Distractions...

  I’m afraid my straight up prints have been suffering lately due to my being obsessed with lith printing.  I literally can’t stop doing it.  I shot a wedding a few weeks ago as a backup for my wife and the negatives haven’t even been scanned yet, i’ve been too occupied lithing!

  I did a 16” x 16” lith a few months ago and it is taking forever to scan.  Because it’s so big i have to split it into 6 separate scans and then try and stitch them together in photoshop but it isn’t quite working...yet.  I hope to have it uploaded soon anyway.  I do, however, have two prints which i can show you now:

  This first one was taken using a Lomography Diana F+ and lith printed onto Orwo BN118 paper which i won on EBay for a steal.  I love the brownish tones you get with this paper and im looking forward to trying out some more contrasty negatives soon.

   This second one was taken in an abandoned power station not far from my house using an old Lubitel 166B.  It was my first camera with variable aperture/shutter speed which was a little confusing at the time but operating it is second nature now.  Normally this paper gives me a rich golden yellow tone in the mids but this time i got a pale pinkish brown which was a nice change and (i think) compliments the image well.

  Anyway i just thought id share my latest prints with you all – my next post will (hopefully) have some of these wedding photos on once i pull my finger out and get cracking on them!

  Oh by the way – remember i bought an Epson 4490 to replace my V500 which broke?  Turns out the 4490 power supply will run the V500 which is a major bonus in my opinion!

Your New Favourite Person... Ellen Rogers

  Do you know who Ellen Rogers is?  If not then prepare to be amazed!  I have been a fan of her work ever since i started getting into photography some two years or so ago.  You know how it is when you first get into something – you’re super-keen and you hit the internet hard soaking up everything about your chosen subject that you can fit into your head.  I came across an article Ellen had written about some of her work (i believe it was on the Lomo website) and the pictures i saw stopped me in my tracks.  I had never seen anything like it, and to be honest i still haven’t even now.  After a bit of research i discovered all her images were analogue and she did all her own darkroom work to get each image how it is.  I just love the look of her photos; how every image is similar yet different.  Im going to stop there or ill just keep going on and on and ill start sounding like a psycho stalker - let's let her photos speak for themselves:

  And that's just a tiny glimpse into her work.  Recently i got talking to Ellen on Twitter and managed to persuade her to let me have a little email interview with her (which i really appreciate as from the sound of it she is one busy body)!  Anyway, here we go...

To start with tell us all a little bit about yourself – who you are and what you do.

Hi there! I am Ellen Rogers, I am a photographer. I only shoot with analogue equipment and all my photography is hand worked, be it colour or the print itself.

How long have you been taking photographs?

For a very long time as my father is a photographer but really I have been shooting with my own eyes ever since I was around 14.

I know it’s always a bit of a silly question to some but how would you describe your photographic style to those who haven’t yet seen your work?

I would urge the viewer to have a look, I relinquish the responsibility to either answer that question or interpret it for you. 

All of your work is produced in the darkroom – what is it that draws you to working with film, paper and chemicals as opposed to computers?

I just like making a mess really, getting my hands dirty and all that. I suppose I can feel more attached to the work also. There are a myriad of reasons why I prefer it but the main one is it suits me and I’m rubbish with computers anyway.

Do you do all your processing yourself or do you have darkroom minions?

All of it that is done by myself, no one is allowed to bother me in the darkroom hehe.

  

      Every photographer has at least one shot they have taken that really speaks to them on a personal level.  Which of your photographs has a special meaning to you and why?

It is the pessimist in me that tells you this (as her voice is strongest) that I don’t have a favourite. I am a constant disappointment to myself, I must try harder. Some have a certain sentimental value to me such as one image of my late mother’s funeral flowers but on a technical level I never feel content. I think this comes from having a father who is a much better technical photographer than I am ever likely to be.

From looking through your gallery it seems that a lot of your photographs have a contrast of gritty textures and soft pastel colours – is this something you intentionally set out to accomplish with each photo or is it just a by-product of your processing that you have adopted into your style?

Yeah my style was and continues to be quite an organic evolution, a gradual shift in technique - and it is just that, a style, not something I am heavily invested in. I hope it constantly evolves and I hope to improve.  But to answer your question no it’s not intentional it’s just instinctive. However you could argue that I am intentionally letting my instincts take over... 

How much thought/research do you put into an idea/shoot before loading your camera?

Ah well that depends on the shoot. If it’s fashion... very little, if it’s something a little more substantial, quite a bit more. I shot a story on the 1888 match girls in London. That took considerable research. 

Without giving away your processing secrets (unless you really want to), can you give us a general outline of how you go from original concept to final print?

Well, the way any photographer works isn’t much of a secret. It’s an idea first then I try and fumble around until it’s executed. Literally in my case, it was Iris Murdoch that said ‘“Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea.” That’s how I feel about my photography; it is a literal manifestation of my own failure.

Gear-wise do you have a favourite camera, film or paper that you tend to be drawn to or do you just use what is to hand at the time?

Yeah I have a few kits but they are ‘hand me downs’, they are also a secret.

What, for you, has been the biggest challenge you have had to face while continuing to use film and darkroom products in an age of digital growth?

Commercial work! ‘Commercial work’ for clients who want things changed or want things exceedingly fast. This poses a problem on a not so regular basis but enough to be a problem. It takes time to do what I do and it’s pretty much unchangeable once it’s done. I’m not going to out the companies that pose these problems though...

You do a fair bit of commission work – what has been your favourite commission to work on and which has been the most challenging.

