He vuelto a soñar

 

Dolores was born in a coastal area in the south of Spain. One day she told me about something curious that happened to her when she made a school trip by bus as a teenager.

The further the bus moved from the coast, the more she was unable to breathe.

A few years ago when exploring the possibilities with film I created "Dream" I had issues with developing and handling the film. I had the result I wanted except I was unable to make prints from the negatives due to the bad quality of the process.

 He vuelto a soñar 

 A surreal story combined with inspiration as every year I see the enormous fields of growing grain my imagination goes on the run.

 

 This time it was different, a camera with bigger negatives to work with, more knowledge on how to shoot film.

We had fun doing the shoot, I worked it all out, learned from the previous idea, I knew exactly what I wanted.  I made a series of prints from the images, hoping to present them one day.

My dream

04:39
My dream
I just woke up and still in bed writing, writing just to not forget the dream I woke up with. Somehow I traveled back in time, how do I know this? Well, in my dream I could hear the music of the show of “Are You Being Served?”, and was being served by Mrs Slocombe without asking her, “Are you free?” I remembered thinking; I need proof that I was here and went back in time.

Good old days
I could just take an image with my mobile phone. The only problem with using it or even showing it is that it could give problems. You can’t come up with a device from another dimension plus it could give bad luck and provide a glitch in time. I remember telling misses Slocombe that my mother and I were always watching the show of “Are You Being Served” and really enjoyed it. At this very moment, I still hear the opening music of the show. She was the only one of the main characters of the show in my dream. There were no Mr. Humphries or Captain Peacock or Mrs Brahms I now remember.

A selfie
I was thinking standing at the counter. How can I bring back some proof that I stepped back in time and asked? Do you sell disposable cameras? To my surprise, she came up with a disposable camera that she must have got from another department. She also brought a syringe filled with a part developer. I remember only taking one image as proof, a selfie together with Mrs Slocombe.

The developer
A male colleague of hers advised me to suck water with the syringe that already had developer, which I did and that combination, the mix became red.  I then added that to a certain amount of water and spilled that on the floor, something was going wrong. Mrs Slocombe said that the idea was to add the part of developer in the syringe to a certain amount of water. The next thing I now remember is that the rest of the whole dream I have been trying to figure out how I should develop that image, the developer had too much water, should I develop the film shorter or longer?

Conclusion

I finally figured it out, more water means a longer development. What make the film or developer was, no idea. The reasons for that dream are my Photographic journey working with film and analog cameras, last night bad ass movie about chemicals, when testing bad drugs it became red and maybe Longing back for the good old days home.

I am going back to sleep now.

The aristocrat

A photograph has to be specific

Thanks to the recordings by a Japanese student of Diane there is a recording of her speaking voice.

This was when she provided a photography workshop in 1970. The casset tape recording was later used by her daughter Doon and a friend to make a book about Diane who died in 1971

Diane spoke; "A photograph has to be specific" She said that when she started to photograph she thought that there are a awful lot of people in the world and its gonna be terribly hard to photograph all of them.

Lisette Model (Photographer)

She also said that if she would photograph some generalized human being, everybody else will recognize it. It will be like they use to call it, the common man or something like that.

Diane teacher Lisette Model was the one who told her that the more specific you are, the more general it will be. Diane said that you have to face that and that there are certain niceness you have to get out of.

Lisette Model said about Diane that from the beginning she photographed different from other people and that was a difference that she wanted and by all means and circumstances it was original and unique. She had to explain to Diane that there are great artist in every era who are new and that no one can understand them and that tributes to the medium.

We are afraid to look at them.

Lisette Model also said that Diane had courage and independence and did not look away when they see this subject matter. Also she said that its the first time (as far as she knew) in history of photography that someone photographed these kind of people who are discriminated and we are afraid to look at them because deep down in our self's we feel we are still cripple somewhere even if it isn't outside.

Diane photographed them humanly and seriously and functioning in their live which was an extraordinary achievement.

Diane would call them aristocrats, people who have past their tests in live.

