Portraits of a Pandemic - Jarrah

The paper I use for my negatives - Ilford MGIV RC pearl - has just gone out of production (of course!) so I need to test some of the others available to see which will give me comparable results. Jarrah helped me out and we tested an alternative brand (Arista VC and also a couple of older papers which I’d tested in my darkroom earlier and discovered to be slightly fogged. I don’t really like the idea of using fogged or expired papers as it’s bringing in a variable that I can’t control or rely on in my work, but I thought it would be interesting to see what they did.

The Arista was fairly equal to my usual Ilford, so that was a relief. It may need slight testing and tweaking but there were no major problems with it. I do want to test Foma and Kentmere though and compare those as well. I’m assuming the Arista and Foma will be about the same as I think they may even be roughly the same product, but I think Kentmere may be the wild horse of the bunch.

One of the fogged papers was Ilford Portfolio RC, and that proved not to be a great success. That one may just go for lumens. The other fogged paper was Ilford MGIV glossy and I was really impressed. The image I chose of Jarrah was actually one of the fogged glossy paper ones! I didn’t have to preflash it, which I normally do to help tame contrast a little and boost ISO, as the fog did that for me. It gave some interesting artifacts too. My one thought is that as it’s a big box, the paper may not be as fogged further in, but I won’t know until I shoot. Variables! I don’t like them!

Jarrah, from the series Portraits of a Pandemic, 2021. 8x10 paper negative.

Portraits of a Pandemic

Tried something new for the series with Wendy and Pete. I wanted to experiment with also having couples in the series. I need to do a few more before deciding whether they’ll be appropriate to the series or not - I’m thinking it will be more to do with what the research shows once I start the historical side of things. good to have them though. And it’s their 13th wedding anniversary in a few days so I was so excited to be able to do this for them - a fitting reminder of their 13th year!

Portraits of a Pandemic

As a photographer who gets a large portion of my inspiration from history, the parallels of the Covid-19 pandemic with that of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 are striking. For this new series, I’m researching the history of the 1919 wave of the pandemic in Australia, with the intention of connecting portraits of today with victims from the past.

I am using an 8x10 camera with an old brass lens from around 1905 to replicate the appearance of images from this era, and to provide additional connection to the time. Paper negative as film is giving me the appearance of old, found portraits, providing a disconnect to the modern period. With this technique and the method of both exposure and development I am using, every image is unique and unpredictable. I’m aiming to do as many as possible in the time in which we’re still vulnerable and wearing masks for protection.

Lumen collaboration project

Lumens are an alternative process I’ve been researching and experimenting with in depth for my MA. They’re easy to play with, but once you have the basics down there’’s so much more to them. I did not even think I’d be so much in love with the process. They have me fascinated.

Read about our 2020 isolation group project here: https://www.35mmc.com/24/05/2020/lockdown-lumen-artists-around-the-world-printing-with-sunlight/

Calendula Officinalis "If a girl touches the petals of a marigold with her bare feet, she will understand the language of birds" Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs

Calendula Officinalis

"If a girl touches the petals of a marigold with her bare feet, she will understand the language of birds"
Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs

ZeroImage 2000 first test

I recently bought a Zero 2000 Deluxe 6x6 pinhole camera from Zero Image - a pinhole camera craftsman in Hong Kong. It comes boxed and numbered with a hand-signed card, all adding to create a feeling of receiving something very special. The wood itself is warm and looks very inviting.

I shot a test roll of Arista 200 around the farm as I tend to do for testing. There's never a lack of things to photograph there. I use an iPhone app called Pinhole Assist to get my readings, as it matches up known cameras and films, and also takes into account reciprocity, which with Arista films is quite significant.

Development was done in Caffenol CH. My negatives came out with streaks all over them, seems like I possibly hadn't quite dissolved my coffee completely in the final stage. I don't mind it on these, but it's not a mistake I want to make without intending to, and I would have preferred a clean test roll to really see what the camera is doing, but these things happen even when you've been shooting and developing film for years. It's easy to get a bit too complacent so I've learnt my lesson (I hope!). But I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. SO much that I also treated myself to his bigger brother; the 6x7 multiformat. That's next to test!

View Camera Magazine Interview

I'm so honoured to have been asked to write an article about my work for View Camera Magazine - a great resource for anyone fascinated by large format photography. It feels extremely special in that I'm only the second female large format photographer to have been featured so far, we're a fairly unique breed but we're out there! Go check it out and leave some comments!

It's me! Self-portrait in mirror with 4x5 camera on paper negative