Announcing placement of the Encyclopedia of Ink Jet Printing with Rochester Institute of Technology Image Permanence Institute.

Tags

alternative process papers, alternative process printing, Amon Carter Museum of American Art - Department of Conservation, archival, artists' book, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, encyclopedia of inkjet printing, giclee, inkjet printing, platinum printing papers, Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum Research Library, Teoli, travel

A 12 volume set of the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media has been placed with Rochester Institute of Technology Image Permanence Institute.

Previous sets of the Encyclopedia have been placed at The Center for Creative Photography Department of Conservation, The Rijksmuseum Research Library in the Netherlands, The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library Ohio State University and The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Department of Conservation.

The 12 volume Encyclopedia is currently the world largest set of hand-printed contemporary artists’ books ever made. More importantly, it is a very important and unique reference collection for archival research and those interested in ink jet printing.

http://encyclopediainkjetmedia.tumblr.com/

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Announcing placement of the Encyclopedia of Ink Jet Printing with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Tags

alternative process papers, alternative process printing, Amon Carter Museum of American Art - Department of Conservation, archival, artists' book, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, encyclopedia of inkjet printing, giclee, inkjet printing, platinum printing papers, Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum Research Library, Teoli, travel

A 12 volume set of the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media has been placed with Amon Carter Museum of American Art – Department of Conservation.

Previous sets of the Encyclopedia have been placed at The Center for Creative Photography Research Library, The Rijksmuseum Research Library in the Netherlands and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library Ohio State University.

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http://encyclopediainkjetmedia.tumblr.com/

The 12 volume Encyclopedia is currently the world largest set of hand-printed contemporary artists’ books ever made. More importantly, it is a very important and unique reference collection for archival research and those interested in ink jet printing.

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When it comes to color prints, you never, ever display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. They are just meant to be taken out and looked at once in a while. You display color copy facsimiles, not the originals.

Tags

A color print will fade away in the light - they are made for dark storage.. Never display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. You display color copy facsimiles - not the origin, APUG, APUG Forum, archival permanence, archival studies, artists' book, available light photography, censorship, chiaroscuro, children of weegee, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, dye stability, dye stabiltiy of color imaging media, dye transfer print, Dye Transfer Printing from the 1950's, Dye transfer prints are one of the worst color imaging media for archival dye stability., eastman kodak dye transfer print, Fuji Crystal Archive color print fade test., Hollywood, I've fade tested dye transfer prints from 1950's to 1970's vintage and the test results are the same...very poor dye stability to light., infrared flash, infrared flash street photography, los angeles, museum studies, night photography, photography, presenting photography to curators and museums, preservtion, Pucker up!, reviews, social documentary photography, street photography, The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!, travel, you never display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. They are just meant to be taken out and looked at once in a while. You display color copy facsimiles - not the originals., Your color photos will fade away

Article Dedication

In honor of

Condé Nast & Mathew Brady

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Over at the APUG forum a photog mentioned how he was working on a corporate photo collection and much of the color work had faded away over the decades. Well, the APUG bozos banned me, so I will have to answer it here.

When it comes to color prints, you never, ever display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. They are just meant to taken out and looked at once in a while. You display color copy facsimiles, not the originals. All these expensive color prints collectors buy will fade badly if they are kept on constant display. And as the expensive color collector photos fade badly they will become more worthless over time.

The finest pigment inkjet prints wont fade in direct sun exposure for a year or more. But, give them 1-1/2 or 2 years of sun and they will start to fade a little. Now, if they are kept in dark storage then the prints should last for centuries.

Eastman Kodak Dye Transfer prints will start to fade in a few months of direct sunlight. They are the worst color imaging media out there other than some Type C color paper Freestyle used to sell in the ’70s…it fades away in dark storage. The best Type C paper I’ve tested is Fuji Crystal Archive. It is almost on par with pigmented inkjet prints, but is not as good as the best inkjet prints for dye stability.

