Re: black fingernails, et al, was Re: Paper - baby oil Digi Negs
I don't know re Alfred or Edward but Imogen did for a while and then,
I believe, her son did. Ansel printed until the very end and I just
had a conversation with a friend who'd visited him 2 week or perhaps 2
months prior to his passing and when he got to the house, Ansel walks
out of the darkroom to greet him and have a cocktail.
Gary was about the most enthusiastic photographer I've met. He was a
good pal of one of my pals, Henry Wessel. I met Gary a few times and
we went for a walk or to have a cocktail and zingo, bingo, click,
click, snappety snap . . . . he just photographed roll after roll
after roll. Heck later, trying to employ such enthusiasm after
receiving a grant in Paris, I wore my camera out (I thought) and shot
43 rolls in 6 weeks. Another photographer I know went over for a
couple of weeks and shot 125 rolls.
Until a couple of years ago I developed everything in my darkroom but
it has become so difficult to purchase chemistry that drug stores now
handle the majority of the development (or a good pro shop nearby).
but everything else is here and most of that is digital but for the
stuff that digital cannot do.
Jack F
On Aug 31, 2009, at 11:38 AM, Judy Seigel wrote:
What I'm wondering is.... did folks like Stieglitz, Steichen and
Imogene Cunningham do their own darkroom work? I'm also thinking
fame may have been more likely for those with a long life... they
not only lived to do their "mature work," they were around to hustle
it. (I also know folks who printed for famous photographers, for
instance, for Helen Levitt-- and where the printing process isn't
part of the image [as in "alt" & maybe sometimes even then], I'd
count that a consumation devoutly to be wished.)
Meanwhile, the only name that came to mind right off for early death
was Gary Winogrand (and that only because photography's best
sneerer, AD Coleman, sneered at him in one of his books for having
left -- hundreds? thousands? -- of rolls of exposed film unexamined
at his death)... Winogrand was 56.
In any event, I doubt that the figure about increased cancer among
photographers was baseless... Tho now that I think of it, a friend
of mine took David Vestal's class in fine printing at Pratt.... I'll
check with her about his stand on hands-in ... & also check his
books to see if there's a caveat.
I also point out that I never in my life had a sign of allergy of
*any* kind -- not hay fever, not ragweed, not bee stings, let alone
bananas and chocolate that torture me today (sob!). I suppose,
therefore, that it was the years of intimate contact with turpentine
in a closed room that brought it on... I also note that in a
painting class in those days (maybe still today ?) before acrylics,
each student had a butcher tray of oil paints squeezed out and mixed
in the center, that is, about 25 trays sloshing with turpentine in a
closed classroom.. Any "fine art" student was likely to have had
several such classes, as did I.
cheers,
Judy
On Sun, 30 Aug 2009, Joseph Smigiel wrote:
Imogen Cunningham at 93 died the same day as Minor White on June
24, 1976. Perhaps Imogen used tongs.
Joe
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