The Convergence Factor

I have largely been terrible at following through with posting info about this project - I admit that freely - but things are slowly happening with it all when I’m not working or wandering around Changwon with my camera making photographs. I am currently making the vast majority of my new work on film and am beginning to catch up on the resulting backlog of undeveloped rolls of 35mm and 120. This weekend I will be making proof sheets of a dozen or so rolls and making prints of a handful of chosen negatives.

All my printing this weekend will be 35mm only. I have new medium format negatives on hand, but not the enlarging lens or negative carrier that I need to print them. The 80mm Schneider lens is sitting at my father’s house, awaiting the rest of my order from B&H. The universal glass masking negative carrier for the LPL 7700 and anti-newton top glass are still backordered and I don’t know when they’ll come in, so making medium format prints is on hold indefinitely. Hopefully within another month I’ll have what I need on hand and can expand from only 35mm to 35mm, medium format, and 35mm half-frame.

Incidentally, I have secured an Olympus Pen D, which replaces one that died on me just as I was beginning to love it like mad, and which I will be using to continue my (suckerpunch) photo series/book project.

Since my last update, I have gone to the same dusty old film shop in Busan (run by a dusty old man) to stock up on more chemicals and 35mm Tri-X. His prices are high, but not out of fair range and I don’t have many alternative options at the moment. Besides, I honestly would rather pay a bit more and support an independent, long-established vendor who has been very helpful than mail-order materials in from Seoul.

New non-consumable purchases include the aforementioned enlarging lens and negative carrier along with an Ilford Antistaticum antistatic cloth (an oft-forgotten but indispensable darkroom accessory) and a set of Ilford Multigrade contrast filters in the 3.5″ square size to fit the lamphouse of my enlarger.

This adds about $280 USD to my investment in the darkroom project, not counting shipping costs. That brings the running total to around $690 USD, not including consumable items. I now have what I consider to be a very nice setup in terms of equipment, too, so it’s still well within bargain range. Some items could be better, of course, such as the repurposed beverage containers (read: 2 liter bottles) used for chemical storage, but the improvised solutions will work for the time being. I’ll have more appropriate items in use after my next move when I know I’m not going to have to jettison the items within six months.

At this point, the darkroom project is entirely about what I need to have on hand in order to get the job done. It has little to do with having an ideal setup, aside from having invested in an enlarger and a handful of other items that I will move with the rest of my stuff and which I view as an investment for the long term. In six months after I make my next move, I’ll be doing a lot more in the area of trying to create a more convenient, practical, and efficient physical setup. You know, things like tables (working on the floor isn’t so great), a non-terrible safelight, a print washer, a film washer, a film drying cabinet, and a dry mount press. This is truly a long-term project that goes much farther than my immediate needs in Changwon, Korea.

More updates to follow soon (as in actually soon….really).

I regret that I have been neglecting my blog completely for two months (where did those months go, anyway? if anyone knows, shoot me an email). I have been doing a bit more with the darkroom project, however. I am now developing film regularly, having gotten my stainless steel tanks and reels from the US and some more chemicals from the shop in Busan. I haven’t done much printing yet, but should be ramping up to do plenty of it in the near future. I have also placed an order with B&H Photo in NYC, as there are a handful of items that I have not been able to locate anywhere in Korea, let alone anywhere else in Asia. This includes a glass masking universal negative carrier, anti-newton top glass, and an 80mm enlarging lens. This is so that I can enlarge medium format negatives - something that is jugularly important to my work, as medium format is my bread and butter.

Unfortunately, on top of being special-order, the negative carrier and top glass are now back-ordered as well. With luck, I’ll be printing medium format by some time in February.

More updates coming soon (for real, I swear).

