#FP4Party March 2019

After using the Butcher's Cameo for January's #FP4Party, the Ensign Folding Klito for February, with March being the third and final #FP4Party of 2019, the logical choice had to be the Midg falling plate camera, the last of my three quarterplate-format (8.2x10.8cm) cameras, in order to use the same stock of Ilford FP4 film, of which I had two boxes of 50 sheets with a handwritten date of 16/11/78. I used the same rationale in shooting just two sheets of film each day for the shoot week. As with the previous two months, I rated the film at an exposure index of 50 to compensate for the loss of sensitivity with age, and, again like the last two months, a some of the shots were long exposures on a tripod (or, in one case, simply the floor), and some hand-held. The Midg has a relatively slow f8 Primus Rapid Symmetrical lens, and although its shutter should be adjustable, my camera only appears to fire at one speed on the instant setting, at possibly around 1/100th, making it only suitable to use hand-held in bright weather.

Of all the cameras I've used in the past three months, the Midg has been most troublesome. In my post about the camera itself, I quoted a letter from Miniature Camera Magazine referencing that falling plate cameras would 'jamb' at the critical moment, and I did experience this more than once during the week. On the first day of the shoot week, I did attempt to expose three sheets of film, but the second plateholder jammed, giving a double exposure. One of Tuesday's shots was out of focus due to forgetting to correctly select one of the close-up filters before exposure. Wednesday's two shots were affected by the first not falling cleanly into the bottom of the camera, hence the ghostly shape at the bottom of the frame, which is from the second exposure; the second shot had a shadow of the first plateholder partly obscuring it. Thursday was the only day of the week that I managed to take two shots without any problems, both sheets exposed hand-held with relatively bright sunlight. Friday's shot was made by placing the camera on its back, which meant a lot of dust falling onto the film inside the camera body; a second shot on Friday did not materialise as the sheet of film somehow slipped from its film sheath and I found it loose, unexposed, inside the camera when unloading. Saturday's second shot was very underexposed due to attempting an interior shot with a window handheld on the 'instant' setting. Sunday provided another double exposure, but ignoring my stricture to shoot just two photographs each day, I used up all four sheets of film still inside the Midg at the end of the week, and got the one good shot posted here.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Undertow at Sluice HQ - opening tonight

Heatwave, installation at Sluice HQ

In the exhibition Undertow, at Sluice HQ, London, opening tonight, 6-9pm, I am showing a piece titled Heatwave, comprising a series of twelve photographs, printed on 8x10 Ilford Multigrade RC paper and Kentmere VC Select. The photographs were shot using a Mamiya-16 Automatic, a Canon Cine Zoom 512 on Orwo UP15 double-8 film and a Canon A-1 on 35mm Rollei ATO 2.1 Supergraphic for the texts.

The exhibtion runs until 13th April 2019.

Undertow
Sluice HQ
171 Morning Lane, London E9 6JY

23 March - 13 April 2019
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 12-5pm

See also previous post Undertow at Sluice HQ

'Take Your Box Camera To Work Day' 2019

The 28th of February, this year's Take Your Box Camera To Work Day, although warmer than usual, was more typical of the season than the previous couple of days, with record high temperatures for a February in the UK. There was some fleeting sunshine during the afternoon on the day, but it was mostly overcast; I had chosen to use my Baby Box Tengor (both for its compactness and number of shots on a roll) and, appropriate to the lighting conditions, a single roll of cut-down medium format Ilford HP5 Plus, subsequently developed in RO9 One Shot. I had removed the taped-in yellow filter from behind the lens: the film was fast enough for most of the photographs to be shot on the 'instant' setting, including well-lit interiors (just a couple of frames used the 'B' setting for longer exposures). The results demonstrate some problems with light leaks - the back of the camera does not always sit flush, working itself loose on the opposite side of the body from the catch which is supposed to ensure that the camera back is secure. A couple of frames showed up some issues with film flatness too, which may be related to the back not being secure, but the Baby Box Tengor was a good choice, providing generally good results given all its limitations, with the latitude of HP5 Plus making up for the variability in lighting conditions throughout the day.

Undertow at Sluice HQ

When prevailing discourses tip towards hyperbole, generalisations or simplification, there is a need to swim against the current, to carve out a space that allows for ambiguity, correspondence and a quieter voice. In the employment of few words, a scale of action or use of minimal materials, understatement can be both a way of confronting moments of crisis, or of evading them.

