John Wimberley - film ?

[Mark J]

Hi All
I've been aware of John Wimberley's work for a few years, and his involvement in re-igniting interest in Pyro developers.
His compositions are very strong and original and the technical quality is superb, I know some people have seen his prints and been to workshops & attested to this.
One thing i can't find, with a significant amount of online searching, however, is which types of film he has used over the years to get this success.
I speculate about whether he prefers old-school emulsions, or whether he's has mastered the use of more modern emulsions with WD2D or variants.

Does anyone know, or asked him ( does he comment in his books ? ) ...

[Eric Woodbury]

In the Darkroom Cookbook, there is one of his developers called WD2H. Apparently this was designed for use with FP4 to achieve N+4 development for his petroglyph series.

[Michael R]

I’ve corresponded with him in the past. Going back about 10 years now but FP4 for everything, developed in WD2H. The H version was originally intended for more contrast expansion but after the initial project he continued using it for everything. Stop bath and Ilford Rapid Fixer.


Hi All
I've been aware of John Wimberley's work for a few years, and his involvement in re-igniting interest in Pyro developers.
His compositions are very strong and original and the technical quality is superb, I know some people have seen his prints and been to workshops & attested to this.
One thing i can't find, with a significant amount of online searching, however, is which types of film he has used over the years to get this success.
I speculate about whether he prefers old-school emulsions, or whether he's has mastered the use of more modern emulsions with WD2D or variants.

Does anyone know, or asked him ( does he comment in his books ? ) ...

[Mark J]

Very interesting - thanks for the info.
Good old FP4 then !
Which format(s) does/did he use ? There are only a couple of small photos I can find of him working. Would guess 5 x 7 , but not sure.

[Michael R]

Very interesting - thanks for the info.
Good old FP4 then !
Which format(s) does/did he use ? There are only a couple of small photos I can find of him working. Would guess 5 x 7 , but not sure.

Mostly 5x7.

[Mark J]

Excellent. There's no excuse not to get the Gandolfi out again this year.

[neil poulsen]

He really liked the 5x7 format and photographed and photograph with it quite a lot, and I recall him saying that he thought FP4 was a good film. I use the past tense, because he's photographing in digital now. He donated his beloved 5x7 Durst to non-profit . . . etc.

Not sure if he burned his negatives in bonfire.:D (Probably not.)

REVISION: I've confused FP4 with Kodak Plus X above. I've since spoken to a friend, who recalled that John didn't care much for Ilford films.

[Mark J]

Ha ! It's awful to contemplate, but I really respect Brett for doing that.

Do you happen to know if John used the condenser or diffuser version of the Durst ?
I've been looking at one on EBay, but getting bulbs, and shoehorning it into my small darkroom could ultimately thwart me on that project.

[Joe O'Hara]

I'm guessing that he used a diffusion enlarger. He's a very unassuming man-- you could always write to him. We talked shop one time, about lenses and so on. He encouraged me consider using 5x7. I said I didn't have enough space for the enlarger in my house. He admitted his was "a beast". I felt loaded down with 30 pounds of gear in the field, he carried north of 50 back then, and five years older than me-- how, I don't know.

One thing I'm pretty sure of is that he would say that what is in your heart is much more important than your camera, enlarger, or film. I agree with him on that.

[Michael R]

Thanks for posting this - I haven't really kept up on what he's been doing more recently (last I corresponded with him was probably 10 years ago, maybe even a bit longer). Had no idea he went digital but that's interesting. Every time a read about one of these switches it tempts me further...


He really liked the 5x7 format and photographed and photograph with it quite a lot, and I recall him saying that he thought FP4 was a good film. I use the past tense, because he's photographing in digital now. He donated his beloved 5x7 Durst to non-profit . . . etc.

Not sure if he burned his negatives in bonfire.:D (Probably not.)

[Mark J]

He sounds like a great guy. I'm sure he would say that the vision is the key thing, but you can tell that he valued craft in order to complete that vision, nobody spends decades carrying a 5x7" camera around and re-formulating ancient developers if they don't have a clear idea of what they want as the end result !

Well, I have just bought a condenser 138S , so there's no turning back on that. I needed a new project.

I have found the combination of doing my B&W on film, especially larger formats, meshes well with doing colour on digital SLR. It's very useful exercise for the brain to switch between the two every few days. In the past I used to try to do some colour work on 120, alongside the B&W shots, but too often i just took colour & B&W shots of the same thing on two film backs. I didn't work, because they are really different animals that required different subjects and different visualisation.

[Hugo Zhang]

Does anyone know how to get his book? His website is not working anymore.

[MartinP]

Does anyone know how to get his book? His website is not working anymore.

I did a bit of a Google and came up with this link . . .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225159693757

Too high for my budget, inevitably.

[Durst L184]

He really liked the 5x7 format and photographed and photograph with it quite a lot, and I recall him saying that he thought FP4 was a good film. I use the past tense, because he's photographing in digital now

Wimberley gone digital? Up is down. Hate is love.

[Durst L184]

"One thing i can't find, with a significant amount of online searching, however, is which types of film he (Wimberley) has used over the years to get this success."


It looks like you got your answer i.e. that at some point Wimberley embraced FP4. I took a workshop with him a very long time ago, and if I remember correctly his decision to shoot a great deal with FP4 was triggered by the disappearance of Plus X, and he felt that FP4 was about the closest to it. I will look through some materials to see if this is accurate --memory is a bad witness (I think that I might even have an email address for him somewhere). I know that his early experiments with pyro were with Plus X (of course he eventually came up with tables for a range of films).

[Roger Thoms]

Does anyone know how to get his book? His website is not working anymore.

Are you sure, I just was viewing his website, try this link. https://johnwimberleyphotography.com/books.php

Roger

[Jim Fitzgerald]

John has gone digital. He gave all of his camera gear and darkroom equipment to Michael at LightBox Photographic Gallery in Astoria Oregon. His 4x5 holders are all filled with FP-4. I have seen all of his pristine very detailed labels and duplicates of all of his equipment. We have his 5x7 enlarger and complete darkroom as well. When I teach workshops I develop prints in one of his two sinks.

[Durst L184]

John has gone digital ... We have his 5x7 enlarger and complete darkroom as well. When I teach workshops I develop prints in one of his two sinks.

Nothing but bad news this week. Still, very happy to learn that at least his vestiges have a good and productive home.

[Mark J]

I just got a very nice email from John, and he tells me that he used the 138 S with an Ilford Dichroic head - so a diffuser source.