19th century photo processes

1./2. Salt Prints
3. Collodion Print
4. Carbon Print
Salt Print: is a positive printing process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot.
Process: the negative is placed on a sheet of paper, that has been previously soaking in salt water and coated in silver nitrate. After, the negative and contact paper are exposed to sun, or put in the Nova Exposure Unit (in our case). The print is then fixed in hypoclear, then washed and dried.
Notes: 1) the image is embedded into the fibers of the paper, giving it a matte look.
2) The image can range in colors of brown.

Carbon Prints: the negative is printed onto tissue containing carbon and other gelatin-based pigments. The gelatin is made light sensitive by a bath of potassium bichromate, before the negative is exposed to the tissue. After washing the tissue, the image is transferred to a paper base and the backside of the tissue is striped off. This process was patented by Joseph Wilson Swan.
Notes: 1) prints can have a wide tonal range.

Collodion Prints: Sticky nitrocelluluse emulsion collodion (?) is mixed with silver chloride and coated on paper, giving the surface a variety of different effects such as matte, glossy, or semi-glossy, similar to an albumen print. The beauty of collodion prints lies within the sharpness of the white of the image, that the albumen print lacks.
Note: I will probably not attempt this, as it makes no sense to me.

utopia: final project

My final, utopia project is an extension of my persona project, and part of an even larger exploration that I hope to continue developing for a while. As I stated before, other people have always questioned my ethnicity. Having gone to a small, sheltered private middle and high school, I was one of four students of color in my grade. When my fellow classmates “learned” this fact, they ridiculed me until graduation. Having blonde hair, and light skin, and looking virtually 100% white, made it impossible for people to take my background seriously.
Growing up with a black father and a white mother was something I took pride in. When I grew up and realized that they way I perceived myself and the way I looked were staunchly different, I became introverted and shy about my skin color. There have been countless occurrences when people have told me what I can and cannot say in regards to my background. “You’re not really black,” has been the most common response.
No matter how progressive we might think we are, the tendency to judge people at face value, through race, gender, dress, etc.. is ever-present. For me, utopia is a place where this need to fit people into categories doesn’t exist. A place where the marriage of the way I look, and they way I perceive myself can co-exist, instead of compete.

persona

For the majority of my life, people have questioned my ethnicity. They usually guess Russian, or maybe Icelandic, but never black. When I tell them that my Mom is white and my Dad is black, the response is usually laughter. My ethnicity has been a joke.
Having gone to a small, somewhat sheltered private middle and high school, I was considered one of four students of color in my grade. This was comical to the majority of my student body. In high school the last thing I wanted was for people to think that I was the white girl who thought she was black. But now that I've gotten at least a little bit older, I have begun to care less about how people perceive me. But the insecurity and awkwardness that I feel around the way I am perceived still bothers me.
For the persona project I chose to dress as a black male and a Swedish milkmaid, magnifying the stereotypes of each role. The scene of me as a black male was shot on a basketball court, whereas the scene as the Swedish milkmaid is set in a field just north of Oberlin.
I definitely did not convey exactly what I wanted to in this project, but this subject is something that I will continue to pursue throughout many projects, and spanning many years. I like to think of this as a beginning to a larger body of work that will help me to explore the concepts of stereotypes, identity and bi-raciality.

Malerie Marder

20 images from other blogs

three blogs i like

http://alcoberlinphoto.blogspot.com/
Allison Chomet

http://enlaselvaconlapatasola.blogspot.com/
Joanna Percher

http://tkfung.blogspot.com/
Tiffany Fung

The Ohio Project: emulation project, Nancy Rexroth

Nancy Rexroth is best known for her series entitled “Iowa in Ohio,” in 1976. Rexroth shot this series using a Diana camera, which was a plastic camera made in the 1960’s. Rexroth attempts to convey rural “mid-western life” in both Iowa, the place she grew up, and in Ohio, the place where she now lives. Additionally, each photograph measures approximately 4” x 4.”
The combination of the vintage, low-tech style of the photographs, and their actual size, gives this series an intimate and imaginary feel. Rexroth’s choice to use a Diana camera was precisely for this point. Rexroth shot this series in this particular style in order to capture the imaginary dimension of remembering one’s childhood memories.
Although I did not use a Diana camera to shoot these photographs, instead I used a piece of women’s pantyhose to cover the enlarger lens. This helped to give my images a blurred, and hopefully imaginary look.
Photographs have always acted as a means for remembering old memories. My goal was to create images that not only emulated the work of Nancy Rexroth, but also took on a feeling of nostalgia. I wanted my images to look as though they could be found in an old box in someone’s attic that had been stored there for years.