Sunday Morning in Ipoh

Photography Field Trip to Ipoh

Teaching at an international school is a wonderful experience for variety of reasons not the least of which is the great sense of community. Recently, in a desire to provide my photography students with a new experience, I offered an early Sunday morning field trip to parents and students to go photograph the old part of Ipoh, here in Malaysia. It is about a 200 km drive from ISKL to the old quarter of Ipoh. We left school before 6 AM, and arrived at our destination while the light was still excellent. For the next hour and a half 22 of us wandered the streets looking for photographic opportunities. Many of the buildings are quite old, having been built nearly a century earlier. There are also many noodle shops, dim sum restaurants, and a variety of small markets. We ended up at one of the most famous dim sum restaurants, "Foh San", on Leong Sin Nam Road. For a wonderful blog about the top 10 dim sum restaurants in Ipoh, follow this link:

http://www.j2kfm.com/ipoh-famous-dim-sum-outlets/

On this trip I chose to shoot with a Mamiya C33 twin lens reflex camera. The camera takes 120 film, and with it you can get 12 images on a roll of film. This particular camera does not have a built-in light meter, so I used a program on my iPhone 5 called "pocket light meter". This great little application uses the meter in your phone camera to emulate a traditional handheld light meter. Even better, it will take a photograph of what you are metering and save it to your camera roll with all of the metering data attached in a sidebar. It's a little strange to use such a modern piece of technology to help make such an older piece of technology work well, but it really is a great effective use of software. There is a free version of this application, and a couple in-app opportunities to spend a little more to get rid of ads or donate to the developer. Here's a link with information about the app and a link to where the app can be downloaded from the app store:

http://www.pocketlightmeter.com

Now back to the photos of Ipoh. You can see from my contact print that I was a little bit torn between photographing architecture and photographing culture. In the end the culture won out, and I printed three images of individuals either getting ready to open their shops or preparing food. These small cafés, which often spill out onto the sidewalks, are some of the best reasons to visit southeast Asia. Sure, the food is wonderful, but these buildings and the surroundings, and the way the cooking stations and the tables are arranged are an endless source of fascination. There is a patina to everything that indicates decades of patronage. These places have history! I don't necessarily know what the specific histories are for these places, but I know that it comes through in the photographs. The food at Foh San Dim Som is really great, but a few years ago the owners either tore down the old restaurant, or relocated to a modern two-level facility. They can seat a lot of people both upstairs and down, and they're always crowded, but it doesn't have that same sense of history. Most of the places are small, and with a group of three or four you can easily find a table, but with our group of 22, we really needed the larger establishment.


Images created with the twin lens reflex camera also have the look of a certain era in photography. The square format with all of its edge detail unique to each camera, the slight amount of guesswork needed because of parallax (the difference in view through the top lens and photographing through the bottom), all place the images within a certain timeframe in the development of photography. Modern digital tools try to emulate that look and feel, but creating it with film and film cameras is quite special. For this series of three images I chose to print on Ilford multigrade portfolio paper with a pearl finish. For a non-fiber base paper it has remarkable depth of tone and is able to render shadow and highlight details with good separation.

I would classify these photos as "street photography", and my goal was to capture natural, normal looking  "people scapes". This is a term several critics have used to describe my street photography. The idea is that the picture represents an entire scene not just a portrait or close-up. When Ansel Adams took his large 8 x 10 view camera off into the wilderness to photograph the great landscapes of nature, those were not intimate portraits of nature, a grandiose and majestic views. In some small way I hope that my landscapes of the urban environment show a majestic pride among the common and evoke the sentiment of composer Aaron Copeland's "fanfare for the common man." I want the viewer to find beauty in the everyday common experiences of the people around them, and I hope by photographing these scenes to separated them from the mundane and elevate them to visually uniqueness. When we take the time to notice the patterns built up around the normal work lives of regular people, those patterns sometimes contain beauty. Years of thought about efficiency and convenience make things the way they are, and the casual glance can never reveal what a single photograph captures for later study. Sometimes I almost feel desperate to capture the moment before it is lost! What a silly sentiment since all moments are lost except the few that we capture in the still frame. Yet even those are an interpretation. Once many years ago, in a conversation with late fashion photographer, Richard Avedon, he reminded me, "every one of your photos is a self-portrait". So these urban people-scapes are a portrait of me because I value their unique mix of complexity and simplicity, and I hope to dignify them through my choice to preserve their lives on film.

Film Processing

Processing black-and-white film: 

A New Method for Traditional Results

This text is an outline of what my photography students do in my classes, and is an excerpt from my book "Photo 1", an iPad textbook available on iTunes at this link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/photo-1/id510252720?mt=11

• Pre-Soak 1-3 min.

