Method & Cessation

Carn Gelli is a short walk from my house, it is a high rocky outcrop with some interesting history. During the 1797 Last french Invasion the vantage point was used by the French forces to keep an eye out for the British troops. There is an atmosphere about the place and a fantastic view; over Fishguard, out towards St Davids and even further the refinery at Milford Haven can be glimpsed.

The weather is now much more unpredictable, sunny days for photography are few and far between, but I will embrace this.

The film was FP5 plus and the aperture was set at f16, the 'shutter' speed anywhere between 125 and 250, this is governed by the speed that the pull cord is retracted. The negatives were developed in Rodinal, scanned and adjusted in PS4.

I think that these panoramic photos with the 35mm sprocket holes showing are like cinematic establishing shots. The simplicity, bleakness and grain contributing to a 'gritty' point of view feel. I consider that they have a micro and macro aspect, up close, but also distant, reflecting the statement of scale that I am describing.

These photos include the subjects who are viewing the series of aspects above. One model soldier with binoculars and the other on a radio who actually looks like he might be 'taking a knee'. I purposely chose models that do not carry weapons or are in anyway aggressive. They are observing and relaying information. They are tucked in not too obvious, a little difficult to see, blending with the environment. Vigilant in the eternal struggle for fairness.

I intend to repeat and serialize this concept, to begin with I have taken these photographs; tomorrow I may detach myself and look at printing and or painting a response to the photographs, an adaptation and I may well come back to photography in due course.

The next day I realised that my response to the photo had been to paint the soldiers POV, so to further enhance this I decided to add the double circular lines as the optical effect of looking through binoculars or of radio waves emitting invisible transmissions, connecting information.

The weather brightened up over the weekend and I took the opportunity to go out again with cameras and models to Carn Gelli. I had prepared myself to tackle the problem of it being too easy to get stuck in monochrome. In order to introduce some colour I decided to attempt using colour darkroom paper inside the home made pinhole cameras. I considered that if I can expose black and white paper in a pinhole camera, why not colour?

There is however no mention of the in camera exposure of colour paper in any of my books on alternative photography process and precious little on internet photo forums. All I have learned so far that this is a notoriously tricky task, so I thought it would be fitting to try it out and see where it would take me. I already had the paper and RA4 developing chemicals so this was a great opportunity for the medium to suggest to me where to go with colour.

I experimented with a variety of red and orange filters and had rather limited success. All the shots came out a rather shocking shade of Magenta, only one captured much of an image. But I have proved that it is possible to create a colour positive from the colour paper exposed in camera as a negative. I will not waste these pink papers as I have coated them with photo emulsion to expose again and see what happens when they are exposed and developed a second time.

Part of the secret lies in first developing in total darkness as a black and white negative, then the paper is put into a stop bath, the (tungstun) lights can go on to 'flash' the paper, then water but not fixer. Then it can be put into the colour developer after that into the 'blix' which is a bleach and fixer mixture. Then the paper can be rinsed with stabiliser and water, presto!

The weather stayed kind and I went up Carn Gelli again. I wanted to improve my colour experiments and had hit upon an idea that what might be needed would be to give the paper what it expects, ie: a colour negative. I took some colour negatives that had already been processed and found what I was looking for; usually at the start and end of the film there is part of a developed but blank or clear orange frame, so I cut a piece of this out, taped it over the aperture of my 8x10 pinhole camera along with another orange filter and a UV filter. I knew that this would increase the exposure time quite a bit and I had to guess. I allowed 10 minutes over a usual light reading. I think either the exposure was a bit too long or the time in the developer, I am not completely sure. But the paper came out a lovely deep indigo blue this time, with other colours lurking deep within and exciting detail, sadly too dark to reproduce effectively, the original needs to be seen with the naked eye. But I am getting somewhere!

I gathered a few more black and white images from my pinhole cameras, using direct positive paper as well as a couple as black and white negatives on regular darkroom paper.

Below I have mounted 2 different value acetates on some board covered with multimedia paper. There are frames made from beading between the layers that separate and lift the acetates from one another giving a three dimensional look. This is a possible method of displaying my photos, additionally perhaps incorporating some painting and drawing by using the background as a base layer.

While waiting for good weather I came up with another strategy for presenting photographs, I thought about using a slide projector. How it could maybe represent slices of time through this medium, like a disjointed time lapse. I remembered that I had seen projected images at the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition, Tate Modern a few years ago, it was mesmerising.

I already have a 35 mm slide projector and after some research into how pinhole images would project, I quickly came to the conclusion that it would be wise to consider medium format for the increased picture size and quality. However MF projectors are extremely expensive.

Through further research I came up with an affordable solution; there was an unusual slide mount made for 35 mm projectors known as 'Super Size', these slide holders would take a frame of 40 mm x 40 mm and I discovered that there were a few cameras that actually shot MF 120 film in this size frame to complement the system.

I managed to find and procure both a number of 40 x 40 slide holders and a suitable camera that shoots the same format. I can now go ahead with this line of inquiry. The camera is an Agfa Isoly 120 mm; I chose this particular camera as it has both the 'bulb' setting, so that the shutter can remain open for timed exposures and it also features an attachment for a cable shutter release to minimise any camera movement on long exposures. The conversion to pinhole is documented below.

Comparing 40 x 40 slide mounts alongside the regular 35 mm version, the advantage does become obvious. Unfortunately my slide projector only accepts slide mounts that are 2 mm thick and these super slides are annoyingly 3 mm thick. This is something I was not aware of, but I am committed to this now, I will persevere!

There is no improvement in the weather, so I have further developed my camera building skills. I have found that 5 x 7 inch darkroom paper is both popular and inexpensive. As I intend to continue my colour paper experiments it is worthwhile having the paper at the correct size for the camera; I have found it extremely difficult and hazardous to cut paper to size in pitch darkness, which is the required working environment of the colour paper.

It is roughly 1,000 steps up hill to get to the peak, and I had to make 2 journeys to get everything up there. The sun was in and out of the clouds, it was freezing cold and quite windy, talk about suffering for your art!

But my Action Man model seemed quite happy, resplendent in his Napoleonic uniform.

I still have much to do to improve the techniques, but I do know the directions to go in. I had already worked out equivalent filters to use with my light meter for the colour paper, but there is room for further experimentation and some steady sunshine without wind would go a long way to help, roll on the summer!

My research into more environmentally friendly methods of processing film has turned up the fairly recently developed practice of using coffee, known as the 'Caffenol' technique. I will start experimenting with this on the next film in one of my cameras.

https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/how-to-develop-film-with-coffee-caffenol-guide

Earlier in the project I had built a box that I sent to my Father, the intention was to send it back and forth, adding to it by response and dereliction. The idea was sparked by the work of Walead Beshty and his FedEx boxes, that receive random patina from knocks and scuffs during their transits.

As I had previously written; during the Covid lock downs so many things we need have to be ordered by mail delivery and this would be reflected by the 'Transit Box'. I had also been listening to a CD 'I send you this Cadmium Red', about the correspondence between artists John Berger and John Cale. My first response was basic; to take some Cad red, knock it back with some green so it resembled a house brick, representing something solid, although the box is actually empty or hollow.

My father who is 82 and I have not now seen in over a eighteen months agreed to collaborate. Hopefully this will bring us closer in some way. The box will ping pong between us for a set period or number of consignments, to be decided. Below (right) my father sent me a photo of his first contribution so I could include this before the project deadline.

The box is once again in transit, I am eagerly awaiting its arrival and plan to fit a tiny video camera that is motion activated inside it, this will give another account of its adventures.