The Commission

We're experimenting heavily. Stay tuned, something really cool is about to be presented.

Charming

Two More

I've done 20 or so cyanotypes during this last week. But i haven't got the patience to scan and show them. But here's two:

4 more tests before we part

Tomorrow i'm leaving for the mountains. No civilization, no phone signal, no problem. Here's some of the last tests i've done. I've just coated 33 more papers to take along for the ride - we'll see how that goes.

Cyanotype

I have just returned from the UK, where we attended my graduation. Surprisingly enough, i did graduate with a First Class BA(Hons). Now i am beginning work on my second project, and the first after leaving school. It'll be cyanotype based, but more information will be provided later on in the process. For now, all i can say is that the first tests have been a success (to my own surprise) and that i have built my own exposure frame (there is very little that power tape and a small screw driver cannot conquer or create). So, here are my first tests:




We're leaving Sunday on a long trek in the mountains to work on a common project, Bogdan and I, and i will be taking a fairly large number of cyanotype-coated papers and will try to keep a record of our journey in this particular way. So far, so good ...

Life Begins

I am currently sitting on a tea house in Bucharest and loving every second of it. University is over and done with and this is where life begins. I'm quite contempt with the way things are going now. It's a rough period and i understand that it'll be difficult to get something going the way i want it but i am too proud to give up and too stubborn to admit that it may be impossible.

In this last week, i met some of the most amazing people, through my girlfriend. I met her canto teacher's boyfriend which just happened to love my Ambassadors and thought: "Let's shoot a movie on this!". When i told him i had plans to shoot myself shaving my head, he went ballistic and so the madness began. We met on and off and discussed lighting and setting up the space for the first show. FYI the images will be set up on the music stands they use in opera concerts so ... there's a win. So, we got to talking and that and set the dates for the shoot. My Defender is currently having an open heart surgery over the weekend so i had to get the Toyota. We shot for 40 hours in a 48 hour time frame and were only fueled by ... well ... momentum. Because as soon as things started slowing down, we fell like flies, dead tired.



Anyway, we shot a 90min experimental film which (fuck it, i am ruining the surprise for Monday - just a good heads up to those who read my blog) will be shown in sync with the classicl music. Each aria of the concerto had a frame thought up which pretty much rocks. It includes me almost falling out of a boat a few times, jumping out of trees, getting my head shaved half naked in a poppy field and many other insane ideas that our tired brains managed to duct tape together. The film will then be a full part of the show, and will be traveling around as a whole. Now all we have to do is sit tight and wait to become famous ... This is how things work, right?




Finance wise, student life is not yet over. I am broke beyond belief and am trying to figure out things ... University is gone and so is all the free equipment. This means investment as well as a great big hit in my already precariously balanced budget (strapping a ridiculously expensive camera to the side door of the Land Cruiser and driving around 60mph also put in a new light the idea of bankruptcy in case the camera fell off. No my bankruptcy however - but the faces of the people we overtook - worth every penny). But you need to spend money to make money and i suspect that this is the part where i have to spend ... That's it for now.

Still alive

It's safe to assume we've mostly finished university. I've been busy with the final project and all that and couldn't find the time to write - but now we are back on track.
Here's some images from two shoots i had yesterday.

Oh yes, and thanks to Mr. Pocock, i am now the proud owner of a brand new obsession: Google SketchUp - PROOF

The Foyer from the Bucharest Operetta ... more or less

My grandfather is cooler than my dad

My grandad kept telling me he has this enlarger he wants me to see. He said he was using it about 40 years back, when my mom was little. So today i finally got down to it and we played around. Unknown lens with no inscription except some rough aperture sizes. It's using a simple lamp bulb for the whole thing and it's bot two knobs with the numbers 1 and 3 on them. Even with an instruction manual, using this baby would be hit and miss to say the least. He is very old and hasn't used it for more than 15 years so he forgot what the knobs did but it was all so fascinating. So i take it and i start towards the door. And then i turned around and asked:

"So, do you remember what brand is it? Maybe i can find spares for it somewhere?"

He looked at me and went:

"Brand? What brand? I built the thing myself when i was young. This is how it was back then. If you wanted something you had to do it yourself."

Well, i couldn't really say anything to that except think to myself "Fuck. My ego went to shit". Now looking forward to trying it out with some 35mm negs and see what this puupy can do - in your face DeVere!

Excellent

Note to self

Master key - Lousy lock.

Something different

I never shoot my camera without looking. But in the last day home i went down to shoot some bits of cars for an article and took the dog and Dana along. As we were walking, it felt ok to shoot a few frames of her and the dog. I just pointed the lens over my shoulder and shot away 3 frames, One of which for some reason i am very fond of. I like tidy stuff, frames and shots and light and everything but every now and again random seems to work quite well.

Two generations

These are some of the test shots for my final work. The finals will be very different, however this run was quite important. These are, again, just tests.

