So Many Stars

Hearding Jellyfish

an emulsion lift is one of the really interesting things you can do with a polaroid print after it has been developed. the process intrigued me and now that i’ve got my hands on an honest-to-goodness polaroid, i had to try it. i’ve got a vision of a series of shots i want to do when Brooke Lynne comes to town next weekend. but its hard to do something like this without at least practicing first. i am frequently surprised at how quickly i can zero-in on the root cause of a problem and fix it, especially when it comes to photography!

the emulsion lift process typically involves soaking the polaroid print in hot water for a few minutes and, like magic, the emulsion will start to separate from the paper. for the polaroid 664 film that i was using, it takes water a bit hotter, so you’ve got to soak the print in boiling water for up to 15 minutes. my first few attempts at this didn’t go very well. while the emulsion started to peel away at the edges of the print, it didn’t release totally. and trying to pull the thin emulsion from the paper caused it to rip. and once the pieces of emulsion are separated from the paper, they’re thin as jellyfish and getting them back together is nearly impossible. the emulsion is so thin and light there’s almost no way to actually feel when you’re touching it.

but i did have one print where the emulsion seemed to lift much more easily and i tried to deduce what was different about this print. at first i thought it was that the print had a lot less shadow areas where there was less dye impregnated in the emulsion. so i tried another print that had less black in the emulsion. but the emulsion on this print refused to lift as well. and then i realized that the real difference was that i used a much shorter development time with the prints where the emulsion lifted easily . so, i did an experiment with some of the remaining frames from the pack. i developed these prints for only 30 seconds instead of 45 seconds. i let the prints dry for a few hours and when i tried to lift the emulsions, they came off with out any problems whatsoever. bingo. now i had a process for making this work.

however, its never really over until the process is truly complete as i just found out while fiddling with the completed transfers. i’ve been applying some diluted acrylic gesso to the transfers to help adhere them to the paper. however, this can cause problems because the emulsion seems to shrink as it dries, bending the paper and separating the emulsion from the paper in the middle. attempting to flatten the image only cause the emulsion to rip and tear. it seems like i might be able to solve this by bathing the paper and emulsion in a cool water bath prior to final adherence to the paper. this would allow the emulsion to shrink naturally before it is applied to the paper. back to the drawing board in a sense…

First attempt at a Polaroid Emulsion Lift, the emulsion ripped and this was the only part of the image i could get onto the transfer paper.

A later emulsion lift. Only part of the emulsion tore this time.

The most successful lift, even after drying, this print is mostly in tact and can probably be salvaged after a soak in some warm water.

Instant Gratification

my mind has been in a bit of a whirling state lately. as much as i love a good shoot, i’ve really just been wanting to make prints and such with the photos i’ve already got in my library. capturing digital shots or even shooting film is really just the first movement in a photograph’s performance. ultimately, they all should be printed and presented. that’s why i’ve been working on building up my darkroom again and making a UV printing box (more on that in a later post).

but i’ve also been intrigued by the idea of trying to get my hands on a Polaroid camera and experiment with instant film. there are lots of creative possibilities for transfers and emulsion lifts as well as just the look and feel of a Polaroid print. i had a couple of disappointing losses on ebay where i was out-bid on auctions for used Polaroid cameras, but recently i managed to win a Polaroid Automatic 250.

the only real problem with the camera was that the battery was corroded onto the contacts inside the battery compartment. and the battery that it originally used was a 4.5 volt that isn’t even made anymore. a post to one of my regular photography forums provided a quick answer and i was off to radio shack to look for a 4xAAA battery holder. i had to use a dremel tool to remove one of the 4 battery compartments from the 4-battery holder, then re-wire the holder slightly to get 4.5 volts out of it instead of the normal 6 volts you’d get from 4xAAA batteries. i kinda suck at soldering, so a few hours later i had power to the camera and it seemed to be making reasonable estimations of shutter speed to control exposure.

the film was actually quite a bit more expensive than the camera and i was really reluctant to load any into the camera until i had something really compelling to shoot with it. but ultimately, i decided to shoot a pack of 10 frames just so i could get a feel for how the exposure system worked with the camera (it’s all-automatic, no manual override). and as you’ll see in the next post, this was a good idea. some of the more experimental techniques i wanted to use with the exposed prints would require some practice before trying them on real pieces of artwork!