One camera fondler on the APUG forum claimed that dye transfer prints were the best for archival stability. Dye transfer prints are one of the worst color imaging media for archival dye stability. Yet, I’ve seen dye transfer prints going back to the 1950’s (and one much earlier vintage example online) that were still vibrant…but they were in dark storage for most of that time.

What follows is taken in-part from my  book: Dye Stability Testing of Color Imaging Media Edition II by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Homage to Weegee – Cigarette Caught in Mid Flight ~ Hollywood, CA 1974

The image pictured above is from a scan of an 8 x 10 work print made in 1974 that was supposed to be trashed. The work print escaped the trash can by mistake and somehow survived 38 years hidden from sight as a bookmark.

The original negative to the image as well as any final silver gelatin prints I had made were all lost in a flood. So the work print was all I had to work with to recover the image.

When I found the work print I was able to get a usable digital image from scanning it and some Lightroom adjustments. But the original work print was of poor quality and had mottled shadows and blacks….that was why is was headed for the trash can.

Many digital photographers I talk with tell me they seldom make prints. They just view their work on the monitor or on digital photo frames. This ‘no prints required’ method is one of the benefits digital photography can provide us.

But, this benefit would also work against the digital photographer if they would ever lose their digital masters. The lack of a physical negative / chrome is one of the shortcomings of digital imaging when it comes to preservation. But, we can come close to the benefit of film with a 4 x 6 (or optimally a letter size) master print.

With a high grade scan of our master print we can always recover 90% of the original image if we would ever lose our digital or film master. The master print for the digital photographer is what the physical negative is for the film photographer.

Here are a few of my photos that were lost in a 2001 flood. The only reason I can show you these is that I had some small 2 x 4 to 3.5 x 5 inch snapshot prints of them stored at my mom’s house. I was able to recover something with a scan of the prints.

When scans are done correctly, they can yield excellent results.

The above photos show a scan of an original Eastman Kodak dye transfer print. I then made a second generation inkjet print from the scan of the dye transfer print.

I married the original dye transfer print and the second generation inkjet print and scanned them to show comparison results. I didn’t use a high priced scanner or printer to do the tests. I used a consumer model Canon printer from Wal-Mart costing about $80 and a $200 Epson scanner.

Now, no scan is as good as the original. But, you can see for yourself, it is hard to tell which is the original dye transfer scan and which is the scan of inkjet copy print made from the dye transfer print.

Top Photograph – Dye Transfer original is on the bottom half.

Bottom Photograph – Dye Transfer original print is on the right side.

This test tells us 2 things:

1) Scans can recover about 90% of the image quality from an original.

2) Inkjet printers can equal or surpass Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer process when it comes to image quality. (In addition, dye stability tests I’ve run show pigmented inkjet prints will outlast an Eastman Kodak dye transfer print when it comes to dye stability by leaps and bounds.)

For the dye stability tests photos in this post,  I cut or masked the media in half. One half of the media was put in sunlight for 6 months. The other half was stored in total darkness. After 6 months of sun, the 2 halves were married and scanned. The half exposed to the sun was marked with an ‘S’. The half stored in the dark was marked with a ‘D’.

Below: Eastman Kodak Dye Transfer Print fade test of vintage 1954 prints.

Test results show Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer prints to have very poor dye stability when exposed to light. Dye transfer prints will start to show notable fading in just 2 to 3 months of exposure to sunlight. But they do have very good good dark storage dye stability. As best as I could tell, the vintage dye transfer prints used in this test showed no noticeable fading in 65 years of dark storage.

I’ve fade tested vintage dye transfer prints from 1950’s to 1970’s and the test results are the same…very  poor dye stability to light.  I don’t do bullshit estimates either. I do actual fade tests as taught to me by the master dye transfer printer Bob Pace whom I worked with in Hollywood, CA in the 1970’s.

The oldest know dye transfer I’ve come across is a pre-commercial production piece about 80 years old and still looked good. But when it comes to dye stability, the king is the pigmented ink jet and laser print, possibly surpassed only by the old Cibachrome prints. Bob Pace had some old Cibachromes in his lab’s display window. The emulsion was all cracked up from the sun – but the colors were still vibrant.

