Thanks Jan,
I thought about shipping the prints back home in Montreal to be processed by my assistant who does all my darkroom work now that I have foregone mine. But it is not very practical since I usually do at least a couple of test prints before the final exposure. That would lengthen the overall time frame for each print to something like 10 days and I won't have the luxury to do that.
This said, your story reminds me my own first experience with this kind of prints. It was on the occasion of the 1st world pinhole photography day. I had borrowed a friend's studio which I turned into a darkroom. I had built two mega-trays 5X10feet using 2"x4" lumber lined with plastic sheet. The trays were filled with 100 liters of solution (developer and fix only, no stop, no water, washing was done elsewhere). 4 assistants. The print was unrolled into the developer tray and after 2 minutes a 4x8 feet image began to emerge under our eyes. That was magical. When cooked, the print was pulled out briskly and shoved into the fix tray for 10 minutes. Out of the tray into a plastic bag and shipped to my bathroom at home to be washed...
To make things more complicated, I moved the process one step further on that occasion and used the paper negative thus processed to make an emulsion-to-emulsion contact positive print... ... Never again. ... Now I use dedicated trays and the processing of fiber prints into paper-negatives-only is well controlled. If these trays were not so bulky, I could take them along with me, but they would still require an appropriate darkroom.
G.
Web: www.guyglorieux.com
On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 6:43 PM, Jan Faul <jan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I hate to say this, but you may have to ship your prints out of country to get them processed in a lab, or build your own.Just lay out a square of wooden studs in the right size and shape, line your box with black plastic from a 4x25 meter roll, lay your print down face up, and pour premixed developer over it. Use sponge floor mops over it to swish developer around. When finished drag your print to a same size water bath (no stop), then two fixers, a wash and a Permawash.I had to do that a long time ago, and my advice is to have at least four assistants, a hose for wash water and do everything other than developer outdoors (developer can be done in an Army tent with safelight illumination but not with a full moon). Either lay your big print face up on grass, or on a large piece of screening with a small fan blowing air over it to help the drying process. If you wish to preserve your hair and mind, use RC paper, not fiber. Skål!My camera was the inside of a Bedford van and a 1 cm pinhole. Exposure time was about 10 hours via a Packard shutter.JanHello colleagues,
I am preparing an application for a 1 year residency in photography in Berlin in 2016. My project will consist of making very large format (4'x8') pinhole photographs of the Berlin urban landscape. These will be in the form of silver-based paper negatives. I completed a similar project here in Montreal two years ago with a very successful solo exhibition at the McCord museum, Montreal's 3rd largest museum.
My query is the following: are there any members of this list who reside in Berlin or are well versed with the Berlin photography scene. Specifically, I will be looking for information on access to the use of a large darkroom to process 4'x8' silver prints.
Any help on this would be very much appreciated.
Regards,
G.
Web: www.guyglorieux.com
Art FaulThe Artist Formerly Known as Prints------Art for Cars: art4carz.comStills That Move: http://www.artfaul.comGreens: http://www.inkjetprince.comCamera Works - The Washington Post.
