New Ilford Ortho Plus 80 - first (visual) impression

I wanted to try this new film from the first day when it was announced. For a few reasons -  the look of photographs exposed on orthochromatic films, its abilities and finally the fact that it will be available locally at last... as most of Ilford films.
Last Saturday it arrived to the shop where I always buy all photographic materials. It was afternoon, just about 40 minutes before closing time. Too late when I got this information and I had no choice but waiting until the end of the weekend. The longest weekend ever...

***

Monday morning. Finally! Kids in school. I am on my bicycle heading to John Gunn Camera Shop. 8.58am John with his usual wonderful smile opened the door to let me in. 
I took out Rollei, packed into my bag the evening before, and loaded fresh roll of new Ilford Ortho Plus 80. 
Ready to shoot. Beautiful, sunny morning. And very cold.

I decided to go through parks where morning light was doing its magic. I have two on my way home... could also jump into third one but 12 shots (usually too much) in such situation is not enough. Two parks were OK then. I also wanted to expose a few frames on the street photographing buildings, my usual subject.
Done.  A few minutes after 10am I was back at home with roll ready for processing. And then surprise... I completely forgot to check processing data sheet. There was no XTol, my usual developer on the list or anything else I have at home at the moment...like Rodinal Spezial (R09 Spezial).
The only Ilford developer I was using from time to time was Perceptol but stock I had here was already out of date. After extensive online research I was back to square one.
I decided to call on John Gunn camera shop for Perceptol. Unfortunately out of stock but got an advice instead - 4min in Rodinal Spezial can be the way to go. 
OK. It had to be done fast as that was the plan for the day and the clock was ticking.
In my small bottle of Rodinal there was only 20ml left. I needed almost 32ml. 
As this film can be processed under deep red safelight there was an option of processing by inspection. Not this time. It would be too time consuming and too risky considering the fact that I had some images on the roll which I wanted to get processed correctly. 
Maybe I should photograph flower pot next time while testing film. It would be much easier ;)
Back to online research...  
Got it! 
One short sentence at the end of one of many forum's discussion.  
Ilford Ortho Plus exposed at ISO 80... Xtol, 1:1, 9.45min, 20C. 
Quite old 'conversation' and based on large format negative version.
Had to trust this guy.

And I did...

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

My thoughts? I love this film. Sure it's not for everyone and not for every application but it is orthochromatic film. Film designed for specific usage. And it works great for that purpose. Landscape, streetscape or architecture... (besides copy and reproduction of course) 
It's a very sharp, fine grain film with beautiful contrast. What strikes me the most, however, is its dynamic range. I have never experienced it with any other film I was using before. I know, it's my first ortho film so I can't compoare. At the same time, I was using wide range of Ilford, Kodak and Fuji films for over a decade and this material is impressive.
The way how beautifully it renders foliage... 
I definitely should use a camera on a tripod and with closed aperture but this time I really wanted to try it out as fast as possible and with no hassle. 
All photographs were exposed using Rolleiflex T - ISO 80, f8 (except one with f3.5) and 1/60s - 1/125s, handheld with yellow filter. Then all was scanned on Epson V850 Pro using Silverfast Ai Studio software.
Apologise to anyone who expected here very technical information. It's purely visual opinion based on my experience and preferences.
One thing is certain - there will be many people who will enjoy this film for sure. 
I am one of them.

For all specs and data please check Ilford website HERE

Thank you!

Arts Building revisited

Arts Building, designed by ABK Architects and completed in 1979, was the second structure I visited with my cameras when I started to work on ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ project in 2011. 
A week ago I got back to Arts building during Open House 2019 festival. As all of you already know I have soft spot for well designed concrete buildings, especially these from 60s and 70s. 

There was a few beautiful new buildings on my list this year but I had to change plans and eventually ended up with Arts Building only … Fantastic tour with lots of interesting information and possibility to capture bits and pieces in my black and white squares.

Lights was beautifully dim. Exactly as it have to be in such objects. I had Delta 400 loaded in my Rollei but all was exposed at 1600 which was absolutely enough. 

Photographs taken back then (2011) are different and like it. I can clearly see how my approach to project and vision how it should looks like changes  I probably would photograph again every single building I visited since 2011 but it will stay as it is with small updates every now and then. Like this time…

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

You can read my blog post about Arts Building in 2011 using this link: Art of concrete .

