Hannah Arrigoni: Midterm Review

Hand Painted Van Dyke Brown 

For this midway review I was curious to try bringing color back into my work. I was inspired by some of the pieces in Terri's portfolio that were hand colored with oil pastel & watercolor. I myself love color and have felt that something has been missing when working in black and white. The thought of being able to add color to one of these processes was very intriguing. I chose to color the Van Dyke Browns because I like the light brown base color contrasted with the brighter water colors. I took a few digital files and printed them out as digital negatives to then create the VDB prints. Once they dried I took my watercolors to them to add in some color. I quite like the results and definitely want to explore this more. 

Shae Detar is an artist whose work I find very beautiful. She also hand colors her work but directly on her photographs. She creates whimsical scenes and her use of color is fantastical. I am trying to discover a way to make my application of color more unique to the prints. I think exploring different negatives will help with this. 

Hannah Arrigoni: Pinholes & Cyanotypes

'mini can cam' photographs

plans for the 'milk carton cam'

the 'milk carton cam'

3 images made from the 'milk carton cam'

-each exposure took 12 minutes 

cyanotype I

cyanotype II

I was very interested in the pin hole cameras because the idea of taking a photo with a can or a milk carton was mind-blowing. The only downfall to the pin holes that became quite frustrating was the long exposure time and also the quality of detail. Since the paper had to be pre loaded in the respective pin hole camera, the size of the print was the size of the camera. 

Cyanotypes were beautiful and great at capturing detail but coating the paper evenly to get a solid background of blue seemed to be harder then I thought. These two cyanotype images are cropped in which I think looked much better because the edges were messy and 'painterly'. I prefer the even coated paper result over the gestural strokes. 

Stephen Milner

MIDTERM / FINAL PROJECT PROGRESS

RIP GOLDFISH // THE BEST MODELS 

PINHOLE FISHTANK

 6 DEAD GOLDIES RIP

 SNAKE SKIN STUDIES #1

 #2

Working Portfolio- Delta Starchild

Pinhole Can-Cam Selfies

The Selfie cam as I lovingly nick-named this project, felt very silly at first, but it was a good way to be introduced to alternative practices in photography. My greatest challenge in this course has been having expectations of what I am creating, the can-cam has so little that can be controlled involved in its creation that it functions to challenge my pre-existing views of what a photograph is.

Top Hat Pinhole Camera

I found the process of turning the top hat into a pinhole camera to be relatively simple. It was already a contained non-reflective interior. All I needed to do to make the top hat light tight was to create an internal light cap. Which I did by making a strip of card stock into a cylinder and covering that with black plastic, so that it sits on my head like another little hat. The challenges of this camera were finding the right exposure time, and the fact that the images can only be about 3 inches tall. Thus it creates photo strips. I am interested in the hat as a means of seeing through someone else's eyes. In exploring this camera I will be bringing it to statues and taking pictures from the tops of their heads.

Cyanotype Photograms

I am very intrigued by how the cyanotype process captures refracted light through beads and crystals. I feel that any work I do in cyanotype has to be about the exploration of light, composition and the process itself, rather than trying to explore conceptually social or political subjects. I think I have a fear of making things that are just interesting to look at, but don't have a larger meaning behind them. I think this has to do with my theatrical design training. Every tiny detail in a theatrical production is planned and has meaning. 

Midterm Progress

I am very interested in the Vandyke brown process. Particularly how it captures the dimensionality of lace and sheer fabrics. I am also finding myself drawn to printing in long strips so that images can only be partially seen. My original intention with this printing style was to print a lot more of these on paper- back and front and make a hanging mobile using self portraiture in digital negatives. In my midterm review people were interested in the materiality of the lace, and how I could make it an all encompassing experience. I am going to experiment with silk to create an image that can be interacted with through both touch and sight. I still want to work with self portraiture. Someone brought up how the images were ghostly and had a vintage feel, this is something I am thinking about as I move forward conceptually. However I think it has interesting connotations, with exploring ideas of depression and emotional pain, as well as materiality.

First set of progress

For this first part of learning pinhole cameras I was so fascinated and excited. I used an Arizona Tea can. At first my can was not light or that is what I thought. I fixed that but due to the time it took fixing that this self portrait is what I got from it. 

This exposure was taken in I believe 2 to 4 seconds.

The second pinhole I decided to make was dealing with my most recent focus, sleep. I was trying to think of how to show this in a camera. And the first idea that came to mind was a teddy bear, but when I went to find one I instead for this bunny. The bunny applies to my growing up and my mom calling us the bunny family.

 This was taken before I took his belly apart.

This is him with the pinhole camera in his belly.

These go in order from first to last. 

The first photo I took was out in the courtyard of Millrace. The exposure was 4 seconds. And if you look close that is my face in the bottom left hand corner.

The second exposure was also 4 seconds. This was taken in my ASL class room in HeadCo. When taking this I was not focused on the need to change of exposure time. I should have at the very least doubled it.