Except in atypical circumstances or instances of extreme fatigue, heavy load, etc, I cannot ride a bicycle slowly. Perhaps “cannot” seems like an overstatement, so I will say it this way as well: I have immense difficulty riding slowly or even at a “normal” pace when my legs are screaming GO GO GO. I like to go fast. I don’t care much about driving fast or anything like that. Rather, I like to go fast under my own power. When I run, I have a tendency to overdo it and nearly kill myself in the first two miles, often ending any particular run lying on the ground trying to breathe. When I ride, it’s the same thing except that I am able to make myself hurt longer and go faster for farther than I can while running.

I love riding fast, and even more than that I (generally) prefer doing so in an urban environment. The feel of really moving while navigating fluidly though the chaos of a city is delightful. By this, I don’t mean riding recklessly, but with a working understanding of how things flow and (sometimes more importantly) fail to flow in traffic.

Understanding the way traffic works is mostly a matter of coming to an understanding of how many moving things are all interacting simultaneously. Unimaginable layers of ever-changing vectors all piled up on one another, intertwining, interacting, overriding, aligning with, and screwing up one another continually. This is true of vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic, the interaction between the two, and so on. With enough experience, one begins to see everything going on around him in terms of space and objects and speed. Gaps opening and closing, moving around, a hundred different things all moving at once in an intersection creating a sea of things to understand and maneuver through on the fly.

As a general rule, traffic is a bit more predictable and easy to read than most might guess. That’s not to say that unexpected things don’t happen, though. Hell, unexpected things happen all the time. Ridiculous things. Things that there seems to be no excuse for in any imagining of how the world is supposed to work. Things that have you screaming at buses, lobbing the orange that was in your jacket pocket, contemplating setting fire to vehicles, and so on. Still, once one figures out how to read it and it becomes naturally, it’s amazing how fluidly one can navigate even thoroughly jacked up traffic situations.

Ultimately, one of the most striking characteristics of urban riding (for me, at least) is its addictive nature. Understanding traffic and blazing through it feels great. In any reasonably-sized city, traffic often becomes congested, and as soon as that even begins, it’s not too difficult for a bicycle to become a faster means of transportation than any form of motor vehicle. For me, this is when urban riding is at its best. When I can make it 10km across the entire city and do so notably more quickly than a car or bus or whatever else, that says something about the efficiency of cycling in an urban environment. What’s more, once you get a taste for blazing across a city on two wheels that you’re powering with your legs, it becomes like an automatic training program. Any time you go somewhere on your bike, you go there quickly. Riding slowly becomes something that just seems…stupid. People begin stopping you why you’re so winded when you arrive somewhere because it’s just something that you do and they’ve figured out that it’s easier to not ask any more.

Once it gets inside of you, it changes you. You may never be the same again, and that’s probably for the better. True, some might consider it an unhealthy habit to enjoy threading through traffic at an accelerated rate on a lightweight steel bicycle with narrow tires and only one gear, but they’ll never understand what they’re missing.

Once I get paid next on the 10th (a week from Tuesday), I will be ordering the handful of things I will need to get my darkroom project a bit further underway. For enlarging I have the enlarger, lens, carrier, easel, timer, safelight, and trays. I also have a film developing tank and a couple reels that came with the enlarger setup. I will eventually have my stainless steel reels shipped to me from the US, but the plastic will do for now.

What I need additionally is as follows:

• Film developer
• Paper developer
• Fixer
• Wetting agent (Photo flo)
• Wash aid such as Heico Perma Wash
• Printing paper
• Thermometer
• Graduates
• Storage jugs

The chemicals are pretty straight forward. Film developer will probably be Ilford ID-11 or Kodak D-76. Paper developer TBD, as I’m not sure what’s easily available here. In the long run I’ll be using Ansco 130 again, but that’s not so easy or inexpensive to get my hands on at the moment. Fixer will just be standard rapid fix. The wetting agent will be for hanging film to dry, so that it doesn’t wind up with water spots. You’ll note the lack of stop bath. I haven’t used stop bath in years, for film developing or printing. The wash aid isn’t important for RC prints, but makes life a lot easier when you are printing on fiber-based paper (my preference) as it cuts a huge amount of time off of that part of the process.