The steps are pretty simple and the chemicals are easy-to-use as long as you follow the instructions. The first thing you need to do is turn on the water and let it run for a minute so that the temperature isn't too hot or cold. Then fill up the film tank, agitate, and let it sit for the next minute or two while you mix the developer. The standard temperature to use is 20C or 68F for all your chemicals.

• Film Developer - 20-40 min.: (Mix 1:2 - one part developer to two parts water and use once. Discard after use). Agitate briefly about every five minutes.

Getting consistent results is important, so I like to use a weaker dilution of developer and only use it once and discard the mixed solution. In the past, people would sometimes use developer without mixing it with water, and use it many times. This would cause the developer to get weaker over time with somewhat unpredictable results. I prefer to use developer mixed one part developer to two parts water. This weaker dilution allows for a slower more compensated development. (I will explain compensation development in a moment.) Thus, the weaker developer can be used one time and discarded. Every time you develop film you can use developer of exactly the same dilution and consequently, the same development strength. This consistency allows for more predictable results.

Now about compensation development: When I was in high school I used to go down to the Anchorage daily news in Anchorage, Alaska, and work with the chief photographer. I was a high school student with time on Saturdays and holidays, and chief photographer was generous enough to take me under his wing. We would go out for the day and take pictures, but when we returned to the newsroom there was always a whirlwind of activity. We had to process our film quickly. We used strong developer and short times to get the film processed, dry, and proofed in about 45 min. Then we would rush out to the editor with the contact prints for him to quickly make a selection of images to be printed for tomorrow's newspaper. Time was always of the essence. Quality imaging was second to information. These photos were for tomorrow's paper and then on to the recycle bin…

At the same time, photographers like Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Irving Penn, Minor White and others were more interested in fine arts photography. They were shooting with sheet film and using protracted processing methods to ensure maximum tonal quality. They would use tray development to allow the negatives to soak without agitation in a tray of water after a brief time in a tray developer. This soak time would allow the negative’s shadows to catch up with the highlights. Thus the term “compensation development.”

So,while not strictly compensation development, I started to realize that excellent results could happen with roll film if I just agitated less and let the film tank sit for long periods of time. Instead of processing the film for 8 to 12 min. I change my development time to 20 or 30 min. Agitation would happen every 5 min., but I wasn't too strict about it. The results for my students were amazing. The negatives were richer, easier to print, and possessed beautiful tonal quality. This is why the instructions I give for processing film do not follow those norm usually found in textbooks.

• Stop Bath - 1 Min.: (Do not mix, but use straight from the bottle. Do not throw it away. Save it to the original bottle when finished)

After the film developer you can throw away the developer and filled the tank with stop bath. This is a simple acidic acid solution which is very dilute. However, it is still strong enough to burn off any of the developer still in contact with the film. Development is thus “stopped”. A little agitation and at least 30 seconds in the solution will be enough for the stop bath to be effective. Stop bath often contains an indicator which means it will change color when it is no longer effective. Because of this, save the stop bath in its original bottle and do not pour it out. It can be used for quite a long time.

• Fixing - 5 min.: (do not mix, but use straight from the bottle. Do not throw away. Return it to it's original bottle when you're finished) 

Fixer is a stronger chemical, but it is still dilute. The purpose of the fixer is to wash the film with an acid bath that both cleans off any unused silver from the emulsion while at the same time chemically etching the used silver into the plastic base. When you are finished with the fixer you can see your image on the film. It is finished, but you have to remove all of the acid from the film to preserve the negatives. I have a chemical called hypo check which allows me to put a drop into the bottle of fixer to see if it's still good or not. If the fixture is used up a precipitant will form and the fixer is no longer effective. Because of this, please do not throw away the fixer, but save it in the original bottle when you are done.

After the fixer, the film is light safe and the lid may be taken off the tank. You should rinse the film briefly before moving onto the next chemical. This will get rid of most of the fixer residue and allow the final chemical, hypo clear, to do it's job better.

• Hypo clear - 2 min.: (use this chemical straight from the bottle without dilution. Return to the second hypo clear bottle when you're finished.)

Hypo clear chemically neutralizes the acid in contact with the film. This is really important, because without it you can rinse for a long time and still not have perfectly clean film. With hypo clear you can move on the your final rinse and wash your film for about 5 min. and be confident that it is clean and acid-free and ready to dry.

After the hypo clear the film needs to be rinsed for 5 min. in running water. This can be under a tap in the original film tank, or you can remove the film reels from the tank and put them in a film washer. After the final rinse the film is ready to hang up and try. If there are a lot of minerals in your water you can use photo flow to clean the film before you hang it. Photo Flo is a very weak detergent that is mixed with lots of water to create a solution for the film to be dipped in before hanging. Film that has been dipped in the Photo Flo will dry clean and without water spots. Do not rinse your film after Photo Flo, just hang it up and let the water and bubbles drip off…

I have a film drying closet where the film can hang and dry without dust and dirt. If there is a lot of foot traffic around your film, you will need to find a way to isolate it in a closet or covering of some kind so that it can dry without becoming dusty. Anything that comes in contact with the emulsion side of your film while it's drying will become embedded in the emulsion and be there as a permanent flaw. 

