Sante D'Orazio - Private Life

Just bought this book while shopping in Edinburgh at the weekend. I really like Sante D'Orazio's work and this book is just fantastic. The layout and style of the presentation just suits the imagery so well - the book follows a sort of scrapbook style presentation and just has page after page of fantastic images. As you read through the pages, you feel as if you are reading Sante's private diary.

Most of the photographs seem to date from the early and mid 1990's and it is the monochrome images that really grabbed me. The photographs of Kim Bassinger, Drew Barrymore, Naomi Campbell and Raquel Welch are simply stunning.

For me, it is one of those books that I wish I could have produced (if only I had the talent!).

To truly appreciate this book, you have to see beyond the pure technicalities of the photographs and just engage with the mood. I know some photographers are going to look at this book and say some of the images are blurred or not printed very well, but the atmosphere is just overwhelming. What strikes me most about Sante D'Orazio is the relationship that he must have established with the people that he shoots. Truly a magnificent book and one that I will cherish.

If you are looking for a copy of it, you will find it here on the UK Amazon site. I think there are a few different versions of this book around, some with different images on the cover. I have the paperback version published in 2006. ISBN: 978-3888149115.

Cyanotype experiments

Well, using the sun tanning lamp I tried some experiments a few weeks ago. I have finally found time to scan the results.

The objective of the experiments was to determine the amount of time required to reach maximum black (or rather in the case of Cyanotypes, blue) when exposed under a sun tan lamp. The contraption shown in one of my previous posts has allowed me to place the lamp at a consistent distance from the paper, so the experiments should be repeatable.

The first strip was exposed for 1, 2, 3 and 4 minutes. It was produced by shading parts of the paper just like exposing a test strip. The first strip shows that 1 minute is not enough and 2 minutes is too much. So I exposed a second strip to determine where between 1 and 2 minutes the correct exposure lies. The second strip is exposed in 15 seconds starting at 60 seconds. This time it is a bit more difficult to tell where the correct exposure lies, but it looks like it is around 90 seconds.

So now I know that 90 seconds is the least amount of time that it will take to produce maximum black (blue!) using the sun tan lamp. Now it is a case of producing negatives of the appropriate density to produce the required cyanotype.....

Bit more success with 5x4

Went to Osterley Park (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-osterleypark/) last Friday and shot some film just for fun. Shot 3 rolls of 35mm (one of them HIE) as well as some 5x4. All the 35mm films look good and of the 18 sheets of 5x4, there are only 4 blanks. Those that are exposed look pretty good. The 4 blanks were due to a "brainfart" with one darkslide (I took the darkslide out, turned it around, re-inserted it and then exposed the film!). The other darkslide was an unexposed one that got mixed up with the exposed sheets and I developed it just to be sure.

I will post some of the examples in the next few days once I get around to printing them.