Analogue film, alternative, hybrid and darkroom
➤ 6 ➤ APRIL 2018
Editorial
Contents
Welcome to issue 6 of Analogue. My thanks, as always, to our contributors.
Analogue Group
This edition of Analogue contains a bit of an experiment: How can a video presentation of still images be transposed onto the ‘printed’ page? See Hendrik Faure’s Roadworks at the end of time and how our graphic designer, Simon, rose to the challenge (and then look at Hendrik’s video on Vimeo).
Chair: David Healey ARPS E: analogue@rps.org
Simon Riddell’s photographic journey is, in part, also a chance to reflect on the life and inspiration coming from his father not just looking back but looking forward.
Events: Steven Godfrey E: analogueevents@rps.org
In contrast, Donald Richards sought his inspiration from some wellknown names in photography. At first glance his technique might seem quite complicated and need a lot of technical knowledge. However, perhaps on second reading, it becomes clear that he is simply applying fundamental techniques consistently but nevertheless still learning.
Secretary: Andy Moore E: analoguesecretary@rps. org
Treasurer: Peter Young LRPS
2 On Photography Simon Riddell discusses his photographic journey.
Editor: Richard Bradford ARPS E: analoguenews@rps.org
You will be reading this shortly before the AGM on 21 April at the Victoria & Albert Museum where I hope to see many of you. Perhaps meeting other analogue souls in such a prestigious venue may also inspire you to contribute to Analogue - there can never be too much material available to keep the pages filled! A final thought: Is Analogue a newsletter or a magazine? The designation of the Society’s Special Interest Groups’ publications came up at a recent volunteers event, so what do you think? Why not discuss this in the Group’s Facebook page? If you would rather not go public with your views, then please let me know via analoguenews@rps.org – I will collate responses and keep them anonymous.
Designer: Simon W Miles Web Content Manager: Amy-Fern Nuttall ARPS E: analogueweb@rps.org
5 Roadworks At
17 A portfolio
Hendrik Faure presents his multimedia photogravure project.
Donald Richards shares his method of analogue photography.
the End of Time
Richard Bradford ARPS, Editor analoguenews@rps.org
Cover: Siam Park by Simon Riddell ➤ Analogue Magazine ➤ 6
The Royal Photographic Society Fenton House, 122 Wells Rd, Bath BA2 3AH T: +44 (0)1225 325733 E: reception@rps.org W: www.rps.org Website & Social Media E: web@rps.org ➤ APRIL 2018 ➤ 1
On photography Simon Riddell
W: www.loonysiproductions.com E: info@loonysiproductions.com Twitter: @LoonySi Instagram: siriddell
I am 36 years old, and work as a self-employed fire risk consultant while my passion for photography came from days out shooting with my Dad when I was a young lad. Just over a year ago I got back into photography, buying a Lubitel 166B and a roll of Ilford HP5. I had never shot medium format, or used a TLR camera, I was just keen to get back to the basics and find my way in film. The months that followed saw me build a darkroom in my garage, making mistakes and learning from them along the way. YouTube videos of a photography lecturer called Will Agar and online research enabled me to start developing film, making black and white prints, and latterly also colour prints (colour can be difficult, but really boosts your skill-set). These days I mainly shoot Ilford HP5 in my Lomography Sprocket Rocket camera pushed to 1600ISO as it gives me the versatility for multiple exposures and poor lighting conditions – I also love its gnarly grain. In my Bronica ETRS I shoot Ilford PanF for long exposures using a variety of filters, mainly red and ND for land / skyscapes. I also love Rollei Retro 80S, and Ilford SFX 200. If I shoot 35mm I use my Dad’s Canon AE-1, normally with HP5 loaded for street stuff, but recently I shot Adox CMS II at a boat graveyard, which yielded insane detail when shot at ISO 12.
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The 6x6F pinhole camera has become a true love. Pinhole photography is like seeing another dimension for me, and I especially like multiple exposures. Early on, I noticed that I would often have light leaks using this camera, which I actually really liked. After investigating, the cause happened to be the way in which I was loading the film. I can now control the extent of light leak, to either have none, or a variation on the intensity you see in the images. I like to think this is similar to a signature on my work in pinhole. Normally I keep an orange filter on. I like to shoot in high contrast and open the lens right up whenever I can. Capturing movement is something that also pulls me into photography. I would say that I most love using vintage or simple tools in challenging environments to capture the image. There are no limits with film, you have so many options with the chemicals, timings, ratios, temperatures, even the way you agitate (or do not) your film, and when it comes to making your prints – well, I find it amazing!
by land. These have been the subject of many of my recent days, and Nigg Bay is such a beautiful location to shoot at.
