From: Doug_Niven (doug_niven@compuserve.com)
Date: 01/04/02-11:16:01 PM Z
Hi Folks,
I've been a faithful reader of this list for many years, but have quietly
lurked for the most part.
For the past six years I've been collecting and printing more than 300
photographs in Vietnam, in a variety of darkrooms ranging from decent to
dreadful, printing photos of the Vietnam War made by Vietnamese
photographers, from their perspective.
The various alt-photo-process members that gave me help along the way
have made a significant contribution towards the completion of my work,
and your assistance has been invaluable. Thanks to all of you! When it
came time to do get a copy camera setup I sought help from this list,
which turned out perfectly: the copy negs, all made with a Pentax 6x7 and
a 130mm macro, make prints that are indistinguishable from prints made
from original negatives.
Also, I ran across several negatives that never yielded satisfactory
prints in the darkroom, so I drum-scanned (Tango) these and then made
black and white digital prints (thanks to a place called Rieger Imaging,
which as far as I know is the only place running black and white
silver-gelatin paper through their Lamda digital printer). These digital
prints all came out wonderfully, and are also indistinguishable from
traditional prints. The Vietnamese photographers had tears in their eyes
when they saw the prints!! They had never been able to achieve such
fantastic results! Although these are not platinum or gum prints, they
are still from an alternative process.
I would like to invite all of you to see the results of my efforts, which
come out next week with both a book release and an exhibition of prints
at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City.
The book is called Another Vietnam: Pictures from the Other Side of the
War (National Geographic Books). You should be able to find it in your
bookstores beginning Jan 10 or online.
The exhibition, of about 100 original prints, runs at ICP from January 11
till March 17, 2002, which is located at 1133 Ave. of the Americas (at
43rd). The ICP has a website but it hasn't been updated in a long time...
Finally, a one-hour documentary on the Vietnamese photographers will air
on MSNBC on January 20, in case you're interested in these great unsung
hero photographers! These guys had to make prints in caves during the
war, using sunlight they isolated into tiny tubes and then focused
through 50mm SLR lenses! Sometimes they even used kerosene lamps as light
sources when printing. They developed film in tea saucers late at night
along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, using homemade chemistry. One guy used gun
powder removed from bullets to fashion a home-made flash while in a cave
complex near the DMZ! Talk about alternative processes!
If by chance you see the book or the show, you can be assured that the
help I got from this list made a big difference to my project. I also
thanked this list in the acknowledgements.
Thanks a lot!
Sincerely, Doug Niven
Photographer-Editor
Santa Cruz, CA
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