> andy, i think we need an explanation concerning your submission... at: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html sorry about that - I have been making similar photographs in the past and thought it might be superfluous, although this time I took a digital shorcut so to speak. The photograph is part of a larger series of figures ... all which to some extent or another are seen to "float" against a white background there being no shadow behind them. This subject matter I have found to be interesting on many levels beyond the purely technical. Getting models, for one, is not that easy - especially with the comprehensive model release I seek. >From a technical point of view the photograph is what I call a "Phoenix" process print. It starts out as a Polaroid 667 paper negative - the print I give to the model and I keep the opaque, low contrast negative. I then carefully (sometimes with disastrous results) rewet the paper negative and copy it onto Polaroid Polagraph 35mm film stock. This then yields a transparent (so to speak) negative since Polagraph is a positive working material. I then enlarge that negative onto conventional paper. In this particular case I was in a hurry so I just scanned the paper neg and inverted the tones digitally - also adjusting the contrast of the image much as Polagraph would do - it is not only positive working it is a high contrast material. While in the digital realm I also did clean up or retouch certain blemishes or elements that I found visually objectionable. By the way, during the process of making the original paper negative it undergoes a special transformation of tones associated with the Sabattier effect. This then becomes evident in the final print. Also, the Polagraph is a pretty coarse grain material and this adds texture that I find adds to the final presentation. In this case that grain is not present. There is a general article on the Phoenix Process at the folowing website: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-phoenix.html There early examples of similar photogrpahs at: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/exhibit-2.html andy
