The Photo Palace

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Wet Plate Collodion artist Allan Barnes interview

On Saturday January 5^th it was my pleasure to visit Allan Barnes - photographer residing in Los Angeles. Allan has taught photography at multiple institutions and has led many private workshops. Currently he is a part time instructor at the New York Film Academy and offers private tutorials. His work can be found on his Tumblr and Flickr account and to find out more about his private teaching practice you could refer to his own Blog.

It just so happened that during my visit I was able to observe him as he was doing a follow-up class with two students and I got a taste of his teaching style, which was very no-nonsense and to the point. His students were delighted and vowed to come back for more practice time at a later date (wet plate collodion is a complicated processes and is not something one can get comfortable with in one or two days).

Allan aiding his students in the portrait session.

Allan's student and their models.

After the daylight was gone, the backdrop was removed from the garden and his students departed we sat down for an interview:

Q. What process do you work with?

A. I work with wet plate collodion, which includes both tintypes and ambrotypes. Ambrotypes are glass-based images where glass plates are soaked in silver nitrate with collodion is binding the silver to the plate. Tintypes are not made on tin, but on aluminum sheets and it’s essentially the same process. Tintypes are a little bit easier because the material we use, called trophy plates, is sheets of aluminum with a baked-on black enamel and it is commonly used in engraving and therefore more readily available.

Q. When and how did you first get involved in photography?

A. I became haunted with black and white images at the age of ten. I was in a literature class thumbing through a book that was illustrated with black and white images. There I saw a series of pictures made by Duane Michaels. He is still alive today and is probably in his 80s now, but he was really popular in the 1960s and 70s and he did these little stories – little sequential series of pictures. It was a cross between still photography and film where he used images to tell short five second novels, which I thought was brilliant. It as then that I decided that I had to learn how to make black and white photographs. It took me until I was 17, in my last year of high school, to learn that. Then I really got serious about it in college and started working in the college paper. During the first year or two I did a lot of landscapes, but due to the influence of working in the paper I decided to become a photojournalist. That’s where I was for about a decade and the last time I took a picture for a publication was probably 2005.

Q. What attracted you to the tintype process?

A. It’s very slow, very deliberate, very messy and very smelly. It’s very physical – you’re always moving around, and the reason I think I liked photography in the first place was because it involved a lot of moving around and not just sitting in a chair in front of a desk. When you’re in the darkroom you are moving around and as a journalist you are constantly going different places and taking pictures of different people. That too was a very fascinating career, but very difficult to get a good job in. I did get into photojournalism as the newspapers were starting to close, so it was a really bad time to get into the field, but I still wanted to do it. In the 90s I started working with Polaroids and doing a lot of work for myself on the side. Around 1996 I also had a job that lasted about a year working for a magazine and the publisher was a very brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning photographer named MannyCrisostomo who used to work at the Detroit Free Press. He pushed me to experiment and I started working with larger formats again, using Polaroid type 55 film, doing Polaroid transfers. However by 2002 it became obvious that Polaroid was in deep trouble and was not going to survive. At about that time I moved out to Los Angeles from Detroit and that was pretty much the end of my photojournalistic career and I had to reinvent myself. Around that period I have seen some alternative process images and wet plate work being done by contemporary artists. I saw original daguerreotype of the burning Twin Towers on 911 by Jerry Spagnoli on display in New York and was really haunted by it and became interested in making daguerreotypes. I also saw a series of wet plate images by Robert Maxwell – a series of portrait of actors and actresses, models and kids and his work drew me toward wet plate as well. I was at this fork in the road as I was attracted to both technologies, but when I found out that you had to burn mercury to develop daguerreotypes I decided to go with wet plate collodion.

Q. What equipment do you use?
A. I use a reproduction half plate bellows camera made by Ray Mogenweck. His company is called Star Camera Company. I use two backs at a time so I can make two plates every ten minutes...The lens is a no-brand Petzval most likely from the 1860s or 1870s.

Photographer and his camera.

The man-cave darkroom.

