sleepwear 2.0 with chiffon

A few days ago I was thinking about the sleepwear anthotypes. Thinking about how they are rather uncomplicated. Basic photograms done with plant pigments. This probably stemmed from one of the onionskin anthotypes I did this winter. While it succeeded, it also seemed like it was one note. It was too simple and the single layer of pajama top I used didn't immediately read "sleepwear".

Last summer, Bridgette was asking provocative questions as she is apt to do. One of these questions related to the layering of color. One on top of the other. I was initially convinced that the water content of the successive layer would wash away the anthotype exposure underneath much like invasive rain water had done to a couple of anthos.

A few weeks ago I was actually layering beet root juice (from a can) on top of existing onionskin and it didn't have an effect on the layer below. Both remained distinct which led me to the idea of layering exposures one on top of the other.

Here's a couple of images to illustrate where this is heading. I am heading towards anthotypes 2.0 which involves the layering of his and her sleepwear in the final anthotype.

Below is the aforementioned onionskin anthotype with one layer of rose petal emulsion on top.

Below is the same anthotype with three layers of red rose petal emulsion. The light resist is a bed jacket donated by Kristi Bogle which has a connection to the Roswell museum of art.

never show one's failures

I am sure that there is some rule out there that for purposes of professionalism, one does not show one's failures. 

Below is one such failure. I had decided to employ stretch wrap as a water barrier in addition to the 3 panels of clear acrylic. Never again with the stretch wrap. Photo courtesy of Christina Zuercher.

Below is attempt number two. This time with a different pajama set and with red rose emulsion. I still am struggling with composition with the men's pajamas. They are so ...static. 

note from an ephemeral photographer who happens to also make ephemeral things

Note from an ephemeral photographer who happens to also make ephemeral things. I wrote that as I began an attraction and repulsion to SnapChat but on to  anthotype matters.

I am not terribly enthused by this pajama anthotype (arrangement and pattern) which means it just might surprise me in a couple of weeks. You can look at the arrangement from yesterday's entry. Here is a detail of the pajama's textile pattern.

Summer pajamas in iris day 1

Today doesn't really count (as day one). I have had this sheet of  59" x 46" coated water color paper waiting for a couple of things to occur. The first item was getting a sheet of OSB cut down to accommodate the paper. I got around to that late last week. Forty-six inches happens to be the widest sheet the Subaru Forester will accommodate.

The second hold-up: I was planning on using another peignoir but decided that if I was going to continue to use pajamas in this series that the added opacity of men's sleepwear would be best served by exposing the anthotypes as close to the summer solstice as possible. 

Today's mail produced a vintage set of Sears summer pjs. 

The third obstacle actually has a fourth obstacle associated with it. Working this scale means either buying a sheet of plexiglass or scavaging the garage for an alternative. Since a new sheet of plex would be around seventy dollars, I opted for the latter. I ended up cutting down three scraps that when pieced together would cover up the paper and pajamas. That was today. 

Last Saturday I attended a presentation on proper techniques for packing art work for shipping. It was during that session that I was introduced to plastic cling wrap. This is what I ended up using (along with a small amount of packing tape) to secure the three separate pieces of plex, hopefully creating a water barrier in the process.

Tomorrow will be officially day one.

Red Tulip part II

The two red tulip anthotypes were exposed for about the same amount of time. I estimate about nine days give or take a rain day. 

If you look at the lower right corner you can see rain did make its presence known despite wrapping the "contraption" in plastic. The contraption is usually a thin sheet of OSB, the paper coated with pigment, the garment, and Plexiglass all held together by spring clamps. The spring clamps show up occasionally around the periphery of the finished anthotype. Bridgette has described them as giving the finished piece a rhythm. I use to hate the artifacts they left behind, now I am kind of digging them. 

This anthotype was made with the same emulsion as the "Little Gown" anthotype but I kept the red tulip color by adding a bit of citric acid to the emulsion. Normally this paper (Arches Cover) and Fabriano Artistico have a bit of buffer that pushes the color to the blue end of the spectrum. Flower pigments act as a pH indicator for naturalists. I have even made purple iris pigment red. 

This is "Red Tulip (acidic) Peignoir #1". 51" (H) x 42" (w).

Speaking of iris pigment. I raided the last ones today. I have a bit frozen away and two sheets already coated one of which is exposing right now. I see plenty of purple gowns, peignoirs and pajamas in the future.

