John D.C. Masters Photography » Yugoslavia

Some recent work…

John — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:45:25 +0000

Here are some scans of some of the dark room activity I have been involved with. Both images were taken with a Canon QL17 GIII with FomaPan ISO 200 b/w film. One is from the Dalmatian city of Trogir while the other is from the island of Paros. Both are on Fotokemika Grade 3 paper and were developed using Ilford PQ Universal for the paper work. I think I used D-76 for the film development, but it was last summer and I don’t remember.

I like the deep contrast and the odd quality of the camera itself. The edges are soft, slightly vignetted, which gives the image an older look.

I hope to spend the next week in the darkroom. I really want to start going through older negatives as well as more recent work and printing some stuff. I have enough paper and chemistry and I have the time.

JDCM

Finishing tasks…

John — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:15:20 +0000

The fall is rapidly approaching here in upstate New York. I looked out at the trees this morning and saw touches of bright paint through the steam of my coffee. I was up early, the cat having decided to wake me, so from 4AM on I was able to write a fair amount of a paper on 20th century Yugoslavian unification. I am almost finished. I am also finished with many of the images from those travels, especially the Roma pieces–they are relegated to the past…but did I already blog that news?

I have purchased a used Contax G2. It is an automatic rangefinder form the mid-1990s and has been given good marks. For me it is almost too complicated without being a digital. The focusing is awkward, I think, but we shall see…The plus side is that it comes with a Carl Zeiss 28mm lens. Very nice. It’s all about the glass. I’ll shoot on automatic exposure for a while and try it out.

Once this paper is finished, I can really get down and finish the darkroom work. I have to go through negatives and contact sheets and find 24 images that support a consistent vision and then print them all on paper. Damn…the phone just rang and now I have lost my train of thought after a short conversation…Oh, yes…FA-1027.

I ordered some new chemistry from Fine Arts Supply in Montana. It is a concentrate called FA-1027 and supposedly takes care of all the problems associated with Ilford film and Ilford liquid developers, i.e. foggy negatives and so forth. When will it arrive? I don’t know but it has been 2 weeks since I ordered it and it is still not here…

More will be revealed.

JDCM

Interview, Part 3

John — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:54:00 +0000

A Face in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina June 2008

“In 1998 I read “Balkan Ghosts” by Robert Kaplan and it turned a switch on inside of me. It suddenly seemed as if I was always going to places everyone else had gone, so I chose a less traveled path. After reading that book, I went to Bulgaria for a month. I have not returned to Bulgaria since, but I hope to this spring. I have, however, been a frequent traveler to the Former Yugoslavia, i.e Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Serbia. I have included Greece in my Balkan excursions. I see this area as the historical and emotional crossroads of the world, full of hope, promise, pain, and blood. I have fallen in love with the Balkans. There is no other place like it.”