Category Archives: Black and White Photographers

Campaign Signs and an Imagined Talk with Daido Moriyama

I recently rewatched Near Equal, the documentary on Daido Moriyama—one of my all time favorite photographers. In this, he mentions the concept of are, bure, boke, which roughly translates to rough, blurred, out of focus. This was a photographic style he and other photographers embraced, shown in the Japanese art magazine Provoke.

So, I went for a walk the other night and noticed the election-year infection of campaign signs littering the streets. And, since I wanted to play around a bit with my Fuji Xpro-3’s Acros film simulation, I thought they would be a good subject. I wasn’t interested in capturing what the signs read, but more what their shape/form and lighting/shadows would look like.

I had recently read the post She Breathed Quietly, In Rich Black Ink by the Canadian photographer Patrick LaRoque about his Acros-based simulation preset Moriyama—which with a new Xpro-3, he renamed DAIDO. I had a brief email with Patrick and thought I should try it out.

The Fuji Acros film simulation (back in my film days, Fuji Neopan 1600 exposed at 3200 ISO and developed in Ilford DD-X was my favorite combo) is unique in the camera as the Grain Effect function increases as the camera’s ISO is increased. Just like what would happen to film that was underexposed and push processed in developing. The other film simulations don’t behave that way and rely on independent settings of Roughness: Strong/Weak and Size: Large/Small.

This is a fascinating development by Fuji, they are really catering to people that used to shoot black and white film, and I’m very impressed with their ability to pull this off. I’ve been waiting for a long time for a digital camera that can give me similar results to shooting the Neopan 1600/Ilford DD-X combo. I think I might have found it.

Also posted in Black and White Photography, Technical Tagged , , |

Skye Edwards

A portrait of the always stunning Skye Edwards of the Trip Hop band Morcheeba. Anyone know who the photographer is?

Skye Edwards from Morcheeba
Skye Edwards from Morcheeba
Also posted in Black and White Photography, Music Photography, Portraiture Tagged |

Emil Schildt: Light Painting and the Bromoil Process

httpv://vimeo.com/131958809

If you can’t see the video above, click here.

Thanks again to my friend Derek who passed along the original post—he also called the video “Very ‘poser-y’ which it is… Well, Dr. Freud, what do you think about my photographs of naked women?? All joking aside, some very beautiful light painting and wonderful use of the bromoil process by Emil Schildt.

Orignial link:

http://www.iso1200.com/2015/06/all-or-nothing-every-single-time-light.html

Check out the Blurb book of his work, also.

Also posted in Alt Process Photography

AVAILABLE LIGHT : A portrait of Peter Anderson

As a continuation of videos on other photographers’ work, here is a great little video of Peter Anderson while he’s making prints of some very iconic photos he made during the 1980s.

Take a look at the size of some of those prints… just amazing. There is still something magical about black and white film.




If you can’t see the video above, click here.

Also posted in Black and White Photography

Myriads of Gods on Platinum Palladium Prints

Here is a wonderful video of a Japanese photographer that makes images of the environment he is afraid may disappear—and makes platinum palladium prints, a process from the early 1800s. The artistry and the craft that this man employs is just astounding. The paper he uses has the potential to last 1000 years…




If you can’t see the video above, click here.

Also posted in Alt Process Photography, Black and White Photography, Fine Art Printing, Videos

Alex Timmermans’ Escape To Nature

Alex Timmermans

“Flight Instruction” Copyright Alex Timmermans

My photographic interests are fairly broad, from modern digital all the way back to the antique or alternative processes. That’s why I was very happy to see this short video Escape To Nature about Alex Timmermans and his wet plate collodion photography. It was shot by Patrice Lesueur, and is beautiful in its own right. Take a look… Read More»

Also posted in Alt Process Photography, Black and White Photography Tagged |

The Stunning Work Of Michael Massaia

I’ve discovered a photographer whose work I really love: Michael Massaia. He creates stunning black and white images of desolation and emptiness, but not in a way that leaves one depressed, but more in a way that leaves one fascinated. To top it off, Massaia uses large format film cameras and creates his look in the darkroom. He is an incredibly skilled printer.

Take a look at his portfolios here. Watch a video about him and his process here.

Photo By Michael Massaia

Afterlife

Also posted in Alt Process Photography, Black and White Photography, Fine Art Printing Tagged , |

Dennis Ziliotto And The Wet Plate Collodion Clown

Time for a little break from the Plain of Jars Project. I haven’t yet ventured into working with wet plate collodion, a photographic process from the 1800s, but in anticipation I’m a member of two great Facebook groups, one the Wet Plate Collodion Group, and the other, the wonderfully named Collodion Bastards: Wet Plate Work of Questionable Parentage. There is just absolutely stunning work in both, but I came across an image that I can’t stop looking at. Here it is:

Photo Dennis Ziliotto

The only word I can come up with is mesmerizing. It is almost as if the image is so disturbing that I can’t look at it for long, but I keep coming back to it. At one moment the clown is sad, the next threatening, and then the next just looking, with no intent whatsoever. I love that each time I look at it, I get a different impression.

Dennis_Ziliotto_Wet_Plate_2

I truly thought it was a man made up with makeup, but as you can see below, I was wrong on both counts.

Read More»

Also posted in Alt Process Photography, Black and White Photography Tagged |

David Emitt Adams: Conversations with History

David Emitt Adams’ creative take on the history of what is no longer of use is just wonderful:

photo David Emitt Adams art

Conversations With History

Take a look at what he does with aging evidence of human existence—turned into art—by a venerable photographic process from the 1800s.

Emitt-Adams states:

Read More»

Also posted in Alt Process Photography, Black and White Photography

Susan Kae Grant: Night Journey

I’ve been following Susan Kae Grant’s work for several years and am still in awe of it. For some reason, I just assumed that the tableaux that she creates were paper cut-outs meticulously staged and then photographed. Turns out I couldn’t be more wrong about her process—these are life size tableaux that are meticulously staged and photographed. Take a look at this video and her process:

 

Direct link to the Night Journey video here.

What is even more interesting is that she has spent many nights in a sleep center and had the staff wake her from REM sleep, then she records her dreams. This is what provides the material for her work. I have some issues with insomnia and undertook a sleep study many years ago. For me, being repeatedly woken up during REM sleep was an extremely agitating experience, making me all that more impressed at Kae Grant’s dedication to her art.

Photo Susan Kae Grant "She's Grasping Her Behavior"

She’s Grasping Her Behavior, #006

Please take some time and take a look at her gallery of images here. I just can’t emphasize enough how gorgeous I find these images: The swirling backgrounds, the pools of light, and the jet-black subjects—it is a form of photography that that has human depth—it combines the psyche with the beautiful. I find the term ethereal is often excessively used, so I decided to dig into the dictionary and to really understand the definition of the word. This is one definition I found:

Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world.

I’m not sure I could find a better description.

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Also posted in Black and White Photography, Black and White Websites, Fine Art Printing