Panchromatica

The first rule of blogging

...is of course to keep posting, which is something I have singularly failed to do. It isn't just here. My Flickr and Ipernity accounts are also languishing from lack of attention.  I haven't been idle though. I have  been working on a much longer piece than I normally post here, and also working at getting out and about selling my pictures. I have something like 30 art or craft fairs booked between now and the end of the year and I am also promoting my work much more actively.

The fairs are useful on two counts - they give me a place to sell, but they also lead to increased exposure. Even so it is hard work. Most people going to craft fairs expect to find jewellery perhaps, textiles and knitted products, perhaps wood. They don't I think expect to find art or photography. Consequently you need a high footfall to stand a chance of making significant sales.

I really would like to see more such fairs with the primary focus on art. The downside is that you don't get the people who would never go to a gallery and are just looking for a pretty picture to hang on their wall. I'm not proud - if that is what you want I will sell it!

Anyway - here are the next few fairs I will be attending. If you are in the area, please pop in and say hello - discount for anyone producing a print out of this article.

Monday May 26^th - Cleeve House, Seend near Devizes (also Jewellery) - 10.00 am to 4.00 pm

Saturday Jun 7^th - Southampton Bargate Art Market - 9.00 am to 4.00 pm

Sunday Jun 15^th - Lacock - Village Hall - 11.00 am onwards

Sunday Jun 22^nd - Alton, Hampshire - Art Market – High Street - 9.00 am to 2.00 pm

Saturday Jun 28^th - Tetbury Market Hall - 10.00 am to 4.00 pm

Saturday Jul 5^th - Bath - Craft in the Crypt - St Michael’s Church, Broad Street, Bath BA1 5LJ - 9.00 am to  4.00 pm

Sunday Jul 20^th - Lacock - Village Hall - 11.00 am onwards

Sunday Jul 27^th- Alton, Hampshire -  Art Market – High Street - 9.00 am to 2.00 pm

Brooks Jensen on Inkjet printing

For thirty-five years now, I’ve been a strong advocate of the virtues of gelatin silver photographic prints. Until 2005, all of my prints have always been fiberbase gelatin silver, archivally processed and toned in a traditional wet-darkroom. Even as the publisher of the LensWork Special Editions and LensWork Folios I’ve used language like "No inkjet compromises!" and "Nothing can replace the depth, tonality or presence of fiberbase silver photographic paper." We used such language to clarify that the LensWork Special Editions were not the “inferior inkjet prints” we feared people might assume they were. Our mistake was thinking that the inkjet technology of late 1990s was not going to evolve. Boy were we wrong!

Jensen goes on to argue that 'inkjet' is the wrong term in any case - the inkjet is the process not the medium - and settles instead on 'pigment on paper'.

I am now offering inkjet images – the correct terminology is actually "pigment-on-paper." I refuse to call these giclée – a term I’ve always thought was meant to disguise rather than to elucidate. Gelatin silver and platinum/palladium prints are so designated because they indicate precisely the nature of the imaging chemistry and/or substrate. Neither of these are defined as their mechanical means of production – "projection prints" or "contact prints" although these would both be technically accurate terms that are occasionally used as supplemental descriptions. Similarly, "inkjet" is an accurate term describing the mechanics of delivery used, but pigment-on-paper describes the material – chemistry and substrate – and is a better equivalent for comparison to "gelatin silver" or "platinum/palladium" prints.

He also has some interesting things to say about pricing and editions that chime well for me .

While I don't limit my prints, I do know that a clear and precise provenance is important to some people and may have historical importance long after I am gone. All of my prints now specify the date of their production, the source (negative or digital file), the precise number of copies I made that day, and which is the number of this print. Here is an example of that text.

A typical First Edition, First Printing will be three to five copies, sometimes as few as two, on rare occasions as many as thirty. Time marches, we change, our creative vision does, too. It is not uncommon for me to see new ways to interpret an old image. I am not opposed to improving an image when I see a need to. Each time I fuss with the digital file, usually to change it a bit to more closely match my creative vision, I call this a new "edition." It's a different interpretation of the raw data, so to speak - a new "performance" in Ansel Adams-speak. Sometimes that might be a little tonal adjustment, sometimes a contrast change, sometimes a dodge here or a burn there, sometimes I'll crop something or digitally remove a bothersome spot, occasionally I go all the way back to the negative and re-scan or back to the original in-camera file and start over. In one way or another, the new "edition" is a new artistic rendition of the image.

Contrary to the contemporary zeitgeist, therefore, the later editions are the ones I would generally consider the more valuable because I perceive them to be the more mature interpretation of the image. Having said that, additional editions may also be a result technology improvements.

The designation "Third Edition, Second Printing" would mean that this is the third time I've worked this image from a creative point of view and the second time I've printed a batch of prints from this third rendition. The print # is simply a count of how many prints I've made from that digital file on that day.

I produce and sell my prints on a first-come, first served basis. Orders are filled in Edition/Print Number order. Obviously, editions are not reprinted except where identified as a later printing.

I also reserve the right to withdraw from sale any image at any time.

New blogging

While I intend to continue blogging here on all the usual topics, I have also started blogging at a new group blog, "Man in the White Suit", about photography the old fashioned way with film. You can see my first post here.  I haven't lost my interest in digital manipulations, far from it, and if your only interest in photography is family and holiday snaps, then digital cameras are ideal. However digital media cannot, so far, capture the subtle tones possible from medium and large format film.

I've invested therefore in a new 120 film camera - like most modern technology these days, made in China - and I'm looking forward to trying it out. For the non-photographers out there, 120 film produces negatives 6cm square, although with some cameras you can get other formats. The normal 6x6 format is about four times the size of a 35mm negative.