Dye transfer prints shown are by: Dean Child, US Color Print Portland, OR

Below is a metal print on aluminum, something that is very popular nowadays.  The sky faded a good deal after 6 month of sun.

Below is an Epson inkjet print exposed to 1 year of sun with no noticeable fading. I use a lot of gloss optimizer in my printing and wondered about its archival characteristics. I decided on giving Epson’s gloss optimizer a 1 year sun stress test, not 6 months.

Here is a quick shot of the test results with my P&S Sony.

After the 1 year test period was over I married the 2 halves for comparison. The black lines show the edges where the gloss optimizer extends. One year of sun produced no change to the gloss optimizer that could be seen with the eye. The results area also a testimony to Epson’s Ultrachrome archival pigment based ink.

Here is the original digital file.

The point of fade testing is to show you that different media has different dye stability. So choose a media that is fade resistance for your master prints.

Additional color imaging media fade tests:

http://fadetesting.tumblr.com/

The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

Tags

archival permanence, archival studies, artists' book, available light photography, chiaroscuro, children of weegee, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, dye stability, dye stabiltiy of color imaging media, Fuji Crystal Archive color print fade test., Hollywood, infrared flash, infrared flash street photography, los angeles, museum studies, night photography, presenting photography to curators and museums, preservtion, Pucker up!, social documentary photography, street photography, The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

Article Dedication

In honor of

Robert Crumb & Justin ‘Binky Brown’ Green

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From the Large Format forum…

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 Bill1856 wrote:

The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

Cameras.

They’re everywhere. In your phone, on your tablet, you have your point-n-shoot, and maybe even a DSLR. A few might even own a film camera. You can’t escape the selfies, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. People are deluged with photographs. And today, people are taking more pictures than ever before. It’s been estimated that in the past 5 years, more photos have been taken than all the prior years combined.

The sad part is that few of these photographs will survive beyond a year. To many people, a “picture” is only good for the moment. Moms and Dads want to snap every little movement of that new baby. Grandma wants to see everyone one of those too. When you want to show off the new puppy, you pull out the phone. And in a week, none of them have any real meaning and might even get “deleted” just to make room for more pictures that have little meaning as well inside of a couple of weeks.

So what will become of all the pictures that are being taken today? Here is the reason that 99% of the photographs being taken today are soon going to be totally gone – digital images are no longer important enough to most people to actually keep them in printed form!

Yes, I started in a film only world. We bought a roll of film and took our vacation photographs. We had them developed and printed. They were put in photo albums or photo boxes. We looked at them and cherished those memories with great care. They were a slice of our life and for many, if disaster struck, those photographs were the one thing we would try to find first. Wedding albums and photographs represented our LIFE and we salvaged all we could.

It is estimated and less that 1 out of 100,000 photographs taken today actually ends up being a printed photograph. The digital world means you can look at those on some computer screen and without one, you have nothing. You probably have countless pictures that are just randomly stored and has no organization or way to locate them. Perhaps you have made some effort, but even that can seem overwhelming a task when you decide to tackle the task.

Add to this, over the years, the technology has changed so fast, that many photographs taken 6-7 years ago are stored on a type of media that is no longer supported. I have boxes of floppy discs and not even a computer that works to view them. In 5 years or less, your DVD is going to be obsolete as will your USB drives. File types are going to change as well. And the technology of tomorrow may not support these “older” file types.

Many today have older cell phones with countless pictures on them. Maybe you “shared” some on Facebook or Instagram or uploaded to your photo storage website. But none of these are “permanent” solutions to viewing your photos and sadly, many of your memories you captured today, aren’t going to be around tomorrow. So where is that old cellphone today? In a drawer someplace, your not sure where, but you know it’s around here somewhere!

There are also countless memory cards filled with photographs. Each of those represent a small slice of you or something that was a part of your life. Some are older and you have fewer options to view them as technology simply outpaces their usefulness. Does anyone remember the 256mb SD cards when today, a 4 gb is considered tiny?

