Straight vs Flashed

Paris, a long time ago, a self portrait, the tower. Camera at arms length, shot straight up, low percentage, Leica M4-P, no meter. Just a click. But I got it. I like it.

The first image is the straight print, Kodak Ektalure, the second, developer spread by hand, then flashed, stopped and finally fixed.

This print was in a box, a handmade box, with many other prints, made in a darkroom in San Diego that was literally a cave. Printed underground, hung to dry on a clothesline, like something out of a movie.

I forgot about this print. I forgot about all of these prints. They were left in my smoking hot garage, over the years, through the elements, and a few weeks ago I found them, resurrected them. Saved them.

Even through all the heat, dust, summers, winters, they looked just as I had left them, as if they were brought from a tomb.

I look back on this image with hyper-fond thoughts. I was working for Kodak at this time, mostly in Southern California, but I had convinced them to allow me to attend the Visa festival in Perpignan. We were on our way and stopped over to spend a few days in Paris.

At the time, I could not do any kind of commercial assignment, due to my working with Kodak. So, all I had were my M bodies and my tri-x. Photography was pure. I just shot whatever I felt like shooting, took my time, processed, printed in the darkroom cave.

I remember the shoes I was wearing, a style of sandal I had read about in the LA Times, and one I had seen over the years on my travels, Chupplies, or something along those lines. I had two pair made at an old shoe store in downtown LA, across from the paper. The shoe maker told he mine were the last shoes he would make. After decades he had closed up shop and began working in a factory in Long Beach.

I wore those shoes into the ground, a black pair and tan pair. I loved those shoes. I miss those shoes. I thought I would be able to find them again, but after all these years, nothing.

These images, for me, seem like they are from another life. So much has happened since then. Life seems to be much, much faster, much more filled, but there is much about this past time that I miss.

Paris is still there. I think. I've been there since, but don't have any images I like more than this. Nor do I have any silver prints from the more recent trips. I'm working on that.

Flashing Can Be Good

Typically, when you hear about someone flashing it comes with police reports and strange, fringe elements of our society that people don't want to talk about.

But, I'm hear to dispel the myth. I think flashing can be good. Darkroom flashing I mean. That's what you thought I was talking about right?

Flashing, doing what we were told NEVER to do. "Good Gosh Millhouse, don't turn the light on in the darkroom when your working, it will ruin your life!"

So for years, I kept, hard and fast, to this cardinal rule. NEVER turning the light on. Then, I made a mistake. I made several mistakes, all at once, and and new door opened, one which held almost infinite possibilities.

I made this picture several years ago. This is a scan of the print, done on Kodak Ektalure paper, a gem of the distant photographic past, a legend if you will. Ektalure was unique. It was also loaded with Cadmium, a not so great part of our distant past, at least in analog terms. Cadmium, a heavy metal, is still around in many forms today. Just ask our toxic barge operators, the guys in clean suits.

Anyway, back to my ramble. I had this print half in, half out of the developer, was running my hand over it for some reason, then accidently turned the light on. Realized my mistake, turned the light off, stopped, fixed, and went, "Huh."

Then the gloves were off. The darkroom was filled with flying developer, rubber gloves, spray bottles, flashlights, those green sticks that glow in the dark, fireworks, gasoline and jet fuel.

Other printers quickly moved away, realizing how far I would take this new technique.

This, a contact sheet, I believe from Southern France, gypsies. There are other flashed prints from this series, others I will upload in the coming days.

I thought, all those years ago, that these prints would fade, wouldn't last, but they look exactly like the day I made them. Crazy I know.

My scanner doesn't fit an 11x14 prints, but you'll get the idea.

By the way, those two frames that are squared. My edits. I remember shooting those. Leica M4-P, 28mm. Right at the barely handholdable level. I was so close to that guy on the left, a stranger, and was holding my breath, knowing I was probably going to get a little camera movement. It was so quiet, and I was still able to squeeze off a few frames.
Flash on people.

More Brothers and Sisters

These kids are fantastic. Really, and I have been able to work with them since they were itty bitty, and they just keep getting better. This time around I realized they had reached a new level,age yes, but also maturity, and as I began to shoot we had actual conversation about photography, video games and kung-fu. Then, it was brother and sister once again. I just sat back and snapped away.
By the way, this shoot was done on the new, reformulated Kodak Portra 160 VC, and I have to say, it looks incredible.
Just look at what an overcast day can do to add mood and density to a portrait session.The balance of cold blue tones are muted by the warming film, but the skintone stays where I want it.
This first set of images are just snaps of both kids, but I will post more later.

Hip Being Square

I'm posting this because I got an interesting comment regarding my explaining not doing black and white conversions from digital, and that I don't shoot color and black and white the same way. It seems that some people took offense to that, but I have another example of something along these lines.
I shoot a lot of square images with a Hasselblad camera. Recently someone looked at my work and said, "Ya, I do square too." "I just shoot my Canon 5D and crop it into a square."
Now this struck me kinda funny.
First, when I shoot square, I think square, and compose that way. And, I've chosen a film specifically for the ingredients it provides, in that particular camera and that particular lens. The falloff on the Blad is very different than my 5D, so shooting with my 5D and cropping looks very different than my Hasselblad. Better? Maybe, depending on what you looking for in your images, but regardless, they are simply not the same.
If you want a square, why not shoot square?
I think sometimes we rely on the wizardry of the computer to try and give us things that we are fooling ourselves to think we have. And, how much time do you want to spend per image to "mimic" what you could have had by just using the right tool for the look?
Another example of this is the work I have done with Kodak Tmax 3200 film. Over the years I've seen one tech expert after another try and mimic this film on the computer. What each of these experiments proved to me was that none of these people had used the film or it had been so many years they had forgotten what it looked like because the end result always looks like a digital file made to look like Tmax.
What I'm wondering about is if the digital file is the final frontier, why are all these software companies spending so much developing actions that "simulate the look of film?"
Am I the only one that finds humor in this stuff? Please tell me no.
So, in honor of this lunacy, let's honor the square for what it is. Square.

Morocco Photo Moment

In honor of a recent blog I found I wanted to go back and feature a few images from my last trip to Morocco. I was technically on vacation, so it was not a "real" work trip, although with the amount of travel we did and range of experiences we had, it makes it difficult to say we were on a REAL vacation. In fact, can't remember the last time I had a REAL vacation. Not sure I woul
d know what to do.

All Leica, 35mm, Tmax 3200 film, pure street shooting I guess you would call it. For me it all starts with the light, without it, hard to make great pictures, and as you know sometimes you get find great light and others times no. When you have limited time in places you have to work with what you get. Morocco light, after 8am is harsh, if I remember correctly, so you work early, late and work around the edges of the light during middle parts of the day. You can backlight, rim light, work inside out, etc, to try and snatch images.

The first two pictures here are from Marrakesh.