Heather Siple experiments with anthotypes to find out which impact different types of paper base has on the color of the plant emulsion.

"Pansy on Pansy" printed on Canson's Bristol 96 lb recycled paper.

The first time this showed up was when using dark, purple pansy (viola wittrockiana). I had seen a beautiful purple shades in Fabbri’s book, yet my own dark, purple liquid turned into a blue and green print.

I began running tests on my new emulsion batches, making test strips and prints from Strathmore 140 lb watercolor/aquarelle cold press paper, Canson’s Bristol 96 lb acid-free recycled paper, and a few tests with Strathmore 70 lb acid-free drawing paper (later abandoned because this paper is just too thin). The plants tested so far are pansies, their cousins common blue violets (viola sororia), common buttercups (ranunculus acris), eastern redbud (cercis canadensis), red azaleas (rhododendron ‘Christina Marie’ (Girard)), american wisteria (wisteria frutescens), Coral Bells (Heuchera sanguinea)and crab apple blossoms (malus sp.). I coated each paper with the same number of coats, at the same time, with the same camel hair brush, from the same batch of plant juice. The redbud and apple blossom prints were done side-by side in a contact printing frame. All prints comparisons were exposed for the same time.

As you can see, the differences in some cases are striking! Only the buttercup emulsion was left relatively unchanged between watercolor and bristol papers. The apple blossom was changed marginally. The rest had a very distinct color shift between papers. The most dramatic change occurred with eastern redbud, which ranged from lavender to pink to green!

Apple blossom (malus sp.)

Red azalea (rhododendron 'Christina Marie' (Girard)

Buttercup (ranunculus acris)

Coral bells (heuchera sanguinea)

Purple pansy (viola wittrockiana)

Test 1 with eastern redbud (cercis canadensis)

Test 2 with eastern redbud (cercis canadensis)

Common blue violet (viola sororia)

American wisteria (wisteria frutescens)

Heather Siple from Delaware, USA loves to experiment with cameras and lenses and is practicing peephole photography. She also experiments with anthotypes.

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North American photographers – East & East Coast
From: Florida, USA.
Shows: Cyanotypes, Pinholes, Liquid emulsions, Vandyke browns, Gum over vandyke brown.

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North American photographers – East & East Coast
From: Staten Island, New York, USA.
Shows: Kirlian process.

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North American photographers – West & West Coast
From: San Francisco, USA.
Shows: Cyanotypes, Kallitypes, Photopolymer gravures, Vandyke browns, Vandykes over cyanotype and Wet plate collodions.

Open to Interpretation is now calling on photographers to submit images for consideration in a juried book competition.

Project Details
Open to Interpretation is a collaborative book project bringing together photographers, poets and writers. Each book begins with a themed call for photos. The chosen photos become the literary inspiration for the writers’ submissions. A book is created that matches each winning photo with two stories or poems that offer different interpretations of the image. The unique collaboration adds new dimensions to both the photos and the written word.

Theme: Fading Light
Judge: George Slade, Principal at re: photographica
Submission Fee: $40 for 5 images, $10 each additional
Extended Deadline for Submission: June 26, 2012

Awards
$1000 Cover Image
$500 Judge’s Selection Award

Judge
George Slade has provided fine photographic artists and their audiences with insightful interpretation and curatorial expertise in exhibitions, classes, writings, lectures, and face-to-face exchanges for over 25 years. Formerly the artistic director of Minnesota Center for Photography, the director of the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Photographers Program, and recently the curator at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston, George is a veteran presence at portfolio review events like Fotofest, Photolucida, Critical Mass, PhotoNOLA, and the Society for Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. In the last three years he juried regional and national exhibitions for the Coalition of Photographic Arts (Milwaukee), New Directions 2009 at the Wallspace Gallery (Seattle), the 2011 Clarence John Laughlin Award at the New Orleans Photographic Alliance, the New England Photography Biennial at the Danforth Museum of Art (Framingham, MA), and IRevelar at the Naomi Silva Gallery in Atlanta. George received a 2007 award from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program; his writings and reviews appear extensively in print and online; some may be found at his web site, re:photographica. He lives in Minneapolis with his partner Stephanie and their children.

