Photography & Art ~ A perspective

This being a blog, I feel there is freedom to discuss issues without posting new work, as has been the focus of this page in the past. When I began blogging on photography, I covered various areas of photography, including processes, practices and functional testing methods. I also was posting the print images I was making at the time. That process has brought me to my current position in photography, as a photographer and a printer. interestingly enough, it follows directly Dr Wayne Dyer's Dictum; "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change". The most powerful tool at one's disposal, in life.

I bring that up as it affects how I perceive the photographic process, and how I want to utilize it. Photography has been in my blood since I was 13, in 1961, firing off my first black & white shots of the world, fascinated by both. Something about seeing a world in b&w, even then, was comforting to my eyes. It wasn't the real world. It represented the real world with beautiful gradations of grays. It has been a good number of years, with thirty years of commercial photography in the interim, to basically arrive back to that point of perception, of wonder, and deeper appreciation of the b&w image. I specialized in black and white photography when I had a commercial studio in the 1980's, it was still being regularly used. The final decade of commercial work was Event Photography, weddings, Quinceaneras, Proms, sports teams, Baseball Player Card photos, Sororities/Fraternity portraits, and special occasions. Everything in that work was all about the client.

I was fortunate to have been able to build a custom darkroom, designed for hand coated printing. For me, printmaking. That four year period produced ten printed portfolios of work, in four print mediums, with two mixed groupings. In that time, I wrote a book on each of those four processes, with the mixed processes within those books. And that, has changed the way I look at things, photographically. 'Producing, now, is something entirely different than when I began. When I began there were hundreds of images in my head, all wanting to be represented in their best form. A good amount of those images were shot thirty-five years ago, a much different period in my photographic life. Another thing to come of my printing over that period was the way I perceive my work.

When I began making hand coated prints again, four years ago, the focus was on building a clean portfolio. Then another, followed by another, and another book. The portfolios began with my earliest images, as Kallitype prints, in an edition of (5). Then came the Tombstone  portfolio of palladium prints in an edition of (3). As the portfolios progressed, my perspective progressed, to wanting only a very limited number of copies. The editions continued to decline to one of (2), before I came to realize this was telling me, everything. All the prints I make now are unique. There are several reasons for that.

Considering my age, in my seventh decade of life, with galleries chuck full of black and white photographers, of every stripe, then pandemic closing down pretty much everything, having editions of prints isn't a good idea. Then there's the commercially viable collectable value, based on how many prints in circulation, and the fewer the better for the buyer. Perhaps it is the sum of the above propositional argument, the simple truth being my choice now for making only unique prints comes down to my own way of looking at my prints.

There is always the expected way of making a black & white print, but b&w photography is very malleable, something stressed in the first book. A black and white image can be printed in almost endless variations upon the theme. Each iteration being viable, if, the printer wants it so. The classical black and white print as I came to know it derives of master works, such as Edward Weston. He sets a pretty high bar for fine printing. The eight definable tonalities, from deep black [dMax] to crisp white [zone 8] When I began, that was the focus, making a full scaled black and white image. That morphed into warm toned images printed in palladium, then gum and gum over palladium. Each print taking longer and longer to make.

That, was the process of change. When I intend to make a print now, I spend a good deal of time looking at images until I see the right one. I mean seeing it, as how it is to be printed and how that would look. The image is scrutinized for its design, its representation of the light, the chiaroscuro effect. All elements that make up what will be the final image seen by the viewer. Before that can take place, the printer must be able to see the final print as desired, in order to control the elements of the printing process that shape and control the end result of the printed image. If that image can't be seen, there is not trail for arriving anywhere.

I suppose what I'm saying is simply, I'm beginning to see my work in a different way. Each print is a jewel, a creation that has to be perfect. I don't print for expected tonalities, the eight tonal range print. What I'm interested in now is creating the Pictorial Effect. Shaping the image in such ways as to create the mood and lighting that is desired. I believe the lighting of the image is everything. Lighting not only sets the mood and structure of the image, it shapes the textural quality of the image and how the lights reflects off objects. It is the shaping of the printed image, that defines the printer, makes it unique, recognizable.