Here is also link to 'Unfulfilled Dreams' project so you can see more photographs I made in there back then: Unfulfilled Dreams .

Thank you!

Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church at the Airport

Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church at Dublin Airport, designed by Andrew Devane and built in 1964 - Another building within ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ project.

Being at the airport a few times a year I never had a chance to see it in other way rather than from the distance. Now I could touch it, feel the surface of each brick and concrete. Incredible experience.
Especially in such a day - bright, sunny, clear sky. It could not be better. Beautiful, simple building enriched visually with strong shadows which gives another dimension to it.

What beside the walls? Very simple, almost minimalistic atrium surrounded by straight columns followed by quiet interior with discreet, subtle illumination from stained glass windows.

All pure and majestic ... Absolutely wonderful …

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

You can have a look at photographs from two other buildings designed by Andy Devane I visited while ago:

Saint Fintan's church in Sutton 
AiB Bankcentre 

Thank you!

Strolling in the snow...

I spent a few days in Eastern Poland over a week ago. Very short and almost unexpected visit to Hrubieszow and area. Whole place was covered in snow. Temperature just below 0C during the day and a bit lower at night with snow fall. 

White streets every morning and the most beautiful meadows, forests and nearby villages where snow stays all the time.

I recently realised how much I enjoy visiting places related to my childhood as I am getting older. That must be natural process … 

The same about spending more time with parents I usually can see only once a year. 

My perception of surrounding has changed over the years and I can see more I suppose then I used to when I was not even 20. Lots of memories comes back. I appreciate things I did not back then.

Now I always have a camera (or a few) with me which makes it easier to memorise it in the way I want to.

Entire short stay was filled with long walks with my father where we could talk a lot and I could soak in surrounding nature with all senses. Wonderful experience.

'A must selfie' with my father ;)

Landscape, old churches and houses or rather whatever left ... this is what I was focused on.
All materials are processed now. Need to scan everything which is actually the most time consuming part. I will slowly present all photographs on my so called social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (please follow the links) 

Thanks!

Built in nature...

It took me a while to write this post. Usually when I am showing photographs and writing about modernism all words just flowing out of my head. This time however was a bit different.
I tried to write something a few times this week but decided to postpone it at the end.
It is probably because disappointment sitting deep in my head related to camera incident I am constantly talking about... I know... 
Material for this article was the most important for me and most of photographs which never came out were made exactly on described below site. Close-ups, some details and really interesting frames showing how well this building is connected to the nature. 

I am here anyway with what’s left and with some description...  at last.

Visiting described place was special for couple of reasons. It is the only naturally preserved structure in the area, structure so well representing my beloved period in architecture. It is also the only one which stands out and looks simply beautiful. 

The most interesting aspect however is the fact that the owner of the house was my history teacher in secondary school. Absolutely lovely lady! It was a pure pleasure to meet her after all these years.

How did I get to photographing described building? I was thinking about it many times when my trip to Poland was approaching… and believe me or not but actually It’s happened spontaneously. 
I mentioned Mariusz Tomczuk in my last post.  Yep, he lives almost next door :) and Mariusz also had a plan to visit neighbouring modernist treasure so… we just did it. 

House was built in 1938 by the father of present owner. This extraordinary building sits on a beautiful plot surrounded by an amazing trees. Generally it is a very green part of the town, away from a busy streets. All of it makes this place very special.

What’s the most important if the fact that interior looks like the time has stopped decades ago. It is not only about furnitures but also the smallest details. Incredible. I was seriously amazed when I entered the house.
This applies to the entire building.

I also had an opportunity to see part of the original project. Very exciting moment. Small A4, already yellow/brownish pages with hand drown layouts . Unfortunately there was no obvious these days data table so I don’t have the name of the Architect.

Anyway - there is nothing more to say to be honest. Have a look please at photographs. This house is just beautiful and its every corner speaks for itself!

We had a plan to split our session into two parts that day in order to get a proper lighting on all elevations. Time was flying however so we managed to do it in one go. Sun smoothly illuminated our 'model' from the east to the west perfectly!

I am not sure when I will be in Hrubieszow again and if I will be able to rephotograph what has been lost but I am really happy with images I got and possibility of seeing the house.
Many thanks to the owner of the place for having us! 

