'The Unit'

182nd Annual Exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy is open to public since last night. 
‘The Unit’, photograph from ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ series is on its wall :)

'The Unit'

 



















Piece from very important to me project  has been appreciated at very early stage. It’s an honor.
Beside that “The Unit’ was published in exhibition catalog as a one of very few photographs. Happy days!

 

Photograph was taken last year in Liberty Hall. You can have a look at blog post with some information about it - just click HERE please.

Exhibition will be open till 18 of August and it’s definitely worth to visit.
Lots of fantastic photographs, paintings, drawings and various installations.

...forbidden place?

- ‘You could find much more interesting object for your images’
- ‘well, I know it’s bizarre but I really like it’
- ‘we all likes different things’

haha...that was a short but very suggestive conversation with a lady walking her dog on the beach two days ago. 

That was really weird feeling seeing people looking at me when I was photographing 

industrial area beside Dublin Port. They all have been there to enjoy the view behind my shoulders...I was the only 'freak' fascinated by the large chimneys and steal structures around them ;) Industrial landscapes can be attractive not only for people who are bored or tired with the things usually recognized as beautiful.
The mystery, desolation and power of such a places is something excessively appealing.
It’s a fantastic area however not very friendly ...
I am talking here about the energy of this place rather then anything else.

Last Saturday it was my third trip in there and not the last one I am afraid...
In-fact, I've been there with camera twice before - once over a year ago in the same place (photographs are somewhere on my facebook webpage) and second time in 2009 when I visited old Pigeon House (click HERE please to see photographs). 
The Power Station and all industrial objects around is located in Dublin Bay, close to Irishtown Nature Park and Sandymount Strand. Contrasty place - very nice seaside with Wicklow Mountains view, green, quite and attractive neighbourhood ...and a few hundreds meters away, behind high fens - industrial plants.

I live just a 15 minutes cycling from there so distance is not a problem. There is however something else which I don't really understand. Something which makes this place impossible to photograph in the way i want...
After my first trip I wasn't happy with taken photographs. It obviously wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. OK, fair enough.
I went there the following weekend and...another two hours of shooting wasted. Unexpected elements appears on most of the negatives which makes them useless.
...So third approach... and here we go again - this times 6 out of 12 negatives were incorrectly fitted in holders and photographs came out - let’s say not very straight. A few from the other 6 have mentioned before marks on them again...

Processing was done correctly, all chemicals were fresh and properly mixed. 

This time I took even a few sheets of different film then the one I am usually using...
I am shooting with large format for almost 2 years. I know that mistakes can happen especially with this type of equipment but not 3 times in the row...and It’s never happened to me before. Not in that way.

Strange coincidence...
I am just thinking - what is going on with this place? 

Dublin Port (fragment) and the area of Pigeon House Power Station*

 
*photograph from Google Maps

I may go there once again next weekend anyway.

Please note: presented here photographs are the only (out of about 30 taken during 3 visits) which are close enough to my idea how it should look like and they are technically OK...

Tribute to Nick Cave...

Good things happening in Ranelagh Art Centre all the time. Some of you remember this place from my ‘Coffee Flavour’ exhibition a few months ago (please see the link LINK) ;)
Last Friday and Saturday on the first floor in the room lightened only by the candles David Noone had his very personal concert - tribute to Nick Cave.
About an hour of a really good performance wormed up by fantastic atmosphere. On December last year I was working with David on promotional portraits for this gig (please see the link LINK).
Friday afternoon we met again to take a few portraits during David's dress rehearsal.

A few words from press release:

‘Writer and musician, David Noone will perform his unique take on the music of the legendary Nick Cave, at the Ranelagh Arts Centre in February. In this intimate acoustic concert, David will perform the songs of one of his favourite songwriters whom he believes to be possibly the greatest lyricist to have emerged in the last thirty years.  

David grew up in Rathangan, Co. Kildare, where he began his writing career as a music journalist with local newspapers. Moving to Dublin, he formed his first band 'Poppy' and then spent three years as lead singer and songwriter with 'David Noone and the Night Porters'. He has also published a collection of poetry -'My Cat's a Vicious Drunk' and his first play - 'Ructions' was performed at the 2010 Ranelagh Arts Festival.'

As far as i know, both David’s performances were not the last this year...

