Cyanotypes

These are some of the results from a workshop I attended last month at Sesc in São Paulo about this great historic process called Cyanotype. For this particular work, we've used sheets of orthochromatic film inside homemade pinhole cameras. Ortho films are extremely high contrast making them a great choice for this process. 

The negatives were exposed to an average of 12 to 15 seconds as we had a bright but sunless day, they're later processed normally. We used filter paper to do these prints and they're brushed with a mix of equal solutions of potassium ferricyanide and  ferric ammonium citrate previously blended with water. In fact, one of the greatest advantages of this process is that  you can use any absorbent material that can be coated with the solution, like a piece of cloth or wood.

The results below were printed by putting together the negative and the filter paper like a "sandwich" on a glass support and exposing for 30 minutes in a artificial UV light box. The  prints are immersed in a sink with running water straight after to get the unexposed solution washed away and then let dry normally.

The workshop was ministered by Ricardo Hantzschel from the great Cidade Invertida project.

Below is the negative used to print the image above, note how contrasty the ortho film is.

Gakken Pinhole Results

I really enjoy taking this camera with me whenever I'm out. I love the fact that is so light, it takes no space in my bag and I hardly get disappointed with the results. These were taken using a generic brand expired film and like how the colours came out surreal. I still need to work out better on how I frame my images using this camera as I missed some bits on the top of the images.

 

Carandiru Massacre - Twenty years on

Back In November 2002 I had the opportunity to visit what once was the largest prison in South America. The Carandiru prison was located in Sao Paulo Brazil and was built to held 500 inmates when opened in the 50’s, but had about 7.000 until its final days.

It was the site of the Carandiru Massacre in October 1992 where at least 111 prisoners were killed by police after a riot broke out in the 9th Pavilion, although witnesses claims that around 300 were killed on that day.

In December the 9th 2002 the complex was demolished to become a youth park, it was open to the public weeks before so thousands of people could had the chance to get inside of the several pavilions, although the 9th was closed.

All pictures were taken with my Rolleiflex SL35 and captures the site as it was right after the prisoners were reallocated to a new building. It was a bit like a war zone, there were personal objects and clothes all around, almost as if the site had been suddenly evacuated.

Agfa ISO Rapid and Ilford Cine Film

Some results with a very expired 1961 Ilford Cine Film shot with my Agfa ISO Rapid camera. The film is loaded by hand in total darkness inside the Rapid Cartridge system as this type of films aren't available in the market anymore.

This film is isn't sharp at all and it has a much thicker layer of anti-halation. Note the difference on the  picture below, it was taken using the Fuji Neopan Across 100.

I've previously tested the Ilford Cine film using  three  different ISO rates in order to show me what would be the best setting to shoot since the film has no indication of film speed on the tin. 

I shot the same picture using 25, 50 and 100 ISO and  the results can be seen on the  slices I zoomed in of each frame. I'm using the 50 ISO as a starting point whenever I'm using this film.

Hand-Coloured Photographs – My Family Album

I have been going through my mum's photobox for the first time since I left London. I've decided to digitalize the very old and the most important ones to start just in case they get damaged or lost but my plan is to add more with time. I intend to post these copies onto a website and make them “safe” somewhere like flickr, photobucket etc. Going through this box of photographs is something I've been doing since my childhood and it will be sad if one day they disapear.

So while going through the box I've found some copies where the images were hand-tinted. I had completely forgotten about these photos after all these years... and this is a photographic technique I've learnt while living in London which I really like. I've been buying old photographs and hand-colouring them for quite sometime so to me it was a kind of surprise to find few examples within my own family album.

My mum's photo of her First Communion...

My father and my mum below ...

 

... and this is me.

The most interesting one is my grandparent's portrait. This photo is about 8x10 and is heavily coloured, a style very known in Brazil through Mestre Júlio Santos.

Found Film

Last year I bought a Kodak Brownie Cresta and it was a nice surprise to find a half-exposed film inside, I processed the roll and all pictures came out nicely. Probably taken in the late 50's, it's quite amazing that after all these years we are still able to get very quality results from such old film. 

So a friend of mine while browsing on this blog really liked the "Kodak Cresta Kid" and asked me to use the image on the cover of his band's debut album Cyclopian. I love the result and the photoshop mirror effect created a sort of "monster" that really suits the band sound's style.

More about Cyclopian go to cyclopian.bandcamp.com

Olympus - XA2

I just got the negatives back from the lab in time to do this post before moving back to Brazil. I've always heard about how good the Olympus XA series cameras are so I decided to get one and try for myself. 

There are a few similarities between the Lomo LC-A and the Olympus XA series, they both are great pocket cameras and have amazing lens able to produce really sharp images.

What differs the Lomo from the XA it's mostly the price, you can pick up an Olympus on ebay for a real bargain comparing to the overpriced Lomo available on the market. Other than that they're both great automatic cameras to leave on you bag at all time ready to be used.

The Olympus gave me perfect results with no blurry edges or vignetting, a great simple camera perfect for street photography.

A photographs were taken using Fuji Superia 100 ISO