Perhaps you go to a Professional Photographer and all you want is someone to “take some pictures and give us the disc”. After all, it IS a “digital world” and it shouldn’t cost you very much. You can “take them down to the 1 hr place” and get prints really cheap. No film. No prints from the lab needed to “see” them. So where are your discs today? Probably in that same drawer you haven’t found yet where that old cell phone is “lost” in. I doubt you have your DVD’s or old floppies on your wall! And when Mom asks if you have that adorable photo of your now 16 year old son or daughter- you know the one when they were 2- and you have to answer, I do, but I have to find it. “It’s on a diskŠsomeplaceŠI thinkŠ.maybe we still doŠhoney, where did we put that disk again?”.

In my home, you will find photographs. Real, honest to goodness prints. Nothing fancy in most cases and most are just plain snapshots of family at holidays, on vacation, or doing something silly or even important. These are the slices of our lives where we can open the old “self sticking” album and find out it no longer sticks. Where memories of our life unfolds before our eyes. We laugh. We cry. We tease each other. Our life is right there. It’s in that printed image that anyone can see. There is no wondering “if this file type is still supported” or does my “machine still have a DVD drive”. None of that is needed. Even the older, not quite as sharp as they used to be eyes can see them and feel the emotions of that instant in time as if it happened yesterday. These are the things we protect with everything we have should some disaster strike and the ones we start looking for first if it does. All of a sudden that $250 DeLonghi Coffee maker isn’t all that important. Nor is the fishing boat. Or the 72″ big screen TV with all the bells and whistles. It’s always the memories of our lives that become the thing we search for first.

So if you are part of this “digital revolution”, let me ask you- where are YOUR photographs? Stuck on some disc or stored out there is cyberspace someplace, hopefully, perhaps? Why didn’t you actually purchase that $500 canvas to display in your home that your Professional photographer worked so hard to produce for you? That was a “one of a kind” work of ART and an heirloom piece for your family to have and remember that little slice of their life. It is something that will be passed from generation to generation and the only visual way your heirs will see what you looked like and the love and emotions you expressed the instant that image was captured.

2025. You just found that DVD you had in that drawer you couldn’t remember which one it was. Along with 9 old cell phones that no longer will work with today’s new technology. Your 3 inch by 3 inch cube computer no longer has a DVD drive since in 2015 they were totally phased out. Your 3rd grandchild is sitting on your knee and asks to see pictures of their Mom- and all you have to show them is this piece of round plastic that is pretty much worthless. Not to mention dusty and scratched from all those old cellphones moving around every time you opened that drawer. And since Instagram had been merged with another company, and they started charging, you let that go 8 years ago.

I guess that makes you one of the “most photographed generation that doesn’t have a photograph in 10 years”. I guess it wasn’t that important then. Digital was cheap.
Cameras were everywhere. It just didn’t seem that important.

Lost memories are expensive.

Wilhelm (Sarasota)

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Infrared flash photo – Pucker up! (Candid) Hollywood Blvd street selfie 2015

from Piercing Darkness artists’ book.*

*Piercing Darkness (infrared flash photography) along with my project The Americans…60 years after Frank are under joint consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Well, Wilhelm makes a lot of valid points. Once a person loses their digital memories they may give their preservation more thought. I’ve lost over 2 decades of my photos and related artwork. But it was due to a flood and not digital impermanence.

What follows is taken in part from the chapter on Dye Stability Tests for Color Imaging Media from Volume 12 – Chapter 3 of the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Homage to Weegee – Cigarette Caught in Mid Flight ~ Hollywood, CA 1974

The image pictured above is from a scan of an 8 x 10 work print made in 1974 that was supposed to be trashed. The work print escaped the trash can by mistake and somehow survived 38 years hidden from sight as a bookmark.

The original negative to the image as well as any final silver gelatin prints I had made were all lost in a flood. So the work print was all I had to work with to recover the image.