Photography takes me away, it grasps and focuses my attention, it makes me look at the world in a different way. Which format, which film, which camera, which lens, what aperture, which ISO, what shutter speed, which developer, which paper? All these aspects come into my decision prior to letting light through the shutter.
Unfortunately, my Dad passed away recently, and so I will have to go on without his banter and encouragement, however photography will always be there, and it is something I share so I think it is like an ever widening array of chemicals, memories, and emotions, with limitless possibilities for creation. Enjoy the art of film photography!
I have also been to places I would not have gone to without photography. My Dad and I stumbled upon some WWI / WWII military installations in our local area (The Sutors of Cromarty and Nigg). Research showed us that there were many more installations along the coastline, culminating with two searchlight towers, that now are nearly inaccessible
Above: Beach Smiles – Shot on HP5 at ISO 400 developed in Ilfosol. I remember running backwards trying to focus the Bronica and not fall over to catch this moment. Left: Cuillins Tree – Shot on the sprocket Rocket using Ilford HP5 at ISO 1600 developed in Ilfotec, double exposure.
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Below left: Soul Searching – Shot on Fomopan Classic 100 at ISO 100 developed in Rodinal, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. Double exposure. Right: Judo Warmup – Shot on HP5 at ISO 1600, developed in Ilfosol using the Lomography Sprocket Rocket, handheld. I wanted to convey energy.
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Below right: Ball – Shot on Fomopan Classic 100 with the Lubitel 166B at f4.5 @ 125s – I wanted to create a gnarly classic looking shot with motion captured.
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Left: Super Fast – Shot on PanF at ISO 50 developed in Rodinal 1:25, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. I love this shot because of my son’s interpretation of it. I was able to explain pinhole photography to him whilst talking him through the shot – he wondered why the clouds were blurry and the car roof was in focus so to speak. This is the last shot of the long exposure workshop with Paul Sanders. I was wet through and there were midges everywhere, so whilst Paul and the others had donned midge nets and went to shoot the sun setting, I rested the pinhole on the car roof and soaked up the memory while the film soaked up the light. Right: Nigg Old Pier – Shot on PanF at ISO 50 developed in Rodinal 1:25, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. I especially love this shot with the light leak. Below left: In Water – Shot on Fomopan Classic 100 at ISO 100 developed in Rodinal, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. This is shot with the tripod low down in the sea. Below centre: Me and Diesel – Shot on Fomopan Classic 100 at ISO 100 developed in Rodinal, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. For this shot I had my dog sit on the beach, opened the shutter and ran to kneel next to him for a couple of seconds, and then ran back to close the shutter. Below right: Renfrew Rose – Shot on PanF at ISO 50 developed in Rodinal 1:25, using the 6x6F pinhole camera. This is the ferry crossing between Nigg Bay and Cromarty.
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Roadworks at the end of time a (bio)graphic novel by Hendrik Faure
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1. please allow me to introduce myself I am psychiatrist and heliograveur. My ancestor was hatter. When he lived in the Rhone Valley, 400 million people were on Earth. When I was born in Westphalia, it was 2.6 billion.
2. borderland A few years before the birth of my daughter, I moved to the village. The iron curtain between the good and the evil ran a mile further to the east.
3. deciding moment The border protected nature. Unfortunately, the fall of the border resulted in a renaissance of old fascist plans for a highway heading east. The route was staked out here 1935.
4. loneliness of German Shepherd I photographed the attacks of machines. Nobody wanted to see my pictures. I was disappointed about people’s indifference.
5. fallen angel But today I have another view. Today 7.5 billion people are living on earth. All want to eat, to drink and to drive a car. 80 miles of battered nature is mere trifle.
6. blĂźhende Landschaften Today I see our flowering landscapes
7. the tower of fools and our sublime monuments
8. the lady of my heart under the bridges is no rain and good light for photography
9. the driver’s dream In my studio I compose nature morte [still life]
10. a hole in the dark and in my darkroom I am all alone
Epilog
Photogravures
It is true, that the route was surveyed in 1935, as a neighbour told me. He is dead and no one in the village remembers.
Made following the method of Talbot and Klic: Interpositivs on AT0 graphic film Asphalt-Aquatinta on copperplates Hahnemühle antique etching paper Gamblin bone black ink (print 9 colors inked à la poupée) Image sizes 10 x 12.5 inch, paper size 16 x 20 inch Edition of eight intended (depending on the plates’ strength).
It is true, that Héliogravure remains longer than memory. It is only paper, bone ash and a touch of oil.
All work was made computer-free, except final scanning of prints.
Technical epilog
Final word
I chose details of my biography for this strictly dada science work in the style of a graphic novel.