The Twisted Project

No time. Here's what i'm doing, but more than one face. On canvas. Bye. Stop.

Finally, stuff

The day has come when i put some creative stuff on here as well. Do refrain from publicly observing the fact that the pictures are overexposed and crooked. I have a fever, feel like i just swallowed a fistful of glass and my nose is running like the Amazon river. The images are for information purposes alone. This is the first series of prints made directly on canvas - closest to how the final work will look like. Maybe soon i'll have the energy to put better pictures on here, but for now (at a few people's request) here's the in-progress development









Apart from that, i also had the fortune of stumbling over a first edition "L'art Renaissance", printed 1945. A bit worn out at the edges, but otherwise in good condition. Will be given as a gift - but beforehand i took the liberty to try and read it (with some difficulties, considering that my French is ... well... fairly rusty)





Last but not least, this is my last night here. I shall see most of you in January. Best of luck (people working on their research papers will need it)

R.

Second batch of experiments

Here's the second batch of liquid emulsion experiments, exposed on Friday and left to dry until today. I shall try to manufacture a system of keeping them straight (since they get really wobbly after being dunked in water for about an hour and a half) and if i can't manage (which i probably won't) i shall start exposing on artist canvases. But for now, here's the tests

The wonder that is silver

Today i have managed, for the first time in a long period of time, to surprise myself. I was hunting down messy processes to work with for my final exhibition. I eventually settled for using liquid emulsion on watercolor paper and see how that goes. Which i managed to do indeed. Despite Mr. Chris Coekin's witty and intelligent observation: "see i ... i think ... it's not getting through to me. I can't feel it", i went ahead with my ideas and got the emulsion, the paper and got down to business.

To my surprise, the emulsion is, as Mr. Colin Jackson would put it "what happens to rice pudding when it gets cold". Indeed, it's like a thick rubber thing. It requires heating before it becomes liquid again. Not a lot of heat - placing the recipient in a tank with boiled water for about 10-15 minutes should do the trick. For a brush, i decided to go with the best available and got a Jiaban wood brush made from goat hair. Brilliant for most alternative processes, courtesy of Silverprint.co.uk

The paper was coated and left overnight. The deed had been done. I came back today and got down to business, trying to expose some shots i took of a skull on it. I got the skull from the Design Department and i had a bit of fun sitting in the cafeteria having a sandwich and talking to it. Freaks people out. Ah.. these little things make my day.



Test strips, quite a few of them. And then ... the MOT (moment of truth). I exposed the paper, took a deep breath and lovingly pushed it under the surface of the developer, hoping for the best but expecting the usual...

I turned it and i must say i am rather impressed. It does what it says on the tin, and more. It's somewhat grobian in nature but masks my inability to take care of my negatives in the most wonderful way possible. More experiments will be done, more portraits will be taken and we'll see how it all goes.

More experiments

Thursday i had a go at cutting down photo paper and shooting directly onto it, instead of 4x5 films. I was trying to get a feel for how my series for the dissertation is starting to look like. These are some really rough sketches of what came out - exposures guessed more often than not, the light meter didn't do a very good job there.

Experiments and their outcomes

This is the foundation of what will eventually be my final project. It's work in progress, but so am i. No photoshop.

The Hasselblad Workshop

Fine. I know it's late and i know i am incredibly lazy. I said i was going to put some images from the workshop but i didn't even manage to look through them today because i always found something better to do.

So, last Friday i was invited at a workshop organized by the company at one of their studios in London. We had a bit of a delay so o i arrived maybe 20 minutes late, due to the fact that i passed the big poster saying "Hasselblad Open Day" at least three times.



I got in and spent about two hours listening to a talk about Phocus - their dedicated software. I must note at this point in time that i find software lectures dreadful and unbelievably useless. You are meant to learn it by practice, not by staring at a guy. Strangely enough, the Hasselblad guy managed to teach us almost everything with regards to the functions of the software in those hours, and made it quite fun.



It was close to 12:50 when they noticed that people are getting a bit anxious about the whole presentation. Time to bring in the hardware. Lined up behind the 8-10 present photographers (which will be addressed from here on as "us"/"the lot")were ten shiny Penguin cases containing ten even shinier pieces of kit with various extremely shiny and sharp lenses. Let the fun begin.



All cameras had their own pocket wizard - type trigger attached to a big 180 umbrella from Pro Photo. Not going to go too much into details, just enough to say that i had the chance to play with the most fun combination of kit i have ever had the honor to see - the H3D II 50 Mpx, Tilt/Shift adapter with lens correction and the 35 - 90 mm lens. That was without a doubt the peak of the day.

Her space

art·ist (är'tĭst) n.

One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill.

One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts.

One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit: a con artist.

[French artiste, from Old French, lettered person, from Medieval Latin artista, from Latin ars, art-, art.]