I was thinking about the 19th century photographers and their wet plates and their darkroom wagons. I've developed big sheets of film in pretty primitive conditions--a back porch on a moonless night, for example--but now I wait till I get back to my darkroom. It's so much easier.
--shannon
On May 26, 2009, at 11:44 AM, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
<x-tad-bigger>Well for me a changing bag and a developing tank will work in a pinch to get the negatives processed and stable. An extra enlarger wouldn't be that big of a deal as cheap as many of them are these days and the enlarging lenses you could carry back and forth. Yet for me, I just wait till I get home to print. Looking back at the conditions many of the early photographers worked, we should all be grateful for our darkrooms. I haven't worked in a tent yet, but I have thought about it.</x-tad-bigger>http://shannonstoney-twors.blogspot.com/
<x-tad-bigger> -------- Original Message --------</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Getting Organized</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> From: Shannon Stoney <shannonstoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> Date: Tue, May 26, 2009 9:10 am</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> Do you have a darkroom on the road?</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> --shannon</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> On May 26, 2009, at 10:11 AM, Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee wrote:</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > Yes, Shannon, that is what I meant. I might come back from a trip of</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > many months duration with up to 400 negatives. I will deal with all of</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > them before making another trip. There is no backlog of unprinted</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > negatives (except right now, I do have a few (about six) very</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > difficult to print ones from Iceland).</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> ></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > Weston had no darkroom on the road. And on his Guggenheim trip they</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > were rarely away for very long. When they were, he mailed the</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > negatives back to Brett, who developed them. I cannot imagine anyone</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > ever developing my negatives for me, But I guess he taught Brett how</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > to do it and obviously he was confident in Brett's abilities. Still,</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > when developing film by inspection, there are judgements to make, and</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > no two people will make the exact same decisions.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> ></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> > Michael A. Smith</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> ></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> > Next: I deal with every negative I make before I make any more. I</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> either print it or discard it. In this way I learn from my work.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> And</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> since I know what I have done I do not repeat myself. At least it is</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> easier not to repeat myself when I know what I have done. A major</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> problem that many photographers have is that they do not deal with</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> their negatives. Ansel Adams had 40,000 unprinted negatives when he</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> died, which is why, I contend, that after awhile he just repeated</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> himself. Edward Weston, on the other hand, printed every negative,</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> or</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>> he discarded it. He kept growing as a photographer.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >>></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> I wish I could print every negative before I make another one. But</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> this isn't practical for me: I shoot in TN during the summer, and then</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> go back to my darkroom in Houston in the fall and spring and print</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> them. So, I don't really know what I've got till I get there and</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> develop the film.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> I think that you, Michael, go on fairly long photo shoots too. And</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Weston was gone for a long time on his Guggenheim trip. So I think you</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> don't mean literally that you print every negative before you make</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> another one, although that would be ideal for learning. I think you</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> mean you don't keep a huge backlog of unprinted negatives. Right?</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> --shannon</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Frankly I don't think that it would even add that much to my learning.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> I don't think that a single negative with a problem would have had the</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> same "Houston We have a problem" type of moment that we have all had</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> when we find a whole roll of film suffers from a mistake.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> As far as negatives, I keep almost all of them. Only the very worst</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> where it is so totally out of focus or some other problem is found</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> that</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> it makes the college file. Prints I toss often, but not negatives.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> A show on the Ovation TV network has a show on it that plays every so</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> often is about Ed Weston's wife Charis and interviews her about many</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> of</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Ed's photos including the Gugenhiem trip. One thing I always wondered</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> is why they didn't take a changing bag and at least develop the</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> negatives from time to time. I suspect the main reason that if you</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> drive 5 hours or so a day and take pictures another 8, the main thing</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> you are interested in then is to eat and rest.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Now the latent image is the most prone to damage. I try to at least</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> develop the negatives if its going to be a while before I can print.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Prints can wait till I get to them or I am ready to do them. Wait</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> with</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> the negs and adverse conditions may make printing unnecessary. If I</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> were in Tn all summer, Id try to find a darkroom or make another temp</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> one. grin On that Shannon you are now an expert.</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >> Mark</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger> >></x-tad-bigger>
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<x-tad-bigger> ></x-tad-bigger>
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<x-tad-bigger> ></x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>http://shannonstoney-twors.blogspot.com/</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>http://branguslane.blogspot.com/</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonstoney/</x-tad-bigger>
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