It takes about two hours for film to dry. There is a strong temptation to look at your film right away, but just wait for it to dry so it doesn’t get damaged!

Studio Photography

 Studio Photography

When I photograph an individual in the studio, I’m searching for the essence of their character. For me, it is an exploration, a type of visual study of someone. Sure, there are other types of studio shooting. Fashion photographers will create a mood or a feeling and have the model artificially reflect an attitude to help market a product. This is commercial or fashion photography, and is not the type of studio shooting that I do anymore. I am interested in exploring the contours of the face as a window to some truth about an individual. This might be a façade to hide a more personal exploration? Richard Avedon said, “every portrait is a self-portrait.” On the surface it is hard to see how that could be true since a photograph of someone is of that person and not of the photographer. There are many assumptions that go into the interpretation of what photographs mean and how much legitimacy and photograph might have for a viewer. In this sense, a series of images of someone might tell a story all together one way, while an individual image selected from a series would tell a different story. 

A photographer will select an image that represents the best of many images from a photo session. That image will show the photographer’s perception of the best image. In that sense it is a portrait of the photographer’s perception. This is not what the world see s when looking at a photo. The average viewer sees the person in the photograph as expressing particular, visually obvious qualities, and easily defines those as a truth about that person. The image has photographic reality and is often simply accepted on face value as real.

Whether or not a selected image is a truthful portrayal of someone can be debated, but my sense of it is that the image displays “a truth”, and not “the truth”. People are way too complex for us to think that a single image could define them. However, this does not address the statement by Richard Avedon about every portrait being a self-portrait. To approach that issue we must think about the more striking concept that a series of portraits of a variety of people over many years might show us something about the photographer! Henri Cartier-Bresson created a body of photographic work over his lifetime. It shows us that he had a deep sense of humanity and compassion about his subjects. While he is will known as was one of the founders of the photo agency, Magnum, which has a reputation for hard edge war photographers, his work seemed to always search out the beautiful, the positive, and the humane. Thus, over time, we have a portrait of the photographer through the character of his images. Perhaps in this sense, “every portrait is a self-portrait

The Jungle Home

The Jungle Home by the Cliff

Photographing with the 8x10 view camera is an entirely unique photographic experience. Now that digital has taken over the practical side of photo reportage the use of large format film cameras is almost exclusively an artistic decision. 30 years ago I would have been asked by a client to use the 8x10 view camera to photograph food, architecture, automobiles, or some other such subject that would require extraordinary definition and quality. As recently as 10 years ago the 8x10 view camera was a standard piece of equipment in high-end advertising studios.

On the other side of photography, the art side, the 8x10 has been the standard tool of landscape photographers from the beginning. Photographers such as Frederick Evans, George Tice, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston used the 8x10 for everything from still life photography to landscape and architecture. Brett Weston, Ed Weston’s son, used the 8x10 view camera for an amazing series of abstract landscapes.

My choice to use the 8 x 10 view camera is multifaceted. Ever since I was 17 years old I have been enamored with this format. My first 8x10 camera was a gray, Burke & James studio view, with a 165mm Wallensack lens. It had little coating and dated from just before World War II. My first subjects were still life objects, broad landscapes and clouds. 

Sure, the large format renders a high-resolution negative, but good digital images have excellent resolution as well. There is a character to the large negative, a way that it records light differently from other recording formats. Also, it is a tactile experience setting up the large camera, selecting the rise and tilt, and adjusting the camera movements for maximum depth of field takes a lot of manipulation.

Large negatives, processed and preserved correctly, are an extraordinary record with good longevity. These negatives render excellent images using alternative processes such as Cyanotypes, Kalitypes and Platinum prints. These alternative printing methods are beautiful and have a timeless quality unlikely to be usurped by digital tools. 

As the years have gone by I started to realize that my negatives also have historical significance. When I moved to Malaysia seven years ago I photographed several shop houses which now have been torn down for modernization. Back in the late 1970s I worked as an assistant for a large commercial studio in Dallas. Early on Sunday mornings I would take the 8x10 camera out to photograph old industry, trains, and warehouses. Much of what I photographed back then is gone, or renovated. I would like to think that the images have artistic merit, but for sure, they have historical significance.

As I set out last weekend for a drive through the middle of Malaysia up the backside of Cameron Highlands to make a big loop down through Ipoh and back to Kuala Lumpur, history, beauty, light and opportunity were at the forefront of my thought. Not everything looks good on film, and the light has to be right. As John Sexton always says, “light is the only subject”.

The photo of the jungle home with two motorcycles in front and a cliff in the back was a 15 second exposure at F64. Waiting for the light. Waiting for the wind. Something beyond a decisive moment.