Q. How did you learn the process, did you teach yourself?

A. No, I admire anyone who can do something like this on their own and there certainly are videos and other information on the web, but I am the kind of learner that I need to see someone face to face doing it and be able to ask questions. In 2005 I went to a two-day workshop at the International Center of Photography and got a taste of the process with Joni Sternbach. She did say that the workshop was pretty much an introduction and if I really wanted to get serious I should go and spend a few days in upstate New York with John Coffer and I did that the following summer. That’s when I became really hooked and decided to get all the gear and go at it.

Q. How do you think digital imaging has changed the field of photography?

A. Well, it’s almost like what the introduction of the Brownie camera by George Eastman in the 1880s – it made it photography much easier and much more accessible by taking a lot of the mystery out of it. Prior to George Eastman most photographers were professionals and you had to have a lot of money to buy the equipment and get set up and the Brownie brought photography to the masses. Before digital the company that hired a photographer had to have a lot of trust in the photographer and the fact that he/she knows what they are doing because you couldn’t review the images on the spot. Prior to digital photography was more valued as a trade and a profession.

Q. What do you think is the place of film and analog photography today?

A. I actually rarely use film, though I have recently been thinking of doing some 8x10 because knowing how to do an 8x10 ambrotype I think going back to film will be a lot easier. However I feel like technology is a banquet and all the technologies are good. I personally like doing wet plates though, but I don’t shy away from digital as well and recently was in a mobile arts photography show where all the images were taken with phones. It’s all about making an image and telling a story.

Q. Do you think there is a benefit to new photographers in learning analog processes?

A. Yes. It makes you slower and more deliberate. For example – I do a lot of my work on plates and so when I use a digital camera now I’m very careful and I’ll do only 3-4 frames and that’ll be it. I know when I got the shot and there is no need to spend 200 frames and hope that I got something. So I think film makes you more a more careful shooter. I teach and I feel that digital has made people more careless – they don’t even want to use a meter because they think that if the exposure is off they can just see it on the screen and correct it. Digital can be a good learning tool as well, but the fact that you have an unlimited amount of frames makes people less attentive I think. Other than that I have nothing against it.

Q. Who were some of your biggest influences?

A. Besides Duane Michaels I think I owe a lot to my great grandfather - a photographer in a little town in Ontario, Canada. It was a very small place, so one had to have a lot of trades in order to provide for his 8 children. So my great grandfather was a photographer, funeral director, cabinet-maker, watch repairman.
Today there are a lot of people whose work I admire. The first person that comes to mind is Paolo Roversi, who is an Italian photographer and does very timeless large format images. At the same time I do come from a photojournalists background and I like the work of people like SebastianSalgado, Eugene Richards and Taryn Simon. However, while I think it’s important to see the work that’s being currently produced, one does have to be careful not to spend too much time staring at other peoples work.

Q. Where do you see analog photography in 25 years?

A. It will be an alternative process just like cyanotypes are now. I’m a little curious as to where wet plate is going to be because more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon, which is fine – it’s slow photography vs. fast photography. Just like slow food vs. fast food – some people are fine with eating at McDonalds while others prefer a unique meal made with care and so they will go to an artisan restaurant. I think a lot of people spend their days in front of the computer, so the idea that when you are not at your job looking at a screen you are going to come home and do more of the same while making pictures is what drives a lot of people to these older processes. Whether it is film, wet plate, salt prints or other messy hands-on techniques people will be looking to that to put some excitement in their lives. What’s really nice is that you can mix digital with the old technology and made digital negatives to use with you Van Dyke or platinum prints and I think that’s great too.

Exit time.

Anton Orlov

Friday, January 4, 2013

French WWI images found still in camera

Here's something you don't see every day, so I think it deserves a post.

The other day I was alerted by my friend Rob McElroy about the existence of an antique store that recently purchased a large photography estate. Among other things Rob collects antique books on photography and asked me to investigate if I can spot some books there similar to the ones that have already been put on eBay by the store.

I drove up 100 miles to the store and found an incredibly cluttered little shop filled with furniture and other trinkets stacked on top of each other at least three levels high. The back room, however contained the photo gear and it was a delight to see. In fact, I'm not done there just yet and am going back on Saturday on my way to interview a wet-plate photographer in LA area (look for that interview in the next post). There are dozens of wooden cameras from late 1800s, hundreds of lenses and shutters of all makes and kinds and thousands of parts and supplemental to cameras of any sort (sadly, most of them probably hopelessly and forever disconnected from their original counterparts). I dug around for about 8 hours and am probably still yet to see all that there is.