Paper-wise I’m not sure what I’ll be getting, but probably Ilford Multigrade IV fiber-based paper in glossy finish. My old favorite, AGFA MCC 111 FB, met an untimely end. I am happy to say that it is being resurrected, but not yet easily available or in packages big enough to be economical for me. In time, though, I will likely go back to it. The combination of AGFA 111 and Ansco 130 was the best paper/developer combination I ever used and I really got a great feel for it when I was in college.

Graduates will, for the time being, probably just be cutoff drink bottles with the important measurements marked on the outside with a marker. Not glamorous, but it works well enough in the short term. Storage jugs will be 2-liter drink bottles. These are amber in color and are made to hold carbonated beverages, which means that gaseous exchange through the bottle isn’t a problem. For a thermometer, I can easily get a digital kitchen thermometer at the store for about ₩10,000.

At this point, the primary goal is to get up and running developing film and making prints as soon as possible. I never stopped developing film, but due to unfavorable circumstances I have been unable to make silver prints for a couple years now so the first box of paper will be spent getting my chops back. In the long run I will get everything set up just-so, especially after I move to Japan next year, but initially the point is to get back to printing at all.

Soon I will post some photos of the room that I’ll be using as well as a drawing/layout of the space and how I will likely have it set up.

Wheels are turning, etc. This is now in my spare room in my apartment. Not shown are other things like a grain focuser, timer, voltage converter, trays, light box, loupe, 50mm enlarging lens, etc. With the help of friends (Emily and Trey I love you both), we rented a car today, drove to Busan, and picked up all of the equipment. For the amount of excellent equipment I now have here for this project, I’ve paid an excellent price.

Including car rental, gas, tolls, etc, total investment thus far approximately ₩475,000.

As a direct result of setting up a darkroom here in my apartment in the near future, I will again be offering prints for sale. General details as follows, more specifics to come:

Silver gelatin prints
~6×9″ on 8×10″ paper for 35mm images, similar for medium format images
All new work, as all my existing negatives are back in the US
Archival fiber-based prints
Editions of 25, limited, plus five artist proofs
Pricing TBD (to be determined)

Consider this the official announcement for a new project. In my apartment here in Changwon, I have a small second room that is currently being used for storage. I can store what’s in that room on the balcony, though, and convert it into a darkroom. That is the plan.

The room that I will be converting is small, maybe 8×8 feet in size, and has one small window that would be easily blacked out. The floor is covered with the same ubiquitous linoleum-like covering that seems to be in 90% of Korean apartments, which makes for easy cleanup of spilled chemicals. The one window makes running an exhaust fan a cinch. The door to the room appears to need only a towel under the bottom edge to make it light-tight.

In a couple of weeks, I will be purchasing and picking up the bulk of my darkroom equipment in Busan. That includes an enlarger, lens, safelight, exhaust fan, timer, contact printer, trays, filters, and voltage converter for the enlarger. I will still need to source my preferred printing paper, bulk chemicals to mix up paper developer, a scale for weighing out chemicals, storage bottles, and things like that. All of this will be documented fully as well.

The whole process of setting up the darkroom will be fully documented and posted here on the blog. I hope to illustrate how excellent results can be achieved in setting up a home darkroom, even if the space you have to use is not ideal and/or you don’t exactly have the best options in equipment at your disposal. I think people tend to overestimate the difficulty and expense associated with setting up a darkroom and getting into making silver gelatin prints, and with luck I’ll shed a little light on how easy and inexpensive it can be.

The first real installment will come when I acquire the first big chunk of equipment and start about setting up the second room for printing. Should be in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

I am back in Korea, settling back into the work routine now that I am over my food poisoning (more on that later). My trip to Japan was a success overall, though it certainly could have gone a bit more smoothly.

