Photo Chemical Pride

Brett Weston liked his 'photographer of the old school using Amidol' look in
the fashion of those European photographers with the black fingernails.

Then, Ansel -- the one who was a fac. member at the SF Institute, or Art
School -- donated his body to science to prove photo chemicals had no ill
effect on people. It was so proven.

Ansel was one of the first to have bipass surgery for his heart congestion,
and felt 'like a new man.' He ignored the doctor's advice to take it easy,
even though he might feel great and pushed himself into another surgery.
The rest, is history.

Brett, ignored his chest pains thinking it was anxiety. A type of pain he'd
had all too often. He died of a heart attack.

Oh, yea . . . Brett's black nails would was out and he would look normal, so
he'd announce that that meant he had to get back into the darkroom. Of
course THAT was the REAL reason he kept using his hands in the Amidol
without gloves. A kind of 'art clock' to tell him the time to get back to
work.

So, we can all learn. Using developers that make your nails turn black will
either cause or aleviate your anxiety and dictate through personal pride
untempered, eventual cardiac arrest.

(Check that punctuation, Judy.)

Steve Shapiro, Carmel, CA

PS: Don't inhale pyrogalol powder. It'll kill you.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Fulton
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: Bad Martha --- way way way off topic

Where I teach (San Francisco Art Institute) is a "fine-arts-only"
environment.
We contract annually with a NY based company to hold sessions informing us
of art materials handling, dangers and disposal. Minona, the woman who does
the series of lectures, points out none of the materials are really safe.
And, safe means what we might think as kind of silly handling . . like
sticking your hands in the developer. Was it Ed or Brett Weston (you'll know
Steve) who held a certain pride in black fingernails stemming from Amidol
use in the developer.
Further, Minona points out that nomenclature for common household items such
as 'organic', 'biodegradable' et al, are not actually. An interesting point
was that the laundry detergent industry had many phosphates which became
evident in canals, streams, etc. due to its foaming. Industry removed it but
now what is in there in the streams is invisible. I am sure most of you know
of birth control hormones pass through sewage disposal plants and downstream
fish have been noted to have either changed sex or be hermaphroditic.
Too, we have friends who thought sushi to be a way of life and after
consuming it three to four times a week developed weakness and hair fallout.
Doctors found mercury poisoning from eating the fish.
I only point out these anecdotes so that we all realize involvement with
chemicals that are manufactured on a constant basis is not good for us. Even
sulfites in wine caused labels to be placed on them as warnings to pregnant
women.
In other words, Stuart is right . . we all should be careful in our
darkrooms.
Jack

Now do I really have to ask whether we need any more
proof that the fumes from the chemicals we alt
photographers breathe do harm to our minds?

Where's Susan Powter when we need her. We need to
"stop this insanity"!

I suggest that we start a fund to send alt
photographers to the open spaces to breathe fresh air.
I think that Jack runs a camping trip into Neveda (?
or some place out west, I forgot to turn on my
darkroom exhaust fan today) -- which should be plenty
of fresh air. Unless there is still trace radiation in
the air that may interact with the alt chemicals.

Argon3, I think you should be our poster boomer (child
just didn't seem appropriate ). Just post a jpeg on
your website (remember attachments to this list are
not permitted) and we'll (or at least someone, I hope)
will design the poster. I'm going to be too busy this
weekend shovelling snow.

Stuart
Received on Sat Jan 22 23:37:34 2005