I can afford to experiment (that's what makes this all fun to me anyhow)!

[Pierre 2]

Thank you for the wonderful images and all the detailed explanations in the video.

Have you given any thoughts about formulating/using any sort of replacement for developper, bleach and fix formulas ? Would like to try to see if anything worthy of interest could be obtained from my old cibachrome paper stored at room temperature...

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, experience and those beautiful images.

[Marco Annaratone]

Thank you for the wonderful images and all the detailed explanations in the video.

Have you given any thoughts about formulating/using any sort of replacement for developper, bleach and fix formulas ? Would like to try to see if anything worthy of interest could be obtained from my old cibachrome paper stored at room temperature...

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, experience and those beautiful images.
Pierre, thank you for your kind words.

I have about 70 sheets of 12x16 ilfochrome (always kept refrigerated - I believe they are 2006 and 2007 - but as you can see from the project they have lost their characteristic "in-your-face" colors anyway) and enough chemistry to process them. The problem is that I have "useable" chemistry for only 10 sheets. In the remaining chemistry (certainly enough for 60 sheets) the developer is dead, while I think the bleach is ok. There is a lot of know-how re: replacing the developer and the fixer on the net for ilfochrome, but it is "internet-know-how", i.e., bits and pieces here and there, hearsay, "I tried that and it worked" without specifying with accuracy all the boundary conditions and most of all what "worked" means, etc. At least this is what I found thus far. My understanding is that both the developer and the fixer can be (easily?) replaced, especially the fixer which seems to be a standard fixer. APUG is a good source of info, I believe someone was even trying to come up with a replacement for the bleach, which is the really tricky component. I must have written down some notes a few months ago re: the developer, because there is a specific one (for B&W of course) that appears to be the preferred choice for those few who have done some experimentation.

Bottom line: I have no suggestion right now, but I will soon have to tackle the problem: I certainly do not want to throw 60 sheets of 12x16 Ilfochrome in the dumpster unless I am 101% sure it is reallyreallyreallyreally hopeless.

Cheers

[StoneNYC]

Incredible video.

I feel the need to point out that your grasp of the English language and your vocabulary skill set are both amazing and I felt it important that it be said.

This was a great video, also nice to see a lotus view, I've never seen one, though I do own a few 4x10 holders.

The results are interesting and I love the subdued color, I'm not a still life type of guy, but your work even appeals to me, thanks for sharing.

~Stone

[Marco Annaratone]

Thank you for the compliments, Stone. I think I write OK, I spent about twenty years in the US; but if you heard me speaking ... boy ... my pronunciation still sucks ;) and I'm being kind ...

I love my 14x17 Lotus. Too bad ageing is what it is and the poor thing is now rarely used and confined to studio work.

Cheers