One of the cameras that caught my attention right away was a French stereoscopic camera called Jumelle Bellieni. I knew that I had to have it for my collection even though it was missing the focus-synchronizing bar and dark slide. Here is a link to some pictures of one that is in better shape than mine. It's a pretty neat-looking piece of equipment and, even if I never take a single picture with it, it will look very nice in the camera museum I'm hoping to open up in my old age. Thankfully the price I was quoted was reasonable and still leaves me with a bit of diesel funds for the upcoming second journey aboard The Photo Palace Bus.

When I got home I was anxious to figure out everything about the inner workings of this camera. First order of business was to clean it. Everything in the collection that was acquired by that store is covered with a thick layer of dust and grime and it took quite a few Armorall wipes to get the leather to gain a presentable look. Then came the Carl Zeiss lenses - I carefully took them apart and wiped them to the best of my ability. I can't say they are in great shape, but at least I got the majority of fog off of them. I started to run out of things to clean on the outside of the camera, which naturally made me wonder what it looks like on the inside. After a good while of looking for the back release I realized that there is none present entire back can be slid to one side. The plate pressure springs jumped out at me like a couple of live and angry rabbits (the Monty Python And The Holy Grail kind). Naturally I thought something was awry as I am not yet used to camera parts charging in attack mode. Luckily I soon realized that I was out of the danger zone and that the two parts acted as they should have been expected to. Here is where things got incredibly interesting.

Inside each film chamber I found a stack of neat little glass plate holders (12 total). While 4 of them were empty the rest contained the original thin plates of glass. The last thing that I ever expected to find though were negative images on those plates! Each of them seem like they were fully developed! The glass is clear (I am not sure if dry glass plates had antihalation backing on them and am in touch with an expert to try to find that out) in the dark areas and fully exposed and dark in the light areas. I am completely baffled by this find, but the images were so intriguing that I decided to scan them.

While viewing the images in their negative form it was difficult to say for sure what was on each of them, but after scanning them it became clear that they dated back to the First World War and were taken somewhere in France. There were 8 images and they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will spare you from reading another 8000 words - here they are, quite possibly seen for the very first time since their capture.

House in a river after bombardment

Three soldiers and remains of an airplane

Two soldiers, one holding up a sizable bomb

A town showing signs of war

Two soldiers and countryside in the distance

A soldier by ruined train tracks and houses

A stereoscopic image of an old house.

This was the only image done in stereo pair.

Large light leak is unfortunate as it would have been fun to print this pair

and view it my old stereoscope.

I absolutely love finding images that likely have never been seen by anyone in the world.
Hope you enjoyed looking at them as well. If you would like to have some prints of these 100 year old photographs for your wall or collection I would be happy to make real gelatin silver darkroom prints for your collection for a very reasonable cost. Web-reproduction rights are granted on case-by-case basis, it is my hope that you will consult with me about publishing my find.

Here is a another chance for me to express my personal preference for analog photography. Let's say you took some pictures with your latest greatest digital camera (perhaps you actually were present during 911 and got some incredible documentary captures). Let's suppose that you forget to take the memory card out of the camera and lose that camera or forget about it up on top of some shelve. Time goes by and, alas, you pass away having lived a long and productive life. That camera is sold to an antique store 100 years later (if it doesn't end up in a landfill - people seem to value old things less and less nowadays and the incredible numbers in which digital cameras are being produced today make me wonder if anyone will even give a camera from the early 21st century a second look by then). What do you think are the chances that whoever buys your camera will be able to see the incredible images from your memory card? Will they have devices that can take a Micro SD or a Sony Stick in the 22nd century? What if your camera spends 20 years sitting on top of a magnet - will that scramble the images beyond recovery?

If you find this post intriguing I recommend taking a look at the blog entry with images from the First World War period taken in Russia.

Support The Photo Palace Bus.
Our educational programs operate
largely on public donations.