The summation of the above thought, was a journey every photographer/print-maker will experience if, they wish to use the term Art in reference to their work. Art, should be unique and rare. If their are umpteen or endless print copies, then it would be difficult for anyone to call that art. That would be commercial photography, and that, is what photography is all about. Take a shot, print it, then sell as many copies as you can. But that, is not Art. And that, is the beauty of having a blog. I can post my thoughts of photography and art. With that said, good energy to your photographic works.

g. Michael Handgis Photography

"Stairway to the Past II" ~ Final Print

After a dozen more test strips from several negatives, I have finally arrived at the final interpretation of this image. There are so many ways to prepare an image, shaped to the mood and dynamic interplay of tonalities that define the image. The dynamics of this image, as was the case with the companion print, was brilliant sunlight on stone and masonry. Showing that off, without losing the textural quality of the middle tones was the goal. Holding the bright sunlight directly on the masonry and stone to zone 7 was the trickiest part, while still not depressing the middle tones on the stone in the background. Hence the several negatives, each with variations of densities, on different parts of the image.

The original image was shot with my Canon 20D, fifteen or so years ago. The color image of that masonry and stonework was a sort of golden hue, which was what I had wanted to imitate. The closest I could arrive at that 'color' using a panchromatic process, was when the image was first developed and cleared, leaving a warm toned image rather close to the original. The palladium toning alters that color relationship, shifting the image to a cooler tone, the longer the toning the cooler outcome. The print was developed in sodium citrate, for the original warm tones.

Being a serial confessor I will mention here that I have learned a new insight to the printing, using digitally printed negatives onto acetate film. Being a companion print image, the perspective mattered. There was the left looking image and the right looking image, as I photographed both shots within three feet of each other. Each image was looking through a doorway, set about four feet apart at Tumacacori Mission, Arizona. Same sunlight, different perspective angles into two different rooms. The confession being I flipped the image in my head when finalizing it's setup for printing, not flipping the image horizontally for the printing. I had made three test strips before coming to the conclusion something was definitely amiss, as the print times and resultant prints just weren't jibing.

 

What I learned, was that the light refraction off the 'emulsion' side of the negative alters the light coming through said negative, lessening the actual light onto the print. Who'd a thunked it. I have printed more than one 5x7 negative out of my Burke & James without any change to the image besides being reverse from the original perspective. Makes a considerable difference with digital negatives, printed in a UV printer. Softer, less contrasty results. Which, I suppose, could be used to the printer's advantage, when needed.

The final print was printed in sodium citrate, cleared, then toned in 5% palladium solution [5g citric acid], for nine minutes. The palladium toner is a top down toner, working with the highlights first, brightening them before movinng down through the middle tones, opening them up, separating tonalities within the middle tone values, finally reaching the blacks, deepening them. The long toning also shifts the overall tonal color, to a more neutral value. This print finishes the two sets of companion images I had been wanting to print for several years. I'm finally printed most of the images I shot thirty-five years ago but never got to print. Now I'm beginning to print images I shot only ten or fifteen years ago.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~Unique

"Stairway to the Past II" ~ 11"x17"

Tumacacori Mission, Arizona

"Stairway to the Past II" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

As I have with the past 11x17 prints, I am taking my sweet time making a final print. Each image I work with brings its own characteristics to be dealt with, in the process of ending up with an final print image that is the strongest way of showing off the print. I spend this much time, and material expense simply because all my prints now are unique, and there is but one time, one printing that will represent the image, for all time. It has to be perfect, archivally, as well as ending up with an image that is strong enough to allow the viewer to feel the mood set, connect with the image emotionally. Well, that's the theory. How well I hue to that will of course be decided by the viewer. For me, once I get the image printed the way I want it to be represented, then I'm good with it.

