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. (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. (Probably not.)