Eric William Carroll | Cameraless Photography

sasah zib · Apr 24, 2023

[~9min]

To learn about Eric's work, visit: http://www.ericwilliamcarroll.com/
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jvo · Apr 24, 2023

refreshingly at the opposite end of the spectrum in our archival, high price photography of the day!

VinceInMT · Apr 24, 2023

Thank you for that. I relate well to him especially when he said "My projects are labor intensive and that is meditative for me."

MattKing · Apr 25, 2023

Joyous and intriguing!

Daniela · Apr 25, 2023

Beautiful work.
I've done small shadow cyanotypes that way and seeing how he does the bigger images has given me some new ideas
Thank you!

koraks · Apr 25, 2023

Daniela said:
I've done small shadow cyanotypes that way

Please do explore that further!

Daniela · Apr 25, 2023

koraks said:
Please do explore that further!

I'm planning on it, especially now that Spring and sunny days are here...at least in theory

koraks · Apr 25, 2023

Yeah, it's still surprisingly cold and wintery, isn't it!

VinceInMT · Apr 25, 2023

Back in my pre-retired days, as a high school teacher I taught drafting and a general technology class and had a box of large size blueline paper and an ammonia developer machine. I’d try to interest students in photography by having them do photograms using that paper. Then we built cameras out of cardboard boxes using lenses from recycled copy machines and used the blue line paper in those. Great fun.

sasah zib · Apr 25, 2023

on his web are several projects -- one more: http://www.ericwilliamcarroll.com/#/carrolltypes/

Studying photography's history, I was overwhelmed at the number of processes that emerged during the invention's early years. Just as it is today, it seemed that efficiency > quality. The sharpness and beauty of the Daguerreotype were no match for the endless reproducibility of the Calotype. With that in mind, I set out to create the "Carrolltype", the most inefficient photographic process ever conceived. Carrolltypes are similar to tintypes, but are printed on steel from salvaged sunken ships. The metals in the plate react with the light sensitive silver and begin to corrode almost immediately. With the Carrolltype I attempted to document all the other mediums for preserving images and sounds. Each Carrolltype is unique and is on a 7" x 5" plate housed in a custom walnut case with brass fittings.

if you look at his IG, who he follows gets you to many interesting ways of engaging photography

Daniela · Apr 25, 2023

koraks said:
Yeah, it's still surprisingly cold and wintery, isn't it!

Yes, it is. I love the cool weather but curse every time I check the UV index and it's never higher than 1 or 2...patience...

VinceInMT said:
Back in my pre-retired days, as a high school teacher I taught drafting and a general technology class and had a box of large size blueline paper and an ammonia developer machine. I’d try to interest students in photography by having them do photograms using that paper. Then we built cameras out of cardboard boxes using lenses from recycled copy machines and used the blue line paper in those. Great fun.

My grandpa, who was an agricultural engineer (no clue if that's the correct name in English) had one of those machines in his living room. My memory of it is that it was a beast (at least 2 meters long) and it stank It was donated to a local museum when he died. Now that you mention that it could be used like this, how I wish I could still have access to it!

sasah zib said:
on his web are several projects -- one more: http://www.ericwilliamcarroll.com/#/carrolltypes/

if you look at his IG, who he follows gets you to many interesting ways of engaging photography

I really like this guy's sensibility and eclectic approach. "This darkroom's gone to heaven" is particularly touching.

sasah zib · Apr 26, 2023

Daniela said:
...

I really like this guy's sensibility and eclectic approach. "This darkroom's gone to heaven" is particularly touching

also mine.

another note: do you know of Galerie Miranda? am a big fan of them.

sasah zib · Apr 26, 2023

AND an expansion in thread ==== instead of making another thread. ==== Ephemeral Photographs

A book from Kate Palmer Albers is the author of Uncertain Histories: Accumulation, Inaccessibility, and Doubt in Contemporary Photography and coeditor of Before-and-After Photography: Histories and Contexts.

this: The Night Albums Visibility and the Ephemeral Photograph
"All photographs were understood to be ephemeral prior to 1839, when Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre produced his “daguerreotype”—an early permanent photograph printed on a metal plate. Albers points out, however, that Daguerre’s invention marked only one stop on the long journey to creating so-called “permanent” photographs. Photographic research before and after 1839 has attempted to formulate a forever photograph, but each shift—glass negatives, flexible film, color dyes, digital files in the cloud—has unlocked another conundrum, another seed of decay. "

Daniela · Apr 26, 2023

sasah zib said:
also mine.

another note: do you know of Galerie Miranda? am a big fan of them.

I know of them now! I'll pay them a visit. The current exhibition looks interesting. Thanks for mentioning it!

VinceInMT · Apr 26, 2023

Daniela said:
My grandpa, who was an agricultural engineer (no clue if that's the correct name in English) had one of those machines in his living room. My memory of it is that it was a beast (at least 2 meters long) and it stank It was donated to a local museum when he died. Now that you mention that it could be used like this, how I wish I could still have access to it!

I imagine that 25 years ago they were giving them away as the engineering/architectural field switch to plotters. However, I am thinking that a DIY workaround might not be that difficult. The machines pulled a sheet of exposed blue line paper through a chamber that was heavy with ammonia vapors. The motorized transport of the paper could be abandoned and a box constructed to hold the vapors that the sheet could manually be pulled through. Timing isn’t important since over development isn’t a problem. The vapors are created by bubbling air through a bottle of ammonia using an aquarium pump. The ammonia (26 Baumé) is still available.

sasah zib · Apr 26, 2023

so, to process. a methods video midway he shows souping ...

VinceInMT · Apr 26, 2023

sasah zib said:
midway he shows souping ...

Thanks. That’s similar to what I did before I had the blueprint machine. I placed the paper in a vertical tube and had ammonia in the bottom. He said it took 35 minutes using household ammonia. That solution is much weaker than what was used in the blueline machines but at least that weaker solution is readily available at a grocery store. If I remember correctly, the tube version I did with the stronger ammonia took only a minute or two to develop. It’s a fun and easy process.

Daniela · Apr 26, 2023

That process does indeed look doable! Thanks for sharing, Vince and Sasah!

sasah zib · Apr 27, 2023

another pointer: two key writer/curators on photography. Seems France is becoming the center, again.

>>Clément Chéroux, who arrived to the Museum of Modern of Art as chief curator in June 2020, is leaving the institution to helm the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in his native France
https://www.henricartierbresson.org...ector-of-the-fondation-henri-cartier-bresson/

>>Quentin Bajac, Paris’s Jeu de Paume,

both held key positions in major US institutions. May be homecoming, or love of fresh bread

Eric William Carroll | Cameraless Photography

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