Palladium toned Kallitypes

"Stairway to the Past II" Test Images

Test Strip: Neg 1

This is the final test strip I printed of the more important areas of the image; the highlights, with background.The print time was 8-minutes; developed in sodium citrate, toned in palladium for 9-minutes. This is very close to how I wanted the tonal values to play out. Slightly light with the shadows, and just slightly bright on the highlights of the cement wall and stone floor. So, I added one minute to the full print to come, thinking it would slightly darken the shadows and print down the highlights a little more. That isn't what happened. The print image was considerably darker in the shadows, with the highlights printed down more than would be expected of a one minute difference. All of which is something I am unable to account for. Same process all across the test strips and prints.

The only difference being I freshened up the sodium citrate developer. I use the replenisher method, adding to the developer the amount of solution used during printing. When I've used one liter of replenisher with the original 2 liter developing solution, I toss it all out and start fresh. I would be hard pressed to believed that much difference showing up with basically the same developer. I also mixed fresh EDTA clearing back and print fixer. At any rate, what I got was quite a bit darker, richer, yet with the middle tones more suppressed than I would like.

Print from Neg 1; 11 min

This print is the same setup, same developer, same chemistry. The difference between the two is simply one minutes print time. Hence my confusion .Both of these prints are made from the same negative. This negative was made with my Kallitype <curve> plus an added +20 contrast ~ -10 shadows. This was to separate the shadows and highlights from the middle tones, brighten up the image. It worked, but I didn't go far enough at the time. I opted to retry the negative, adding the densities, dropping out others. The print to the left was made from the first negative I made, with just the K <curve> added. The final image is the second negative made, with the added densities in the highlights and reduced densities in the shadows & blacks. All three images are straight out of my Canon 20D, using the same outside light upon the print during copying. There are many things predictable about making Kallitype prints, when the process has been controlled, for predictability. Having made hundreds of Kallitypes, one gets the feel of things over time, hence better predictability.

Print from Neg 2; 8 min

What becomes immediately evident is the back wall of the setting, in this print the tones are more open to view. The highlights of direct sunlight on the concrete doorway and stone floor are brighter. In this print they need to be printed down a couple more minutes to reach a more appreciable zone 7, showing the brightness, but with full texture. All of which goes to demonstrate that an image can be represented in many different ways. So, where I'm at right now, is the first print is the original negative, and needs to be printed with less time to be more appreciative, and the second print, with the added manipulation of densities [more contrasty], needs to have print time added. Both are very close, The winner will turn out to be somewhere between the two prints as they are now.

There will be more printing to come for this image. This post was to show the process as it unfolded. I have blogged on process for years now. What I want to focus on now is technique; the manipulating of the image to create a desired end result that utilizes Pictorial Effect. Altering an image to create a mood in the setting to arrive at the strongest way of showing the image. Once I get full dry down with the latest print, the task will be to sit them side by side under good light and ponder just exactly which way I want to go, then find the perfect print time. That's the task.

"Stairway to the Past" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

The charge that i have succumbed to the infectious nature of a pandemic virus, is way overblown. I have merely succumbed to venturing forth unless there's a  point to it. I have things not yet done in the creative side of life. I spent fifty years on the "Get a Job!" ledger. Yeah, I had lots of jobs, did so many different things keeping above water, feeding children demanding food, having the roof over our heads thingy. All sedated in my past, left to some fond memories that made things worth the effort put forth. A large part of my life has been surrounded by photography, beginning in 1961 when I was thirteen, and had a knockoff to the Kodak Brownie camera, loaded with b&w film.

As with every photographer who ever hefted a camera, snapped a frame or two, then made it through the printing; after forty years of daily use and practice, things are very different between the beginning and ending. Besides the controls of photography, through negative manipulation and uses of technique, the more subtle part of learning is the art of seeing. That doesn't come easy, or without earnest work at it. The thirty years of commercial photography, many of them spent at my 1000ft/q studio in Eugene, Oregon. Most excellent years, spent specializing in black & white photography. Of course, that was thirty years ago when print media was still mainstream. One would be amazed at how many advertising materials used b&w images for brochures and pamphlets for their local advertising.

