Method & Cessation

"There are no anecdotes in my paintings, nor do I want to tell a story. My paintings are not narrative. What I try to do is to ensnare reality, catch it before it changes into a coherent image. For this reason, the bodies I paint are always in movement. I attempt to express them without falsifying or embellishing the action, without aestheticisms or demythifications. Art is always an artifice; it is not straightforward reality. Artists are necessarily artificial, and they must transform reality into a simple technical artifice. By distorting forms, I arrive at their deeper reality.”

—Francis Bacon

I have been advised by my Tutor Cath Fairgrieve to focus my concept, use less motifs, consolidate my theme, to, as she put it "focus on a semi colon of my dissertation ideas".

So after looking at my work objectively, an underlying theme emerges that has pretty much stayed with me is low angles. I have photographed and drawn quite a few things from a kind of bug eye view, this cinematically gives power to the subjects. It would tie in with propaganda I think by drawing attention to something that we might overlook or take for granted, giving more meaning or importance. (kind of making mountains out of molehills or storms in tea cups)

Considering a theme of 'mans world clinging to the earth' incited by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, if I was to represent or abstract inanimate objects that serve some sort of purpose. I thought perhaps about working with triangulation stations up mountains; that help us make sense of the world by turning space into place. Or cleats buried deep into the earth that ships/ boats fasten to with ropes (I am thinking this might be just a tad too complex tho). Or water taps/ pumps (water being a human right), but only focus on one of these and represent/ abstract with disparate processes.

Does one of my above ideas have greater longevity or stands out more? Not really, actually the theme is pretty much the same thing. This is all about man and the environment, authority and the enormity of the task, the scale of both physical and mental challenges. Important concerns of mine are the environment and inequality; the price of fairness is eternal vigilance and struggle. This project must be what I am about naturally, not contrived but truthful threads.

I have an organic connection to model soldiers, they carry so much meaning for me; my Grandfather bringing them back after the Second World War, my Father playing and photographing them back then. The sets of soldiers I spent hours with as a child, that were passed on to my son who also enjoyed them and we luckily still possess. These models photographed and reproduced, possibly in the landscape, will come to represent the concept, their scale in contrast to the environment and the struggle. At the same time they connect me back to my childhood and to my family.

Carn Gelli is a short walk from my house, it is a high rocky outcrop with some interesting history. During the 1797 Last french Invasion the vantage point was used by the French forces to keep an eye out for the British troops. There is an atmosphere about the place and a fantastic view; over Fishguard, out towards St Davids and even further the refinery at Milford Haven can be glimpsed.

The weather is now much more unpredictable, sunny days for photography are few and far between, but I will embrace this.

I have been admiring the blurry photographic paintings of Gerhard Richter evoking time and memory, I think this relationship of photography and painting is important.

I decided to shoot 400 asa film on a day that was overcast to get a grainy effect.

Using one of 2 new cameras I have just acquired. This particular camera is a 35mm "Lomo 360 Spinner", which can take panoramas by means of pulling a cord that spins the camera head and exposes the film at the same time.

The film was FP5 plus and the aperture was set at f16, the 'shutter' speed anywhere between 125 and 250, this is governed by the speed that the pull cord is retracted. The negatives were developed in Rodinal, scanned and adjusted in PS4.

I think that these panoramic photos with the 35mm sprocket holes showing are like cinematic establishing shots. The simplicity, bleakness and grain contributing to a 'gritty' point of view feel. I consider that they have a micro and macro aspect, up close, but also distant, reflecting the statement of scale that I am describing.

The next 2 shots are taken with the second of the new cameras; an f300 pinhole handmade Vemeer that takes 120 roll film, with a curved focal plane of 17cm, so that it also takes wide panoramic shots with no distortion. The film used was Fomapan 100 asa and the exposures were 60 seconds. The negatives were developed in Rodinal, scanned and adjusted in PS4.

These photos include the subjects who are viewing the series of aspects above. One model soldier with binoculars and the other on a radio who actually looks like he might be 'taking a knee'. I purposely chose models that do not carry weapons or are in anyway aggressive. They are observing and relaying information. They are tucked in not too obvious, a little difficult to see, blending with the environment. Vigilant in the eternal struggle for fairness.

I intend to repeat and serialize this concept, to begin with I have taken these photographs; tomorrow I may detach myself and look at printing and or painting a response to the photographs, an adaptation and I may well come back to photography in due course.

