|
Equipment
The camera equipment I currently own includes 35mm, 2/14 and 4x5 film formats along with one Digital camera. I do rent camera equipment in a variety of other formats. I still maintain a working darkroom with two 4x5 enlargers. On the Digital side, I use; a computer, many photo editing software programs, printers and a scanner. The most unusual piece of equipment that I worked with was a horizontal 8 x 10 enlarger that moved on tracks like a train in the photo lab at JPL. It was half the size of a VW bug.
Photographic Techniques
The first photographic processed I learned, in the mid 1970’s, was the Cyanotype. The English astronomer Sir John William Herschel (1792 – 1871) invented the Cyanotype in 1842 as a method for copying his mathematical notes much like how we now use a copy machine today. The Cyanotype is a non-silver photographic process using Iron Salts which when exposed to an ultraviolet light source, oxidizes to produce a rich Prussian Blue Print. This is not the same as an architectural “Blue – Print”.
The second process was the Van Dyke Brown – Print. It takes its name from the 17th century Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyke whose work was rich in brown tones. Sir John William Herschel is also accredited as having discovered this process. The emulsion of the print contains light – sensitive Iron and Silver Salts (Ferric Ammonium Citrate, Ammonium Citrate and Silver Nitrate) that when exposed to an Ultraviolet light source, oxidizes to produce a rich brown print.
Next came your typical black and white photo, and there are two types: The Gelatin Silver Fiber Based Print, first available in 1870. This paper contains light – sensitive Silver Bromide Salts in a gelatin emulsion of purified animal protein on an archival wood pulp paper base. Second, is the Resin – Coated, “RC” Print. This paper is coated on both sides with a plastic – polyethylene layer, which makers if non – archival. Both types are handled differently in the darkroom but look the same and have different life spans.
I print all my digital works using archival pigment inks. These prints are archival.
|
|
|