Images were made with
Film: expired Fuji film 220
Camera: Mamiya 330C
Lens: sekor 80mm
Dev: C41 home development
Location: Relleu (Spain)

Source:  1972 Documentaire Diane Arbus from the Masters of Photography

                                                                              

The big window.

London 2016

Said Dal

One day during a break of making street images I entered a coffee shop where the back wall had a big window. This was a diverse structure that was lit by the Morning sun creating shadows on a large table.

I sat at the table enjoying the warm sun rays on my face, ordered a drink while I looked at the window. The scene reminded me of an image “En Provence”, I had seen in a photo book from Rene Jacques, a French Photographer (1908-2003). The book, ” how to Read a Photograph” by Ian Jeffrey was about "Understanding, interpreting and enjoying the great Photographers”

 

Structures, shadows and calculations

The description of the image “En Provence” was about structures, shadows and calculations, and this inspired me to make several images of the window.

I learned that Rene Jacques worked for photographers rights and for proper contracts with publishers.

It is Interesting to learn about Photographers rights in the history of photography.

Seems that at one point he owned 15 cameras and forty-five lenses, and knew how to work with them. If you are interested, buy the book it is a good read upon other important Photographers and their stories too.

Echo's of people who once lived here

  The project

Wandering through the fields of Relleu, a village in the East of Spain. The area is in a valley surrounded by mountains. I am walking through the countryside capturing images for my project, "people who once lived here".

Silence

 

Here, time is a not known factor. Silence is the only notable sound except for the startled rabbits, birds and the shutter of my camera. There are many ruins out here, the previous owners lived from agriculture of olives and almonds, that said this today it's still practiced. I have found many objects around the ruins. Some almost intact, objects used by those who once lived there. I am using my imagination about how they lived back in those days. It can be nice and cool in the ruins that have a roof. While I sit down to take a rest unloading and loading a new roll of film I can hear the wind rustling. 

The dam

In the raining season you can walk up to the dam with its spectacular view of water passing. Out of the raining season this is a parched area.

Whisper

I must have felt to sleep as I wake up, I must have dreamed as I remember seeing a silhouette of someone opening the door walking in, she whispered something. I was unable to see her face, only her shadow. What did she whisper, who was she? I thought about my dream, took a sip of water before I got up and continued my journey.

 
A small project realized nearby our home in Relleu (Spain)this in the year 2017(3,4,5)

Relleu is a municipality of Marina Baixa, Alicante, Valencia, Spain Relleu (which means "relief" in Valencian) owes its name to the rugged terrain that makes up the municipality and is overlooked by the ruins of an 11th-century castle built by the Muslim population. Camera:Minolta str101lens: 55 mmfilm:hp5400

Developing film and paper with CaffenolC

  My analog journey

My last post was on Saturday 9 May 2015. A lot has happened ever since I started my analogue journey.

Back then I wrote "about me"

"Me, just another of those thousands of photo enthusiasts. To become a better photographer I have set my Digital camera a side and stepped in to the world of analogue photography. I have followed a Darkroom Photography course developing film and bought 2 cameras for analogue photography. The cameras i use are the Olympus Om1 and the Om3, the 3 has spot metering which i think is an advantage shooting film."

Have I become a better Photographer by making images mainly with film?

Skills are never taught, they are acquired. I can give you a camera, but can't feed your vision
quote by Ragu Rai

A better photographer

I have followed several Photographic courses; see the updated “about me”
Also the bathroom is converted into a Darkroom, guess what? (My wife was not happy). Who prints his images these days? Now I do, not when I was shooting digital. I even learned how to make prints with alternative developing processes, why? well, because of curiosity and great interest in the historical Photographic processes. I was about time to take photography serious

Developing film

As promised with the last post, I would provide information about film development. I never taught that it would be with instant coffee rather than a commercial film developer.
Just the idea that you can develop the film with household products was exciting; I had to try this.
After some investigation, I went to the supermarket to find the ingredients, mixed these, pour it into the developing tank and process the film.