Tech info:

All photographs here were made with Hasselblad 500c/m and Distagon 50/4 on Ilford Pan F Plus 50 and Kodak TMax 400 exposed at ISO 50.

On the Ballymun Road...

Photographing buildings for ‘Unfulfilled dreams’ project I ended up a few times in Ballymun. Usually with friend of mine Jim Leonard, great photographer. 

He also knows area and its people as nobody else. Our trips are always very productive.

There was no difference this time. 

A few days before I got a message from Jim that we have a permission to photograph Trinity Comprehensive School of Ballymun. 
Fantastic news as I always wanted to see this building from the inside. It was officially opened on March 26th 1973. 
Beautiful structure. Simple, horizontal, geometrical and very light form. 

After short meeting in Principal office we started to make photographs. A few hours of an amazing experience. Truly photogenic object. 
Here I would like to thank Ms Ann Meehan who arranged everything, Ms Frances Neary Carton, Principal and Jim of course who triggered all before it's happened. 

You can have a look at school's website to get more information about its history. Just click HERE please. Also please keep checking my FB website and Twitter where I will show few more photographs made that day.

A few technical informations:

This time I was using only Hasselblad 500c/m with Distagon 50/4 and Planar 80/2.8 lenses. Camera was loaded with Ilford Pan F Plus 50 and Ilford FP4 Plus 125 pulled to 50 films. 

Thank you!

It was close...

Couple of days ago judges of ‘Black and White Photographer of the Year’ competition selected winners of 2015 edition. We will see these entries in next issue of the magazine.

Congratulations to all winners!!!

A few of my photographs were nominated in two categories and it makes me really happy! 

Well, it would be amazing to win again like in 2011 (have look please HERE) of course but I will try to do that next year ;) 

So first category and first nomination it is: Black and White Photographer of the Year 2015 (over all winner)

 Second nomination is in category: Black and White at its Best

Thanks a lot!

Baths...

Back in 2009/2010 I was working on a small documentary project. That was a moment when I decided to step back into college after almost 10 years.
This time just for one year. Photography and Digital Imaging at NCAD - very good course I would recommend to anyone who would like to extend his knowledge about visual art, history of photography and first of all learn how to approach every single project. That was the reason why I decided to be there.
As a self-taught photographer working already a couple of years I wanted to learn something more then just a technicalities or basic knowledge about composition which was a big part of my architectural education (years before).
PDI course gave me all of it. Beside that I met a lot of fantastic people.
Also for the last two years I was invited to run a darkroom part of this course with new students. Another fantastic experience.

Lets get back to the gist of this post - mentioned documentary project. Doing a research I focused on abandoned places and traces. 
I would like to show here two of them - Dun Laoghaire and Blackrock Baths. Both built in 19 century when bathing started to be very popular.
I never showed before most of these images but I think they are worth a look and it’s an interesting documentary material especially when Blackrock Baths don’t exist anymore.
Lots of historical photographs and information is available online so I will focus here only on its visual part. These are only research materials and were not used in the final project.

The Blackrock baths built beside the Blackrock train station were provided for by the railway company in 1839. They could accommodate up to 1000 spectators and were well known for swimming galas and water polo.

Blackrock Baths were closed in late 1980s and then dismantled due to lack of maintenance. In 2012 they were demolished.

Dun Laoghaire Baths. This very popular place at the time it was built in 1843. 
'There was a range of bathing options including sea and fresh water, hot and cold baths. Children had their own pond and paddling pools and there was medical baths. These included sulphur, seaweed and Russian and hot sea-water.' 
(info. Abandoned Ireland)
Now it is abandoned and decayed after it’s closure in the end of 1990s.
There are however plans for its restoration. 

Stepping into each part of these objects was very emotional as always in such a situation. These are disappearing structures with great history.

All above photographs were taken with my beloved back then Mamiya C330 Professional with 80mm 2.8 lens and Ilford FP4+ (as far as I remember).

'the wind' ...

Photographing modernism in Ireland I almost missed one very important place in history of Irish architecture, planning and urban design and history at all. 
This place I would describe as an important and interesting from sociological and also technical point of view rather than architectural itself.
Ballymun flats and its area. 
This is the place where great ideas and dreams of planers failed almost instantly...

Remaining block of flats /2013/. Photograph taken on Direct Positive Paper.

