Alternative process
Alternative process
Alternative process
Alternative process
Ireland in Gum Bichromate
I can’t say that I am a printer, because printer is very detail, very precise, he cares more about the method, the execution of certain technique, than about the art part, the meaning, the ambiance … I just want my photographs to look as I like them. Control to the point of likeness. Finally, I am satisfied with sizing method. I now use PVA size from Gamblin. Currently, I am working on a new stuff created in Ireland and yet to be shown what it will be. For today just three new photo in gum bichromate on a Canson Montval paper using watercolours, pigments, gouache.
Alternative process
Diversity in Gum Bichromate Photography
The photograph that I post on Monday, “House on the cliff”, was just a beginning in printing that negative. It was full of staining and I needed to find out what is causing it. I play a bit with retouching and made this one:
(click to see bigger image)
Then (as Crystal Denke Edwards also suggested) I reconsider to put sizing on paper. As we recently moved, I now live in a rental house and I do not have commodity of ventilated darkroom. That means, I dismissed the idea to use gelatin hardening with formaldehyde. At first I used one thin layer white acrylic paint diluted with water, dried, preshrink it and then applied another layer only with gum arabic, dried and then work as usual. I didn’t change pigments at this point. They remained as follows: Daler Rowney – gamboge yellow, magenta mixed with alizarin crimson, prussain blue.
And the results were better, but still the stain remains. Picture here:
(click to see bigger image)
My first shopping in Ireland were for watercolour paints. I never before worked with Daler Rowney pigments and I thought I can give it a go. Now it was the time to dismiss alizarin crimson and prussian blue and substitute them with magenta and cobalt blue from the same manufacturer. I also put one layer of diluted white acrylic paint (dry, preshrink etc), another layer gum arabic with white acrylic and water. And improvement is obvious. Here is the final photo:
(click to see bigger image)
Now, I could go and make another three layers and get more intense colours, but I will stop here. I like the way it looks right now.
I think that this illustrates how diverse and interesting this process is. It is a treasure found in every new layer in every step, beginning with scene, making negative, then transforming it with pigments etc. As Christopher James said in his (one of three) book about Alternative photography, in chapter about gum bichromate:
“Here’s the truth… In gum bichromate printing there are very few absolutely correct ways to do anything. Here’s another bit of reality… In my experience, gum bichromate printers are the most passionate, and hard-headed, of all alternative process artists when it comes to their particular way of doing the process. …”
As most of you now, I started with alternative processes with iron based processes and when I finally arrived to gum, I was working with oil paints and gum, acrylic, and watercolours, and watercolour became the most seductive paint for me. Gum bichromate shadowed all the other processes and I really don’t want to do anything else.Diversity in Gum Bichromate Photography
Alternative process
House on the cliff
three layer gum bichromate on paper Canson Moulin du Roy
(click for bigger image)
Alternative process
Street lamp
This is 5 layer gum bichromate with watercolour paints.
I am (and I was that particular night) mesmerised with the light from the street lamp. Everything around it was red and the rest of the alley disappeared in darkness.
In my new living place I finally set things right and after few mishaps with mixing chemicals, new pigment paints, expired gum arabic etc. and 4 ruined prints I am creating again.
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Alternative process
We have moved
On 14th of February we have arrived at Kinsale, Ireland, our new home.
After we have settled, I slowly begin with my work. Now it is the colors of my new home that influence me in a new way. I am exploring gum bichromate in color.
My work space had to adapt and I had to work outside my usual darkroom. Adventure in true sense of word.
Alternative process
The road yet to be taken
My posts in upcoming period will be sporadic, because we are in the process of moving. We are moving to another country, to Ireland and that is a choice not taken lightly.
I am sure that this decision will significantly effect my work, but hopefully it will be for the best.
My intention is to develop few more negatives before we leave (I have 20 days for it).
Alternative process
Art is the extension of who you are
This morning a post on Facebook was about the pianist Maria Joao Pires and her statement “The way you play is the extension the way you are in life”. I, as many other artists, find that statement expands the description of an artistic endeavor. You, your beliefs, your experience, knowledge, feelings, thoughts, you, all what “you” (or “I” as that artist) means, is present in any artistic creation. Art is very personal. It can be about something else, but it is always personal and every artist is in theirs artwork.
In the same time, it is personal for the viewer to. I do not like to name my photographs, because the viewer has to have the ability to see freely my artwork and experience them on their own, with their own set of thoughts, feelings, backgrounds, knowledge etc.
Alternative process
Sketches upon return
Sometimes I have to change the perspective, and the best way to do that is to travel. A few days ago we returned from one such trip. The whole time I photographed. The scenes were magnificent and anyone who is “friend” with me on Facebook saw beautiful sunsets and sunrises, little boats that are bobbing in the sea and so on. It is a photograph of the moment, travel photography and casual photography and I am very good in it. It helps me to step back and look at things differently. It is this shift that has helped me to understand a few facts. Now when I’m at home, only now I can create. My art has nothing to do with the magical colors and sunrises and sunsets, with sighs and applause of enthusiastic spectators. When I create I am very serious. My works of art, I create seriously. I can not do otherwise. A work of art is a part of me. During the process, while I create I do not even know exactly where the artwork will take me. After it is done, it shows me something about myself that I did not know until then. Maybe that are to deep words for allocating them to one photo, but it’s true. This is the way I create. My photos have very simple motifs, somewhat minimalist, because as such they say more than all the colors of the sky at sunset. After years of studying photographers, reading books on photography, learning the rules, I break those rules now knowing that I break them deliberately, whereas before I violated those same rules intuitively. The circle is filled. Crooked horizons and leaking seas have been there for a reason 😀 for ex. as in my pinhole photograph.
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