The point of all that, being, In commercial photography you please the client, as you would the bride in wedding photography. What they want, rules. What they wanted was a full scaled b&w image that showed off their product [texture and tonal range]. I had spent some years working in fine art, owning a gallery, representing thirteen photographers, in that same town. I was a pretty good printer in silver gelatin printing. It showed up in my modeling portfolios, garnering me over two hundred models that I worked with for portfolios and head shots for auditions. I made the models, and the products look good. That was the goal, but it doesn't have a thing to do with art.

Being this is my blog on black and white photography, focused on hand coating printmaking processes, it is all about art, and what I think that's all about. It's my blog. There's also the underlying shaping of my posts by my writer's side, that side that also demands time with the Little Muse, who have a tendency to disappear in a deeper region of Mu, where they blend in, binging on Mu spirits, and sleeping it off. A couple of the Muse are thrashing about, demanding some word time. Again. Having eleven books in print bears this out. Everything I write about here, I've included in one of the five books on photography I've put out. Yes, a shameless plug.

In spite of the pandemic thingy, I have not been idle. I have been conflicted. I study each image I want to print, trying to divine exactly how I want to represent it. In film days, there were shooting and developing controls available to shape the negative image within the boundaries of a printing process; then, silver gelatin, mostly. In the days of digital imagery, all that changes. I can alter the contrast without altering the density range, or vice versa. Anyone with editing software knows this. And that, is why seeing the image as you envision it to be, as the "strongest way of presenting the image", not necessarily as it was captured. The Pictorial Effect; altering the image to showcase mood and setting, the emotional connection the printer had with the image. The idea is demonstrating that vision in the printing, with the intent of having the viewer seeing the mood set, feeling the emotional connections of the artist. That's the intent of art.

There are two negatives printed for this image, the second altering the tonal shape by altering the contrast slightly and reducing shadow density, very slightly. This altered the light, and feel of the image, as well as the textural qualities of the stone. For the most part, I am happy with the outcome. I only make one print of each image now; all unique. And that is why getting it 'right' is the printing intent. Not until the print image resonates with me, that I feel the harsh Arizona sun, mid day at the old Tumacacori Mission, that it will be matted and a certificate of authenticity. There be only one.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ unique
"Stairway to the Past" ~ 11"x17"
Tumacacori Mission, Arizona

"Two Lilies II" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

The pace of putting out a finished print has slowed from the past year. During the four years of printing while writing books about the processes I was producing new prints almost every day, sometimes more than one. I was also working in 8x10, now I'm working with 11x17 for the palladium toned Kallitypes, and 11x14 with the gum over palladium prints. This newest print is a sort of sister print to "Two Lilies" print, different perspective. They fit nicely side by side.

These prints needed a different handling. The density range of the density was considerably less than what I used in the past with Kallitype prints. That would have to do with the subject; two white lilies. The most demanding aspect being keeping the contrast between the shadows on the lily and the highlights. The shadows needed to be very soft. Very soft. That, was not an easy task. As always, copying the print using a digital camera adds to the fidelity of the digital image to the original print. I do my best.

This print was made on Revere Platinum paper. Developed in sodium acetate. Print time was 6 1/2 minutes. I know, that's strange for hand coating, but I was torn between the six minute and seven minute test strips, so I averaged the time. The print was toned in palladium toner for seven minutes. The palladium toner has a good deal of influence over the final image. I use the 5ml//1000ml toning solution, with 5g citric acid. The formula for the palladium toner using 4ml/1000ml tend to warm the print slightly more. The palladium toner's affect on the print is in brightening the highlights, opening up middle tones [light shadowed areas] and deepens blacks. Knowing that going allows for slight print time adjustments to compensate for the brightening of the highlights; zone 7.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ Unique
"Two Lilies II" ~ 11x17