I continued my daily darkroom work today with a 6 or 7 hour session. My main work of the night was printing and experimenting with this neg from the "Families of the Dump" series. I ended up making 8 different 11x14 fibre prints mostly I played with slight contrast and exposure adjustments. It is surprising how the entire mood of an image can change with even a small contrast or exposure shift. There are an infinite amount of feels you can give a print. Working as I do now with no deadlines or printing pressures of any kind has opened doors of creativity for me. I am just doing this for myself, I can let go and be free and go whatever direction I want to for how ever long I want to.
Some history about this photo. I made the pic early in the morning at the dump before these two boys had woken up. They were part of a new group of dump worker-refugees, this group had not been in the dump in May during my first visit. The only shelters these new families had were very basic lean-twos. When I arrived that morning around 7am these 2 kids were sleeping maybe 8 meters from the active dump where people were already working, they're were flies everywhere and their lean-two was surrounded by debris. I remember thinking they looked so vulnerable, so helpless, so lost. This photograph is another possible final cut selection if I eventually show the work. I have a slightly wider angle neg version of this subject I might work on tomorrow.
I feel guilty I cannot get a show to tell these stories, its like I am letting all the people that allowed me the privilege of photographing them down. I need to work harder to find a show, somewhere some how. It is important that the families in the photographs have a voice, they must be allowed to speak.
Printing steps for version 8 of this neg:
- Basic exposure 33 seconds (also tried 30 and 35), filter 2 1/2, f 5.6
- Dodge head of front boy 8 seconds, back boy 12 seconds.
- Burn with card top edge 50 seconds, left edge 20 seconds, bottom 30 seconds.
- Burn with mask #1, 40 seconds at filter -1
Not that difficult a print to make, it was a fun rewarding night in the darkroom. Now its off to bed I want to put in at least another 6 hours tomorrow, hopefully more.
Some history about this photo. I made the pic early in the morning at the dump before these two boys had woken up. They were part of a new group of dump worker-refugees, this group had not been in the dump in May during my first visit. The only shelters these new families had were very basic lean-twos. When I arrived that morning around 7am these 2 kids were sleeping maybe 8 meters from the active dump where people were already working, they're were flies everywhere and their lean-two was surrounded by debris. I remember thinking they looked so vulnerable, so helpless, so lost. This photograph is another possible final cut selection if I eventually show the work. I have a slightly wider angle neg version of this subject I might work on tomorrow.
I feel guilty I cannot get a show to tell these stories, its like I am letting all the people that allowed me the privilege of photographing them down. I need to work harder to find a show, somewhere some how. It is important that the families in the photographs have a voice, they must be allowed to speak.
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| Version 8, moved up to grade 2 1/2 and dodged left side an extra 10 seconds. |
- Basic exposure 33 seconds (also tried 30 and 35), filter 2 1/2, f 5.6
- Dodge head of front boy 8 seconds, back boy 12 seconds.
- Burn with card top edge 50 seconds, left edge 20 seconds, bottom 30 seconds.
- Burn with mask #1, 40 seconds at filter -1
Not that difficult a print to make, it was a fun rewarding night in the darkroom. Now its off to bed I want to put in at least another 6 hours tomorrow, hopefully more.
