Sculptural Bodies #4

How the photos in the "Sculptural Bodies" Series were created:

I photographed the model against a black, felt background. I used one studio strobe, mounted as close to the lens axis as I could get it. The arms, head and legs were covered with black material. I cut up various sweaters, sweatshits and jogging pants. I used Tri-X, EI 200, developed in d-76 1+0 for 9 minutes in a Jobo.

Once developed, I then manipulated the negative. On the work print, the blacked out areas would show up. I bleached these areas on the neg with farmers reducer mixed 1+4 for about 10 minutes. I tried to match the density of the bleached areas with the background areas density on the neg. For the "breaks", I masked the negative with 3-M transperancy film and sketched in the break with various pencils and overhead transperancy markers. Green markers seem to give the proper density, with highlights provided by hard pencils.

For the "cracks", I scraped out the silver on the neg with an exacto knife, using the edge of the point. I then went over the crack with the green marker on the mask to lighten the area around the crack.

The final prints were made on Cranes Platinotype natural, using equal amounts of Pt. and Pl. The prints were developed in Potassium Oxalate. No FE-2 was used.

Allen

Allen,

For me, this is the most intriguing series of images I've ever seen on APUG! This body of work is so unique that I think it has great potential as a gallery or museum exhibition.

Gerhard

Allen,
I wasn't far off, in fact I had it pretty close. You did a great job and indeed stumped a bunch of folks. Will be looking for more of your images!

Charlie.....................

Well, I am very honoured to have one of these as part of the print exchange.

Regards, Art.

This is masterful darkroom and handwork. This one and the bust are my faves. Very nice. I see you printed on Cranes Platinotype. That was my all time favorite paper. That and Cranes Cover. I'm told Cranes Cover may return.

Wow! Excellent work all the way around! Thanks for the detailed explanation, very enlightening.

great.

reminds me a lot of William Mortensens "fragment" image - done looong ago...

see it here:

http://thescreamonline.com/photo/photo06-01/mortensen/fragment.html

but this is fun to try, isn't it?