When I found the work print I was able to get a usable digital image from scanning it and some Lightroom adjustments. But the original work print was of poor quality and had mottled shadows and blacks….that was why is was headed for the trash can.

Many digital photographers I talk with tell me they seldom make prints. They just view their work on the monitor or on digital photo frames. This ‘no prints required’ method is one of the benefits digital photography can provide us.

But, this benefit would also work against the digital photographer if they would ever lose their digital masters. The lack of a physical negative / chrome is one of the shortcomings of digital imaging when it comes to preservation. But, we can come close to the benefit of film with a 4 x 6 (or optimally a letter size) master print.

With a high grade scan of our master print we can always recover 90% of the original image if we would ever lose our digital or film master. The master print for the digital photographer is what the physical negative is for the film photographer.

Here are a few of my photos that were lost in the flood. The only reason I can show you these is that I had some small 2 x 4 to 3.5 x 5 inch snapshot prints of them stored at my mom’s house. I was able to recover something with a scan of the prints.

When scans are done correctly, they can yield excellent results.

The above photos show a scan of an original Eastman Kodak dye transfer print. I then made a second generation inkjet print from the scan of the dye transfer print.

I married the original dye transfer print and the second generation inkjet print and scanned them to show comparison results. I didn’t use a high priced scanner or printer to do the tests. I used a consumer model Canon printer from Wal-Mart costing about $80 and a $200 Epson scanner.

Now, no scan is as good as the original. But, you can see for yourself, it is hard to tell which is the original dye transfer scan and which is the scan of inkjet copy print made from the dye transfer print.

Top Photograph – Dye Transfer original is on the bottom half.

Bottom Photograph – Dye Transfer original print is on the right side.

This test tells us 2 things:

1) Scans can recover about 90% of the image quality from an original.

2) Inkjet printers can equal or surpass Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer process when it comes to image quality. (In addition, dye stability tests I’ve run show pigmented inkjet prints will outlast an Eastman Kodak dye transfer print when it comes to dye stability by leaps and bounds.)

For the dye stability tests photos in this post,  I cut or masked the media in half. One half of the media was put in sunlight for 6 months. The other half was stored in total darkness. After 6 months of sun, the 2 halves were married and scanned. The half exposed to the sun was marked with an ‘S’. The half stored in the dark was marked with a ‘D’.

Test results show Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer prints to have very poor dye stability when exposed to light. But they do have good dark storage dye stability. The oldest know dye transfer I’ve come across is about 80 years old and still looked good. But when it comes to dye stability, the king is the pigmented ink jet and laser print, possibly surpassed only by the old Cibachrome prints.

Dye transfer prints shown are by: Dean Child, US Color Print Portland, OR

Below is a metal print on aluminum, something that is very popular nowadays.  The sky faded a good deal after 6 month of sun.

Below is an Epson inkjet print exposed to 1 year of sun with no noticeable fading. I use a lot of gloss optimizer in my printing and wondered about its archival characteristics. I decided on giving Epson’s gloss optimizer a 1 year stress test.

Here is a quick shot of the test results with my P&S Sony.

After the 1 year test period was over I married the 2 halves for comparison. The black lines show the edges where the gloss optimizer extends. One year of sun produced no change to the gloss optimizer that could be seen with the eye. The results area also a testimony to Epson’s pigment based ink.

Here is the original digital file.

The point of fade testing is to show you that different media has different dye stability. So choose a media that is fade resistance for your master prints.

Additional testing:

http://fadetesting.tumblr.com/

Working up the maquette and galley proof.

Tags

A bigger issue for me than layout is trying to get super flat DUO paper., art, artists' book, Before I start printing an artists' book I've already made a bunch of 4 x 6 work prints to whip an image in shape with the post processing., book art, circular fisheye, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, Ephemera related to your projects is important to save., galley proof, maquette, museum, Page numbering books, photography business, photography museum, presenting photography to curators and museums, social documentary photography, Teoli, Working up the maquette and galley proof.