...about memory

This is a short post about one of many roles photography has to fulfill. I just thought it is good to point it even if it’s so obvious for many of us.
Yesterday I finished scanning a bunch of an old negatives for a friend of mine. All of them from early 70’s. All taken by her father. It tooks time but what a pleasure it was. Looking at the each scanned image is exactly like traveling in time. I believe lots of those photographs were never seen before. It is something very unique. Rediscovering moments. Live them again...

scan from about 40 years old negative

After that I did a little research in my old archives. Found a portrait of my grandfather. This photograph was taken maybe 50 years ago or even earlier. Author remains unknown. I realized how important it is for me. It shows my grandfather exactly in the way I remember him. Man full of positive energy.
I never took a picture of him myself. Don't know why. Maybe obviously because i wasn’t photographing people back then...

scan from about 50 years old print

All of it reminds me of a two blog posts I read some time ago. They draw my attention in a very special way. Both of them /very personal stories/ were about passage of time.
Both of them raised the question of sense of photography...
Why we are taking photographs?
Whatever we say it usually going to one conclusion  - to memorize...
...and memorize not only people. It concerns everything around us.
Sounds obvious? Yes, definitely. But somehow... I never thought about it in that way.

Photographer holds the role of time machine operator. Each can do it in a very unique and personal way.

'white elephant'

Staying away from concrete for too long I decided to move on again with photographing Irish modernist icons. First request this year has been sent to Busaras - central bus station, one of the most important examples of so called international modern style in architecture. I was really surprised how fast the response was. Just a few hours later I received a phone call from Busaras Press Office (thank you!!!). That was great! We set the time for Saturday afternoon. In fact I got a limited permission - only for a public space as in Liberty Hall case. It was enough anyway to keep me busy for a bit over an hour.

waiting area with typical mosaics on columns (click image for bigger preview)

Busaras (listed as a protected structure) was designed between 1945 and 1953 by Michael Scott , one of the most important architects in Ireland. Building Influenced by le Corbusier, was the first major work of modern architecture in post-war Dublin - RIAI /Royal Institute of Irish Architects/ Gold Medal Winner 1953-1955.
The national bus terminal of Ireland, constructed of reinforced concrete with Portland stone cladding featured also a small newsreel cinema to occupy travelers.
This building is like a machine. It has even integrated ventilation system in office part (upper levels).

corridor with mosaics (click image for bigger preview)

During construction stage, Córas Iompar Éireann (CIÉ) /Irish Transport System/ began to experience serious financial difficulties that's why new Bus station (very expensive project) got an opinion of a 'white elephant' ... Here is a very interesting link where you can read all story of this significant Dublin’s landmark. Please Click here: BUSARAS

At the and I would like to add something... This photo project was intended to be done only with large format cameras to give photographs with the best possible quality. I experienced however some difficulties with access to the most interesting parts of buildings which (usually closed for public) are accessible during Architecture Festival 'Open House' each year. During 2010 edition of 'Open House' I took lots of interesting photographs from Busaras office part and Liberty Hall but on smaller negatives...6x6 and 35mm. Short tours makes impossible to use large format equipment. I am considering to add some of them to the selection at the end to make this series more interesting. It's just an idea for now. Will see how it will goes in next objects I am gonna photograph in the future.


tech: this time just a Graflex Crown Graphic, Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 150mm 5.6 and Fomapan 4x5 100@64 in usual Caffenol-c-m.

“David Noone sings Nick Cave”

My cooperation with David has a quite a long history as most of you already know (lots of photographs for publicity purposes). Just a few words for those of you who are here for the first time - David is a Dublin based writer, musician, actor and long time collaborator with the artistic collective The Colour and Form Factory.
A few days ago he came to my small studio. This time we wanted to create a promotional portraits for “David Noone sings Nick Cave” performance which will take a place in February 2012 in Ranelagh Arts Centre. This show is curated by Tony Strickland - independent art curator.

Above are two photographs of my choice. Its an ongoing assignment so please keep following this blog, facebook website, tweeter and google+ (recently created) for updates (links on the top of this page) .
And some technical info at the end: all taken on Kodak TMax 400 at box speed with a little help of Metz 45Cl-4 flash gun on the left with small soft box on it.

                                                                     ***

It also may be the last post this year on my blog so I’ll take an opportunity to wish all very Happy Christmas and best of luck in New Year! 

Thank you for being here!!! :)

Paper Negatives and...(tests)

Looks like some drugs (one particularly) started to fill not only my veins but also entire space around me ;) ... Let me explain however everything from the beginning. About a week ago i took a couple of photographs on paper instead of film. That’s my first attempt to paper negatives. It’s a modern version of “Calotype”, an old process invented by Fox Talbot in September 1840 in which photographic paper is exposed directly using large-format camera. Such a paper is processed in darkroom where it gives negative (on paper) and then final positive print by making contact print. Easy peasy ...almost ;)

I used Ilford Multigrade IV RC Pearl Deluxe paper (cut to 4x5 format)  which is very simple to handle due to quite fast drying and being flat during that process.

