Impossible Project Color Shade

Here (below) are scans of the same instant photograph created on different days to keep track of a cyan  shift in the image area of the Impossible Project's PX 70 Color Shade First Flush. Although it is a touchy film, I am learning how to maximize images made with this material. Testing, although the material is expensive, is the key to succeeding with instant photographic materials from the Impossible Project.

From left to right: 8 hours, 29 hours and 48 hours after exposure.

Pictures from Belgium

Last fall's the Art of the Photo Archive was photographically documented. The exhibition at the Free University of Belgium was organized by Roger Kockaerts of Gallery pH 7.

Additional installation views can be seen at:
http://www.permadocument.be/texte/YRK/RFK/RK/170%20years.html

Look But Don't Touch

Both Bridgette (Bogle) and I have a morbid fascination with toxicodendron radicans. Bridgette just created an installation based upon the characteristic leaf shapes of poison ivy base upon her view of it just outside her studio window. I have scanned it as a potential subject for the forces of nature series and lately have turned to it as a subject for the Impossible Project film I have recently acquired. 


Below is Look But Don't Touch and below that, a view of her Poison Ivy Room at Sideshow 6.

The Eye of the Dayton Sideshow

It's been more than a week since Urban Nights and the 2011 edition of the creative collective known as the Dayton Circus Sideshow.  This year they took over the Yellow Cab Co. building across from Garden Station. The building is a wonderful resource and record of that buisness that once was based near downtown Dayton. Amidst the installations and exhibit spaces was a carpeted room with couches, security camera monitors and what I understood to be the real eye of the Sideshow 6.

newly emerged from the catacombs...

Some new Vandyke Browns I've been working on are visible below. The first has the incredibly provocative and imaginative title of Apple and the second, Knarled Nut. These are small work prints of about 9 x 9 inches done to determine exposure. The final scale should be either 20" x 20" or 24" x 24".

Attack of the Poor Pods

It finally happened. A bad pack of the Silver Shade Black Frame UV+.

Below you will see the progression and finally a good pod instant photo. BTW, Bridgette is a fan of the poor pod look. PAINTERS!

Bridgette and Bridgette II, Exposures 1 and 2.

 

Bridgette's Apron and Poison Ivy, Exposures 3 and 4.

Poison Ivy (Again) and Chasprix, Exposures 5 and 6.

Poor Pods, Black Frame, Instant Gratification

Ryan Adrick photographed by Francis Schanberger

I have succumbed to the lure of the Impossible Project. Last week I received an email about problematic Silver Shade 600 film being sold in packs of six. I've been fighting off the urge to use their film due to the expense but there was no way for me to resist. Six boxes of 8 sheet instant film for 36.60 plus shipping. Le't say it was about $45 in total for about 48 sheets. The less than a dollar a sheet threshold had been crossed.

At College Park Center, Studio 238, home to the University of Dayton's Photography and Visual Communication Design facilities, I met up with Ryan Adrick and Christine Zuercher for some instant gratification. Here are the first three sheets from the black frame poor pod lot. All developed perfectly protected from light in an empty 4x5 sheet film box.

Studio 238 R by Christine Zuercher

Untitled (CPC Visual Arts Facility) by Ryan Adrick

OAL's 100th Anniversary Spring Juried Exhibition

Last Thursday was the opening for the Ohio Art League's 100th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition, juried by Todd Slaughter, which is on view now through June 24th.

There are pictures from the opening which can be found on Flickr by going to the following link http://www.flickr.com/photos/55867923@N02/5719069849/in/set-72157626594581503. Today, the Columbus Dispatch published Christopher Yates' review of the exhibition which can be also be found online at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2011/05/15/league-turns-100-with-style.html?sid=101.

Off to UDF to pick up a copy of the Dispatch. 

Dayton in the House

Below is a link to the 2011 Governor's Awards for the Arts. I'll post images to the event as they become available. It was well documented and a good part of the four hours Bridgette and I spent in Columbus were dedicated to getting photographed including one with Ohio's First Lady, Karen Kasich.

Dayton was well represented hence the need to buy a new suit and bow tie. During the lunch we were serenaded by the Stivers School for the Arts Jazz Orchestra and as Michael Lippert, winner of the Arts Education Award, stated in his thank you speech, "Dayton in the House!"

http://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyle/state-arts-awards-bear-daytons-stamp-again-1160694.html

(Vandyke) Brown Heart of Mine

This past winter Bridgette and I concocted a mythical creature for me based upon the story of the white swan / black swan recently revisited through the cinematic portrayal by Natalie Portman in Black Swan. If she could be both the black and white swans, I certainly could be a swan in the glorious hue of Vandyke Brown.

Here I present the heart of this mythical beast.

and lest you thing I am neglecting my technical mastery of this printing technique I'll include the Stouffer's 21 step tablet with the pencil marking noting the "lightening" by five steps that occurred following exposure because of processing.

up next, Sacré-Coeur

Besides my fixation on the slightly fugitive anthotype process, I continue my affair with Vandyke Brown. Talking to students at Wright State University this afternoon put me back into production mode. So up next I will be printing this image in VDB which I am tentatively (emphasis on 'tentatively') calling Sacré-Coeur or Sacred Heart.

Nicéphore Niépce in Cornflower Blue part II

Today the anthotype was left out briefly in the rain. An interesting paper chromatography result ensued in a non image area of the paper.

Nicéphore Niépce in Cornflower Blue

Above is an example of the cornflower blue anthotype (Mel Miller) in progress. It's going to take a while but it's important to document the early stages of image formation.

The images are from April 29th. What I noticed early in the week was a reversal of tones, or what I would label a negative, image being formed the first day. I suspect this had something to do with all of the sugars left behind in the anthotype from the root beer flavored vodka. A day later it looked blank. Last Friday it looked like the picture above and it got a bit less than two hours of sun late yesterday afternoon.

Below is a picture of the front porch with two printing frames out. I am stopping the exposure on the pokeberry anthotype. Any more sunlight and I will loose the rich Dmax. In the foreground are the first of the season's iris flowers. I might be able to do a small antho with those for the Naturalists exhibit in 2012.

Why do sometimes I feel like Nicéphore Niépce? When I first obtained a negative image and then a day later it was gone, I had to wonder about the success of the project. I still do but not as much. The new flowers are working and I have a few sources for pokeberries in the fall.