Black & White Renaissance 2

roteague · Apr 24, 2006

Here is an article some may find interesting:

http://photography.about.com/od/choosingfilm/a/newfilms.htm

"Although a number of black and white films have been discontinued in recent years there have also been others that have been made available, either new films or ones that had previously been restricted to a limited market, particularly those manufactured in central European countries. Although as this feature shows, there are now still many possibilities if you want to shoot black and white, don't expect to find these films in your neighbourhood store or local mall. Black and white is now a specialist area, and you will probably need to order many of these films by mail or visit a specialist supplier, such as Dead Link Removed or Dead Link Removed in the UK or Dead Link Removed or Dead Link Removed in the US"

arigram · Apr 24, 2006

What is interesting is that you fished out the article Mr. Robert "Color-Maniac" Teague.

jp80874 · Apr 24, 2006

roteague said:
Here is an article some may find interesting:

http://photography.about.com/od/choosingfilm/a/newfilms.htm

Black and white is now a specialist area, and you will probably need to order many of these films by mail or visit a specialist supplier,

Yes, but Robert I can't go down to the largest photo dealer in Cleveland (nearest city to my rural town) and buy 8x10 color either. Two years ago I stopped going there when they limited their 4x5 inventory to one 50 sheet box of Tri-X. I was shooting T Max 400, buying from them, and they didn't care, so I stopped caring for them and went mail order. Now I have a thread open here discussing where you can buy 7x17 film.

John Powers

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 24, 2006

Aw, nice article, but should I be the author, I would fear the backlash against the following statement: "Among losses in recent years have been the entire Agfa range (perhaps not a great loss in general, apart from two specialist matererials, Agfapan 25 and Scala)"

Ouch!

roteague · Apr 24, 2006

arigram said:
What is interesting is that you fished out the article Mr. Robert "Color-Maniac" Teague.

I have to admit, I didn't look for it. On my website, on the Articles page, I have an RSS feed to the About.com photography section. It is on the right hand side, below the google ads. http://www.visionlandscapes.com/ArticlesTips.aspx

jovo · Apr 24, 2006

Thanks, Robert. I just used the link to offer a 35mm defense in a digi vs film comparison on another site. Film may no longer rule, but it damn sure works!

juan · Apr 25, 2006

If my camera club is any indicator, there is a renewed interest in "monochrome" as they call it - but the interest is digital. At meetings there's a lot of discussion about how to best use Photoshop to desaturate the color and how to go about printing on an inkjet.

We recently had a juried exhibit at a local arts center - the inkjet prints looked pale grey next to my Azo prints and another photographer's Kentmere Bromide prints, so I intend to continue the traditional process.

But it will be interesting to see where this trend goes.
juan

CraigK · Apr 25, 2006

In my photography school, among the diploma students, we are noticing a trend towards darkroom black and white work and "classic' cameras. For most of the young people in the program, digital stuff is pretty much an everyday sort of thing...no big deal. They use it and enjoy it but do not find it nearly as cool as the darkroom. For them, producing a black and white print in the darkroom is something special.

Recently we bagan a teen class (weekends and evenings mostly) and were pleasantly surprised to read in the feedback forms filled out after the course that 90% of students found the darkroom portion and black and white in general to be the best thing about the class and the thing they would most like to do more of!

Willie Jan · Apr 25, 2006

We started here (The Netherlands) a new workgroup analog black & white last month with 4 new members who want to use film and bought themselves a darkroom.

Brac · Apr 25, 2006

mhv said:
Aw, nice article, but should I be the author, I would fear the backlash against the following statement: "Among losses in recent years have been the entire Agfa range (perhaps not a great loss in general, apart from two specialist matererials, Agfapan 25 and Scala)"

Ouch!

Interesting article but I think the point he was making about the Agfa range was that there were plenty of easily available alternatives to the Agfa 100 & 400 films but not so for Scala and the ISO 25 film. I would agree with that i.e. its sad to see APX100 & 400 go but there still are lots of alternatives albeit they are not exactly the same.

DBP · Apr 25, 2006

juan said:
If my camera club is any indicator, there is a renewed interest in "monochrome" as they call it - but the interest is digital. At meetings there's a lot of discussion about how to best use Photoshop to desaturate the color and how to go about printing on an inkjet.

That's the mentality that drove me away from the local camera club - two people behind me trying to program their EOS's to do multiple exposures - when I remarked that all I did was recock the shutter they seemed mystified - guess there are more advantages to having an Argus C-3 around.

zenrhino · Apr 25, 2006

DBP said:
guess there are more advantages to having an Argus C-3 around.

Agreed! Here are a few of them:

Cheap boat anchor/tire chock if needed.
Able to ward off muggers by beating them in the head with the C-3
Can be used to fill in space when you tuckpoint your brownstone.

DBP · Apr 25, 2006

And don't forget Marcy's brick bar-b-q.

But they really don't do well as anchors, you need something shaped like a view camera to grab the mud.

DBP · Apr 25, 2006

Which reminds me of the general dismal public level of camera knowledge - I have had more than one person ask if my brick was a Leica!

pentaxuser · Apr 25, 2006

juan said:
If my camera club is any indicator, there is a renewed interest in "monochrome" as they call it - but the interest is digital. At meetings there's a lot of discussion about how to best use Photoshop to desaturate the color and how to go about printing on an inkjet.

We recently had a juried exhibit at a local arts center - the inkjet prints looked pale grey next to my Azo prints and another photographer's Kentmere Bromide prints, so I intend to continue the traditional process.

But it will be interesting to see where this trend goes.
juan

I was at the National Portrait Gallery in London(U.K.) last week and there were a number of photographic prints there, both colour and B&W. Not a digital in sight. The B&W were all fibre bromide prints and the colour mainly RA4 with the odd cibachrome thrown in. What was heartening was the colour prints were very recent and well within the era of digital so presumably the photographers could have opted for digital but didn't.

A telling comment maybe from both the photographers in question and the Potrait Gallery on what they think of digital's archival properties and/or appearance.

pentaxuser

Papa Tango · Apr 25, 2006

Duh...

DBP said:
Which reminds me of the general dismal public level of camera knowledge - I have had more than one person ask if my brick was a Leica!

Hopefully you told them yes!

My first camera was one of these gems. In my mind at that time (12 years old) it was every bit as good as a Leica, and a thing of beauty.

Rob Archer · Apr 25, 2006

DBP said:
Which reminds me of the general dismal public level of camera knowledge - I have had more than one person ask if my brick was a Leica!

I was out with my Graflex Century Graphic the other week when a young lady (a member of a local camera club) looked at it for a bit and said " that looks like an old camera - don't you have trouble getting batteries for it?"!!!

Rob

DBP · Apr 25, 2006

Rob Archer said:
I was out with my Graflex Century Graphic the other week when a young lady (a member of a local camera club) looked at it for a bit and said " that looks like an old camera - don't you have trouble getting batteries for it?"!!!

Rob

That's as bad as the young lady who thought my Yashicamat was digital because it had a bright screen for a viewfinder (courtesy of Bill Maxwell).

Black & White Renaissance 2

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