Red Tulip (Basic) Little Gown

The weeks around the summer solstice are amazing times for this anthotypist who is so used to slow emulsions and winter sunlight in the midwest.

I removed the two red tulip anthotypes today and the results were more than I could have hoped for. Today I am uploading one I will be giving the clumsy title of Red Tulip (Basic) Little Gown. It is arguably the better of the two primarily for the delicate lines around the sleeve and neck areas.

Yes, it is blue even though it has "red" in the title due to the buffering in the paper which has shifted the color towards a cooler tint. The dimensions for this anthotype are 36" x 26".

Photography's Back to the Future Review in the Columbus Dispatch

The survey of Ohio photography at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Photography's Back to the Future curated by Catherine Evans, has been reviewed by Melissa Starker in the Sunday, May 26th 2013 edition of the Columbus Dispatch. Don't Take This Personally is shown (print version only) and described in detail at the beginning of the review starting at the third paragraph!

Here is a link to my Google Drive pdf of the print version:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_7mi-Ytf4mCZ09ab2x2cTVRTG8/edit?usp=sharing

Here's a link to the online version:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/05/26/1-works-that-click.html

Vandyke Brown on Washi Workshop

Vandyke Brown on Japanese Paper Workshop

Posted on May 26, 2013

I realize that summer is right around the corner and for many of you plans for the next three months are already set.  If you are still looking for an alternative photography workshop this summer please consider …

2013 Vandyke Brown Print on Japanese Paper Workshop with Francis Schanberger

Level: Beginner through Advanced

Location: South Park Historical District, Dayton, Ohio

When:

• 2-day workshop July 19th  2013
• Friday, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
• Saturday, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

Cost: $375 per person plus $95 materials fee (for paper and gold toner). Reservations are on a first-come first-serve basis by email with a deposit of $200 through PayPal. Partial refunds will be given if your reservation is canceled no less than 21 days before the workshop is scheduled to be held and will be subject to a to a PayPal service fee.

Limited to 6 students.

About the Process: The Vandyke Brown Print is part of the Kallitype (Iron Salt based) family of photographic processes. It stands out due to its unique printing out of an image that requires no developing agent.  Vandyke Brown prints work on many papers but can create difficulties due to the amount of chemistry that gets absorbed by the paper. Careful consideration of how papers are sized and even applying a surface size can result in spectacular prints. Additionally, deep rich chocolate browns can be achieved through control of humidity and toning with precious metals like gold and palladium. An archival print is achieved by thoroughly fixing and washing out hypo, and iron, combined with toning.

Workshop Agenda: In this intensive 2-day workshop, students will create several inkjet negatives for use with specific Japanese papers. Each student will learn how to deal with the challenges of coating and processing Vandyke Brown on three different washi papers. This workshop will also include a demonstration of sizing paper using the Japanese method of applying dosa, which can significantly expand the number of papers onto which photographers can print. Additionally, students will learn how to archivally process their prints as well as have the opportunity to tone their favorite prints from the workshop.

Bio: Francis Schanberger is an Ohio based artist originally from San Diego, California. He first became acquainted with historical photographic processes through the workshops organized by the Museum of Photographic Arts and Grossmont Community College. His current work involves the extensive use of the Vandyke Brown Print on Japanese handmade papers (washi). These images are sometimes collectively pieced together to greatly increase the scale of work and highlight the unique qualities of washi. In the fall of 2013, Francis will be one of two American and three Japanese artists to exhibit photographs at the Japanese Paper Museum in Ino, Japan using a tosa washi paper made specifically for alternative processes by traditional paper craftsmen. His Vandyke Brown work was recently published in Christine Anderson’s Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact Printing Processes and is featured in Christopher James’ Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. Last year his anthotype prints were published in Malin Fabbi’s Anthotypes: Explore the Darkroom in Your Garden.

Dayton: Dayton once relied extensively on manufacturing as part of its economic base. It is located in America’s rustbelt and represents one of the major metropolitan areas in Ohio. Dayton’s connection with aviation history and the abandoned manufacturing areas create opportunities for photographers unique to this part of the country. It is also the historical home of Jane Reece, one of the key pictorialist photographers outside of Alfred Stieglitz’ circle of artists.

Transportation: South Park Historical District is located near downtown Dayton and is about 21 minutes from Dayton International Airport. A cab ride should cost about $40.

