Age & Time....Deja Vu all over again?

I wrote:

>> I don't
>> mean spray or rubbing which do after all modify the image (whether for
>> better or for worse is TBD [to be determined], which is to say, moot) but
>> in gentle agitation -- one of my favorites, incidentally, being from
>> Demachy, who would take a sponge and VERY gently squeeze so a few drops of
>> water at a time land on an area to be "opened up."

Terry responded:

> Judy exhorts the extreme flexibility of the development of gum prints
but
> then limits that freedom by appearing to object to modification of the image.

Sigh.... Either Terry doesn't know the meaning of the word "moot," or even
comprehend English very well, or is still determined to find any pretext
to "correct" me.

To wax poetic, age has not withered nor custom staled his ability and
proclivity to take a message of mine and twist it into something it isn't,
that I didn't and wouldn't mean, but that he can valiantly and brilliantly
save the ignorati from... (If he reads my mind so well, I wish he'd do
something useful, like figure out where I left my wristwatch last week.)

Those who were here in the reign of terror (pre-1998) may remember that
Terry read my mind so exquisitely he was ultimately put off the list for
it. Now he knows even MORE, although I dare say I'm not the only person
who's noticed he's marketing it. Obviously, if a person knows that
everyone else is making too big an issue out of easy things, & doing other
things the hard way, they're much more likely to pay HIM to show them the
right, EASY way.. And he's such an expert about EVERYTHING, it's awesome,
he must be really a good person or he'd be a millionaire by now.

For the record, I don't care a fig HOW folks develop prints in any medium.
(and I had made that point). I personally tend to do mine by eye, and I'm
either too undisciplined, too disorganized, too all over the map, too
lazy, or.... too inquisitive (or all of the above) to truly standardize.
In fact my specialty has long been not straight, but "crooked" photography
(now it's losing my watch in the living room). There's always the little
voice that says, what if you do such & such...? I was simply trying to
say, don't lose sight of the many controls in gum, and variations in
development are many of them. They also give what to me is important --
the opportunity to develop some parts of an image differently from others,
and often to correct one's mistakes. (Life should be like that.)

I would assume, however, that folks like Chris who "curve" a negative
while talking on the phone, or folding their socks, don't need such
controls... tho not everyone has (or necessarily needs/wants) that digital
capability.

I was NOT speaking against "standardization," nor was I claiming that
there's anything wrong with "modification" of the image. Far from it. (Now
Terry may say I'm telling other people to lose a watch in their living
room.) In fact I fancy myself something of a junky of ALL modification
(although not always moderation)... I was making a sometimes small,
sometimes crucial point, that certain methods (and IME especially
abrasion) affect the character of the image. Or let me put it another way,
when I was trying for a "c-print" look in color-separated gum (my
early experiments) abrasion ruined it. (Puleeze ! No lecture on the
difference between gum & c-print. I wrote that book.) And in all the gum
prints I've made, only one or two have benefitted from spraying. (Though
that could be my personal failure or a lack of judgement.)

In future however, I'll save myself some time for other life
modifications, by sending the lead sentence above, should Mr. Helpful
start reading my mind again...

love & kisses,

Judy

> Apart from anything else a spray of water will enhance the speed of
> development and enable shorter exposure times.. Using brushes will enable you to make a
> straight' development with the very gentle application of a very soft brush,
> I have a four inch sable, or arrive at different levels of manipulation using
> everything from water jets and bath sponges to brillo pads depending on the
> level of manipulation you require. It all depends upon the image you are
> trying to achieve.
>
> Incidentally, surely the whole point of gum was that the image could be
> manipulated. Internal evidence suggsts that a pretty fair proportion of Demachy's
> prints have been subjected to sprays or brushes.
>
> The great joy of gum is that there are no rules..
>
> Terry
>
> Terryu
>
Received on 07/18/06-01:19:55 PM Z