Meanwhile back in the darkroom I responded to the developed negatives by creating a 'chemiegram'. This expressive form of cameraless photography is produced by using sun cream and masking tape as resists, spraying fixer and alternating between developer, water and fixer baths whilst removing the resists. Closing in on painting; obscuring and revealing, a black sun over Carn Gelli.

I printed out the panoramic photo of the soldier with the binoculars at A3 size and in the studio I first made a pencil sketch of this to see where it would lead my response.

From the sketch I started working on 2 studies, these were on prepared surfaces that I had previously sized with my homemade clear gesso onto mixed media paper. I divided the one page into 2 panoramas, in keeping with the format of the photograph.

I made a light charcoal sketch on both to find the shapes. Then I mixed up 5 values of grey from Mars Black and Titanium White and started to block in the shapes. I made 2 passes, then decided to involve the passing of time, the blur of memory and use the squeegee. I was very pleased with the result, I left the studies overnight.

The next day I realised that my response to the photo had been to paint the soldiers POV, so to further enhance this I decided to add the double circular lines as the optical effect of looking through binoculars or of radio waves emitting invisible transmissions, connecting information.

The weather brightened up over the weekend and I took the opportunity to go out again with cameras and models to Carn Gelli. I had prepared myself to tackle the problem of it being too easy to get stuck in monochrome. In order to introduce some colour I decided to attempt using colour darkroom paper inside the home made pinhole cameras. I considered that if I can expose black and white paper in a pinhole camera, why not colour?

There is however no mention of the in camera exposure of colour paper in any of my books on alternative photography process and precious little on internet photo forums. All I have learned so far that this is a notoriously tricky task, so I thought it would be fitting to try it out and see where it would take me. I already had the paper and RA4 developing chemicals so this was a great opportunity for the medium to suggest to me where to go with colour.

I experimented with a variety of red and orange filters and had rather limited success. All the shots came out a rather shocking shade of Magenta, only one captured much of an image. But I have proved that it is possible to create a colour positive from the colour paper exposed in camera as a negative. I will not waste these pink papers as I have coated them with photo emulsion to expose again and see what happens when they are exposed and developed a second time.

Part of the secret lies in first developing in total darkness as a black and white negative, then the paper is put into a stop bath, the (tungstun) lights can go on to 'flash' the paper, then water but not fixer. Then it can be put into the colour developer after that into the 'blix' which is a bleach and fixer mixture. Then the paper can be rinsed with stabiliser and water, presto!

The weather stayed kind and I went up Carn Gelli again. I wanted to improve my colour experiments and had hit upon an idea that what might be needed would be to give the paper what it expects, ie: a colour negative. I took some colour negatives that had already been processed and found what I was looking for; usually at the start and end of the film there is part of a developed but blank or clear orange frame, so I cut a piece of this out, taped it over the aperture of my 8x10 pinhole camera along with another orange filter and a UV filter. I knew that this would increase the exposure time quite a bit and I had to guess. I allowed 10 minutes over a usual light reading. I think either the exposure was a bit too long or the time in the developer, I am not completely sure. But the paper came out a lovely deep indigo blue this time, with other colours lurking deep within and exciting detail, sadly too dark to reproduce effectively, the original needs to be seen with the naked eye. But I am getting somewhere!

Back up shot on iphone

Colour negative reversal
scanned and adjusted PS4

I gathered a few more black and white images from my pinhole cameras, using direct positive paper as well as a couple as black and white negatives on regular darkroom paper.

Returning to earlier pinhole cameras and using them at Carn Gelli, this was to discover what they might reveal.

The landscape format is a triple exposure from my '3 pin tin'. The image of the model soldier is repeated and the landscape appears as dusk.

The profile format was taken with my biscuit tin with the curved focal plane.

Black and white negatives scanned, inverted and adjusted in PS4

I will try both of these cameras with colour paper again but with my more successful filter arrangements, in due course.

This acrylic and oil bar study is a response to my colour experiments so far.

I have used magenta and indigo suggested to me by the previous colour paper developments. I have scraped and blurred this and then dug back in through the oil bar to reveal the surface beneath, with the similar circular interruptions that have begun to feature in the last few studies I have completed.