Le sentier pour la fin du temps is the full, original, version on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/235972703 (Password: change).
It is dedicated to borderlands and frontiers – between fiction and history, between dreams and memories, between fear and amusement and between photography and print graphic.
Cellist and experimental musician Ulrich Maiß, aka Cellectric, created music to this presentation based on the harmonic contents of the first bars of Oliver Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps.
It is not true, that the Nazis invented the autobahn; like their descendants, they’ve generally been stupid. But they benefited from it.
I took pictures 1, 9 and 10 in 2017, all the others between 2004 and 2012. The photogravures were all made in summer 2017. Film formats Pictures 1, 3, 8 and 9 are 8x10 inch, all others 4x5 inch. Lenses picture 1 and 9 : picture 3: pictures 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 picture 10:
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Rodenstock Imagon 200 mm Goerz Doppelanastigmat Serie III No 7 Modern lenses Cardboard Pinhole (focus 3 inch, exposure 14 hours).
Using these harmonies as a recurring motif, his cello follows the camera through landscapes well known to both of us.
Hendrik Faure biography Born 1951, practising photography since 1966 and photogravure since 2010. Psychiatrist, married, with one daughter. Exhibitions (selected) 2001 Resebeck Göttingen Schrott und Kunst 2005 Photogalerie Heeder Krefeld Landschaft in Uniform 2010 Atelier Silberstein Göttingen Rajasthan 2011 Atelier Silberstein Petra Oued Rum 2012 New Orleans Photo Association Another way of seeing (group) 2014 LA Noble Gallery London Still life & death 2014 Darmstädter Tage der Fotographie Kabinett der Melancholie 2015 Hamburger Phototriennale, satellite exp. Photography becomes slow again 2015 Royal Photographic Society Analogue User Group exhibition (Gold Medal) 2016 Art Supplement Göttingen (re)cycling 2016 FixPhoto London Photogravuren 2016 Member of Deutsche Fotografische Akademie 2017 Wiesbadener Fototage Insight (group) Galeries Art Supplement Göttingen LA Noble Gallery London (meanwhile this is mostly an online gallery) Contact www.hfaure.de desinfo@hfaure.de
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A Portfolio Donald E Richards
I present here a sample of some of my images, all silver gelatine prints, and the method used to make them.
We all have a list of our preferred photographers, whose images we admire, and from whom we have tried to learn. In my case, amongst those artists that are no longer with us I will mention Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and Edward and Brett Weston. Of the contemporaries are John Sexton and Bruce Barnbaum. I started photography with a 35mm camera. My first one was a Miranda, and eventually I graduated to a Nikon. I used the Nikon for quite a few years, but I eventually realised that the format was not appropriate for the type of subjects I was interested in photographing. Also, using 35mm film made it more complicated to apply the Zone System of exposure and development. So I starting using a 4x5inch camera to expose negatives for all my silver-gelatine prints. At the time I bought the 4x5-inch camera, I had read somewhere that it might be a good idea, while learning one’s photographic trade, to stick initially to one camera, one lens, and one film developer, so one eventually would learn the strengths and weaknesses of each. Well, after almost 30 years, I must confess that I have not gone beyond that stage: I still use the same camera, own only one lens for it (a slightly longer lens than ‘normal’ for the format), and I use the same film and developer. Although my background is in science, I do not want to spend endless hours testing combinations of films and developers, looking for the magic potion. I found out what developer and film Ansel Adams was ➤ Analogue Magazine ➤ 6
using at the time (‘if they are good enough for him…’), and I stuck to those. Fortunately, Kodak still makes them. I did all the tests required for the Zone System, to find the film speed to use, and to determine the development to give to each negative, depending on the contrast range of the scene. These were essential tests, as I now know that the exposure and development of my film will, in the majority of cases, produce negatives that will fit onto a grade 2 paper. Knowing that, I can get on with the (impossible for me? But hope springs eternal...) task of making images worth showing.
Method The image of the camera shows the wooden 4x5-inch camera that I use. It was manufactured by Zone VI, USA (a company that no longer exists, but deserves to be remembered for the quality and ingenuity of its products). The lens is a 210-mm Schneider Apo-Symmar. The film I use is Kodak Tri-X Pan Professional, ASA 320, 4x5-inch size. I expose it as ASA 160, based on my Zone System tests. The image below shows the cut-out card pioneered by Ansel Adams (page 104-5 of The Camera) that I use to find the approximate position where to set the camera. I find this simple device very useful: it lets me plan the area that I want to photograph, isolating it from the rest of the scene; and as I look through the window with one eye, it eliminates the three-dimensional view of the eye, making it resemble more closely the way the image will look on the two-dimensional paper. In my case the window is cut to 4x5-inch size, which means that positioned at 210 mm from my eye, the card will show the area that my lens will see at that position. In my fully extended opened hand the distance between thumb and small finger is approximate 21 cm, so that is how I find how far from my eye to place the card, to find the approximate position where to set the camera.