Accommodations: There are Bed and Breakfast Inns located in the neighboring Oregon District such as Inn Port D’Vino as well as major hotels such as Marriott along the river.

Contact: Francis Schanberger, email: frangst@gmail.com, tel. 614.282.9871

Website: www.frangst.com

a new drawing board

At some point last week, maybe it was Friday the 17th, the new paper from Ino Town, Japan arrived. It's extremely lightweight and extremely challenging on every front. 

Here are some notes collected so they won't get lost.

The paper is about 30 gsm which is about 60 percent of the lightest paper onto which have ever printed.

It needs to be sized for Vandyke Brown. It probably works for iron based processes with a coating rod. For silver / iron processes the silver will accumulate and plate out.

I've taught myself how to work with Dosa (basically rabbit skin glue and alum). This paper does OK with  just one coat on each side but will probably be awesome with two coats per side. 

I will probably use the Dosa technique on the Kozo Unryu to solve the pinhole issue.

The paper will require a new curve. An initial print done with a Kozo Unryu negative looked posterized.

Did I mention that the paper is extremely thin? The extensive washing needed for VDB was a bit rough on my first attempt. I managed to not destroy the second attempt but will have to screen dry all of the prints. 

So far I have printed an 11x 14 inch size print. It is going to be a real challenge to print the 23 x 18 inch size images I proposed to the museum.

red state, blue state

The other anthotype involves the use of a nightgown purchased off eBay from a woman living in Alabama. This anthotype also invokes the red tulip emulsion but you may notice it looks a bit like cornflower blue. I noticed in 2011 when I had access to the rose garden in Boston that a red rose emulsion would be shifted towards blue. I speculated that it was the buffering in the paper or perhaps as the emulsion oxidized it became more alkaline.

The one thing that supports this idea is the addition of citric acid to the emulsion. Instead of heading towards blue, the acidified emulsion stays red. The large peignoir antho was prepared this way. The little green nightgown was not. BTW, both show significant fading as of Tuesday and they only went out on Sunday.

Regarding the little green nightgown, there was a Post-it note included with the  garment. It read: "Please take care of this little dress. She's been in our family for sixty years."

I am not going to reveal to the seller that I am leaving it out in sunlight for days upon days but I might mail her a snap of the finished anthotype. 

sheer sheerness of it all

To begin with some disclaimer, I am not entirely sure how I ended up here. I know there was never some end goal to work with lingerie. I do feel like the sheer sheerness of it all is promising to create some intriguing anthotypes for the Somnambulist project.

This is an extension of the sleepwear. Two, maybe two and one half, years ago I began using pajamas as a light resist. The reason was a memory of my father when he was in the hospital sometime in 2004 wearing pajamas, which brought up a childhood memory of seeing him late at night in pajamas in his rocking chair, cocktail in hand and my mom lying on the sofa. Both of them watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It was their time. We, the brood, all nine of us, were supposed to be in bed. It was the parents time to unwind.

So here I am at nightgowns and peignoirs, a word I only just learned. The trajectory has been this: pajamas, Ken pajamas, Barbie Nightie Negligee, nightgowns (plural) and now peignoirs. The success (exposure-wise) of the Barbie Nightie Negligee probably sowed the seeds of my destruction. An Ebay search for mid-century women's sleepwear.

To spread out the documentation I'll just include images of the assembly of the peignoir anthotype. Tomorrow I'll post about the nightgown, a sixty year-old nightgown. The discoveries of this project so far:

• I need to do a better job organizing my spring clamps (there must be a second stash somewhere).

• I need to acquire more large, clear plastic bags to weatherize the anthotypes.

• I need even more Plexiglass.

• I am in touch with my feminine side.

• The first arrangements of each light resists are usually the best. Please see the illustrations(s) below. 

a medium for the young

 Grinding up flower petals into pigment (actually an aqueous emulsion) is time consuming and feels like its backbreaking. It's more like back aching. Hence it is a photographic medium for the young if they have the patience. 

I've been stuck working on the red tulips since I gathered them last week and tried to combine them with an under painting (yes, I borrowed a painting term) of beets (from a can). I suspect the salt in the canned beets is the heart of the lighting problem. I will test this out later in the summer once other projects get completed. 

While I was wrestling with the beet / tulip mix I began coating two separate sheets of paper, one Fabriano Artistico hot press and the other Arches Cover.

