To remind ourselves of the significance of grace in photography – of the importance of seeming to do the job easily – we need only to examine a copy of a mass-circulated photography magazine. Most of the pictures suggest embarrassing strain: odd angles, extreme lenses, and eccentric darkroom techniques reveal a struggle to substitute shock and technology for sight. How many photographers of importance, after all, have relied on long telephoto lenses? Instead their work is usually marked by an economy of means, an apparently everyday sort of relationship with their subject matter.
Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that Beauty is commonplace.

page 30, “Beauty in Photography”, by Robert Adams

Good advice and a good book, worth picking up. Of course there are photographers who have relied on telephoto lenses, for example some of Andreas Feininger’s work, but the point of an economy of means is very relevant.

Now these are apparently not uncommon, though I’ve yet to be able to find one. It may be another case of things that never really took off in Australia…the only thing that seems common here is Six-20 box brownies. Anyway, if you come into one, these links might help.

The Living Image: Roller blind shutters
Paul Ewins: Thornton-Pickard Shutter Rebuild
Patent No. 697,350. Invented by L. Moretti, assigned April 8th, 1902: Focal Plane Shutter (Thornton Pickard Company)
Patent No. 779,665. Invented by E. V. Piercy, assigned January 10, 1905: Photographic Shutter (Thornton Pickard Company)
Patent No. 976,712. Invented by F.P. Whitehead, assigned November 22nd, 1910: Photographic Shutter (Thornton Pickard Company)
Relevant thread on APUG

And if anyone has one they want to get rid of, contact me, I kinda need one…

Well, this is what I’ve been working on recently. This is a photopolymergravure of a photograph I took in Portland, Oregon, in 2007, when I was dicking around in the United States that one time. Taken with my trusty (god I love the thing) Nikon FM2n, with I think a Sigma 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 lens? On Agfa APX 400.
Another one of those images I just haven’t gotten around to printing. I’ve done some more of these since then, which I’ll scan next week hopefully, but this was the first that worked so lovely. After a good 2 months of initial failure, it’s nice to have something to show for it.

This particular image was an edition of 10, with an Artist’s Proof and a Printer’s Proof. The two proofs have since been framed, and the Artist’s proof (the one I get to keep) is in an exhibition opening tomorrow. That’s kinda neat.
It’s the Youthscape 2010 exhibition, at the RSASA Gallery. Level 1, Institute Building, on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue.
You know the war memorial on North Terrace? Opposite that, next to the state library. Opens at 2PM tomorrow (Sunday, 27th of June) and runs until the 18th of July. Pop by and have a look, there’s going to be a lot of interesting work there.

For the exchange I think I only had 55 addresses (including three to Kodak, Ilford, and the owner of APUG), but once I started addressing cards to friends it ballooned to 70 postcards.
I printed on Agfa Brovira Doubleweight fibre paper, Grade 3 with the glossy finish. I was lucky enough to have a box of 100 sheets in an appropriate size to use for this exchange – I think it came with a bunch of other stuff from eBay, years ago…

I also selenium toned all the prints in Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner (KRST), 1:30 dilution for 6 minutes.

The photo itself was taken with my Voigtlander Bessa R2A and Canon 50/1.8 LTM lens – both of which have been sold, and both of which are lovely little devices. Ilford HP5+ rated at 1600EI and developed in ID-11, 1+1 Dilution. FYI, HP5+ looks lovely pushed.

I spent all of the long weekend addressing postcards in stages, and the stamps I ordered from Australia Post arrived just today. All the postcards are now off in the mail, whizzing to various edges of the globe.

It’s damn fun, and I’ve only received one postcard back so far. I recommend Postcard or Print exchanges to anyone.

Pictures:

They also stock the Sakura Pigma Micron pens I’ve been looking for for so long, as well as pretty much everything else in the world. Better range than Eckersley’s, and better prices.

They’re on Gilles Street. Get off the tram at the City South stop and wander south a bit more. Number 43, Gilles, Adelaide.

You’ll be receiving details and photographs on all of this shortly. But for now, I’ve been addressing postcards all day and I’m sleepy. So have some more of the result of my reading;

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”

-Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse-5, chapter 3.

Like all Earthlings at the point of death, Mary Young sent faint reminders of herself to those who had known her. She released a cloud of telepathic butterflies, and one of those brushes the cheek of Dwayne Hoover, nine miles away.
Dwayne heard a tired voice from somewhere behind his head, even though no one was back there. It said this to Dwayne: “Oh my, oh my.”

-Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., p.66

I’ve not ordered from them personally, but they’re well regarded within the community. A source for all those crazy filter sizes like 40mm, or 36mm slip on, or Series type filters – all of that stuff, in one spot.

Another test roll for the Mamiya 6 that I’m restoring. Ilford HP5+@400EI, xtol stock, scanned on my film scanner that can’t for the life of it hold the film flat. The negs look like they’ll print well from an enlarger, however, despite the depressing contrast in the scans. Still need to get the shutter serviced (None of the speeds are accurate, these were all shot at 1/250 – which is actually around 1/103), and a new bellows made up. Apart from that, it’s a very nice camera in use.

I grabbed a roll of HP5+ on the way home.

I’d still be interested to shoot some in 35mm, but in 120 I wont risk it again. Just a warning to be wary, hopefully it was just a bad batch.