[alt-photo] Re: DESICCATE! DESICCATE! DANCE TO THE MUSIC!

[Diana Bloomfield]

Well, Alberto-- All I can say is that I have had innumerable courses  
in photography, and -- not even once -- did any instructor, or class  
member, ever make anything about photography or printing seem so  
complicated.  And these instructors, many of whom are house-hold names  
in the field of photography, were very thorough in their teaching.

And while I also teach photography, and alt processes, most of the  
classes I teach are for students who are just delving, ever so  
timidly, into the alt process realm, though they have been long-time  
photographers.  I can tell you, without hesitation, that if I were to  
present some of the material in the way it was presented here-- to  
those beginning classes-- I'd lose a lot of students and turn a lot of  
folks off to alt-processes.  (Sometimes I think that's the point here?)

And you must have had some very fine classes when you were 12.  When I  
was 12, I was in the 6th-- or maybe 7th grade.  It's been so long I  
can't remember.  Trust me when I tell you that we weren't discussing  
molarity or moles, and chemistry was most definitely not offered in my  
school in the 6th or 7th grade.  Just so that doesn't sound like I  
grew up in the Stone Age, my daughter is 23, and she wasn't offered  
chemistry when she was 12, either.   I'm impressed that it was offered  
to you.  Of course, we did go to American schools. ;)  (Joke-- please  
don't any teachers come harping at me about that.)

If you sensed that I was "in disagreement with the argumentations  
about chemistry and math," then you were reading something in my post  
that was never there-- or, possibly, you simply didn't read very  
carefully.  Perhaps, at 12,  your English classes weren't as stellar  
as your chemistry and math classes? ;)    (That is actually where my  
American schools excelled, about which I am very grateful.)

My point-- and, honestly-- I'm going to make this only one more time--  
because, ultimately, it really makes no difference what I think.   
But . . . I would not have wanted this taught to me in the way it was  
presented here, in any beginning photography or alt-process class.   
While I didn't have the benefit of your education, I believe  most  
students I've ever taught (and people I actually know who do alt- 
processes) would probably agree with me.  Delving into those aspects  
of print-making a little deeper, once students have actually learned  
to coat the damn paper properly and come up with an actual image of  
sorts, just mixing the initial chemistry and getting that right--   
well, then, I think going into all that in a deeper way certainly  
makes sense-- but don't turn them off before they ever get to that  
point.  And I think that approach would (in my opinion).  And I really  
don't think I'm unusual in thinking that way.  Sorry.  (I suspect a  
lot more people agree with me here than not, but they're not gonna  
post that, for obvious reasons.)

I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again.  I've had a lot  
of help here, with gum printing specifically.  Obviously, this is a  
tricky and fickle process, and I'm still working on it, but one of the  
most helpful set of instructions-- by far-- was in Judy's PF Journal.   
I thought her step-by-step instructions and illustrations on that were  
so clearly laid out, and I have to believe she wrote them that way for  
a reason.  I do believe there's a real art to teaching someone a  
relatively complicated process like that, but doing it in such a way  
that it's still fun and seemingly simple.  And let's not forget the  
endless possibilities of creativity and image interpretation that's  
involved in a process like that.  In all this discussion of chemistry  
and math, that surely seems to have been forgotten.

At any rate, I value the chemistry involved in all of these processes  
(really), and I do understand the importance of that-- how one can  
have much more "control"  and, perhaps, predictability, in their  
printing methods.  Keeping notes surely helps with that, too.   I  
would just never teach that in a beginning alt-process class, though,  
and certainly not in the way it was presented here.  That's all I'm  
saying.  Besides which, I'm not even sure how much I like control and  
predictability, both of which-- honestly-- sound a bit deadly to me.

~Diana


On Jul 29, 2010, at 3:15 AM, Alberto Novo wrote:

>> But . . . nothing I said in my earlier post suggested that I think   
>> topics should be shut down, that topics on science or chemistry  
>> are  inappropriate or "silly," or that whatever anybody might write  
>> is  pointless, stupid, or "off-bounds."   I choose not to talk  
>> about step  wedges and equations, but that's just me.  I read most  
>> every post  here, regardless--even detailed comments on processes  
>> about which I  know nothing-- hell, I didn't even use the delete  
>> key when we got to  pink thongs-- or was it a thong?  Hmm . . . But  
>> I digress.  My point is-- I agree with you.  What made you think I   
>> didn't?   Just because I said I would have been turned off by all  
>> that  chemistry in a beginning alt photo class/photography class?   
>> Well, I  would have been.  And I personally wouldn't teach a  
>> beginning printing  class that way, either.
>
> Diana,
> me too (perhaps not being an English mothertongue) had the feeling  
> that in your post you were in disagreement with the argumentations  
> about chemistry and math.
> I would add that the scientific concepts used in those discussions  
> were very simple, and I learned them when I was 12 years old  
> (proportions) and 15 (molarity and stoichiometry). I suppose that  
> others should have learned the some things at more or less my same  
> age, and should be known like the basic grammar, history and  
> literature.
>>> I think posts about the art, the craft, and the science of alt  
>>> photo  should all be welcomed—I don't see that any one category  
>>> should be  considered less appropriate.
>
> Mark,
> I agree. And more, I often try to see the connection among  
> photography, painting, music, history and policy evolving in the  
> same time. It is very fascinating.
> Alberto
> www.grupponamias.com
> www.alternativephotography.com/articles/art102.html
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