Last Sunday I had an opportunity to spend some time on the streets of Ballymun with two fantastic people who grew up there and have a wonderful memories related to the flats when this place was shining. Jim and his brother Eric. These couple of hours I spent with them opened my eyes and allowed me to perceive Ballymun from completely different perspective...not as a 'Concrete Jungle' with many internal problems but also as a place with strong community integration. 
...so many thanks to both of them!
Most of the people are happy seeing all those flats going down. There is however  also significant group of those who would rather see this place booming as it was at the time when it was build, when the future of this place was very bright....for the very short time.
This is typical example of great ideas of creating new places for overcrowded cities in post war world, especially in Europe. Ideas related directly to famous modernists and their ideology, ideas of Garden Cities.
Ballymun was the answer (one of few) for huge housing problem in Dublin/Ireland those days.




The estate was built between 1966 and 1969 by the National Building Agency which was established specifically for the task. It comprised seven 15-storey towers, nineteen 8-storey blocks, ten 4-storey walk-ups and 400 single family houses. 
I would easily call it state of the art which may sound controversially but saying that I am thinking about its technical aspect rather then quality of architecture itself.
All those large, comfortable apartments (over half flats had three bedrooms) with underfloor heating, central hot water, flush toilets and lifts brought an amazing comfort of living. And we must remember that all of it was in Ireland in times when large families (sometimes around ten people) had to live often in one room in extremely poor condition.

Why its failed then?

Back of the local shopping centre /2013/

Such places which we can see all over the Europe needs properly designed and perfectly working infrastructure and maintenance. Lack of any of these elements along with mentioned sociological problems causes degradation of society. This is what has happened over there briefly. There was not enough money to finish what planers just started so many places like promised public swimming pool, meeting places and play areas were never built. People were left alone in the middle of nowhere.
During the 80s things got even worse due to economical crisis. Huge unemployment brought problems with robberies and drugs.
 
Today Ballymun is changing along with its inhabitants who remember old flats.

Now there is just 3 block of flats left. These buildings will be demolished very soon and Ballymun will step up into the next stage of its history.
Wandering among those abandoned structures you can hear only the wind and imagine how it was over there back in 60's...70's

Ballymun flats - Building that doesn't exist anymore with Maser's mural photographed many times before... 
I took this photograph in 2010

technical info:

During this trip I was using Sinar F2 with Schenider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 150mm 5.6, Harman/Ilford Direct Positive Paper 4x5 and Ilford FP4+ 4x5.
Also there is a roll of Kodak Tmax 400 exposed through hasselblad 500cm, Planar 80/2.8 and Distagon 50/4. This film will be processed soon and I hope to show some photographs soon my FB website.
The last photograph in this post was taken with Holga 120GN + Fomapan 400.

What else was engaged? strong wind and some rain...

Direct Positive Paper (part 2)

I am coming back to direct positive paper tests. As you remember almost two months ago a took first few photographs on that medium using studio lighting.
Everything came out really well. You can have a look at the blog post following this link - ‘Direct Positive Paper’.

Last Thursday I decided to give it a go with natural light. I set camera in UCD campus in the middle of fantastic modernist structures photographed by me many times before (‘Forms’ series for example).
With mentioned in previous post slow speed of this paper (about ISO 3) and aperture f=45 it took about 30s to get proper exposure.
Paper was developed in Ilford Multigrade Developer.

Below are first results.

ISO 3, f/45, 30s expo - 20s dev

This is a second photograph out of two I developed. Dev process about 20 seconds (quite fast) gave the best result. Very reach tonal range  and great details.
Here is the same image developed for much longer time 40seconds. Still pretty fast as for paper dev process. As you can see however it is way too dark and also there is loss of details due to high contrast. That's why I gave it ago once more with mentioned 20 sec then.

ISO 3, f/45, 30s expo - 40s dev

I also took the same photograph on negative film for comparison purposes. It was as usually Fomapan 100 developed in Caffenol-c-m.
...the same place, settings, lens and the same camera :)

ISO 100, f/45, 4s expo - 10min dev in Caffenol-c-m

Of course negative is more versatile and with a little bit of time and experience in darkroom printing will give better result. That's for sure. 

We are focusing here however on new great 'instant' medium :)

4x5 prints

After all it is difficult (if possible at all) to judge such photographs seeing scanned images. Only viewing the print can give real feeling of what is happening with such paper. It is truly fantastic!