Salinas 2010
Summer House
Expo "Amerikana"
Contradiction?
If the photo isn't on the Internet it doesn't exist.
If the photo is on the Internet it doesn't exist.
Photographic Cultural Hegemony
Public funding, private foundations and other often political power structures determine to a large extent the cultural output of a given country. A small handful of players have a lock on the hegemony of photographic culture in Spain. This produces a lot of inbreeding and narrows the general level of perception and appreciation of photographic art. Instead of being seduced by photography many would-be aficionados feel alienated by it.
This also leaves a lot of very good photographers out of the picture. Others try in vain to mimic what they perceive as the "in" style. All in all, a very sad state of affairs.
www.amerikana.biz now online
The Amerikana project website is now online. Once again, the team at Mediadvanced has done a great job. Thanks Gonzalo!
Rollei Retro 400S + Finol
Just developed a roll of Rollei RETRO 400S in Moersch Finol. Even through the film was exposed at the nominal ISO rating of 400, the visual appearance of the negative is stunning. I can imagine that exposing this film at 320 ISO will sharpen the detail. The stain is brownish but not very pronounced.
On the Outskirts of Astorga
Near AstorgaOn the outskirts of Astorga, we came across this old building, just as the brooding sky was about to open up and let the rain come down.
The resultant negative has a high degree of visual density and it looks like a good candidate for the enlarger. Developed for 5 minutes at a dilution of 1+30, 24ºC, rotary development.
Amerikana
Amerikana is now published and can be purchased online here. This is a nice-sized book at 24x30 cm., and features 48 photos in B&W and 1 in color, with various two-page spreads. The duotone printing with selective lacquering gives a photo-quality finish.
The limited first edition print run consists of 500 signed & numbered copies, although only 300 of these will be made available to the general public.
Shown on the left-hand page is the photo entitled Columbus Farmers' Market (2009) in which the sparkling smile of Nat King Cole on the cover of his "Unforgettable" 8-track tape stands out against the background of junk strewn all over the ground. This seems to be a telling metaphor for today's technology-obsessed society in which everything quickly becomes obsolete.
B&W Photography: A Life-Long Learning Process
Master photographer Ralph Gibson notes in his excellent book Refractions that he continues to evolve in terms of his photographic development. He goes on to say that this is a life-long process.
In French, this is called formation permanente; in Spanish, formación continua. All of the digital photographers I know are fully convinced of this fact whereas only a handful of film photographers subscribe to it. Most of today's standout film photographers are totally unaware of new B&W film, paper and chemistry offerings on the market. Others, although aware, are unwilling to experiment, having spent considerable time perfecting their film-developer combinations, albeit 2, 5 or as many as 10 years ago. For them, the darkroom seems to hold no new secrets.
Digital photographers proclaim with glee that digital capture has now surpassed 35mm, 120 and practically 4x5" film formats in terms of resolution. Of course, there is no objective truth behind this claim. Obviously, none of them have even heard of Argenti Nanotomic-X let alone actually tested it.
If we film photographers do not actively learn, rethink, experiment, innovate, then photography as we know it will cease to be a living medium.
- 1 of 5
- ››