Soda crystals

After the process, I opened the tank and to my surprise! There were no images.. The strip was clear, two rolls of film with no images. What went wrong? After reading the Cookbook I found the culprit, “The sodium carbonate” The soda crystals I bought from the supermarket hold a certain amount of water with the result that the requested amount of soda for the receipt was wrong.

• Soda, Myth and Truth 

 After the learning curve from "Soda, Myth and Truth", I bought soda ash online which is the 99% or 100% sodium carbonate. Finally I was able to develop excellent negatives with this dark developer.

The way I mix and process film with Caffenol C
is the same way you will develop film with an conventional developer.

More information about Caffenol

I found this interesting article about before caffenol, a research that was done by "The Technical Photographic Chemistry Class" for non traditional developers.

Read the Story about Harold, the boy who discovered Caffenol C

ficcion

 

                                                 
                                                              The print in
                                                     Caffenol C developed

                                                          

                                                     

                               

The film cameras

I have exchanged the camera that I used when I started back with shooting film for 12 rolls of film at my local camera shop.
The reason for this is that I was lucky to get two other cameras from an elderly man I've met by the name of  Ciaran, a painter who was painting an old land house in a park nearby my house. I asked him if I could take a photo of him while painting.
He was surprised when he realized that I was shooting film and told me that he had two old analogue cameras which he was willing to sell. The Olympus OM3 and the 1974 OM1 together with a few lenses, flash, light-meter automatic winder. After I had bought both cameras it was time to change the light seals, the cameras were in good state.

 Image of the Om1

The only problem with these older cameras was that the light seals were degraded and needed to be replaced. You can get them to be serviced but I felt comfortable enough and thought it would be fun to do it myself. Online I found information how to replace the degraded foamit was easy to do. The only critical thing to be aware of was to not to contaminate the film compartment wile cleaning. The rubbery foam turns into a sticky mess during during the operation with alcohol solvent

                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                       

I shoot film.

As promised! I would back. In the meanwhile I have taken a course on developing film.
The film camera I told you about last time I and learned that its a study camera, popular under beginning Art students. Its mounted with a 50 mm 1.7 lens and has a working light meter.
The photos made you see is my neighbor posing, I pictured him wile he was working his land between the olives trees. right now its all about learning how to compose and having fun. It feels exiting that I am unable to see the made images  made and knowing that they are in that dark chamber.

The film used is Ilford HP5400

Digital to Analog Photography

After shooting digital for three years now and exploring all the settings of my camera, if decided it's time for something new.
Today, I have bought a manual camera and a roll of 400 ASA film. Shooting film, how exciting. I remember years ago I had a film camera; I do not remember the make of the camera or how I dialed the settings, for sure it was all in automatic mode, point and shoot. I remember holidays back then bringing a full roll of film and the excitement collecting and to see the images made.

After reading several Blogs about the quality of shooting the film, I must admit that I
Like and prefer the look of film.

My analogue journey started when I was documenting an exposition with a digital camera “Vanishing Art” last year, an art exposition that takes place every year here in Ireland. One day the director of the exposition introduced me to one of the artist named Conleth Gent.

Conleth creates original hand carved sculptures. His artistic statement,

“My sculptures are works of individualistic, personal expression”. I hope they reveal my love of nature and my interest in the struggle of humanity”

An African legend states that spirits of dead beings choose trees as a resting place between the worlds. A wood carver or sculptor has only to scratch away the surface of the wood to reveal the spirit inhabiting the tree. In African culture, it gives wood carvers a special place in the community and are well respected for their creativity. They can show to everyone the beauty and magic that lurk in a dead piece of fire wood”.

We started talking about art and photography, “Con also used to shoot film” he asked me if I knew Ansel Adams, I never had heard of. Inspired by the master I made some images in Monochrome, using the histograms zone system and also spot metering, depending on of the situation. For more information on shooting film I found this blog that introduced me on today’s film shooting and how to become a good photographer. I hope you like the digital images I created while inspired by the great Ansel Adams. I made the photo in 2014 in Relleu (Allicante) a small town in Spain. For 2015 I will be back with analogue photography And developing film.