bromoil boot camp
Dear All, I am finally done with my wonderful 2 weeks in the North Carolina mountains--at Penland School where David Lewis taught a bromoil intensive. First, the school is excellent--the food, a full 3 meals a day, is worth the stay. It is out in the middle of buck nowhere, so the chance to do your art full time is perfect. Most of us 10 students worked from 9 AM to about midnight every day. David was a trooper as well as a total HOOT. He stayed up with us almost every night. I did notice cocktail hour out on the patio of the photo lab getting sooner and sooner each night as the group warmed up to one another! All 10 of us got "exhibition" quality bromoils in that span of time--in fact most of us got about 10-15 prints done to satisfaction. We learned to start small and work up to bigger ones. I learned in several days enough to leave the workshop and feel I got my money's worth. I really enjoyed David's dedication to teaching us. Of course, I started experimenting around with all kinds of Chrissie-techniques heheheheheh...no wonder he had to start cocktail hour early. One ingenious thing i will share with the group--he hit upon Kirkland Ink Jet Paper available at Costco as being a perfect digital negative substrate for bromoil. I thought it might be less sharp or whatnot (show paper fibers, etc.) but I'll be darned--I calibrated bromoil while there on an Epson 1280 printer (I missed my 2400) a la PDN, got a curve, exposure time at F8 was about 26 seconds at the enlarger height I was using (135mm lens) so certainly times were not excessive. The bromoils were as sharp as ever. And in the span of time I could print out 20 (!) different digital negatives and go in the darkroom, press the enlarger button for a 26 second exposure and develop, the others were dinking around with one image or two and test strips. A plug for digital. At 17 cents a sheet of 8.5x11 this is a STEAL compared to Pictorico. David is going to try to see if the manufacturer would produce bigger sizes of this substrate, but the name of the manufacturer is not on the box except that the company is in Switzerland. One more thing--those with limited resources can apply to assist at Penland and get room and board and the workshop for free. I will not say it is easy--I am pretty exhausted--but the price is right. You can also work-study there for a session and the same applies but the much cushier position is teaching assistant because you do not miss classtime to prepare meals and such as the work-study students have to. If I was younger, work study would be fine. Many of the people are returning students so the experience is certainly life-changing in ways and quite positive. Chris Assistant Professor of Photography Photography Option Coordinator Montana State University College of Arts and Architecture Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Room 220 P.O. Box 173350 Bozeman, MT 59717-3350 Tel (406) 994 6219 CZAphotography.com
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