The Kentish

At the previously mentioned workshop last week, I scored myself this print.

It was a print done by me.

From a negative by Thelma Kent.

Here's the record on Timeframes.

Their version is a little different from mine. But as Wayne Barrar pointed out, she was a mid-20th century pictorialist using different technology, not a late-19th century glass plate shooting, albumen printing explorer.

But it is a very me kind of photo, and it will complement my recently acquired Lake Hawea, Southland, N.Z. by T R Kent, A.R.P.S.

The Brothers

At the previously mentioned workshop last week, I scored myself this print.

It was a test done by Doug Munson and for some reason it ended up with all my stuff so came home with me.

We were told it was a Burton Brothers photo, but a quick read of the negative shows it is actually a Muir & Moodie photo. Mind you, Muir and Moodie did at some point work for the Burton Brothers so the confusion is understandable.

The Alexander Turnbull Library and Te Papa were each kind enough to give us some copy negs from their collections to use for the workshop. I would like to link to this one in one of their collections but I can't find it anywhere.

Oh well.

Still, it'll look nice next to my genuine Burton Brothers shot and printed photo of "A New Zealand Home, The Hutt".

The Egg

Last week I did a workshop. It involved eggs and salt and citric acid and stuff ...

Stuff like silver nitrate.

It was an Albumen printing one-day lecture and demonstration "led by US albumen authorities, Doug and Toddy Munson" from Chicago Albumen Works and "provide[d] a solid introduction to the making of albumen prints by contact printing."

It was associated with the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works Photographic Materials specialty group (AIC-PMG) and the International Council of Museums Conservation Committee's Photographic Materials Working Group (ICOM-CC-PMWG) 2013 Joint Meeting taking place over the week.

It was a fun day, and I definitely want to do more of it. The prints are beautiful.

I made a couple of prints of some stuff I shot a few years ago, of a suitable subject and adequately contrasty.

Both, however, were a underexposed. I'm not exactly sure what happened as they both lightened up a stop or more in the developing process, not the expected 1/3 - 1/2 stop.

Oh well. Something to play with I guess.

The Lawrencian

It's amazing what you can find in antique shops if you look hard enough.

The Daguerreotype

It's amazing what you can find in antique shops if you look hard enough.

The Abstraction

The Virgins

Years ago I started this series called "The Virgins" - generally it was a lie, but the title was also a bit tongue in cheek, and a bit of a reference to John Lennon.

I haven't shot any of it for a while, mainly because I only rarely take the 4x5 out anymore.

Previously I printed the images in sepia but I thought they could work just as well in cyanotype.

So a pulled out a couple of negatives and gave it a go.

Oh well. Let's try that again.

Bugger!! From memory that was over half in hour in bright sun and it's still under-exposed by a couple of stops (give or take).

We'll be looking at two hours next time I guess. Cool.

The Continuation

Three further images.

One after numerous missteps.

Two just winging it.

One getting close, the other not getting that close but not liking the image enough to redo.

The Answer

To the question:

Can you over-expose a cyanotype?

That's an affirmative in case you were wondering.

If fact you can over-expose a cyanotype quite often.

The Success

The Experimental

Having recently scored my very own Wayne Barrar cyanotype, I (more recently) decided to score myself some cyanotype chemicals. Thanks Bostick and Sullivan.

I'd never made cyanotypes before so it was kind of exciting.

Fortunately some years ago I purchased small contact printing frame so that was one thing I didn't need  to worry about.

Thanks to the French Art Shop I managed to score some suitable paper and a brush.

Thanks to the Lightbulb Man I managed to also score a UV bulb so that I could, in theory, get more consistent results and not have to rely on the vagaries of Wellington weather.

Finding a suitable time and place to coat the paper (11pm, kitchen) wasn't too difficult, but finding a suitably dark location to dry and store the coated paper was a little trickier.

Eleven hours later and I was ready to play.

My first attempt was one hour under the UV lamp.

I failed. I thought the negative might have been too dense so I changed negative. And thinking that the bulb might not have enough grunt, I changed location.

My second attempt was about 6 minutes outside, mid-afternoon on a cloudy but bright day.

I failed. Cyanotypes need to be over-exposed. Judging that over-exposure is something I need to learn.

A little research post-trial, and I found this quote which would have been useful to find some time earlier ... like before I bought the bulb ...

The optical power requirements for cyanotype are frightening. Remember, we're talking many minute exposures under sunlight, and sunlight contains over 100W of UV per square foot.

Oh well, you live and learn. I shall be continuing with the learning part.

My third attempt was early evening in changeable light. Can't remember how long exactly but ...

I failed. It clearly still wasn't long enough. But I'm getting closer.

The Auction

For those of you who hadn't caught the news, you missed this last night - the Phil Jacobs Benefit Auction.

