Ellen's Eyes II

A short preamble regarding film.

For photographers of my tender years film was what we grew up with; Ilford FP4, Pan F and HP5, Kodak’s Tri-X, T-Max and Technical Pan are names that came, and, in today’s terms seemingly stayed around forever, much in the same way as photographic papers such Agfa Portriga and Brovira, Oriental Seagull and Sterling still evoke some nostalgia. I don’t miss those days, maybe the stability (or the perception of it) in comparison to todays perpetual rush for more, for growth and the “bigger/better/brighter” next generation model.

There is something though, about film, that has stayed fast to the anchor of it's technological age  and which is defined by the limitations of it’s modus operandi; which is image creation time. Today’s photographer can take a picture on one side of the globe and have it in print within a second or two in most cities in any country on the planet. In the decades leading up to the noughties the best that could be hoped for was several hours, assuming a local need and base, overseas though could be days.

Ilford Delta 100, ISO 100, Prescysol developer , 30 secs

Fuji Neopan 1600, Prescysol developer, 90mm

I have largely switched over to the digital domain, but I still hold onto a couple of film cameras, a 35mm and a zone-plate wooden box camera (cost £25, second hand). I have used both of these cameras for exercises on this course already. Serendipity, for whatever reason, allowed me to find a single roll of 120 Technical Pan and five unused bottles of Technidol liquid developer (Technical Pan had it’s concomitant single shot developer that it recommended).  I decided to experiment with it in this session with Ellen.

These three shots (and others) were taken during a single exposure of the ZP camera i.e. within 30 seconds.

Fuji Neopan 1600, Prescysol developer, 90mm

The film was eight years out of date (according to the packaging) and, more importantly, hadn’t been in a cold/dry environment – rather it was in my home office/light room cupboard, which has a wide variation of temperature being west facing. Technical Pan is a very slow film, rated at ISO 25 although I preferred to rate it at ISO 12.5 (that was certainly the speed that worked best on my medium format camera before I sold it). It has almost no discernible grain, especially if developed with Technidol. This film and Lith’ printing are what I most miss about the analogue world of photography that and time; time and space which is an incumbent with film photography and which needs to be added by purpose within the digital domain.  

In the previous “Ellen’s Eyes” post I talked about the use of the various cameras and in this post I would like to discuss two disparate eventualities of using film cameras coupled with a very wide aperture camera – f48 and a very slow film ISO 12.5. The most significant difference was time. The slowing of the process of taking the image allowed me to consider more of what I wanted from the session. I also found that I could take multiple images with different cameras at the same time, and what this allowed me to do from a creative perspective. I used two film types in this session the single roll of Technical Pan and a roll of Ilford Delta 100; due to the length of exposure another issue had to be factored in, that of reciprocity failure. In order to combat that, in the Ilford film I doubled the exposure time as determined by the exposure meter, but as the meter read 4 mins for the Technical Pan I decided to go with that - more out of kindness to Ellen than of any photographic masterplan! Both decisions seemed to pay off in terms of recorded detail. I exposed the Ilford film first and only took three of Ellen at the extended exposure times with the Technical Pan. I finished the roll with some self portraits at the full extended eight minutes which may be part of a future post.

 The Zone Plate camera has no viewfinder, no exposure control other than a piece of wood that slides over the pin-hole aperture. The (first) shot above is a four minute exposure and it was during this time that I started to consider what else I could do through the extended exposure and I decided to record Ellen being recorded by the long exposure camera using the other two cameras on hand. This process allowed different aspects of both the sitter/viewer relationship to be explored and the rest of the images juxtapose the camera that holds the viewer position i.e. the zone plate camera, and the other shots explore the relationship between Ellen and the viewer from a third person perspective, a voyeur on the process.

Ilford Delta 100, ISO 100, Prescysol developer , 30 secs

Ilford Delta 100, ISO 100, Prescysol developer , 30 secs

I tried a few experiments as we progressed, the shot on the left has Ellen talking continuously for 30 seconds, not easy when there is no feedback. This exercise was to bring some animation into an otherwise static shot, it is difficult to discern that from the image. Whereas the image to the right is a reaction to the former shot, by covering her mouth, in a static pose, she is deliberately preventing that event record to occur again. I also introduced focus into the images. Ellen is out of focus, her mouth is active (just about visible in this shot but the zp camera would be better represented with a clearer focus, I think there needs to be "a" reference in the image to "hold" the image - see later shots.

Fuji Neopan 1600, Prescysol dev', 90mm

Next series:

Ilford Delta 100, ISO 100, Prescysol developer , 30 secs

The accompanying "parallel" shots come with varying degrees of focus. I feel that the metaphor of focus can deliver different narratives. The shot left has Ellen in "bright, sharp" focus - in control not only of the zp camera but, by connotation, the viewer as well - whereas the shot on the right has the viewer through the medium of the zp camera firmly in control and Ellen diminishing in the frame. The image below takes full control of the "Ellen" in the frame where she appears almost as a vestige of herself.

These next shots are from the Technical Pan set of three, these allowed me to roam around more freely, but I was also aware that Ellen might need some encouragement, as sitting still for 4 mins is very difficult (I did it for 8 mins the day after and can attest to that!).

Next series:

Technical Pan, ISO 12.5 Technidol developer, 4 mins

 Two shots with the Nikon D3, close in with a macro lens at f2.5 (details as per previous post). I had originally thought this whole session would be about eyes, and to a certain extent I still do - albeit it has moved on a little - so these shots had the camera focussing on her eyes. The shots below are all with the 35mm camera and a 90mm lens loaded with Fuji Neopan. I particularly like the strength of the first and last shot - they seem to express power/control at both extremes. The middle shots invoke some vulnerability especially the shot taken from above, in a voyeuristic viewpoint - knowing that Ellen is compelled to stay transfixed in the pose for the duration and to only come out of it on my say so. Lots to ponder there.

 Next series

A couple of variant shots, Ellen, above in another long pose and the Nikon taking a picture of the camera taking a picture of Ellen. The focus is so "way out" that we can only "know" it is Ellen by the narrative that has been developed prior to this point.

A number of inspirational factors drove me to this line of exploration. Hockney's current exhibition at the RA with his use of multiple cameras exploring different perspectives and viewpoints and this which also reminds a little of Hockney's multiples http://driftingcamera.blogspot.com/p/woodland.html. I shall explore this further; the use of time, perspective.

I feel that there were too many variables - the Technical Pan was an experiment that I won't be able to repeat, but I have plenty of Ilford and can vary the lights to provide me the exposure bandwidth that with a little more planning I should be able to develop this concept.