_MG_0658 — Original Polaroid Automatic 250 Battery

Newly fabricated 3xAAA Battery Holder for Polaroid Automatic 250

The Polaroid Automatic 250 and some packs of film

solidified

i worked a while back on setting up a shoot with a model that i found to be very expressive and we talked about working with some clay. the idea was to cover her head-to-toe and work the dried and cracked skin textures. it really came off much better than i’d expected. i’ve been sitting on these for quite a while and wanted to share them with you now.

model: miss anthrope

alone again

andlostwithoutyou thisroomseemscoldandempty bringmebackthepiecesofmybroken heart

my roots are showing

so, as many of you might know, i’ve been shooting a lot of film lately. and while scanning the negatives, sharing the results on-line, and making some high-quality inkjet prints is great way to get feedback on my work, that wasn’t the ultimate goal. ideally, the negatives should be printed in a traditional darkroom using silver gelatin papers. the thing is though, i have a very nice enlarger, ample room in my basement. the only thing that really holds me back is my incredible knack for clutter in my daily life.

Clutter in the laundry area of the basement

this area of the basement is somewhat small, but larger than most people’s closet darkrooms. with its access to a sink next to the clothes washer, it means that i don’t have to pay a plumber to come in and charge me a gazillion dollars to install a new sink. the only problem, of course, is all this crap laying around. in this clutter there are scraps of wood tacking strips from when i pulled the carpet up 2 years ago to reveal the lovely hardwood floors on which i’ve been know to shoot a nude once or twice. there were random tools and tool boxes, laundry detergent, product boxes, plywood pieces from a disassembled entertainment center (holy cow, i hated that thing!).

when i woke up this morning i decided it all had to go. it didn’t take long to really get things going. it wasn’t the greenest thing i’ve ever done, but let’s say its going to be an epic trash night this week! i threw out bubble wrap, packaging cushions, there’s tons of corrugated cardboard being recycled, lots of product boxes (really, why was i saving the box for a shredder that i bought 5 years ago?!?). i cut up the larger boxes and saved the sheets of cardboard for packaging when i ship prints to clients and collectors.

more clutter, packaging scraps, and shipping boxes

around lunch time i went up stairs and made a little fire in the fireplace. there were months worth of brown paper packaging that comes with many shipped items. i used it all as kindling to start a nice wood fire. again, not the greenest thing i’ve ever done, but it was nothing if not efficient and pretty!

after the lunch break, i started on the other room in the basement that leads to the closet where the old enlarger has been hiding for the past 9 years. i wasn’t even sure if i had all the parts. and there are some things that i know are missing and i’ll have to try to purchase replacements for them either on-line or through contacts with friends.

the omega enlarger is in there somewhere... — the enlarger is in there somewhere...

once the space was cleared and things were cleaned up a bit more, i had to clear off a utility table in the garage. i bought several of these tables for pennies courtesy of the fire sale that happened when Lucent Technologies was crashing in and around 2001. they sold off so many lab tables with nice industrial tops which would probably be perfect for the chemical hazards of a darkroom setup.

its now probably about 3:00 and i’ve got to break soon for dinner with the family. the top of the utility table is filthy and needed to be scrubbed down, tape and labels removed with goo-be-gone, and the legs needed leveling since the floor in the basement is pitched generally toward the drains. with all that done, i carried the Omega B8 enlarger over to the table. parts of it had been disassembled for shipping when i moved into the house, so i tried as best i could to find all the parts in order to reassemble it. i was able to locate the condenser lamp housing, filter drawer, and the negative carriers for 35mm, 6×6, and what i think is 6×9. what i couldn’t find was the armatures for mounting the condenser lamp housing onto the enlarger. this required a considerable amount of searching throughout the house.

its amazing to me how many boxes are still sealed from my move-in 9 years ago, but there, in a closet in my spare bedroom, at the bottom of a box of 800k floppy disks was a ziplock bag with the connecting arms for the enlarger. bingo! i’ve still got the original 75mm vivitar lens that came with the enlarger when i bought it from a friends father, probably back in 1991. so, it seems to me there are only a few pieces missing at this point: a good light source, preferably one of the Aristo HI23 cold light heads, a decent sized easel, an archival washer, and a good enlarging timer. i’ve got lots of trays and chemical storage bottles and a pretty good know how of making nice prints. but to me, at least now the hard part is done!

Frozen Infernus

getting access to the Bethlehem Steel plant is always something i’ve wanted to do and with all apologies to Machina Infernus, i always thought it would be with a nude model much better looking than these guys. but thanks to some friends, we were able to have escorted access to locked buildings within the quickly decaying plant site and try to capture something and unique for a friend’s band.

the day started cold and grey with most of my friends south of here reporting a healthy accumulation of snow. the storm was predicted to start in the lehigh valley around 3:00pm, just shortly after the time we would be getting started. and of course as we were pulling into the facility, the snow started to fall. large parts of the ceiling are missing in the building known as Machine Shop No. 2. the falling snow combined with the cavernous machine shop and Rich’s steely gaze just brings home everything i love about photographer as an expressive art.

it’s all serendipity and being lucky enough to have the weather cooperate in ways that make for something special. but then again, i really believe that if you surround yourself with the right people, good things will always happen.