Thank You,
Anton Orlov

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Inteview with Scott B Davis

-->

Scott B Davis is a Director of Exhibitions and Design at SanDiego Museum Of Photographic Arts. Along with doing a fabulous job at that post he is an accomplished photographic artist working in platinum prints and teaches that technique in private workshops.

Earlier today it was my great pleasure to visit his home and take a tour of the darkroom, which he built over this summer. The work there is still continuing (show me an artist whose vision is done and finished and I’ll show you a dead artist) and you may see a few construction tools in some of the images here. His platinum prints are among the finest that I have personally seen. His work and accomplishments can be found by visiting http://www.scottbdavis.com. You can aslo find contact information there in case you are interested in purchasing a print or taking a workshop.

Here is a transcription of our chat, which was conducted in a loose interview format:

(Scott B Davis in his darkroom)

Q. What was your first darkroom experience and how did you become a photographer?

A. Well, I took photography in high school in the ‘80s and I thought photography was purely for dorks and dweebs and I thought it was not for me. Took a class, passed it and forgot about it. Then I moved to California from D.C. area when I was 18 and I remember a moment when I was driving on the freeway and had an epiphany that I wanted to take black and white pictures. There was no reason for it, but I just knew that’s what I wanted to do. I got my fathers camera, took some pictures, went to community college to gain darkroom access and just kept going. That was 1991 and by ’97 I sold every piece of darkroom equipment I gathered because I was printing solely in platinum by that time.

Q. What equipment do you use to create your work?

A. I use a Burke & James 8x10 and a 16x20in camera that I designed and built in 2002. I use a 19in Dagor and a 30in Artar, but mostly I’m a wide-angle guy. I used the 16x20 full time for 5 years, but after switching to 8x10 and starting to scan the negatives I found the experience to be a like working with a 35mm – it’s just that much easier.

(16x20in camera custom made from cherry wood - folded)

(Meticulous plans for the above camera)

My 16x20 prints are all direct contact from original negatives, while for larger 20x24 prints I scan the 8x10s and make a digital negative to print from. I print the 16x20s in an edition of 10 prints and the big enlargements are editions of 5.

I process my film by inspection method using a number 3 Kodak safe light. It is very accurate – as soon as you see the highlights you know you have about 45 seconds more in the developer. There is still work to be done in the darkroom like building the light baffle, print viewing rack for the 20x24 triptychs and lots more.

For a long time now I have used a UV exposure unit for printing - it's a lot more consistent than the sun and I can print at any time.

Print washer – 22x28in was also designed and built from scratch. I use it mostly when I am making the larger prints and when I’m in full production mode, which means that at most I make three of four final prints a day. Platinum printing is a very meticulous and time-consuming process.

Q. What about your history with platinum printing?

A. I got into platinum in 1996 when I bought the 8x10 from Nelson Photo here in San Diego. I taught myself the process, but after a year or two of printing I took a workshop with Dick Arentz who wrote the book on platinum printing. That workshop taught me two things. One was how to make a platinum print – because there is ‘making a platinum prints’ and then there is ‘Making A Platinum Print’. And also it taught a lot about using the right side of the brain and interpreting work and making more personally expressive prints rather than simply making prints by the numbers.

Q. What makes you stick with platinum through all these years?

A. Truly – I love the actual process of making physical prints. It’s a process that, not unlike print making proper, requires a lot of knowledge and experience to master the technique. I love the fat that it has a rich history and heritage. I also like to exploit platinum for the things that most people don’t exploit it for – most printers are interested in the mid-tones and the glowing, singing whites, and I love to get a nice white as much as anybody but I love to get these juicy, mysterious, heavy dark tones. I’ve had master digital printers tell me that they can make a print that looks “exactly” like this pint in front of us, but personally I don’t want my next print to look exactly like the last one – I want the next print to be a little different because they stopped making the paper, or I was having a bad day, or I was having a good day and it’s the best print I’ve ever made from that negative. I love the fact that these prints are artifacts that are unique things onto themselves.