I, however, didn't miss it. In fact I'd been involved with it in some capacity for the past few weeks.

For those of you who did miss it, check out the website and buy some of the great art that will be appearing on TradeMe in the next few days.

To quote from the website "For more than thirty years Phil Jacobs has been Wellington’s preeminent camera repair technician. Almost every photographer who has worked in this city will have used his services at some time or another."

Phil is a lovely and giving man and it is fabulous that the local photographic community has come together to help him when his family needs it. I've only known Phil for the past ten years and from day one he was a friend. Pop in to his crowded workshop to drop off or pick up a camera and a couple of hours later you'd leave. The last time he did some work for me I had to convince him to invoice me. He eventually got around to it a couple of months later.


Anyway, back to last night. I had a successful evening, fulfilling a longtime ambition of owning my very own Wayne Barrar. And it's a cracker too.

I also got my hands on a Daniel Boobyer - he's a bit of a renaissance man in this town, or maybe an anachronism.

Some would argue the picture us just a muddle of gray, and therefore not a proper photo at all. I still haven't fully deciphered it, but it reminds me of Fiona Pardington's Taniwha.

The household also scored a print of the cover image from one of Lucien Rizos' recent books.

We were quite happy with last night's purchases, a bit disappointed on missing out on a couple of items, but happy in the knowledge that there'll be more to buy from TradeMe and that every cent of it will be going to a great cause.

The Final

For those of you who missed it, read this.

This was my last purchase from Thermostat. Well items 1 and 2 were, I've had 3 for some time now.

Oh yeah, and I also picked up a couple of David Boyce works too.

I've been meaning to pass that message on but ...

The Questions

This, apparently, is what can happen if you spend a few months and a few thousand dollars at Massey's Wellington campus.

Does this make me any more or less of a fine artist than I was prior to gaining said 'qualification'?

Do I have any more desire to be known as a fine artist than I did prior to gaining said 'qualification'?

Does this mean I am more intent on a career as an artist than I was prior to gaining said 'qualification', or from someone who has been regularly exhibiting for ten years without any formal 'qualification'?

These are not rhetorical questions. These are questions which deserve answers.

The Fuckup

It's kinda cool scanning old stuff.

And remembering old, long-forgotten grudges.

Guess which one is not entirely accurate.

Guess which one is far from freakin accurate.

Guess who I had the pleasure of abusing.

Sadly not the freakin idiot who made the freakin fuckup.

The Typologist

Soon after starting this series I showed them to a gallerist.

Partly in hope that he would be interested enough in the project that he would be open to the potential of showing them.

Needless to say, that didn't happen.

But what he did say was that there was something in the typology of the objects.

Needless to say, that had little relation to my concept, but it did make me consider that particular aspect in later shoots.

Okay, so maybe I didn't consider it that much.

Though once I even went all rock'n'roll on yo arse.

And decided it was rubbish so went back for a reshoot.

And sanity prevailed (though not to the Becher extreme).

As did more or less level horizons.

The TV

Yeah so in case you missed it, I'm a big TV star now.

I missed it.

But I caught it online. You can too.

It's hosted by the indomitable Chris Knox.

And you can follow his indomitableness right here.

Here's a screen grab of my 0.25secs of fame.

Awesome. So freakin' awesome.

I especially like the pasty skin - thanks summer!

The Acquisitions

Over the last few days I've been acquiring a bit of new art.

There are a couple of Blue David Boyce's.

Mind you, we're still kinda in negotiation about these.

But they're now at my place ... so I own them!!!

Then there's the Wayne Youle.

It's actually a collaborative effort between me, Wayne and Ra.

And there's a Henry Winkelmann on the way from one of the other David's in my life.

Oh, and there's a John Lake waiting for me too.

Nice.

The Boring

Yeah well tell me something I don't know!!

When I heard these were going to be up for six months I was annoyed. And frustrated. Because it's the Council. And there was nothing I could do about it. I wanted three months. Council didn't want to fund that.

Ooh, there's something I didn't know. There's only eight pictures on display. And there we were spending 18 months sorting out 16 images to display. Crikey, we could've saved ourselves 9 months. If only we'd known.

Thanks to Shaz and Gab for pointing me towards the article.

The Fern

I just posted this on my other blog. It's a slide taken by my Grandfather, George Palmer. That's him at the back of my profile photo.

I love it.

I'm not sure where the blue came from - he certainly wasn't using tungsten film, and none of the other slides have such a heavy colour shift. And I don't think it was my scanning. (I hope it wasn't my scanning!!)

Regardless it reminds me of John Herschel's cyanotypes. Strange that. And more recently the beautiful work of Alexander Hamilton. And, of course, Wayne Barrar's ongoing work - text but no images, one image.

Nice one George.