Entries are submitted online at http://www.open2interpretation.com/submit_fading_light.html

Open to Interpretation
Juried Book Competition of Photography, Poetry and Prose
www.open2interpretation.com
651-312-0113

We will explore adding images at different stages, at the beginning or during the process of adding layers of wax. This course will cover paper use and selection, mounting techniques and materials, encaustic pouring and painting techniques, glazing, scraping, image transfers, stenciling, imbedding objects, and adding texture and color to the encaustic process.

Instructor: Clare O’Neill (www.clareoneill.com)

Friday May 18, 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Saturday May 19, 10am – 5pm

Sunday May 20, 10am – 5pm

Cost: $285 (includes $35 material fee)

Class Size: Limited to 4

Studio: 711 Lake Street, Minneapolis

Call 651-312-0113 to register

Elizabeth Graves on the alt. proc. label on art – loathing it or loving it?

As I surf the web, I am sometimes surprised by the loathing some people have for any “alt process” label. I understand that they want all photography to be considered Photography with a capital P, with all of the amazing options we now have available treated with equal respect.

There is a catch with this hope: over the history of photography, it is difficult to find a period when all processes have ever been considered equal.

We’ve read about the historical rivalries between processes, of patent races to be the first, or the best, at capturing light, and of how one process fell out of favor and another rose to replace, repeatedly. As each process came along, the aesthetics of that process became the norm, until the process was replaced by a new norm. People adjusted their expectations to fit the newest standard, and learned to view anything else as odd. This trend has continued into the present. In the curator’s opening remarks to a speech by Stephen Shore as SFMoMA (link), the curator remarked that Shore was not taken seriously in the 1970s because he worked with large format color film at a time when color photography wasn’t considered “art.” She goes on to observe that now, it’s difficult to work in black and white.

Why? You know why. We live in a winner-take-all era, where there is one “default” standard for all things. Digital color is the default standard, and you need to have a justification for NOT using it. Sometimes, you need this justification in writing: a major international photography portfolio competition asks a question about the appropriateness of technical choices in their entry guidelines this way: “For example, is there a clear reason for using sepia-toned black and white versus a digitally enhanced palette?” Perhaps they don’t mean it that way, but… To some extent, I think they DO mean it that way. Why AREN’T you using digital color? You need a reason not to!

You understand that some subjects look especially good in certain processes, that monochrome is best to bring out the details and textures in certain subjects, while color (realistic or not) brings out other characteristics of a subject. But if you ask your non-photographer friends, you may hear the ‘only the newest’ mindset. One friend told me that he simply doesn’t “get” black and white. He sees in color, and almost all photos now are in color – in ads, on the Internet, in the newspaper, on his phone. Why would I want to make pictures that lack something that “all” other photos have?

Meanwhile, people who share his view are running art competitions. I entered some cyanotypes into a juried art competition with no past history, which was open to “all” subjects and processes. The winning entries were all color fashion photos of young women – no black and white images made it into the finalists. Actually, nothing was chosen that didn’t look like advertising, which is where visual norms are often established in contemporary cultures.

Whether we embrace them or not, THERE ARE CONVENTIONS. While some photographers are reluctant to use the “alt” label for fear it puts us into a box with “quaint” nailed on it in large, hand-carved, wooden letters, we must realize that some art jurors and members of the public view these processes as a completely different mode of representation. This is worth acknowledging. No matter how completely contemporary our work, subjects, and styles may be, the look of alternative process prints can defy conventional expectations.

I believe that standing apart from the color digital ocean can be a useful thing. It can be a niche for us to exploit, and may paint us as serious enthusiasts who are literally willing to get our hands dirty to produce something of interest. It allows us to compete for attention on the basis of standing out from the crowd, appearing “new” and experimental, even while embracing old technologies. It can even make us more fun to chat up at at parties!

Someday soon, you may find an all-cyanotype-print catalog of cheaply made, overpriced clothes modeled by underweight teens in your mailbox; celebrities may begin sitting for collodion portraits taken by hip, newly-minted photography MFAs, and those images may wind up on the cover of gossip rags; and gum prints of artisan bars of soap or garish cupcakes may become a fashionable interior decorator accessory for every room in the house in design magazines. All of the people who have desperately longed for mainstream acceptance may rejoice, as the aesthetics of our favorite processes become familiar to the mainstream. Our relatives will finally recognize our processes!

For now, however, I don’t mind practicing an honorable, niche style of photography. I’m happy that my alt processes prints are never mistaken for advertising, or for someone else’s work. I’m proud to be “alt.”.