Article Dedication

In Honor of

Harry K. Shigeta and Bruce Davidson

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Taken in part from my forthcoming artist’s book:

Presenting Photography to Curators and Museums

Before I start printing a book I’ve already made a bunch of 4 x 6 work prints to whip an image into shape with the post processing. During this process I am also developing a rough order the book will flow.

Rough layout of Engaging the Enemy Frigate 

Unless your book is going to be 4 x 6, then a 4 x 6 print will only go so far. If you have lots of $, time, paper and ink, then by all means make full size work prints for your book. You will have to do that at some point down the road anyway when you make a full size maquette. Sometimes defects show up in larger prints that go unseen in small prints.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/the-secret-of-making-great-prints/

The rough layout of the book has happened while I print the 4 x 6 and letter size work prints. If you have the space, the best way to do a layout is to pin the prints on a wall. But I have no wall to pin to, nor do I have a floor big enough to spread the letter size prints out on. So I spread the 4 x6 prints out on the floor for a rough layout.

After that I will glue prints back to back to form the maquette and do a final layout. If things change and I want to move a print around I will glue another print on top of that page. In any case, I don’t labor exhaustively over the layout. Sometimes I may spend a few hours on it, other times it may take 2 or 3 days.

A bigger issue for me than layout is trying to get super flat DUO paper. So I generally use the defective matte DUO paper I am stuck with for the working copies of the artist’s books. RC gloss DUO and semi gloss DUO are usually pretty flat, but they are generally a lot more expensive than matte duo.

At the end of this article is a list of DUO paper suitable for book arts:

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/hand-printed-artists-books-open-up-a-new-area-for-photogs-2/

The problem with getting flat paper is it is the luck of the draw. Depending on what part of the roll the paper was cut from and how long it was rolled, has a lot to do with how flat the cut paper will be. Many stores won’t take the paper back once you open it, so over time a book printer can amass a large stock of proofing paper.

If the store does take it back they will not wan to to sell you any more paper if you keep buying paper just to return it to them because it has a slight bend in it, . Now, there is a trick to use slightly bowed paper in an artists’ book. But that is a topic for another time.

The photo below shows the maquette with glued up pages on the right and the galley proof with true DUO paper on the left. The glued up pages adds a lot of thickness to the book.

The maquette will also have a lot of more notes in it as can be seen in the next photo. (Maquette is shown in the bottom of the photo.)

As the book gets perfected with layout, page numbering and print IQ, there is a lot less notes that have to be written in the book. Once I have the galley proof 100% it is time to start printing the regular edition. I will make the artist’s proof copies first to make sure everything is right, then I start production printing.

You would be surprised how making small changes in the type of paper used in printing the book can make the previous design for the book unworkable. When I was printing an early, small size (5.5 x 6.5 inch) artist’s book called Engaging the Enemy Frigate  I found out how fast design can change depending on the paper that is used for the book

https://archive.org/details/EngagingTheEnemyFrigate

The original maquette was printed on DUO matte proofing paper and printed up fine. For the galley proof I generally switch over to semi gloss paper which I did with Engaging the Enemy Frigate.

Once I switched to semi gloss paper I found out the page number and page title information both had to be moved . They  were too close to the edge of the paper for semi gloss combined with small size book printing. They would pick up stray ink from the head of the printer.

I tried 2 different printers and opened up the platen gap to the highest setting and it was still a no-go. So I moved the page title information in 3/4 of an inch more and moved the page number to far left center of the page. This fixed the problem when printing on semi gloss paper.

Some semi gloss paper reacts poorly when you use a Post It note on a page and just for a few minutes. I’ve use self adhesive note on semi glass paper and it ruined the surface in just 15 minutes.

Save your maquettes and the pre-production prints and notes for your books. Museums and special collection libraries will want all related ephemera to your projects. (Provided of course, you are a museum grade photog and are collectable.)