Undertow brings together a group of artists working in dialogue around these concerns. The exhibition at Sluice represents a momentary iteration of the research group’s findings, the public-facing part of an ongoing series of interconnected activities. The group as a structure has developed to create a support network for the artists involved, to initiate conversation, to share knowledge, and to provide context. During the exhibition, the gallery space will be used by the artists as both a forum and as a residency, a means to test ideas and outcomes.

The Undertow research group's remit is open, as is the shape it takes, and the work is rooted in the sensibilities of material and material understanding. What emerges in the work coalesces around language, data, codes, a collapsing of scale, of how a still surface half-reveals, half-conceals subterranean undercurrents.

Alex Simpson

Alison Rees

Lauren Ilsley

Nicholas Middleton

Sarah Wishart

Tana West

Undertow
Sluice HQ
171 Morning Lane, London E9 6JY

23 March - 13 April 2019
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 12-5pm

127 Day January 2019

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

Last month's 127 Day was necessarily curtailed by the fact that I spent it working on a funding application all day. Nevertheless, I did take a number of photographs with the Baby Ikonta, on Ilford HP5 Plus, mostly at home (these circumstances meant a delay in developing, as I wasn't as keen as I might be to see the results). A brief excursion to the corner shop happened just as it was getting dark, still relatively early in the afternoon towards the end of January: one photograph taken outside was made balancing the camera on a bollard for a long exposure; the vertical image below this was handheld and a little underexposed as a result, wanting to avoid camera shake.

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

#FP4Party February 2019

With February being announced as 2019's second #FP4Party, after shooting with the Cameo in January, it felt logical that I should use my other quarterplate-sized folding camera - the Ensign Folding Klito de Luxe No.9. Last month, I had set myself the task of simply photographing with two sheets of forty-year old Ilford FP4 each day during the 'shoot week', and so I did the same for February. The Ensign Folding Klito is a superior camera when compared to the Cameo; the most immediate difference in use is the rack and pinion focus on the Klito, rather easier to finely adjust against the Cameo's spring clamp. The Klito has its original ground glass focus screen with a hood; using the Klito with faster lenses than the Cameo also made accurate focus easier to achieve. Like the Cameo, it has front rise and cross movements, the rise controlled by beautiful circular gearing around the lens and shutter assembly.  Finally, the Ensign Folding Klito also has double extension bellows, allowing for close focus, without the need for a close-up lens attachment, as I used with the Cameo.

Over the first three days of the shoot week, I used the Klito with a 12cm Ica Dominar lens; the original lens is a No.2 Aldis Plano Anastigmat; I had replaced this with the Dominar lens while using the Klito to take night photographs on glass plates, being f4.5 against the f6.8 Plano: having a faster lens makes for a brighter image on the ground glass when composing and focussing, especially advantageous when working at night. However, wanting to use the Klito with this original lens, I reinstated the Aldis Plano, and shot with this for the remainder of the week. The Aldis Plano is a classic triplet design; while cleaning the thread on its retaining ring, I removed the rear element - and realised that it, a positive meniscus, formed an image on its own. The results (Thursday's image, with a diagram of the Plano shot for Friday) are very much as one would expect from a meniscus lens - it would appear that the front elements, a doublet, correct all the classic distortions present in the meniscus; the rear element on its own provides a wider angle - which I hadn't expected.

All the shots on this post were taken with a tripod. As in January, low light was a factor, but as much as the weather, being otherwise busy meant that a number of the shots were taken at home in the evening. Tuesday's photograph was taken on Fulbourne Road in Walthamstow, North London - the site of Houghton's factory - where the Ensign Folding Klito de Luxe No.9 was almost certainly made, a little over a century ago.

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Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

28th of February is 'Take Your Box Camera To Work Day'

A camera-related day that I've often taken part in in the past, Thursday 28th February is 'Take Your Box Camera To Work Day 2019'. Like the related 'Take Your Box Camera To Play Day', this is simply an excuse to get people using box cameras - and in an environment that one might not necessarily take such a camera. Many box cameras are still eminently usable, taking 120 medium format film, or with a little consideration, 620 film, and modern, faster emulsions make the situations one might use a box camera in more diverse than once was the case - although, in the past, I've often used long exposures on such days, for interiors, rather than instantaneous 'snapshots', easier to do in daylight, outside - obviously this very much depends on the working environment. I did miss it last year, but I'm keen to shoot on the day and promote it once again in 2019.
Box cameras above, from left to right: Baby Box Tengor; Lumiere Scout Box; Kodak No.2 Brownie; Kodak No.2A Brownie; The Midg Falling Plate Camera