Piers Atkinson’s look book was great as I loved the team. I just completed a book for a hair stylist too with almost the same team and that was somewhat challenging as I had to make an entire book from 12 hours of solid shooting. It was a great deal of fun but a few people fell asleep on set. I had to make lots of images that looked connected but different enough to keep the viewer interested for a whole book.  I guess you will see if I failed or succeeded, it comes out in February next year.

      Which photographers do you think have influenced your style and which photographers do you admire?

Photographers I admire the most are war correspondents, most notably Don Mccullin but no I don’t think he has influenced my style. 

You made a book called Aberrant Necropolis.  Why did you decide to make it and what was the process like?

I decided to make it because people asked me for it. That is really the only reason. The process was pretty straight forward really; it’s just a selection of images from my first 2 years of fashion photography 2008-2010.

      The world is saturated with photos due to the availability of cameras, apps like instagram and social networking sites.  What advice can you give to those who are trying to carve out a unique style in a world where everything seems to have been done already?

I would say don’t blindly copy your idols; you will only live in their shadows.

  

Any last words?

Thank you very much David! 

  So hopefully that's been informative for some of you fans out there and if you weren't aware of Ellen Rogers before hopefully you've enjoyed learning a little about her and gained some inspiration.  

  All that's left to say is thank you very much for taking part Ellen and her are some links where you can see her work and buy her book:

Flickr Stream
Bloggable Stream
Website
Store

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There's Life in the Old Girl Yet...

  There has been a lot of negativity (pun partially intended) around film lately.  Prophets of doom have been heralding the end saying film is on the decline and we all need to stock up before we can’t get it anymore.  But it seems to me there are some positives going on and I thought we would focus on them for a while to cheer us all up a little in these dark days.

  Firstly yes, Fuji have discontinued Velvia 50 in a few formats and now Kodak have just discontinued TMAX 3200 but to be honest I don’t shoot large format so the Velvia discontinuance doesn’t affect me (for now anyway) and I don’t like TMAX 3200 anyway.  Now I know some of you reading this may use these films and i'm not saying i’m glad they are gone or anything – just saying I don’t use them.  The TMAX cancellation I can understand – it wasn’t selling well so they cut it because it was becoming too costly, fair enough.  The Velvia is a little strange however because most of us will know that Velvia 50 is pretty much legendary – there is nothing like it out there.  Since Fuji announced the discontinuance there has been no end of petitions to stop it from occurring – let’s hope the people in charge at Fuji listen.  But let’s just think about why films get cancelled.  When it comes down to it photography companies are still companies.  They make a product and sell it, when it doesn’t sell well enough they stop making it.  Maybe we as consumers are partly to blame – with the rise of EBay it is so easy to just buy second-hand and out-dated films on the cheap; but if we aren’t buying new films from stores then the companies making films are going to suffer.  Just a thought to bear in mind.

  Anyway, I promised positivity didn’t I!  Well, first of all amid all the ambiguity of what’s going on with Kodak I recently saw a message on a forum from Ilford who simply said their films are selling strong, there is plenty of stock and they are going to keep making emulsions.  I must confess it was so refreshing to hear a company come out and simply state exactly what was happening.  I’m a huge fan of Ilford films and papers so to me this was great news.

  More positive news came to me this morning when I received an email from AG Photographic.  They are a UK – based company that (in my opinion) consistently offer very competitive prices on all their products and offer superb customer service.  The email I received stated that they have just opened an on-site lab offering a range of services including C41, E6 and black & white development and wet printing.  Now we hear of labs shutting all the time and large stores like Asda and Boots slowly stopping their film development so this news is most welcome.  It’s great to see that those of us who still shoot film are putting back into the industry and supporting stores like AG and companies like Ilford.  If we keep doing that I don’t see any reason why film production should cease for a long time.

  Also think about companies like Lomography.  Although not everyone’s favourite you have to agree that they are promoting film usage to a younger generation and getting them started.  Speaking personally my first camera was a Lomography Diana F+ camera and I still use it even now.  That camera got me into film in a big way and even though I use a medium format SLR most of the time now and do all my own darkroom work I will never forget that it was down to the Lomo movement that I first got into film.

  Another positive that shows there is still a dedicated user-base of analgoue materials are such internet forums as www.apug.org and www.fadu.org.  These are forums dedicated to film/paper/darkroom work and there are thousand of subscribers putting up hundreds of new posts every day.  Even photo sharing sites such as Flickr have film photography groups brimming over with enthusiastic contributors.  There is a strong analogue photography community and it is reassuring to know that there are so many who continue to support the industry by shooting film.

So even though there is some bad stuff going on in the industry these days try to remember the good – new labs are opening, companies like Ilford are still going strong and “new blood” is taking up film photography with every passing day. 

 I know i'll always shoot film.  For me digital processing will never top standing in a darkroom and watching your image appear on a print.

Bronica SQ-A Test Roll

  I recently bought a Bronica SQ-A system and shot a few rolls of colour film.  However, since my chemicals always expire before i have enough film developed i have decided to store my exposed film until i have enough to develop over a period of a week or so, thus ensuring i dont waste precious chemicals.  This has meant, however that i havent yet seen any results from my new camera!  So a few nights ago i decided to shoot and develop a roll of TRI-X 400 to see the results.

  Now im not really a massive fan of TRI-X.  i have used it once before and the pictures came out very grey; i  prefer to use Ilford HP5+  as i like the tones and contrast more.  But this being a test roll i didnt want to waste any so in went my second roll of TRI-X.  I set up my camera on the tripod, plugged in the cable release and started firing away.  Heres the results:

  Im pretty chuffed with how they came out to be honest, considering i blasted them out rather quickly.  I still think im going to stick with the HP5+ though.