In case of paper negatives speed (ISO) is about 6. Quite slow but still faster than wet plate collodion  for example introduced about 10 years latter ;)

So photographs has been taken...

Here I can come back to my “drug story” from the beginning of this post ;D

I decided to give a try... Coffee  development (again, haha) which obviously is equal to darkroom printing in this case ;)

Very different proportions than in case of film dev process..

250 ml water

2 tsp of washing soda

3 tsp of caffe

1 tsp of vitamin C

Of course everything can be adjusted according to required amount of liquid. I was processing my papers in 500ml.

paper negative developed in Caffenol-C

Conclusions?

It’s a veeery slow process comparing to when I use normal chemistry. First shades of the image appears after about 3-4 minutes...then image was ready after about 10minutes (!).

As a comparison - week ago i took couple of photographs on the same paper and I processed them in Ilford Multigrade paper developer. They were ready in 1.5min

Anyway - I have negatives. Time to create proper print.

Mentioned before photograph taken week ago was presented on my Facebook page. This one was processed in Ilford Multigrade paper Developer  (click HERE please) and then inverted in photoshop to create positive. All looks great but Photoshop is not the right way.

Below is the other one created the same day... you know this photograph from my older post but it was taken on normal film back then ;)

paper negative developed in Ilford Multigrade paper developer

positive image created by negative's inversion in PS

I set my darkroom last night to process and print the other photograph taken yesterday (first image in this post).

Contact print is made by creating sandwich with clear paper and paper negative sticked together on emulsion side. Negative must be obviously on the top.

Exposure and hight of the lamp (enlarger head) is another crucial element in this process. It will provide differences in contrast of final image. I had a rather limited time so i could make just a 2 tests. One with 2 sec exposure and second with 4 sec. The last one was quite good but not good enough. Lack of contrast ...It only means I will have to come back to it ;)

 wet print in Caffenol-C 

Differences?

Big..it’s again depends on what you prefer. With paper negatives, traditional development gives quite strong contrast which usually I like. Coffee development gives however more details, nice brownish tint on paper but not enough contrast...

I am sure that something is not working here properly but don't know what. It may be soda again as in case of Caffenol-C-L ...or something else.

Before i tried it I spoke to Damian Dzialoszynski , photographer who is experimenting a lot with these materials (click HERE  please to see his blog). His prints full of fantastic blacks and shades and generally great contrasts where ready after a few seconds... (???)

Will have to work it out definitely. Its all constant learning curve ...

If somebody who is reading this post had a different experience or some advice you are more then welcome to post it here or contact me directly. Thanks a lot!

 photographs:
1. negative in Caffenol (first image) with positive print (last image) - The Irish Waterways Visitor Centre by OPW. Here is the other photograph of this building taken by me about 2 years ago: please click HERE
2. paper negative in Ilford Multigrade  Paper Developer with positive created in PS - Bolland Mills.
Here is link to my older blog post about it with the same photograph recorded on traditional negative (as a comparison):  please click HERE

...on the go (one day)

5am. I could not sleep... 
After a few minutes of looking at the room's ceiling I grabbed my bag and left hotel...City wakes up.  First cars on the street and wonderful smell of coffee from just opened coffee shops. Ten minutes with espresso and a cigarette over the corner ...good moment to load the film as well ;)
Then...there was just a walk through morning mist.

Waterloo Bridge
(Ilford Pan F Plus 50 in Caffenol-C-M)

National Theatre
 (Ilford Pan F Plus 50 in Caffenol-C-M)

On the River Thames bank

 (Ilford Delta 400 in Caffenol-C-L)

Espresso...(tests with Caffenol-C-L for fast films)

Enjoying quiet days after really busy time related to my last exhibition  I decided to do small experiments from my list ;). Alternative ways of developing are on the top of it. Caffenol-C-M became my favourite developer for slow and medium speed films. It gives results unreachable for other developers available on merket.

It is a time for faster films now and Caffenol-C-L. I have a box of undeveloped negatives. Some of them are even 2 years old. Its a good moment to work it out and try new methods as well. I grabbed roll of Trix (135) for a start. Not really my type of film however i am using it sometimes.

Chemistry is the same as in case of Caffenol-C-M. Proportions are  different and Potassium Bromide (Kbr) has to be added. (all taken from Caffenol blog /please click the link/)

proportions for 0.5l:

- 8g of washing soda (has to be water free)

- 5g of vitamin C

- 20g of instant coffee

- 0.5g of Potassium Bromide (Kbr)

It is stand dev. 70min with 10 gentle turns at the beginning, 20°C. About 5 min of pre-soaking is recommended to promote even development.  I am always pre-soaking (even before using traditional dev methods) so it is kind of routine for me.

