"Farm #5, Window #2"
In a little over two months I head back to Greece, this time for school and not just travel. I am pretty nervous but I have certain confidence that reminds me that if I keep on doing what I have been doing for the past few years everything will work out better than I could hope for.
A close friend in Millerton has also contributed to my darkroom gear. Stephanie Stanton is a wonderful photographer who is highly skilled and currently making her living as a photographer. She offered a trade for the gear she gave me: that I be her wedding photographer next September. Of course I said yes, and will work on the inexpensive side since A) She and her partner do not have a lot of dough and, B) she is also offering me a chance to work as her assistant throughout the summer at weddings. This will give me a large amount of experience and possibly open some doors for my own career.
My small portfolio for the Greek school is expanding. I have been trying to print at least 5-6 pieces each week, if not more. I have about 24 images so far and want to bring 48. I am choosing different subjects and examining qualities of light, shadow and and textures. For the next week or so I am working exclusively on my series “Farm” . It is self-explanatory. The point, however, is to remove agricultural elements from their traditional spaces to show qualities of time and aging of organic compounds that have been artificially constructed, i.e. old barns, rusting metal, etc…In b/w the tones can be rich and deep. There are also some landscapes as a way of depicting the space around us and the distances (time as well) ahead and behind. I have added a new image that I developed last night. It is called “Farm #5–Window #2” . I used Kodak Tri-X 400 on a cloudy day. For the darkroom I had some glossy Ilford Multi-grade IV fiber paper developed in Dektol. I like it. Nice textures.
JDCM
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.