G.M.Handgis Photography: Sunday Post of Thanks

My message today is simple. My thanks for the visitors to this blog. I have been blogging on writing and POD publishing for over six years. I was able to get eight books into publication under my brand; Brother Coyote Publications. What I have come to find after those years of writing umpteen articles on that subject, there are blessedly few visitors. One writes such fare for love, not fame or fortune, that's for sure.

I began this blog about a month ago because after thirty years since I was able to print my photographs, the opportunity arose to do so again. I did not hesitate. A very nice gentleman named PJ McArdle invited me into a small group of black and white photographers who share a darkroom he runs in a beautifully old Adobe house in the most western end of the Barrio, Tucson, AZ. PJ became very interested in hand coated processes when I told him of my personal interest in printing. We began with gum printing. I showed him the process, and secret, to multiple layer printing in gum. There is a key element to that process, without which, a fully printed gum is simple not possible. If you dot not believe me, do an internet search on gum prints or gum printers, look at the prints, and how many are offered. You will see the same gum printing as was done when Edward Steichen was printing them. I am not magic or a genius. I was fortunate early on when I began printing gums that I focused on this one critical element of printing that allowed the multiple layered printing. We're talking years to fully figure this out.

I will be writing mostly on hand coated printing processes as that is my love and the focus of this blog. Under that umbrella of printing the focus will be on the negative being used for said printing, as controlling the negative densities for the printing medium used is the goal. The print images I have been posting were mostly all printed thirty years ago. I keep referring to a printing room that is soon coming, after I pay my dues to the old contractor friend who will be making it happen, after I perform my duties as second mechanic, pit crew and chase driver on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Again. The blown out leathers at Speed Week changed everything.... Damn! I will have fresh 8x10 palladium toned silver prints, as well as new gum prints to show soon thereafter. Perhaps before.

So, thank you for visiting my blog. I work hard to make it worthwhile for photographers interested in expanding their photographic horizons, as well as showcasing black and white photography, keeping that energy alive and fresh. There is a resurgence in black and white film photography, for good reason. It never becomes "outdated" or "stale" unless photographers allow it to be so. Here is how I would frame the condition of photography today. Ask yourself this; how many 'photographers' are there today? How many print their own work? How many print silver gelatin, or digitally? Now, how many photographers print in hand coated processes? Of them, how many print gums? The numbers continue to dwindle as the questions proceed, and by the last question the number of printers can be counted on your fingers. Of those.... how many can print a thirteen color layer gum print? That is where we are going here. How do you do that.

I am of the old school of photography, or what I used to refer to as "Straight Photography", which happened to be the name of my first photography business, opened in Eugene in 1982. Two years later I opened a fine art gallery for black and white photographers. Photography is my first love. Writing hangs off that somewhere just behind. I believe it is up to the old timers of black and white photography to pass along their knowledge to those who come after, keeping the tradition alive and prospering, in a world of digital technology. Not that I have anything against digital photography. I am just really bad at it, then there's the red/green color blindness thingy.....

It is Sunday so I leave some snaps from Bonneville, and the Penguin that showed up....