Photography a bit of a strange fish.

Nowadays photography is referred to as a visual art bringing it into line with the more traditional painting, drawing and sculpture, to name some of the most obvious visual art forms.

What confounds me with photography is the obsession with the equipment and processes to the detriment of the image. After all, the camera is only the paint brush that allows the artist to convey their vision of the world, and yet photographs get bogged down in all the beguiling wizardry of what is essentially a little black box with or without a lens attached at one end and some light sensitive material with a switch that lets the light flood in when pressed.

The most important part of this symbiosis is the eye and mind behind the box. Without it, these boxes are fancy bits of sculpture sitting on a shelf and yet we talk non-stop about this feature or other. That at the end of the day the image you make will not throw it's hands up in the air and stamp it's feet because you are not using the latest most expensive technology!

 If you have one of these wonderful bits of wizardry, should you not do it justice and make wonderful compelling images? The real crime is that most of these pictures languish on a computer or photo sharing site are not necessarily the best you can produce? - those you feel are really well crafted will they ever see the light of day as a print or photograph hanging on the wall or better still someone else's?

 

The images that appear here are a mix of digital and film.  

Adox art series to be developed in PMK pyro.

Adox art series CHS 100. ISO 100

It has been a long time since I mentioned that I was going to do a test development using PMK Pyro on Adox  CHS 100 art series. What with the weather being unseasonally wet and other things getting in the way I have not been able to do the test exposures. I prefer to take the pictures outside on a bright day without fast moving clouds. Something that has not been forthcoming. The light level needs to be constant for the eighteen frames it takes to produce three test strips of two F numbers over and two F numbers under the metered reading. 

I'm pleased to say that the other day, weather and time to expose the film coincided which has resulted in a film waiting to be developed. Something that requires a spare four hours to do whether all in one go or over several days. See Agfa test formethod.