I am conducting another concurrent experiment as a method to introduce colour to pinhole photography. This is by means of using acrylic ink to wash over mixed media paper before coating with photo emulsion and exposing in a camera. I prepared surfaces using combinations of most of my inks with out any mixing as yet to see which will work best.

I am relying on some sunny sunny weather to conduct these experiments, but if there is not a decent day soon I will attempt to continue in the studio using flash guns.

As the project begins to conclude, I am thinking about how best to present the work. I have successfully managed to divide a single image into versions of separate values and printed as acetates. These could be used for screen printing, or making stencils to apply a near photographic representation over a more abstract, textured and thought provoking surface.

I have also considered that the acetates themselves are worthy of display, perhaps in a layered sequence, with space between the layers in a frame, like a deconstruction of a pinhole image.

Below is an example of 2 layers; the upper is of 2 values mid and mid light, the lower is a single dark value of the shadows.

Below I have mounted 2 different value acetates on some board covered with multimedia paper. There are frames made from beading between the layers that separate and lift the acetates from one another giving a three dimensional look. This is a possible method of displaying my photos, additionally perhaps incorporating some painting and drawing by using the background as a base layer.

While waiting for good weather I came up with another strategy for presenting photographs, I thought about using a slide projector. How it could maybe represent slices of time through this medium, like a disjointed time lapse. I remembered that I had seen projected images at the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition, Tate Modern a few years ago, it was mesmerising.

I already have a 35 mm slide projector and after some research into how pinhole images would project, I quickly came to the conclusion that it would be wise to consider medium format for the increased picture size and quality. However MF projectors are extremely expensive.

Through further research I came up with an affordable solution; there was an unusual slide mount made for 35 mm projectors known as 'Super Size', these slide holders would take a frame of 40 mm x 40 mm and I discovered that there were a few cameras that actually shot MF 120 film in this size frame to complement the system.

I managed to find and procure both a number of 40 x 40 slide holders and a suitable camera that shoots the same format. I can now go ahead with this line of inquiry. The camera is an Agfa Isoly 120 mm; I chose this particular camera as it has both the 'bulb' setting, so that the shutter can remain open for timed exposures and it also features an attachment for a cable shutter release to minimise any camera movement on long exposures. The conversion to pinhole is documented below.

An examination of the camera showed that just 2 small screws hold the lens assembly.

I wanted to leave the shutter mechanism in place so it could be utilised.

I used an old aerosol cap to make a cover for the shutter mechanism and fixed this in position with double sided tape.

The pinhole is made using a slice of aluminium drinks can and taped over the back of the shutter.

The focal length is approximately 38 mm and I estimate the pinhole to be f 300

The finished conversion with the protective cap.

There is no dedicated 120 mm black and white slide film made or available any more, but I have found that it is possible to reverse develop certain regular black and white films using the correct chemicals. This will give photographic positives suitable for projection.

Comparing 40 x 40 slide mounts alongside the regular 35 mm version, the advantage does become obvious. Unfortunately my slide projector only accepts slide mounts that are 2 mm thick and these super slides are annoyingly 3 mm thick. This is something I was not aware of, but I am committed to this now, I will persevere!

After more research I managed to find and buy the perfect projector; this one does not only accept the super slides but also has an auto play function so it will continuously show slides at speeds/ intervals that can be user set. This is something else that my original projector could not do. The function is of course invaluable for exhibition purposes.

There is no improvement in the weather, so I have further developed my camera building skills. I have found that 5 x 7 inch darkroom paper is both popular and inexpensive. As I intend to continue my colour paper experiments it is worthwhile having the paper at the correct size for the camera; I have found it extremely difficult and hazardous to cut paper to size in pitch darkness, which is the required working environment of the colour paper.

The latest 5 x 7 camera placed next to the 5 x 4 to show the size difference.

With each camera I build there are improvements to the design. In this case posh fastenings to hold the back in place.

I am now building a whopping 16 X 20 inch camera. Other cameras placed inside to show the scale, largest is 8 x 10.

My thinking behind designing and building an even larger camera concerns scale, but also the exhibiting of my work so that detail within the photography can be effectively viewed.

The 16x20 finished

The cameras have multiplied!

The filter array for use with colour paper taped inside the cameras.

All cameras loaded and ready for several tests but I am still thwarted by the weather. I am considering shooting in the studio, I have one day left before submission, it is my last chance Monday the 3rd of January, the forecast looks good in the morning, I will hold out for this weather window.