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In general I tend not to crop the negative when printing. I have nothing against cropping, but as I spend so much time finding the right area to photograph, I feel very silly if I see a better possible cropping once I am in the darkroom! I use this self-imposed rule as a training exercise, to force me to look very carefully at the scene, and to pre-visualise (as much as one can do it), the final print. Occasionally, I know I will be cropping in the darkroom, because the subject may be too far for my lens, or I want more depth of field than I can get at the optimum distance. After placing the camera in the exact position I want, I focus carefully, using a pair of prescription glasses I have had made, that enlarge 3x the image in the ground glass. Once the focus is set, I measure the highest, lowest and some middle reflected luminances of the scene, using a Pentax Spot 5 meter. From this data I decide on the exposure, and what development I will need to give to that particular negative, according to my Zone System tests. For every negative exposed, I write down all this information in a notebook. The exposed negatives are kept in the refrigerator at 4-6C for no more than a couple of days before developing them. The development is done in trays, by hand (I wear latex gloves, as a precaution), in total darkness, as described in detail in The Negative volume of the Ansel Adams books. I develop no more than 6 negatives together, and I have very rarely scratched a negative. The developer used is Kodak HC-110 at different dilutions, and for different times, according to the contrast measured in the original scene of each negative. Time measurement is done with a Zone VI Compensating Developer Timer, which adjusts the time according to the temperature of the developer. The negatives are fixed in a hardening fixer. ➤ Analogue Magazine
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I wash them for 20 minutes in water at 20-22C that has gone through a water softener. This is done using two trays: filling one tray with water until it is full, and agitating by hand the negatives in it, until the other tray gets full. Then I move the negatives to the new tray, dumping the water of the first one, and filling it again and so on until 20 minutes have elapsed. In the final stage, the negatives are rinsed for a few minutes with distilled water containing Kodak’s Photo-Flo, and hung to dry overnight at room temperature. I have had no problems with water marks. The dried negatives are used to make prints, using an LPL Diffusion Modular Enlarger, model 7452. Until it was discontinued, the fibre-based silver gelatine photographic paper used was Kodak Polymax Fine Art. I now use Ilford Multigrade FB, in the glossy surface. The prints are developed in Kodak’s Dektol developer, fixed in a non-hardening fixer, and given a short treatment with Ilford’s ‘Wash Aid’. They are then lightly toned with diluted Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner, to aid their permanence and to warm slightly the greenish-yellow tint of the silver gelatine paper. ➤ Analogue Magazine ➤ 6
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At the end they are washed at 20-22C for one hour in running water in a Nova Washmaster II Archival wash system. I mix cold and hot water in the mixer-tap so the temperature is 20-22C. I need to re-check the temperature every so often (with a mercury thermometer. What would the health and safety people say?) during each wash, opening or closing slightly each tap, because the flow of each tap does change with time. This, allegedly, gives archival standards. The prints are dried on drying screens made of plasticcoated fibreglass. For presentation, I place the photograph on a museum-grade piece of cardboard. If the image is 8x10-inch, or slightly smaller, this cardboard is 16x20-inch. I fix the print to the cardboard using museum grade paper corners, corners that I fix to the cardboard with museum grade tape. A window slightly bigger than the image is cut in another piece of the same cardboard, size 16x20-inch (the ‘overmat’), and placed onto the paper that holds the photograph. This last overmat is fixed to the base cardboard piece with museum-grade tape. If the photograph is to be framed, I use a professional framer, using Plexiglas as the viewing surface. Note: When I mention Ansel Adams’ books, I refer to The Camera, The Negative, and The Print in The New Ansel Adams Photography Series. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1983.
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The Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853 to “promote the art and science of photography”. The Analogue Group was formed in 2015. Membership of the Group is open to all Society members at an additional subscription of £15.00 per annum. This includes the Analogue magazine which is published during the year. Back issues are available for viewing and download on the Issuu website.
Copyright: The copyright of individual articles and images belongs to the contributor, unless otherwise stated. Copyright of the Analogue newsletter belongs to The Royal Photographic Society © 2018. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the Analogue newsletter are, unless otherwise noted, those of the individual contributors. They are not necessarily those of the Analogue Group or of The Royal Photographic Society. This includes articles from a contributor who is also a committee member or Society employee.
Design: Simon W Miles © 2018. Photogravure print by Hendrik Faure ➤ Analogue Magazine ➤ 6
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