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.

Work in progress – a taste.

N 32.22195, W 110.86723. January 2, 2010.

I’ve been working my way through the last couple boxes of Polaroid Type 55 film, and I’m really happy with the resulting images. Here’s one of them; the rest will be posted once I finish scanning them.

New images

I thought I’d post a few new images that I’ve been working on down here in Tucson. I was somewhat reluctant to make them public without some sort of explanation, but my desire for feedback has overshadowed said reluctance. So I have decided to compromise and precede them with a brief explanation.

The prints are 30″ in the longest dimension, and range from 21″ to 24″ in the other. They are cyanotypes toned in tannic acid, varnished, and tiled together to make the whole image. I’m attempting to take a more meditative approach to capturing scenes that are often overlooked. I want to encourage a slow, intimate dialog between the audience and these spaces through the labor-intensive process of creating the collages. The images were broken up into pieces to provide a more interactive experience for the viewer.

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.

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.

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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.