The other part of it is that, in essence, nobody can take these materials away from me. Epson can stop making 7800 K3 inks tomorrow, or they make a new printer that doesn’t use those and they stop supporting your printer’s technology. And, sure, miners in the Ural Mountains can stop mining platinum and I’d be out of business, but really, it's like making your own D-76 developer – the materials are there, in theory I must emphasize again, nobody can take them away and I can continue making prints that I love and work with a historic process that has a lot of character and integrity to it.

Q. What subject matter inspires you most?

A. I shoot at night primarily and LA is where I have done most of my night work. There I make photographs that suggest a different story of a city that is loaded with iconography and are in opposition to people’s perceptions of what that city is. LA as a city is very different from what "the industry" and Hollywood wants you to see. For example this image of an alley and a ramshackle house behind a tattered fence – no wealthy people or stars live here, real Angelenos live here and that’s what my work is about.

(two 20x24in prints)

Q. Who is your top influential photographer?

A. That would have to be Mark Klett – I took a workshop from him once and that taught me more than three years in a university. I really love what he has done – from the photographic survey project all the way to today. He continually explored the medium, and fused it with history well. He’s a really smart visual thinker. What originally drew me to his images is his innovative approach to landscape. For example he started including power lines in his landscapes because that’s the landscape of the world we live in today. He painted the most accurate picture of the American West that I have seen – from petroglyphs to graffiti, cars on highways and power lines and all that is the definition of our culture today.

Q. Do you think there is a benefit to new aspiring photographers in learning to use film?

A. I do, I definitely do. That benefit is actually in understanding how to use Photoshop on a much deeper level. It’s a slow road to learn, as you know. There’s not a lot of people today who have the patience to learn what the film curve is, how to manipulate it by development and do all the testing. However that knowledge the toe and shoulder of a film curve can give people a huge leg-up in understanding what a natural curve looks like in Photoshop. A sensitive eye of someone who went through the process of learning film, ‘practicing the scales’ is what I call it, will have an understanding of the proper relationship of zone 4 to zone 5 as an example

Q. Do you think film will survive in 25 years?

A. I doubt it. I like to think so, because I like the materials I use and I like the process, but we have already seen it decline to a point that there are very few good films now being made. Even the companies that have their heart in it 100% will come to a point when they will only fire up the coating machine three or four times a year and at that point the quality control will drop drastically, the chemistry will not be fresh and there’s not going to be that consistency. It’s like making scrambled eggs – if you make them only a few times a year they are probably going to be mediocre, but if you make them every morning you’re going to have a good technique down. So that’s what I see – there’s probably going to be film around, but is it going to be any good? That’s anybody’s guess. I do think there is a chance of digital resulting in a greater appreciation of a physical print, but whether even that is true I don’t know – very few people appreciate newspapers any more…

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Minor Update: Darkroom, Planning + Kenneth

The past few days have been filled with darkroom time. I am printing up a storm of images from Japan, Guatemala and Nepal - those where the most popular images during my first journey and I'm making more to sell on the road during the second run. I recently found a little stash of Luminos Pastel Red RC paper at a local store and was thrilled when the 11x14 pack was still good and printed well. The pack of 20x24 is definitely fogged from age and will have to be printed using lith developer - I do wonder how that's going to work with red base. If it turns out well I will place one of the images in Gilli's window. Here is a shot of one of the 11x14 prints. Architecture and other non-organic subjects seem to work best with this paper.

This little bundle of joy finally came in handy as well. A bottle of Kodak Anti-fog No.1 that I found in my San Diego darkroom with the lot of chemistry included in the purchase of the space. Containing benzotriazole as the active ingredient this addition to developing agents knocks back the age-fog pretty well. I used it on the old pack of Oriental paper and was able to clear up the whites.

Planning of the second trip is moving ahead as well. I am in contact with a few photographers that I would like to visit and interview. Some of them work in wet-plate processes and, along with interviewing them, I would love to learn as much from them as possible during the visit. I'm waiting on a lot of replies as well - I think folks might be too busy with Holiday Season...

There is still plenty of time to support the interview project and the second journey in general, so jump in if you have not already done so. I am extremely thankful to the first 10 people who have contributed so far - Major Kudos To You!