enjoy,
scott

Monster Love

Everything comes around
Bringing us back again
Here is when we start
And where we end

Goldfrapp, Monster Love

Sarah - At the old Neuweiler & Son Brewery

Of all ghosts, the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.
– Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle

floored

Within the small somewhat edgy arts scene in the Lehigh Valley there are a few people amongst my contemporaries that I felt truly tried to promote the legitimacy of the not-so-warm-and-fuzzy arts. No one that I know did this with more genuine enthusiasm than Craig Smith of Art – n – Soul Studios. Craig aggressively promoted alternative artists like Adam Kuder, John Kolbek, Dan Harding, Silas Finch, Konnik, and the beautiful graffiti art of Destroy and Rebuild NYC. And while sometimes my photography doesn’t quite seem to fit in the same genre, Craig gave me the first opportunity to show my work publicly at his beautiful studio and gallery space. I hung 5 of my own pieces and invited 4 other friends and fine art nude photographers to show along side me. Craig also invited me to contribute to another collective show called My Fetish Valentine that ran for the month of February 2009 to kinda celebrate the erotic and kinky. The idea of contributing to this show pushed me into new areas and expand my notions of expressive photography. Craig was planning a reprise of the My Fetish Valentine show for 2010 and I was asked to contribute again for this show. I truly have some wonderfully dark visions for this years show…

Promotional Poster for the Illuminated Figure Show at Art-n-Soul

So, it was with incredible sadness that I came to learn of Craig’s passing last night. It just doesn’t seem like this could even be possible. I felt like our friendship was just getting started. And now he’s just gone. Just like that. I knew that Craig was sick and fighting hard to recover from a very serious case of H1N1, commonly known as the Swine Flu. His wife had been updating his facebook status and it seemed like his condition was improving each day. Again, even though we weren’t very close friends, there wasn’t a day that passed that I wasn’t thinking positive thoughts for his recovery and wishing comfort and strength for his wife and family.

I thought I would use my little slice of the web to meditate a little bit about the brief time I had to share with Craig. The first time I met Craig, it was an early summer day. My friend Adam Kuder had called me and said that there was a new tattoo studio that had opened in downtown Allentown. The guys running the place were looking to book local artists to show their works and that I should talk to them about putting together an exhibit of my work. When I walked into the studio, I first met Craig’s partner Curtis. I started to show some prints to Curtis and he quickly called Craig over to show him. They were both excited to let me pull together a small group show of fine art figure photographers. When I expressed concern over having full nudes on display in his gallery, he was steadfast and reassured me that this was exactly the kind of work that he wanted hanging in his gallery. There were no restrictions. He explained that his vision was to have a continuous flow of artwork running through the gallery and that his was a place for forward thinking adult art patrons. His reassurances allowed me to relax and pull together a group of the most talented figure photographers and give them free reign to show their strongest pieces, regardless of the body parts on display. It was liberating and I knew I had found a good home to show my work.

And later in February 2009 when the My Fetish Valentine show was closing and I came to pick up my artwork, Craig told me that he didn’t want to let me take one of the pieces with me and that he loved it so much he wanted to buy it from me. His generosity and support of artists through his efforts to both collect and promote them will be a part of his lasting legacy to the local alternative arts community here.

I’ll just close by offering up one thought for Craig as he departs this world. Of course you will be missed here much more than you could ever know. But more than that, you touched the lives of so many by bringing us all together and our lives are richer for the experiences we shared together. Rest in peace.

my new camera!

Who wants to set up a shoot?!? I got a new camera with a built-in-flash!!

I was digging around on line, reading a bit about polaroid, transfers, and basically doing some research on vintage cameras. I remembered that my folks at one time had an old Polaroid camera and wondered if they still had it. We talked about it over dinner tonight and my mother disappeared to go find it. (At this point, any old piece of junk she can get out of her house just makes her so happy.) But what she came up with was this old Argus Seventy-Five (Argus SF for short). It used to take 620 film which is the same width as today’s 120 film, but the 620 spools have a slightly smaller diameter.

Its a nice twin-lens reflex camera, so you look down into a viewfinder held at about chest height to compose your shot. There is one shutter speed that’s about 1/125th of a second. Not sure what the aperture is, usually they were around f/13 or so. The flash is actually detachable and there were several unused filament bulbs in the camera bag with it.

I’ve shot before with my friend George’s Brownie and got some interesting results. The next chance I get, I’ll be putting a roll of Ilford Delta through it and we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll have to do some more research to try to find out what the aperture opening looks like. For the moment, I’ve re-spooled a roll of Ilford Delta 400 based on the instructions at the brownie camera place web site. I’ll wait until I’ve got a good subject and the right kind of light to guess might be correct exposure.