Actually 'invested' is probably too strong a word for spending  twenty quid on an overpriced toy, but the images I've seen from  Holga cameras have been captivating. There is perhaps something liberating about not having a few hundred pounds worth of high tech goods round your neck. Even taking processing costs in to account, you would have to take an awful lot of pictures on a Holga to spend the equivalent of a top of the range digital.

Holga#15, originally uploaded by thorburn.

Given that the Holga is indeed a toy, I've also bought a S/H Lubitel 166. This also uses 120 film, but is an altogether more serious - if still cheap - camera. It is an obsolete type really, known as a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) using one lens to focus and a second to take the picture. The two lenses are linked, so that as you focus the one, the other adjusts too.

Using cameras like this means a change of pace. Winding on the film is a process of slowly winding the knob until the number of the next frame appears in a small red window on the camera back. This takes at least 30 secs. In the same period, my digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) can rip through 50 or 60 pictures. You can't capture rapid movement with these cameras so there is no point in trying and you begin to concentrate on the details of what is in front of you - perhaps seeing it for the first time.

I'm looking forward to the experience.

Ipernity, the new photosharing site I am moving to, also includes provision for a blog (alongside video and audio files). So far it shows no sign of turning into a Myspace or YouTube clone. My blog space ay ipernity will I think also be devoted primarily to photography. This post, about my personal involvement in photography over the years, recycles various bits and pieces already blogged or published in some way.

Art & Craft

It is probably clear from my posts, that I have more than a passing interest in photography, art and craft. Indeed, over the past three years that interest has developed into an attempt to if not make a living, to at least get some return on what I would be doing anyway. So here are links to where you can find my 'stuff' and with luck buy something.

Photography and digital art.

My primary site for this is Panchromatica Designs. I have a limit on the number of images I can upload to that site, so if you like what you see you should also look at my site on Flickr. In the nature of things, Flickr is less about 'finished' pieces of work and more about recording experiments, sharing images and community, but if you see anything there that you like, the please get in touch and I will give you a quote.

I also have an EBay shop. This is something of an experiment and depending on sales could end up as either the place where I sell a restricted set of images/print sizes or my main outlet.

Jewellery

Making jewellery is something of a new venture. Unlike photography, which has been in my life for something like 40 years, it is something I have only recently started doing. I am trying online sales, this time at Etsy. At the moment there is again some overlap with the prints and with EBay ( I think I have the pricing consistent!), but again this will I hope settle down.

This information will stay accessible via TyePad's Pages function. Look at the sidebar to the left and see the heading More Information. This (and other pages to come) will be listed there.

Another video

This one was too big for YouTube so I have had to make it smaller, which will affect the quality.

It is I think much slicker than the last and used better quality and higher res image files. It is based on my Tango images (you can also see these on Flickr here) with a nice tango soundtrack, so after the Sex Pistols in the last one, you may need to turn the volume back up...

Let me know what you think.

 

Making video

EDIT: I'm probably going to delete this file from YouTube - looking at it again I think it just a bit too rough. If you think I'm wrong please let me know.

*

I've been experimenting with putting some of my digital images into video format. This is a very quick and dirty first cut around some images I did of cheerleaders. I'm not too happy with the quality - the original images were quite small and needed to be resized to do what I wanted, then the flash conversion at YouTube seems to have degraded it further. Even so for 30 minutes work I'm quite pleased with myself.

Architectural Origami

Via Piranha Daily news comes this post on LensCulture Web Log. The images are striking, but the post (and the other articles linked from it) seem to think there is something new in this way of working. I suppose this is the Damien Hirst theory of art - if someone famous (even for 15 minutes) does it, then it's art, but if it's anyone else then it's bollocks. I'm not saying Palla's images are themselves bollocks, just the critical context that presents them as exceptional. To my mind they draw on Escher, while the working methods will be familiar to anyone who has used Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Starting from one original image I duplicate the layer, rotate, or flip it over. I then set the channel of the composition layer to “bright” or “dark” and shift it slowly until I see some interesting image.
Sometimes I repeat this process with completed images. The key of this process is to use only one image and also never to shift it randomly.

For what it's worth, this is the process I use almost exclusively:

Here for instance:

 

I also use the same idea with modified versions of the original photograph, layered and mirrored to provide 'texture' as here:

 

In this image the combination of several layers some mirrored provides the shimmer around the two dancers.

I suppose this sounds a bit peevish, but it is an illustration I think of the problems of 'outsider' art. Unless you are part of the art school/gallery system, your chances of getting a show or any recognition are minimal. In my case, approaches to galleries have been simply ignored, without even the courtesy of a rejection slip. I've had more success in what I think of as the 'retail' world - gift shops and the like.

My experience is just in the UK, but I suspect that the US is much teh same.

Flickr

One of the brilliant things about flickr is that it has an open API, so lots of talented programmers keep coming up with wonderful applications like this (if you are confused just type a word like bridge or portrait into the tag box) or this or this or this or this.

Close encounter #2

Alleged hubble image of saturns rings, originally uploaded by ibanda.

I've been having fun mocking up a series of imaginary exhibits for an imagined museum. Some have a fortean feel to them while others are just obvious fakery.

Free Flickr accounts to give away

I have a Flickr Pro account to give away. I could simply offer it to people I already know (one has already gone that way) but I'd like to try something a bit different. So - if you want an account send me in no more than 100 words a note about how you will use it. The most unusual, innovative suggestion gets the account. You can still apply if you already have a free flickr account.

All proposals to be with me by the end of April.

No discussions, explanations or justifications of my decision will be offered, but I'm happy to publicise the winning proposal.

UPDATE: I've edited this post to bring it to the top - so far proposals are thin on the ground.

If no suitable suggestions are received I reserve the right not to offer the account to any of the proposals - so get your suggestions in.