• • •

At this point I would like to touch on a much sadder note - on Wednesday 12/12/12 a good friend of mine Kenneth Julio Moilean died in a single car accident in Northern California town of Arcata. Most of my readers have not had a pleasure of knowing him, but I feel this very much deserves an entry in this journal-style blog because I am deeply touched by this event.

Ken was a true friend and tomorrow a group of people who were part of his circle of friends will attend a memorial in Balboa Park here in San Diego. At the same time there will be a similar gathering up in Arcata. I know Ken touched a lot of lives with his upbeat and kind personality and a lot of people are currently grieving his passing. He was an adventurous soul, a true dreamer and one of the most sincere people I had known in my life. He had a strong interest in space exploration and an even stronger one in making this world a better, kinder place. His smile was contagious and the light in his eyes shone brightly for all who took a moment to see it. Rest in peace dear brother - may the stars open up to you like you have always wanted them to.

• <3 •

Friday, December 7, 2012

Indiegogo Funding Campaign Launched

Well folks I did it. The new funding campaign has been launched and is currently on the way!

This time I'm using the indiegogo platform because the funding from them is not dependent on the funds reaching 100% of the goal. This does NOT mean that it's not important for you to donate what you can and to share it with as wide of an audience as possible. In fact I will do anything to convince you to do so - just ask.

Here is the link: http://igg.me/p/291294/x/1866295

When you take a look at it you may notice that this time I have no fancy video and the description is shorter and more concise. I think the fact that I actually completed the first construction faze and did the incredible journey this summer is going to carry some weight in place of a video. If you don't think that the journey was incredible indeed - try driving a school bus for 9.300 miles with no budget and get back to me with your thoughts.

I do think that the interview project that I am embarking upon is going to be great fun and will make an impact in this digital age by exposing the passion that film-users have toward this artistic craft. Yes - you read it correctly! I am proud of the fact that analog photography is a blend of art and craft - anything produced by hand with dedication of countless hours that are needed in order to perfect ones printing skills is a craft. It is the vision that is carried through and implemented via that craft by the individual photographer that makes this an art-form. I hope you share this view with me.

Aside from providing start-up funds for the second cross-country journey the success of this campaign will enable The Photo Palace Bus to gain a very important component of the original vision - namely the fold-out studio. I simply do not have personal savings any more to spend on it and am counting on the communal support. Of course a community is made up of individuals, hence You have to plug in and do something to help. That something could be a contribution of any amount that you feel comfortable with. Our individual places in society vary and while some scrounge about to get the next roll of film, others upgrade their Leica cameras whenever the newest model comes out. Think about it and do what you can. It would also help out tremendously if after you make that contribution you would share the link to this campaign with your friends and help it to go viral.

The fact is that the $10K that I am hoping to hit there will not carry Gilli and me too far - the studio will cost at least $4K, diesel is not back to $1.20/gal like it was in the 90s (and that's a real shame), spending even one night a week for 9 months at RV sites (which is where I large developing and printing sessions must take place) will add up to $2.500, the promised books and prints are going up in price as well... Oh yeah, unfortunately I need to eat too - hopefully I won't forget about that.

I will do my best to supplement the budget while traveling by selling my prints once again at rock-bottom prices and by offering workshops to the interested public. That is really how I hope to stay on the road until Fall 2013. I the campaign goes viral and the $10K goal that would truly be fantastic! Even if it doesn't - you know I'm good on my promises (after all Photo Palace was built after an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign from which I got very little funding in the end - I'm devoted and committed 100% to this as you may have gathered by mow). Every perk described there will be fulfilled.

Right now I feel like this Japanese lady - just waiting on the train to come. Unlike this lonely lady I can not count on the train to come - Japanese trains are notorious for keeping the schedule down to a minute and this campaign is a wild shot in the dark... For those of you interested in the details - this image was taken during my stay in Japan using a Rolleiflex camera and Verichrome film

Thank You,
Anton

New Project Announcement and First Interview

Well folks this is it, I know you've been waiting very patiently and here it is:

--- A NEW PROJECT BY THE PHOTO PALACE BUS ---

Film Interviews Project

I am embarking on a series of interviews some of which I will conduct in person while traveling in Gilli and some of which will have to be conducted via e-mail because Gilli can't fly and there are people across the world that I would like to get involved.

