Eureka – new work

I feel like I’ve reached a new level in terms of how and what I photograph.

Having said that, I thought I’d post a few more images I’ve been working on lately. I will be making intaglio contact prints of them which will be bound into a series of 3 small books (roughly 20-25 prints in each).

I haven’t completely nailed down where I’m going conceptually with this body of work yet, but I have a pretty good idea. It will suffice to say that I’m very excited about it. More on that later.

New Condos

This month, not only am I selling inkjet prints, but I am also offering an edition of 10 cyanotype over platinum/palladium prints made from an 8×10 negative for $40 each!

Archival inkjet print

Choose a print size:

8″x10″ Print $20.00 20″x24″ Print $50.00

 
 

Cyanotype over platinum/palladium print made from 8×10 negative, $40

Or, click here to download the 4″x5″ @ 300 dpi TIFF.

New Condos by Camden Hardy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

A couple new images

I had some this last weekend fun with my latest acquisition, a Deardorff 5×7. I slapped a 4×5 back on it and cracked open a box of Polaroid Type 55. Here are a couple scans of the negatives.

Update – I should also mention that the bottom image was cropped in-camera, which allowed me to make two exposures on one sheet of film. I’m playing with a few ideas along these lines; this was the first attempt.

First gum print in over a year

Thanks to a little nudge from Jeremy Moore, I’ve started gum printing again. Getting this print was a frustrating yet educational experience. It took me a while to realize that I was over-exposing my cyanotype layer, but once I figured that out it all went fairly smoothly.

I’ll be putting a few gum prints of this image up for sale through my blog over the next week or so. Stay tuned.

Update 5/20: My second attempt proved to be much more successful.

N 45.68886, W 11107502. March 20, 2009

Choose a print size:

8″x10″ Print $20.00 20″x24″ Print $50.00

Or, click here to download the 4″x5″ @ 300 dpi TIFF.

N 45.68886, W 111.07502. March 20, 2009 by Camden Hardy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Mordancage with 8×10 negatives

Fully decked out with gloves, respirator, and apron, I spent my Saturday morning playing with the mordancage process. While I had subjected many a print to the toxic and unpredictable bleach/etch process, I had never done it to a negative before. Needless to say, this was a learning experience for me.

I learned that the etch process happens very quickly with film. I learned that if the veiling happens while still in the mordancage solution, it’s been in there too long; say goodbye to the emulsion. I learned not to lay the negatives out on newspaper to dry, and to keep them the hell away from an open window on a windy day. I also learned that I should probably wear safety glasses next time.

Despite the unexpected challenges, I did manage to come up with some decent results. I was surprised at how the images looked in positive form: the images that looked good on the negative looked terrible as a positive and vice versa. Here are scans of all of the negatives after the mordancage. Some are more successful than others.

The Great Experiment, part 3

Here’s the latest installment of this wonderful little experiment. The black & white image was taken with the 8×10, but I cheated a bit with the color and used my DSLR because I didn’t want to wait for the color film to be processed. I included the black border to simulate the 4×5 full frame, which is what I’d like to stick with.

I’m playing around with different focal lengths/perspective/angles and offsetting objects. The repetition of the concrete blob in the bottom image is successful to me, but I’m not so sure about the house in the middle. I think I need to push the offsetting a bit more.

I think I’d like to actually enter the spaces to capture the color images next time, rather than photographing from the same spot…

Surveys

I’ve been hard at work on a project I’m calling Surveys. It’s along the same lines as the Phoenix Transect project, where I’m setting out to create a visual document of my surroundings with color 4×5 negatives. Since I’ll be moving to Arizona in July of this year, the idea of documenting my environment has become important to me. My hope is come back to Bozeman from time to time and rephotograph these places to see how they change over time. Here are a few of the images.

N 45.66420, W 111.06144

N 45.67584, W 111.05180

N 45.68056, W 111.06140

N 45.69067, W 111.08609

N 45.69065, W 111.09064

N 45.69056, W 111.08686

N 45.68214, W111.08299

N 45.68903, W 111.07512

N 45.68886, W 111.07502

The great experiment, part 2

The experiment continues. With the exception of a light leak in my reducing back, I’m fairly satisfied with how it’s going.

I got my first sheets of color 4×5 film processed and spent some time today scanning it and digitally layering the images on top of the 8×10 scans. I tried to match the color of the 8×10 images with that of the cyanotype collages to see what a color image would look like on top of them. I made one image with the full frame shape of the 4×5 and one without; I’m leaning toward keeping the full frame, as I think it helps show that the images are in fact made from different negatives.

Here are a few of the results of my explorations this afternoon. They’re nowhere near resolved, but I think I’m on the right track. As always, comments/questions/suggestions are very welcome.

The great experiment, part 1

© Camden Hardy 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about which direction to take my large format work, and so have begun what I’m calling the great experiment (I’m only just now seeing the irony of photographing a construction site for this). My plan is to dive back into collage and continue where I left off with my short-lived roadside project (below).

© Camden Hardy 2007

I’d like to take this process a step further. To this end I’m going to add an element of color photography to the collage, although I’m not sure how yet. Enter the experiment. I’ll be posting iterations of the work as it develops; feedback is very much appreciated throughout.