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Partial Listing of Artists’ Books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.*

Peephole: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013

Portfolio: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013

Twenty-six Roadkills – 2013

Cutters: There is nothing I hate more than myself. – 2014

Encyclopedia of Photographic & Fine Art Ink Jet-
Printing Media – 12 Volume Set – 2014

Bikers’ Mardi Gras – 2015

Gender Benders from the 1970’s – 2015

De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District – 2015

180 – The Circular Fisheye at Large – 2016

Piercing Darkness – 2016

A Day in the Life of a Drag Queen – 2016

The Americans…60 years after Frank – 2016

Gay Bar – 2017

Whoop-Whoop – 2017

Charmed – Forthcoming

Presenting Photography to Curators and Museums – Forthcoming

Magnifying Lens Photography – Forthcoming

Yum! – Forthcoming

Secrets of Candid Photography – Forthcoming

With Due Respect Beloved One – In Development

Thirty-six  Views of Bison – In Development

*For a complete listing of artist’s books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

See:

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/artists-books-by-daniel-d-teoli-jr-2/

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The Americans…60 years after Frank – what it is and what it isn’t.

Tags

180 the circular fisheye at large, archival, artists' book, available light photography, black and white, book art, candid, chiaroscuro, children of weegee, circular, circular fisheye, circular photography, composition, crossdressing, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, fisheye, Frank's Americans, Fuji X, Gugenheim, Hollywood, homeless, human condition, hyperreal, in the shadow of city hall, infrared, infrared flash, ir flash, Leica M240, lgbt, lgbtq, Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, los angeles, night photography, photojournalism, piercing darkness, Pinky, reportage, robert frank, selective color, single image hdr, Snapshot aestheticism, social documentary photography, street photography, street portrait, Teoli, The Americans Robert Frank, The Americans...60 years after Frank, The Grove, The Grove Los Angeles, trans, transgender, weegee, yoshiyuki

Article Dedication 

In honor of

William Klein & Mary Ellen Mark

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A short time after I shot this pix, (candid) this homeless lady died and the concrete bench was torn down. Documentary photography allowed me to archive her as well as honor her as the cover of my book The Americans…60 years after Frank.

A person wrote me about an ad I put in L.A.’s Craigslist advertising for a lesbian couple to be photographed for my artists’ book The Americans…60 years after Frank. They felt it didn’t it stay with the spirit of the original Americans from the 1950’s.

Here is their question / comment:

I think it’s great that you’re actually willing to pay people for their time. My only critique, is that I’m not sure what a staged photoshoot with a lesbian couple has to do with Robert Frank’s original series of candid photographs he took on his road trip across America. Will you be using the same gear he did (Leica film/50mm)? Are you planning a road trip? Will these be black and white? I don’t think you can successfully draw any parallels to one of the legendary street photographers iconic work with staged photographs of a specific, marginalized group of individuals. It might come off as exploitative. Just some food for thought.

Let me answer some questions concerning what The Americans…60 years after Frank is and is not.

I addressed some other critiques in an earlier post, so I wont go over them again.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/announcing-the-americans-60-years-after-frank-project/

I am not approaching the project with preconceived notions and limitations. Although I am copying the size and format of the original book as it is the best size for a spiral bound artists’ book. The book will be landscape format 8.5 x 9.5 inches.  An 8.5 x 11 book makes it too heavy, an 8 x 10 makes it too small. The size of the original 8.5 x 9.5 is the best size mix for the book. I also plan to stick with Franks original ‘portfolio style’ book layout.

No, I’m not slavishly trying to go to every spot Frank visited trying to recreate his trip…that is a project for the anal photog. (Sure, if I am in the neighborhood I will revisit a few of Frank’s haunts.) I will seek out a few of the original subjects Frank photographed in an effort to bring things up to date. This type of project can become a time capsule documenting a point in time. Frank’s original work may not have been looked at like time capsule when it came out, but as I look through The Americans, it is hard not to contrast how life was then as compared to now.