Each has gotten about 5 coats of red tulip emulsion. Besides the paper difference, I also acidified the tulip emulsion for the larger (Arches Cover) sheet which is what the image below is showing. It is a bit streaky and it has been difficult handling a 50" x 42" sheet  of paper. I've been coating it outside and transporting it back to the garage to dry. 

There is also a bit of debris (think sediment) in the coating. I resorted to an alcohol water mix at the end to pull out enough pigment to cover both sheets with several coats. This usually shows up when using Everclear to pull pigment from flower petals. 

Maybe tomorrow I will get to assembling the anthotype for exposure. I still have to cut a sheet of plex to fit the backing board and create a water tight covering for the whole thing in case I can rescue it from a downpour.

Tomorrow I will reveal what the tulip anthotype is going to be. There actually should be two going out.  I am moving on to women's sleepwear for most of this summer's anthotypes. There goes any art cred I may have had. 

seasonal miseries

The real anthotype season is in full swing and I conflicted by competing projects including the show in Japan this September. I've been collecting sleepwear which I'll discuss in the next few days. 

I've been gleaning red tulips petals from the University of Dayton campus and combining them with some purple tulip petals frozen since St. Valentines day.

 

 I had coated a few sheets of Fabriano with canned beet juice and decided to layer the tulip mix on top. While it was wet it seemed to increase the pigment density but after two coats of tulip on top of the beet emulsion, things went awry. It got lighter. 

My wife, the painter that she is, suggested putting more canned beet juice on top. My initial feeling is that it is improving but I'll look at it tomorrow in the daylight.

when papers go bad

Handmade papers like washi have always presented challenges for me, the handcoating emulsion dude. Did they have enough size? Would the paper fibers cooperate with the chemistry? One paper would work well with Vandyke brown, actually really well, but be horrible with cyanotype. 

The latest struggle was when a good paper turned bad. For the last six or seven months I have been struggling with a change in my favorite paper. When I first started using the Kozo Unryu paper there sometimes were 2-4 pinholes on half a full sheet but the last batch would have 15 to 20. These pinholes would act like a drain in a sink by pulling the photo chemistry I was applying out the back side of the paper. The result was a larger, lighter spot on the front of the paper. On the backside of the paper, corresponding ovals of chemistry would show up, evidence of the drain effect. These would process out after fixing the image but the light spots on the front would remain.

When I first started using the paper, I could easily spot 1-4 spots that would occasionally show up. But the lates batch would easily result in up to 12 or 15 light spots that were too much for me to carefully touch up.

I was taking a shower (I do some of my best problems solving in the bathroom) and was thinking about an image I was working with in gum and remembered that I had been coating that paper with an acrylic solution to create a barrier to prevent staining. Or maybe I was thinking about the shower drain and how the vandyke brown solution was getting pulled from one side of the paper to the other. Something "clicked" and a solution was realized.  I realized all I had to do was to coat the back side of the paper with Gamblin PVA (not the glue but a related size). It created a barrier to keep the chemistry on the front side of the paper.

The pictures show the backside of an unsized sheet from earlier in the week (top) and a sized sheet from two days ago (bottom). Both prints in the images have not been "fixed" which allows the brown stain on the back to be better visualized.

Tonight I looked at the first one to be processed and dried. I can still see tiny dark specks on the back side of the paper but I have eliminated the larger light spots on the front.

Now I can get back to work with this paper.

next up...salmon

I don't know why I was worried about mixing colors. I always had this idea that the water content in an anthotype emulsion would wash away an underlying color.

I started coating another sheet of Fabriano with onionskin and ran out of time before the solution got too ripe with bacteria. After about six coats I had to toss the old onionskin solution. Soon afterwards I got either stupid or courageous and decided to open a can of beets and apply the beet water to the paper.

Voilà!  Salmon resulted and the layers didn't really wash each other away. It's like I'm learning how to make watercolors.

This does create some new possibilities and problems. I can go back and add a different color on top of an already finished anthotype and purposely put it out of registration (these are essentially photograms).

Six weeks

Yesterday evening I "brought in" the yellow onionskin anthotype effectively ending an exposure that I started in late February.

Here's the assembled anthotype followed by an image of it disassembled:

the appearance of being active

Tomorrow should be a good day of sunlight so I am strongly leaning to "bringing in" the first onion skin anthotype.

What follows is, admittedly, just the ins and outs of recent exhibitions for record keeping.

