New Addition to Filming

The printing momentum has taken an alternative route recently. I haven't stopped printing as I have been, just making adjustments and additions. One such adjustment is altering the sizing of the paper I use for gum printing, reducing it from my standard 2 1/2% gelatin, to 2%, for the sake of a less stiff paper. The downside of this is having the image fall into the paper more, just how much is the point of the testing I'm doing now. Being I came across a of Jars in the Window that had been prepared to take care of the density range disparities of the negative I used for the gum print posted here.

I have never reprinted a gum image for the sake of knowing if I had the best possible finished image. The print negative I have of it now is far superior than the earlier one, hence, worth reprinting. At the same time it is worth testing for optimal sizing. I have already tested in the other direction, sizing to 5% gelatin, which is not equivalent to two coats of sizing at 2 1/2%, and, which keeps the image absolutely on the surface, leaving little detail. Gum printing is truly a personalized art form with unlimited options available for shaping the finished print. Part of this test is using quinacridone colors, on layered of standard cadmium pigments. First such layer of magenta, over four color layers (CYMK) of standard cadmium watercolor pigments. The difference is fairly amazing, not only in the sheerness of of the color but also the brilliance.

A second front unfolding is some renewed Jones for getting back to street shooting again, using film. Thirty years ago I used an $18 Argoflex twin lens camera, and with that captured my most iconic street image of The Flute Player, which I've posted on here in the finished gum image, with 21 print layers and over 35 color mixtures. That was six weeks of work. My newly acquired camera is a bump up from that. I've been perusing the internet for a suitable twin lens for such shooting again, without putting out a lot of cash in the bargain. My prudence for patience paid off handsomely with a click on a "You might also like" image of a twin lens camera. Turns out to be a 1959 RICOHFLEX twin lens for $26, in very clean shape. It is on its way.

The end result of anything I shoot today will be printed most likely in palladium or platinum/palladium, so the images I shoot from this camera in film will be digitally copied to be made into an 8"x8" negative for contact printing. The developing will be either using Beutler 105 or D23, standard development. I would have been eleven when that camera was made, thus it seems a befitting piece of equipment for my project. Any street shooters out there know the difficulties in getting natural shots of a street scene without people acting defensively when they see a camera in front of someone's face, aiming at them. Stalking with a twin lens is so much easier, and can be accomplished without most people even knowing they've been captured. The task, of course, is capturing said person at such perspective as to not single them out or make them recognizable. Looking down fumbling with something draws much less attention.

I am now finding the square format desirable. Thirty years ago, not so much. I used a mat frame insert for the upper view screen, in an 8x10 format. Not now. For whatever reason I'm finding the square format a new way of seeing and will work that out well. Being there is also an outlet for very inexpensive pre-cut mat windows at 8"x8" it won't be difficult to find means of displaying the final images. I will be posting images captured with this camera, likely as palladium prints. Time will tell.

RICOHFLEX geared lenses f:1:3:5