clem wolfham in fuchsia, day 1

It's out, getting a small window of intense light each day. Check back for progress reports but I expect to keep this out until roughly the summer solstice.

After this will be a pokeberry anthotype on a labcoat. First, I have to thaw out and mash up some pokeberries from last fall.

the color fuchsia

It’s not summer until I begin a large anthotype and because I planned ahead (or perhaps never got around to it), I have pokeberry emulsion in late May! This is going to be a re-print of the Clem Wolfham anthotype which is badly faded due to mixing the original emulsion with water.

Don’t do that.

I suspect the diluted emulsion caused the image to fade but I don’t have a good guess as to why. Another sheet of paper I had coated a year and a half ago also faded quite badly in the dark. It’s something I noticed last summer after I got back from my Boston residency.

Last fall, after picking and separating berries, I had pokeberry juice all over my hands and made a  hand print on blotter paper. The image is still quite vivid perhaps hinting that maybe this emulsion shouldn’t be diluted.

The images below are the uncoated sheet of Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hot Press and the coated sheet. It is a bit streaky but the color is intense. As intense as fuchsia can get.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, will be the first day of exposure. Even with the heavy tree cover surrounding the back yard, I expect the exposure to take less than two weeks.

Gone Bananas

I think I've gone bananas trying to make prints I will send to reviewers I met with at FotoFest.

Working title ..."Ridiculous Nebula"

a slightly complex photograph

I've been concentrating on reprinting "Don't Take This Personally" for a Houston based photography collector. I've been working this, off and on, since late March. Teaching and other exhibition obligations have limited the amount of time available to focus on this slightly complex photograph (or is it a collection of photographs).

This week I have had the whole week available to address color variation, flaws in coating, flaws in paper or exposure concerns. It's almost done. Today I am going to spot the sections, draw guidelines for the framer in Houston, trim down the paper, flatten them and figure out a way to sign this piece. Then it gets boxed up and shipped to Houston.

Ugly Experiment

The water pistol image needs and explanation. I ran out of patience with the rate of anthotype fading with this pigment so I broke out the water pistol to encourage streaks and drips. Removing some of the top spring clamps, I pointed a stream of water down the paper. It's turning into an ugly experiment. Tomorrow I will continue to work on this anthoype with a sponge to lighten up the ground around the sleeping dress.

This is dangerous territory. More painting than photography. Less automatic and more hands-on.

I have some images from Jason Franz of Manifest documenting the reception for Botanical. I'll post these in a couple of days.

Explanation Needed

I think I'll explain this tomorrow. In the meantime here is the result.