Long waiting time to see the results.

Unfortunately all the excitement has gone when i took out completely empty roll from dev tank. What went wrong? I asked myself...

Caffenol-C-L is a very strict developer. All ingredients has to be perfectly prepared and measured. I did everything exactly as it has to be done.

After a while of thinking I decided to contact Reinhold, author of Caffenol blog .

He advised me to check bits and pieces i wasn't really aware of. One of them it was to ensure a type of washing soda I am using. I tested it in the oven. 100g of washing soda on the tray in 120°C. After a while I noticed a water allover soda on the tray.

washing soda in the oven (with water)

That’s it! Caffenol-C-L require water free soda! To be honest i didn’t know that washing soda I am using has water in it...especially when it works perfectly with Caffenol-C-M where theoretically water free soda should be used as well.

Anyway, after a bit over an hour I took the tray out of the oven. I checked weight of soda again - Only 38g!

There was almost 2/3 of water in it obviously.

washing soda after over an hour heating

After that I repeated all developing process. This time everything went perfectly.

Below you can see result. This photograph was taken about year ago in Wicklow Mountains.

Wicklow Mountains. Nikon F5, TriX 400 (135) in Caffenol-C-L

After TriX I developed roll of Ilford Delta 400 (120), just a couple of months old. The same proportion, time and temperature as in case of TriX.

Killruddery Gardens, Yashica Mat 124G, Ilford Delta 400 (120) in Caffenol-C-L

According to Reinhold's advice I can add relatively more soda instead of drying it. It would be better to have waterfree soda of course but this method works quite well.
I assume the same will be with Caffenol-C-H. Will try it tomorrow. You can follow my facebook  website to see the results. Thanks!

"Coffee Flavour" - exhibition

"Coffee Flavour" is on the walls of Ranelagh Arts Centre Gallery. It’s doesn't really mean that the project is finished. I will definitely continue to work on it as long as I will have people happy to seat in the front of my camera with a cup of coffee...and they will be ready to expose their minds ;)

Most of you know what this project is about however here you can see a short note from the exhibition:

The idea of “Coffee flavour” project (carried on since 2009) was inspired by film “Coffee and cigarettes” by Jim Jarmusch. Presented series are portraits of personalities rather than people themselves, personalities shown through human thoughts and the moments in which they were born, quiet moments of contemplation.
Time with a cup of coffee itʼs time to focus and clear your mind, to hunker down and get ready for the day. It is simultaneously a wonderful way to relax and to lose touch with reality for a moment, time to slow down and recharge, time for “Coffee flavour “.

All presented photographs are silver-gelatin prints on Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe Pearl paper. Printing itself took over a week which is quite a short time as for 21 prints. I am pleased with the result and appreciate all good feedback I received after all!

phot. Rafal Kostrzewa (three photographs above)

The opening night (07/11/2011 7pm) it was a very special event with lots of fantastic people. Thank you very much for coming in!!!
I would like to thank especially Mel, a good friend of mine for wonderful introduction, Sarah, David, Sara, and Terry from the Gallery, Sylwia, Artur, Bart and Luis for helping me before the opening and of course all models!

phot. Monika Sikora

phot. Edita Malenko

At the end fantastic underground video footage by Andy Sullivan. Thanks for that mate!

Art of concrete

Visiting another modernist treasure I came back to Trinity College campus. Beside already well known Berkeley Library stands much younger structure - Arts and Social Science building, designed also by ABK Architects (completed in 1978 as a result of competition in 1969)

Main Hall

Mysterious dark maze of corridors full of vertical and horizontal planes, amazing textures and ubiquitous fair-faced concrete. Truly beautiful building but at the same time very hard place to photograph. I will explain it at the end in “technicalities” section.
Building often used for conferences and public lectures includes also Douglas Hyde Gallery , the Lecky Library and several administrative offices. 

I had to split my visit into two days. An extra time was required to obtain permission to photograph Gallery due to current art exhibition. It's a very special place with amazing proportions and overall feeling which makes it work of art in itself.
I would like to thank to TCD's Communications Office, Gallery’s Curatorial Assistant and Gallery’s Director. Really appreciate all your help! Many thanks to security staff as well.