The interviews will be aimed at elucidating a few things about the state of traditional photography today. I will seek out artists working with analog means (both new and established ones), photo gallery and museum staff, educators, producers of photographic materials, processing labs, and pretty much anyone else I can think of who had anything to do with film photography. The interviews will at first be published here on this blog and later in a book form (providing the success of the new funding campaign that I am about to launch - more on that in the next post).

With these interviews I hope to provide the public with a few bits of information such as where they can get buy and process their film, why some artists are still working with analog (and why new ones are starting to work with it all the time), which companies are manufacturing what products and what do we have to look forward to, what do photo galleries and museums have to offer in terms of their dedication to traditional prints and what do teachers of various institutions feel about the darkroom craft.

With that I hope to inspire more people to pick up a film camera of any format and go out and gain some confidence and experience by shooting film.

• • •

Here is the first interview - if you have any suggestions for questions to labs for future interviews feel free to contact me via email thephotopalace@gmail.com

~ ~ ~

-->

Gaslamp Photo Interview

The following interview was conducted with Dan Novice – owner of the last commercial lab in San Diego area that still deals with film. The mane of the lab is Gaslamp Photo and it’s information can be found at http://gaslapphoto.com

Q. When did you open this lab and why?

A. I started it in 1990 just because I was so passionate about images and the process of making great images and I still love it to this day.

Q. What services does your lab offer?

A. We do black and whit and C-41 film processing and digital printing up to 24x36in.

Q. How did the advent of digital photography affect your business?

A. We had to buy a lot of new equipment and learn the new tools to make digital imaging part of the business. It’s been a good thing for us.

Q. In what way has it been good?

A. We’ve been able to add more cervices and become more automated. The amount of work that I can accomplish now is much greater than what we’ve been able to do in the darkroom days, the workflow is much more efficient these days.

Q. What advice would you give to an aspiring film shooter today?

A. To concentrate on composition. I think digital shooters shoot like a machine gun and I think film is great because it allows people to slow down and look at the content of their images. I think it’s a great tool for people to start with.

Q. What is your favorite technique in analog photography and why?

A. I like the traditional rough border – the filed out carrier. To see the whole frame is just great.

Q. Do you currently shoot your own images?

A. I don’t print my own images because I don’t have a darkroom for printing.

Q. Where do you see film photography in 25 years?

A. You know, I’d like to say that it will survive. I see things being discontinued and it’s kind of discouraging, but I see other companies coming in and picking up where Kodak has dropped off and there are other companies out there that are thriving. I still see a lot of enthusiasts who are very excited about it. We have students come in who have never seen a roll of film and don’t even know what it is and at the end of the semester they keep shooting and they keep coming in, so that’s encouraging.

Q. Anything else you would like to add?

A. I just still love film and I love seeing it come out of the machine, I love to print it – it’s an enjoyable process. Being in the darkroom I think is therapeutic and very relaxing and I think a lot of these younger kids who have not shot (film) before, they have been all digital, and now they get in the darkroom and a lot of them love it, they really enjoy it. Time goes by fast you know, but it’s relaxing and I like it.

____

Notes from Anton:

I still remember when there were about a dozen labs in San Diego where one could bring a roll of Tri-X and have it processed on site. Now Dan is holding down the fort on his own. About 4-5 years they had to move out of the heavily gentrified Gaslamp district of San Diego and now he is located in Mission Valley. Dan was very accommodating in inviting me back to see today’s set-up and even offered to process my roll of film that I shot around his lab – I politely declined only because I get an enormous sense of satisfaction out of processing my own black and white. I got some great images using my Rolleiflex, for now here are some digital images of the place:

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Short Summer Summary & Some Solid Shots

Hello dear friends and readers!

I have been back in San Diego for 3 months now and all this time I've been silent as a cricketless night. Not a lot has happened during this period of time. I have been spending a lot of time in my North Park darkroom working on printing the images collected over the summer and planning the next Photo Palace journey. I have also been working a fair bit on repairs to those systems aboard The Bus that have failed during the initial journey due to the builders' lack of construction experience and practical knowledge. I am happy to report that all systems are back in operation and Gilli is road-ready once again.

