In Camera

A partially open black box with an image of a Hasselblad camera and a Holga camera on the front. The image is heavily distressed.

Stubbie & HB would like a few words…

Custom made clamshell box, about 6⅞" × 6⅞" × 1⅛" holding 10 prints.
Cover image: digital image / inkjet print

A frame of film, looking up at a ceiling fan and some draped window shades. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

This is What Film Looks Like

Silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at a woman working on a photograph at her computer. She looks surprised. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

Fail.

Silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at a small shed in a treed yard. There are no leaves. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

#nofilter

Silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at a still life of pumpkin, apples, pears and corn. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

This is Nostalgic It’s Sepia

Sepia toned silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at two hands framed by a window that looks out at a tree and sky. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

GRAAAAINS!

Silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at increasing circles of white dots on a black ground. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

It’s Abstract Deal With It

Silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at a fern leaf with spores along each branch. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

#lith a little

Silver gelatin print, processed with lith chemistry. About 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking a double exposure of a park bench surrounded by autumn leaves. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

This Must Be Art It’s Blurry

Sepia toned silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at three shot glasses with angled liquid in them. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

In Camera Bitches

Selenium toned silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

A frame of film, looking at a shadow of a person with short hair and glasses. The title is overlaid in white macro text.

#gpoy (Gratuitous Picture of Yourself)

Brown toned silver gelatin print, about 6¼" square, mounted on conservation board.

I have seen (and used) filters and processing on digital images to make them look more like film. With this project I poke a little fun at that habit, and at the same time I tease “film 4evah!” people by adding a digital-style effect to the image.

“Digital-style” means first creating an inkjet printed transparency of the text, then contact printing that onto lith (graphic arts) film to make a mask. I then take the mask and put it in the camera between the lens and the film plane, expose light through it, and then remove the mask before making the final exposure of the scene. This is why I call this work “In Camera” — everything you see in the image was created inside the camera box (with a few exceptions, like the toning color and the lith development).

The ten images inside the portfolio were created with two cameras, four kinds of medium format black and white film, two darkroom papers, two darkroom developing processes, and three types of chemical toners. The box is custom made; the cover image is an inkjet print of a digital image processed “to look like film.”

Chemical and digital photography (and all mixtures of the two) are each “real” photography. They are part of a spectrum, not a dichotomy — there is room for everyone.

See In Camera, Retrospective for more information.