Douglas Hyde Gallery

... technicalities:
4x5 equipment It’s  a standard for this project. Calumet CC-400, Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 90mm 8.0 lens and  Fomapan 100@64 4x5 film developed later in my favourite recently Caffenol-c-m.
I mentioned above some technical dificulties during this session. Obviously this wonderful dim light (fantastic especially in such an amazing interior) filling the space is extremely hard to deal with when all photographs has to be neatly composed on rather dark view camera’s ground glass, looking through perfect but also dark Super-Angulon lens...f8

Settings for all shots were almost the same: f16 i 30sec exposure
After developing of negatives, scanning and first edition (with few bad surprises) I decided to come back to Douglas Hyde Gallery in order to recompose the most interesting for me photograph. It was actually this morning...third visit.

The Winner...

The time to present my winning entry in the competition mentioned already on my facebook webpage and twitter has come.
“Film House” is a photograph of the year in “Time” category by “B+W Photography”  magazine.

Film House

I had a really good run this year as five of my photographs were shortlisted in three categories of four I entered, including three images in “Time” category  (maximum amount of entries per one category). That was already a big success. 
 

This prize have a special meaning for me... “Black+White Photographer of the Year” is a very important international competition.
Beside that “Film House” is a statement.  It shows every aspect of photography I represent - subject, atmosphere and literally my devotion to celluloid (film photography).
It was already published in “Posi+tive” magazine, “Archipelag” magazine (as a cover for the article “passage of time”) and RedBubble blog with best street photography and photojournalism on RB. Now it is in B+W Photography magazine (November issue).

Below you can see my other four entries shortlisted in Black+White Photographer of the Year  2011 edition:  

Time category

James Joyce

Beehives

 






People category

People on the street

City category

Screen Cinema

My congratulations to all other nine winners!!! It was very good to meet you last Thursday (all off you who could attend the opening) and see your fantastic pieces. Well done!
Many thanks to organizers, sponsors (in my case it's Leica Store Mayfair) and first of all "B+W Photography" magazine!

footage from the exhibition opening night  (update 14/10/2011)

The winning photographs are exhibited at theprintspace Gallery, 74 Kingsland Road, London ED 8DL from 7 to 26 October.

theprintspace gallery, opening night

If you are in London or if you will be there in next three weeks please visit theprintspace!

What's left?

Saturday morning (week ago)... After a few minutes in the train i was in Tara Street with all my equipment. Then just a short walk over the Liffey, couple of minutes conversation with security at the entrance and I was in the lift going to the 15th floor of.... Liberty Hall, ready to shoot this important Dublin’s landmark.

A few basic facts - building was deigned by Desmond Rea O’Kelly (1923-2011). Construction of this modern and translucent building began in the early 1960s and was completed in 1965.  It was very Simple and solid structure with non-reflective glass that you could see through the corners, with beautiful mosaic under the glazing on each floor and viewing platform (open to public) on the top (16th) floor.  
It was the first high-rise building in Dublin.

stairs in-between 15th and 16th floor lever with wonderful mosaics 

 An incident in 1972 changed everything irreparably. UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) car bomb explosion led to dramatic changes in overall aesthetic of Liberty Hall and the way the building was operating. Original glazing, mostly destroyed in explosion, was replaced with reflective, silver coated windows. Viewing Platform was closed. Also water-resistant coating was applied over the mosaic on all elevations. Texture of mosaic is still visible if one come closer.
Nobody was looking after the building since many years which led into the way how it looks now - cracks in the windows,  dilapidated parts of facades...
Sadly it become one of the most unpopular structure in Dublin.

I mentioned this building about year ago in my “before they will vanish...” post (clikc HERE please to read it). You can find there (at the bottom of the post)  a link to wonderful documentary about “Liberty Hall” by Paddy Cahill. It says everything about this fantastic structure and its history. I really recommend to watch it!

It is still possible that building will disappear from Dublin’s panorama. That would be a shame. Its simple structure and versatile design makes it very easy to restore, bring back to its original stage and make it shine again.

Nobody knows however how the future of Liberty Hall looks like ...

We are loosing lots of precious buildings nowadays. It's a piece of history. One day we will just ask ourselves - what's left?

doors from staircase to corridor

view form the landing in-between 8th and 9th floor level

I want to thank to Liberty Hall Property Management for giving me permission to spend there quite a long time with my cameras where I could walk through communication area (narrow corridors and staircases) of the office part of the building. it was still very limited access but I am very happy that i was there.

Technicalities at the end...
this time 2 cameras: Calumet CC-400 and Craflex Crown Graphic, 2 lenses: Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 150mm 5.6 and Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 90mm 8.0 and 2 films: Fomapan 100@64  4x5 and Kodak T-Max 100 4x5, both developed in Caffenol. I was trying to find out if Kodak T-Max will give me better results in creating images for this series and it didn’t happen. I must admit that Fomapan 100 4x5 souped in Caffenol is just superb.