Interesting Method Used by Dorthea Lange

gone · Aug 30, 2014

I was watching a PBS documentary on the telly about Dorthea Lange, and at one point in her career she mentioned that she wanted "to see if she could capture lighting", or something like that, so she changed her method of photographing.

Instead of shooting a lot of film and going back to it later to develop and print, she decided to go out every day, shoot, come back home, and develop, print, mount, and put it on the wall, all in one day. I was wondering if anyone else uses this method? It makes perfect sense to me.

As she said, she basically wanted to get herself out of the equation, to simply be an observer. Just stay w/ the process, and don't go through the usual judging over whether or not one image should be the one to come back to later, or deciding whether to tone one, print one another way, etc. Just get it up on the wall and see what you have.

It was also enlightening to see that tiny little person toting what looked like a 5x7 Graflex SLR and shooting it hand held. To think that most of us gripe and complain about toting a Bronica!

Pioneer · Aug 30, 2014

Shooting 4x5 I do something similar. I shoot and develop the same day. I leave it to hang and dry and come back the next to print. I even do that with roll film if I haven't shot a lot of it.

I have recently started using 8x10 and have been doing things about the same. Actually, when working with 8x10 I really am trying to get things down to where I can contact print that day. I am not real certain how to ensure the negative is dry enough that soon.

Obviously, as in everything in life, I don't always do this. Sometimes I am not able to print for several days. But I do like to see the negatives as soon as I can so I frequently develop the same day and hang overnight.

gone · Aug 30, 2014

Yes, w/ LF I would want to see those negs right away too. You also have the advantage that you can simply do a contact print and have a finished print all at the same time.

I usually (nearly always) develop as soon as my film is "in the can" so to speak, and there have been a few times that I have made some prints the same day. I just haven't gotten to the point where I would develop, print, and mount everything from that day's session yet. It sounds exciting to me. Here's a link to the documentary that I just discovered this minute.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365316335/

Bill Burk · Aug 30, 2014

That segment was inspiring... Shooting and working hard to get prints for feedback makes a lot of sense.

The images they showed, at first blurred and mottled lighting, improved as the segment progressed, until the bread lines and check lines where the light and composition became awe-inspiring.

ic-racer · Aug 30, 2014

I remember in graduate school going out to shoot with friends and then getting together that night and showing prints from that day. You pretty much need to be young with nothing else to do in the world to do it

Jim Noel · Aug 30, 2014

I still do it occasionally, but I have only been learning large format photography for a little over 70 (seventy) years.

NedL · Aug 30, 2014

It's not the same thing but that's something I like about using paper negatives. I almost always go straight home, develop them and contact print ( often still wet! ). It's sort of "instant gratification" but the other thing is that you are developing and seeing the result while you are still excited and interested to see how they come out and it is all fresh in mind.

I shoot film so slowly that it's often weeks before I develop the roll and print, and that little "edge" of excitement is gone or at least different by then. I can easily imagine approaching LF this way, but all the way to mounting and on the wall is beyond my current skills...

Pioneer · Aug 30, 2014

NedL. I have heard people say that they print wet, but I have had a terrible time with it. The negs want to stick to the glass or to the paper and I end up with a mess. Thats why I wait until the negatives are dry, then print. I have never tried it with paper negatives but I think I'll have to give it a try.

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 31, 2014

I admire Lange for her ability to observe and remove a lot of intellect from the process. Not easy to do. We often clutter our photography with things like: Will this sell? Is this interesting?

Personally I can't possibly print what I shoot in the same day. It takes so long for my film to dry that I simply can't. Besides, with a day job, who has time to do that? If I was professional I could use drying cabinets. As it stands now I process film within a month of shooting it usually, and most likely about 1% of the negs I shoot get printed, often times years later.
Obviously, I will never be a Dorothea Lange, for more reasons than the above. That's a different league all together.

NedL · Aug 31, 2014

Pioneer said:
NedL. I have heard people say that they print wet, but I have had a terrible time with it. The negs want to stick to the glass or to the paper and I end up with a mess. Thats why I wait until the negatives are dry, then print. I have never tried it with paper negatives but I think I'll have to give it a try.

With RC paper negatives it can be a plus... you can squeegee the papers together and get good positive contact even without glass pressing them, especially if you print onto fiber based paper. I've never tried it with film. When I read about newspaper photographers just shaking off the film then printing in an enlarger, it sounds messy to me too!

David Brown · Aug 31, 2014

Processing and printing quickly can be done when needed. Back in the 1980s, I ran the darkroom and maintained cameras for banks and S&Ls. These were mostly cameras that used 100 Ft. rolls of 35mm film. When an actual robbery occurred, it became a chain of evidence issue. I would go to the bank and remove the film. An FBI agent would then accompany me to the darkroom and stay with me the entire time until the film was developed and prints were made. Nothing exotic about the process with one possible exception: Tri-X in either D76 or Acufine, and when washed, dipped in some stuff called Yankee Instant Film Dryer, which was essentially alcohol. The film dried in a few minutes and I printed onto RC paper. Start to finish, about 2 hours, as I recall. Maybe 3 if there were a lot of cameras in a large bank and a lot of prints were made.

Archival? Who knows?

The bank robbers were rarely considerate enough to pull their heist in the morning. It was always around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, of course, making for a long day.

BradS · Aug 31, 2014

Yes, it makes perfect sense. Were I a professional photographer, I think I would try very hard emulate her approach...alas, I am not a professional photographer. If I were, I am certain that my family and I would all starve. Obvioously, the day job prevents me from devoting this much time to the craft.

cliveh · Aug 31, 2014

momus said:
Instead of shooting a lot of film and going back to it later to develop and print, she decided to go out every day, shoot, come back home, and develop, print, mount, and put it on the wall, all in one day. I was wondering if anyone else uses this method? It makes perfect sense to me.

As she said, she basically wanted to get herself out of the equation, to simply be an observer. Just stay w/ the process, and don't go through the usual judging over whether or not one image should be the one to come back to later, or deciding whether to tone one, print one another way, etc. Just get it up on the wall and see what you have.

I have great admiration for her work, but can't quite understand why this method of process, printing and mounting in the same day should improve practice. Can those of you who understand please enlighten me?

markbarendt · Aug 31, 2014

cliveh said:
I have great admiration for her work, but can't quite understand why this method of process, printing and mounting in the same day should improve practice. Can those of you who understand please enlighten me?

When I've done this, everything is fresh in mind, there is little doubt about what happened at each step.

Interesting Method Used by Dorthea Lange

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