Photography by David Ondrik

Today I got a crash course in Palladium printing thanks to Kevin Sullivan of Bostick & Sullivan. 4 of my students made great prints from their 4×5 negatives, and I made a sucky print from a sucky digital negative.

Over the summer, I was in Seattle and saw the Photographic Center Northwest’s Thesis Exhibition. Daniel Gregory was showing a suite of 8″x10″ platinum/palladium prints of, well if not the sea at least water. Here’s one from the show, and check out his web site for more.

Tranquility

Arroyo Secco Fire

I’ve been a fan of Michael P. Berman’s work since seeing a show in Silver City a few years ago. He’s having a show at 516 Arts this month, and the opening reception is Saturday, October 3rd from 6-8pm. There’s also a panel discussion with Berman, Erika Blumenfeld, David Taylor (all three are Guggenheim Fellows) which will be moderated by Mary Anne Redding.

Berman came to my advanced photography class and gave a great presentation to the kids. It was fascinating to hear about the deeper conceptual motivation behind his images. I think that you can see it when you look at them. Although they are all masterfully crafted black & white prints, they aren’t laboring under the shadow of Ansel Adams as so much large format black & white photography does.

It’s all first rate work. Check out the web site. Check out the show. Attend the panel discussion. You know you want to.

Oh, and thanks to Kelli Garner for making the first non-spam comment to my blog. You rock!

Volcano, originally uploaded by davidondrik.

Some of you may be aware that I teach high school art as a day job. Last school year, one of my Painting & Drawing students dropped off a bag of old film for me. I assume that it was something that her family had laying around. There were some real gems of the past in there, like an unopened box of Kodak Tech Pan, some 4×5 that expired in the 1970s, and a full brick of 120 Kodak Ektachrome. The Ektachrome expired in 1982, but this was the most alluring Ghosts of Christmas past.

I had recently been reintroduced to, of all things, Nine Inch Nails’ video for Closer. Apparently it was shot on very expired film, and it has a distinct and appealing aesthetic (aside from what was…borrowed…from Joel-Peter Witkin and Francis Bacon.) So I really wanted to try out this very old slide film.

Well, it generally worked. I went on a little walk with Becky, and the Brams, out at the Three Sisters on the West Side of Albuquerque, and shot a roll through my Mamiya C330. Camera & Darkroom was good enough to process it for me, saving a trip to Santa Fe to have it done directly.

There are no blacks on the original slides. Background radiation over the last 25+ years has exposed the film. However, my Epson scanner was able to correct (to some extent) the damage. I posted the 4 best photos from the trip to my Flickr, which you can view here.

I’m very excited to see what comes out with a Holga. The decrepit film, and the decrepit camera, seem a match made in Pictoralist heaven.

Two medium format IR images.

So I’ve had these two rolls of 120 Rollei IR film in the fridge for far too long. Well, no longer! I shot one through a Holga and nothing came out. I guess I need to use one with a B setting. The other roll was through a twin lens reflex. I took 5 stops off the exposure, but think 6 would have worked better.

The best part is that nearby I found a lot of open and unopened gauze, medical Xeroxes, a bible, and a big medical book scattered around. There was also a blanket folded in half to make a bedroll nearby.

Untitled #13 by Leigh Anne Langwell

Leigh Anne Langwell is a photographer who makes photographs without benefit of a camera. She constructs elaborate props out of translucent materials, arranges them on photographic paper, and exposes the entire thing to light to make the unique image. The images are influenced by micro biology and small-scale organic systems that, strangely, also reference macro systems like the solar system. Her work is firmly grounded in history, as it’s nearly impossible to miss the connection with Anna Atkins‘ 19th century botanical cyanotypes. Seeing the prints in real life is not to be missed, as they’re on a very luscious, velvety matte paper (that I understand is no longer manufactured.)

Ms. Langwell’s images can occasionally be seen around town, at the Dartmouth Street gallery web site, and in the book Photography: New Mexico.