In order to work with colour paper in the darkroom, including possible chemi/ chemograms, in complete darkness, I have ordered a set of vintage soviet military night vision goggles.

Most other modern goggles I had been considering utilise a built in infra-red light that would shine directly at whatever the wearer would be looking at.

The set I am waiting for to arrive come with an independent IR light. I believe this can be reflected off the ceiling in the darkroom for example, giving enough indirect light for the goggles to function without the risk of spoiling the paper.

03/01/21, the day before submission, the weather has improved some, so I made the decision to scale Carn Gelli once more with a bunch of cameras. It did not turn as bright as I had hoped, but I made the best of things. I do know that I could do so much better with more consistent sunlight, as this is fundamental to successful pinhole photography.

It is roughly 1,000 steps up hill to get to the peak, and I had to make 2 journeys to get everything up there. The sun was in and out of the clouds, it was freezing cold and quite windy, talk about suffering for your art!

But my Action Man model seemed quite happy, resplendent in his Napoleonic uniform.

Photo emulsion over previous magenta print outcome, exposed in 4x5 pinhole camera f 240 exposure 3 mins developed PD5

Photo emulsion over acrylic ink on mixed media paper, exposed in 4x5 pinhole camera f 240 exposure 3 mins developed PD5. Scanned, inverted and adjusted in PS4

Photo emulsion over acrylic ink on mixed media paper, exposed in 8x10 pinhole camera f 240 exposure 4 mins developed PD5. Scanned, inverted and adjusted in PS4

Direct positive paper, exposed in Vermeer pinhole camera f 300 with Sutton type water filled lens, exposure 20 mins developed PD5

Colour darkroom paper, exposed in 5x7 pinhole camera f 300 exposure 60 mins reverse developed PD5 & RA4

Colour darkroom paper, exposed in 16x20 pinhole camera f 300 exposure 30 mins reverse developed PD5 & RA4

I still have much to do to improve the techniques, but I do know the directions to go in. I had already worked out equivalent filters to use with my light meter for the colour paper, but there is room for further experimentation and some steady sunshine without wind would go a long way to help, roll on the summer!

My research into more environmentally friendly methods of processing film has turned up the fairly recently developed practice of using coffee, known as the 'Caffenol' technique. I will start experimenting with this on the next film in one of my cameras.

https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/how-to-develop-film-with-coffee-caffenol-guide

Finally, I made a chemigram on 16x20 paper, without my night vision goggles that still have yet to arrive. But I did feel that I should make the most of the chemicals as I had made up 2 liters of each. I fully intend to practice with the batch until they no longer work, just a bit of a shame that I cannot include more of that work in this project.

Unfortunately for me on this project, time has now run out, I will not be able to respond to these photos further in drawing and painting as I would have wished.

But this project has opened up many paths of inquiry for me and at this conclusion I do not intend to shut anything down, rather I will continue going forwards.

I am certain that I am well set up for my major project now.

Earlier in the project I had built a box that I sent to my Father, the intention was to send it back and forth, adding to it by response and dereliction. The idea was sparked by the work of Walead Beshty and his FedEx boxes, that receive random patina from knocks and scuffs during their transits.

As I had previously written; during the Covid lock downs so many things we need have to be ordered by mail delivery and this would be reflected by the 'Transit Box'. I had also been listening to a CD 'I send you this Cadmium Red', about the correspondence between artists John Berger and John Cale. My first response was basic; to take some Cad red, knock it back with some green so it resembled a house brick, representing something solid, although the box is actually empty or hollow.

My father who is 82 and I have not now seen in over a eighteen months agreed to collaborate. Hopefully this will bring us closer in some way. The box will ping pong between us for a set period or number of consignments, to be decided. Below (right) my father sent me a photo of his first contribution so I could include this before the project deadline.

The box is once again in transit, I am eagerly awaiting its arrival and plan to fit a tiny video camera that is motion activated inside it, this will give another account of its adventures.

Carn Gelli 16x20 pinhole camera f300 20 mins colour paper, reversed developed Ilford multi/ra4

Scanned and adjusted in iPhone

Carn Gelli 8x10 pinhole camera f 240, 3 mins colour paper, reversed developed Ilford multi/ra4

Scanned and adjusted in iPhone