And the last exposure is that of my bed room, again at 4 seconds. I think I was so excited to have this new form of taking photos that I personally made so I was not focused on the technical parts of the process. 

    

   Cyanotype printing

These two were my first two prints. All of the prints I made at first were done in the UV light box. These were exposed for 12 minutes. I chose two different themes. The first containing things from my backpack and the second I was trying to create a galaxy scene. The other two photos were also exposed at 12 minutes. I wanted to see if any of the film I had would turn out and it did but different then I thought it would.

       

       

Alt. Process Work : Spring 2016 : Diana C Patin

First work13 April 2016

Yerba Maté "can cam" with Paper Negative Self-Portrait

Mailbox Pinhole Camera with first Paper Negatives

Cyanotypes experimenting with application of emulsion/plant matter

Of all three of these processes and images, I'm definitely the most interested in cyanotypes. The can camera was a great way to understand the mechanics of photography better--and a really fun exercise, but I'm impatient and the amount of trial and error with both pinholes frustrates me. What I like about the cyanotype process is the combination of photographic and painterly practices in making the images. Usually I don't love photograms because of the loss of dimensional information. However, in these cyanotypes something else takes over and I'm fascinated by them. Maybe it's the color, maybe it's the paint, I'm not quite sure. I'm also not quite sure I want to put a pin on it, because that so often ruins the magic. Suffice it to say I'm working on a larger project with the cyanotypes now and would love to continue working with this process long-term!

Midterm Cyanotypes

For this body of work I was focusing on documenting a degradation process long-term. These cyanotypes were made every day over a nine day period using the exact same branch. For a long time I've been interested in the ephemerality of nature, and using the process of cyanotype is a clear and effective way for me to make work about it. I like the fact that each print is a little bit different in its coating, because there's a painterly element that comes in, as well as incorporation of my own hand as an artist. Sometimes with conventional photography I take issue in the impersonal nature of making images. So with these, I'm really excited about being present in the coating of these as well as their exposure. They're presented right now in the darkroom with no space between each image and I'm liking the way that looks more than this grid, because then they turn into one giant patterned image. The goal for these is to keep printing them until the branch has no leaves on it at all anymore--or until I no longer have access to the darkroom. (although I do want to do something else for my final)

Alternative Photographic Practices

Midterm Review

Cyanotype

I'm enamored by the painterly and experimental qualities of this process. 

Pinhole

Alternative Proc.-Tanner Mihulke

 

Midterm Reflection

When I got around to  thinking of doing a solid project, I was still experimenting with cyanotype and started messing with the different types of paper, as well as printing cyanotype over an oil based paint. It got me thinking of how I used to doodle and play in my notebook and how awesome it'd be if I unbound a notebook, cyanotype printed on the papers and rewound it. Leading up to the midterm I worked on printing on the delicate notebook paper and seeing what I can do with it. Moving forward, I want to see what I can push on with. I'm thinking of maybe doing some oil based paint on the paper, maybe even crayon to see how cyanotype develops over it, The whole point of a notebook, for me anyway, is to hash out ideas and experiments and now the notebook will be one with in itself.

  Reflection:

 Pinhole

The Cancam gave me trouble at first. I didn't realize how hard it would be to light tight an Arizona can, and I figured I'd have such better luck with he shoebox. Every exposure I took with the cancam outside left the paper overexposed due to the light leak. It took me awhile to figure out what to do, but in the end I spray painted the entire inside of the can and the top of it in black. Somehow that did the trick and I've managed to get exposures. However, because of the weather (and my awesome time management skills), I had to do 16 minute long exposures inside Millrace. 16 minute-long selfies are not easy, I now somewhat know what it was like for people in 1839 to get a portrait done.

The Shoebox has been a lot harder than the cancam. At first I had to get rid of a few light leaks, and when that was done, I had to put tabs inside the shoe box, closer to the pinhole as to get about the same exposure time as the cancan. Once I started getting images to show up on the paper, I noticed the images were about the size of a shot glass. The edges were also a bit jagged. That's when I really looked at the shoebox and noticed the end had four layers of cardboard and was creating a funnel  that cut off the scenes on the sides. I had to try and remove the cardboard, carefully to not penetrate my aperture, and make the hole wider with softer edges so the image would come through more smoothly and would be bigger exposures. I managed to almost double the size of the prints, but it's still not perfect yet and could use more work.

Cyanotypes

I liked experimenting with this process. I think it's a cool way to document quickly, however I enjoyed creating a narrative with what I had at hand. I think it's cool to change this process and use it for other ideas than just documentation. I will explore with this a bit more. For the first project, I experimented with plants, paper cut outs, shot glasses, wine glass, plastic, and a few other objects. I found paper thin objects work best to get the hard edges while thicker objects tend to create blurred lines. I want to keep experimenting with materiality and create more narrative scene's. Another thing to note is to practice applying the chemicals more evenly, or if not evenly, make it look as if done on purpose.


Attached are images of the pinhole cameras with the images they took and the negatives of those images, along with some cyanotype prints.