Photographic Technique:
There is nothing particularly innovative about the way the outdoor photographs are taken. When I was doing color I used Fuji Velvia, and since I started doing black and white (in 1993) I use Fuji Neopan 1600 if I don't have the tripod, and Kodak Technical Pan if I do. The 4x5 has only been used as a studio camera, with either Kodak TRI-X or Technical Pan.
My darkroom technique is for the most part conventional. I learned most of what I know from Fred Picker's book, ZONE VI WORKSHOP, his video, PRINTING WITH FRED PICKER, the Newsletter he used to publish, and numerous other books (several by Kodak), and magazines.
One thing I do fairly often that is a little out of the ordinary is copy 35mm slides and negatives onto 4x5 film. I jam a 4x5 negative carrier into the corner of my 8x10 easel under the enlarger and project the 35mm onto it. (I have one carrier set up with a piece of print paper, back side up, for focusing.) I pull the slide out of the carrier in total darkness and start the enlarger, usually for something like 6 seconds with the 80mm lens at f16
My "studio" photos are in two series. One involves variations in lighting and arrangement of Eve's last bowls; the other is of the surface of moving water.
The Bowls:
Eve Lurie, my fiance, was a potter for 27 years. Her glazed pots were beautiful, but in the play of light on her unglazed bowls, texture and form became the dominant interests. When she was torn away from pottery by the lure of the Macintosh I asked if she would give me some unglazed bowls to photograph. She exceeded my wildest dreams by giving me five nested sets as a present.
In photographing Eve's bowls I have hardly begun to explore the possibilities. All the images so far involve variations of lighting them with a Kodak Carousel model 750h slide projector. I mounted the projector on a square of plywood with holes drilled in the corners to which I tied pieces of clothesline. I use the clothesline to suspend the projector under a step-ladder so that I can vary its height and angle. The bowls are arranged on the floor on a piece of black felt. Another variation on the lighting is that I can project images (usually shots of mini-blinds), onto the bowls.
My studio/bedroom. On the wall are a watercolor by Larry Lewis, "Trout Metro-paulus #2", and one of my colored-pencil drawings.
The Water:
Water has always been one of my favorite subjects, and I used to spend a lot of time wandering along creeks looking for just the right ripple or eddy in just the perfect light--which would change, of course, by the time I got in position and focused. I was stirring my coffee on a locomotive one night when it occurred to me that I could create a more stable environment indoors.
My first set-up was a large, shallow, dark-brown plastic tub salvaged from Eve's studio. I filled it with water on the kitchen floor and set my camera on a tripod opposite a 60-watt clip-on light attached to the refrigerator handle. I would stir and trip the shutter with the cable release on the 35mm (I didn't have the 4x5 yet), with the 80-200 zoom (my favorite lens) and Technical Pan. I tried various speeds and exposures and almost always got several interesting shots per roll, many of which I have yet to print. Since I got the 4x5 and moved into an apartment with a bathtub, I have also used a piece of hose to create artificial streams in the tub with my upgraded lighting (halogen clip-on work lights from Home Depot) suspended from the towel-bar. I use this heavy-duty matt-black aluminum foil (Looking Glass Photographic Arts in Berkeley) under the water to make its surface more reflective.
Sometimes I print straight from the original negatives which gives mostly white figures on a black background; sometimes I copy them and print from the copy to reverse the overall tonality.
The Computer:
I start by scanning 8x10 black and white prints into the computer, and from there the sky is the limit. Some of the output is fairly close to what you could get by cutting and pasting, except incredibly easier. I did an early cut-and-paste version of Passion Flower, without the frame, and it drove me crazy. Some things, like the frame I just mentioned, would be so labor intensive by conventional means that no one (except maybe Jerry Uelsmann) would ever do them: burning, dodging, cutting, pasting, ad infinitum.
I copy the final computer file to an EZ-135 cartridge and take it to my local service bureau, Custom Process, where they convert it to a 4x5 negative (currently $40 a shot), which I then bring home and print.