The most successful and enjoyable part of the trip was the two days that I spent in Kyoto. The event brought in people from about 19 different countries and was a distinct success, even though the main race had to be canceled due to police intervention. Side events ensured people had a good time anyway. The reduced price of beer helped as well.

Just before boarding the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Kyoto, I had a sandwich at the station. It was that sandwich from which I got sick. The following Monday morning (the next day) I was sick with food poisoning and remained sick for the remainder of my trip. Toward the end of the trip, I was able to go out and explore Tokyo, as well as take part in the large exhibit put on by the magazine at a café near the Rainbow Bridge.

It would be easy to be bitter and upset about having gotten so sick on my first trip to a country I had been wanting to visit for so long, but being upset about it wouldn’t change anything and I really did have a good time anyway. It’s amazing how much being in a really cool place and spending time with really good people can compensate for what would otherwise be a thoroughly unenjoyable situation.

The vast majority of the photographs from my trip are from the first few days when I was in Osaka and Kyoto. After I got sick, photographic activity dropped off to almost zero. It’s not that I didn’t want to photograph my time in Tokyo so much as it is that it is very hard to feel artistic and creative when venturing farther than 15 feet from a bathroom is a risky move.

I am currently working on new photographs from Kyoto, some of which will be in a later issue of the magazine. Editing and processing are time-consuming and laborious, even when shooting with a digital camera and not film. Shooting digital certainly can save a lot of time, but it also depends quite a lot on how one tends to process individual shots. If all I did was to make a few basic corrections on any given file, it would be very quick. I could even set up the computer to automate the task. However, given the special look I am trying to achieve for this particular article, things are a bit more complex than that to say the least.

In other news, after some light prodding by friends, I am beginning to work daily on a book project I came up with the concept for a month or so ago. Additionally, there is a local photographer here who is selling me his darkroom equipment at a great price. This is fantastic news for me, as it will allow me to begin making fine art prints again. I have not been able to print properly for a few years now, and it has bothered me to no end.

That is the current state of things here in South Korea. Teaching English is generally uneventful, though certainly not without its rewards. Gaining lots of good experience and enjoying being immersed in another culture.

My last, totally-preoccupied post noted the amount of time between me and my departure for Japan. That amount of time has been reduced to about 90 minutes. In 90 minutes I will drag my bike, my backpack, and my camera bag down to the bus stop down the street to catch the airport limo. My flight takes off at 11:00 AM. I will be in Osaka in time for a late lunch.

This is a major thing for me. This trip is pretty much historical in the sense that I’ve been anticipating it and wanting to make it happen for something like 9 years. I couldn’t ask for a better set of circumstances to make it happen, either. Kyoto Loco and CMWC are killer events, and I get to be involved in both.

This trip will be EPIC. It is my hope that the end result is nothing short of that.

The first of two Mondays, that is, that lie in between me and my trip to Japan. I must admit that the anticipation is already getting quite thick. Still some things to get done before I go, but it’s mostly just the waiting at this point that has me. When I travel, there are some things that I don’t like about it all, but by far the worst is waiting to leave. I loathe waiting to leave. I’m just not very good at it. If I know I’m going to go, and especially if I’m leaving to do something awesome, I want to just go and be on my way.

That’s one nice thing about road trips by car, actually. As opposed to taking a flight, if you’ve got nothing else you’re waiting on, you can pretty much just leave whenever.

An example: today I met my boss and coworkers for lunch. They said to meet them at noon. I was there ten minutes early. I wasn’t early because I had intended to be, as it wasn’t a critical thing. I was early because I didn’t feel like waiting to leave.

I have things for my trip to Japan staged in a box in the corner of my bedroom. I got a box of 500 business cards back from the printers today specifically for this trip. I intend to distribute just about every last one of them in the span of 10 days. I have made about six packing lists, each one more finely-tuned than the one before it.

The anticipation is going to get ridiculous.