Last month I was able to exhibit Forty-six at IceCube gallery in Denver, Colorado loosely part Denver's Month of Photography. The exhibit, Icebreaker 4 was juried by Nora Burnett Abrams, the associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

Also last month, the Annual Works On Paper exhibit at Rosewood Art Center's gallery came down. I was able to sow three anthotypes including Somnambulist #3 (Cut Grass Poultice) and the tow little saffron anthotypes, Nightie Negligee (Barbie) and Sleeper Set Pajamas (Ken). Somnambulist #3 was selected for and award of merit by juror Robert Robbins, Chair of Drawing and Printmaking, as well as a professor in the fine arts department at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

Later this month I will be installing work at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus for the exhibit Photography's Back to the Future curated by Catherine Evans of the Columbus Museum of Art. Look for installation shots later this month on this blog. The work included in this exhibit happens to be all vandyke brown, specifically Forty-six, Mis-mitosis and Don't Take This Personally.

Few and far betweens

Quality versus quantity.

I won't even attempt to use that as an excuse for the few and far betweens which represent my postings to this blog.

There have been a few shows which I will write about tomorrow to keep up appearances. The appearance of being active that is.

The onionskin anthotype #1 is almost ready to come in from the sun. Except for a string of bad, wet days, it has been in all sorts of daylight from cloudy to bright sun. The amazing thing for me is the change in the amount of sunlight it is getting compared to the pokeberry anthotype and the four month winter exposure. To be consistant, there are two winter pokeberry anthotypes. The sleeping dress anthotype needs to be documented. Contrast is a bit low on that one due to the amount of pigment soaked up by the washi I used.

I am coating a second, larger sheet of Fabriano with yellow onion (skin) pigment. I found myself with a nice, big window of time to boil the skins I have been collecting.

The weather has been cool enough to allow for me to stretch out the brushing on of the onionskin broth over several days. The liquid will eventually begin to ripen too much and the coating will come to an end. But for now, no smell so I anticipate brushing on the liquid through tomorrow to build up a rich manila envelope color.

I am also continuing the smaller "hers / his" anthotypes. These also are onion skin based and should be assembled into frames, wrapped in plastic and started today. FYI, smaller pieces of paper (under 20 x 24 ) are easy enough to coat via dunking and agitating in trays. I found it easier, albeit more streaky, to coat the emulsion onto bigger sheets of paper by brushing on the pigment solution. The two pieces above received about 11 - 13 dunks with an older batch of onionskin liquid and another 3 - 4 with the latest solution.

Brushing, dunking, exposing and playing with doll clothes. No wonder curators have trouble with me.

the nostalgia for seeing an ocean horizon

As a way of moving out of the back of the blue sky gallery, a decision was made to utilize the overhanging dry wall that diagonally bisected the space. I really can't pinpoint when I decided sidewalk cracks were going to be part of the show, but I had hoped to begin installing it the week before "Your Turn" opened. The idea was to create a crack near the ceiling as a way to make use of more of the gallery. Bridgette Bogle and I didn't have time to execute this by February 1st. The actual photographing of the cracks happened mid-January and the printing finally commenced a month later. Last weekend was a quick run to Columbus to pick up an additional roll of 100 feet of generic luster paper, the other having run out by the time I got through the first crack.

These "sidewalk cracks" were printed out 15.5" x 67". Some were connected to each other in pairs. One set formed a triptych. Bridgette created her own crack with pink ribbon which was marked in intervals with blue and green masking tape. This made each of the sections part of one larger piece we ended up calling "lost horizons".

I haven't had time to properly document this part of our collaboration but I am posting a cropped detail of an image from the closing.

The name comes from the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon (and the subsequent movies) but is meant to reference my nostalgia for seeing the ocean horizon from my childhood home in San Diego. The cracks become a horizon line high above the gallery floor which mimic the height of the ocean horizon viewed from a hill.

However...in the process of determining a print size for that massively long strip of gallery space, I printed out three smaller versions of the sidewalk cracks and stacked them on the same sheet of paper. There is something appealing about this scale and arrangement that exists independently of the gallery installation. There may be more of these.

collaboratory

Just a note. Tonight was the closing reception for "Your Turn" which was an experiment into collaboration with my life partner (OK, wife, spouse, significant other), Bridgette Bogle. 

More on the results when I am recharged. For now here is an image showing her wall painting titled "Snow Window" into which I introduced a photograph of fingerprints from the space.

Maybe it works.