Now that a good chunk of time is separating me from the whirl-wind experience of this summer I feel that I can be more objective in summarizing it in a post and here it goes.

Few words can describe the excitement felt by me during the construction of The Photo Palace Bus in the spring. Working for 14-hours per day and with help from Ryan and his father I was able to complete the first stage of remodeling of an ordinary school bus into a mobile darkroom in a record time of 3.5 months. I must note here that because of the unique nature of this venture I don't have any other previous projects to compare this timeline to, so I say 'record' based on the bewilderment of those who have seen Gilli and asked how long did it take to get her all built up and on the fact that that time was much shorter than I have anticipated.

In retrospect the amount of naivete that was present at the point of departure in June of this year was simply tremendous. Not making a solid plan of action seemed like a gran poetic notion befitting of the general feeling that art is best made in empirical manner.

After Ryan and I decided to go our separate ways I was left on my own in Tennessee with less than half the budget necessary to complete the round-trip adventure I found myself in a state of relative despair, which is quite possibly self-evident upon reading the posts on this blog made in early and mid July. The decision to press on toward Maine was a tough one, but I am very glad it was made nonetheless.

Progressing farther eastward I reached the capital of US. I am very grateful for the kindness exhibited by my Rainbow friend Alan Berger in hosting me at his Washington D.C. residence for the much needed period of clarification of thoughts. It was a pleasant stay and allowed me to make some connections relating to further travels. From there on my spirits were once again on an elevated level and I found myself finding good contacts along the way. I made my way around the country making decent guerrilla-style art sales and exposing the intrigued public about the importance of and value behind hand-made photographic prints and the historic path of traditional photography at every stop along the way.

Looking back on the reactions I got in various parts of the country that I visited I can honestly say that New England area was by far the most receptive. People there seemed most engaged and intelligent and were most impressed with the magnitude of the project. I look forward to visiting that part of the country as soon as the weather and funding permit.

I'm glad I had time to visit some of my dear friends in NY and MN - next journey, planning for which is currently on the way, will surely include a lot more stop-overs like that. I am also happy to have had the opportunity to continue my research into the collection of magic lantern slides by Rev. John Rahill purchased by me in 2011. I visited YMCA archives in Minneapolis MN and dug about in the records of Topeka KS where Mr. Rahill was active shortly after returning from Russia in 1918. Though records from that era are spotty and hard to come by I was rewarded with some intriguing findings, but I believe there is more to find out on that topic so I plan to visit the Minneapolis archives again.

It was a tough decision not to go on westward after Minnesota, but I believe it was the most sensible one. The mountain passes of Montana and those that would have awaited me on the path from Washington state down to California could have brought all sorts of unexpected turns of events and with no crew and near-zero budget I played it safe. After all - I did reach Maine thereby completing the initial agenda of crossing this vast country diagonally on the very first Photo Palace adventure.

Admittedly nothing can compare with the feeling of the open road and all the potential it holds, so upon my return to California I felt drained and lacking inspiration. It took a while to get into the swing of things here, but now I am determined to continue traveling and have came up with a project that I think is worthy of a cause and may interest of the greater film-shooting community. You, my dear reader, will not have to wait much longer for the next update revealing that project.

For now - here are some of my favorite images that were made during the summer. I must point out that the amount of shooting time was limited by the fact that I had to do everything from raising funds to driving and planning by myself, so unfortunately I returned home with only slightly over 60 rolls of film to work from. That is a relatively low number for me - I have been known to shoot that many rolls in less than half of the time I spent on the road, but then again I didn't have a large school bus to take care of...
____________________
Note - I spent two days writing wonderful descriptions to all these messages and arranging them in chronological order. I swear I was hitting the 'save' button religiously every 30 minutes. When I went to publish this post ALL the information below this lone was GONE and none of the images were even in the cache. I reserve the right to come back and add descriptions later, but right now I'm so mad that I will simply put them up with no information and see how I feel a few days from now and if I feel like adding descriptions. Sorry folks - that's 'the brave new world of digital.
Stick with analog my friends!
____________________

I decided to come back and add a little edit to these images as they did feel a little bare with no captions... I will the comments to a minimum though and let them speak.