No, I am not doing one big roadtrip, I do small roadtrip’s of 3 to 5 days. You can waste a lot of time just driving around instead of pushing the button. A recent roundtrip to Hollywood from my LAX hotel took 3 + hours. When I got on location I shot for maybe 20 minutes.

My preference is to fly into a city and rent a car to drive around. Flying to a local and doing day trips helps out with the time wasting problem.  I’m in my 60’s and have a settled life with responsibilities, so I can’t just take off for a year to drive around…nor would I even want to, as it does not fit my personality. I an not looking for ‘snapshot aestheticism’ with my work. I may have a few of that genre in the book, but my main effort will be in taking focused and clean street photography or street portraits.

When Robert Frank shot The Americans he didn’t do it all in one trip. He took many side trips from his home base back east. When he got to L.A. he rented a house in Hollywood for 3 months, took day trips and worked local.  (See: Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, Sarah Greenough 2009 )

But…does it really matter how the iconic photo was acquired? Whether it was made on a one year continuous voyage or shot just around the corner on lunch break like this one? (Posed)

Yes, I am using a Leica (digital) and I am also using an Oly M43, Pentax, Nikon, Sony, Canon, Epson RD1 and Fuji cams.

No, I am not using film…the book will be shot with 100% digital cams. I am using 2015 tech to make the book.

Yes, I am using a 50mm lens, as well as a host of other lenses from 7.5 fisheye to 135mm telephoto.

Yes, I will have BW in the book…just not ALL BW.

The book will have a mix of BW and color images,  I’m also using HDR hyper-real color, invisible HDR color, selective color, motion blur, tilt-shift effects, circular fisheye photos and infrared flash BW in the book.

What would this next photo be in BW?

Pinky The Grove, Los Angeles (Candid)

It would be useless. I don’t just look for ‘one way’ to document the world, I use many tools. If I was of the nature of ‘Hey, look at me…I only shoot BW,’ I’d be forcing things and end up ruining a photo just to satisfy my bloated ego. Then, I have done a disservice to freezing time in the best way possible…I’ve put my ego before doing the best job for the photo.

Ernst Hass on the subject…

“There are black and white snobs, as well as colour snobs. Because of their inability to use both well, they act on the defensive and create camps. We should never judge a photographer by what film he uses- only by how he uses it.”

When you dogmatically shoot BW only you can loose a lot of info. Here is a shot of a homeless tent encampment in the shadow of L.A.’s City Hall. It was taken a few blocks from where the famous statue that Frank shot now rests. The city has moved the statue from it’s original 1950’s location.

In the shadow of City Hall was shot on the fly, through my car windshield while driving, unframed.

If you look at some of my completed artists’ books as well as artists’ books being currently shot, they will give you a example of how I work.

Twenty-Six Roadkills
Bikers’ Mardi Gras
De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District
Whoop-Whoop
180: The Circular Fisheye at Large!
Piercing Darkness
Gay Bar
A Day in the Life of a Drag Queen

All the specs I will discuss here are pro-forma, nothing is set in stone. As I develop the maquette I will refine my design of the book.  The Americans…60 years after Frank will have approximately 80 to 125 photos in it.  I may even make it a 2 volume set, I just don’t know right now. Maybe 70%-80% of the photos will be candid and the rest posed or landscapes.. About 15% of the book may be landscapes or photos with little or no people in it. I believe Frank’s book had 26% of the book as landscapes or with little or no people in the photo.

This very fact is often overlooked as it is commonly thought Frank’s book is 100% full of candid shots of people.

Everything Frank shot was not a candid…

Although I am not trying to copy exact ratios of genre used in the original Americans, I mention these stats to underscore that a photog must have ‘some’ artistic freedom to tell the story with whatever photos they feel are appropriate to use, whether that be posed, candid, landscape…

…or product shot.

I have outstanding candid skills, so it would not be an issue for me filling up 10 books with all candid photos. I hold the world record for how close you can get shooting a candid with a digital rangefinder, M43 and DSLR camera. The candid photo above of the gal with the pink dog was shot a couple feet away with a Nikon DSLR. I have candid shots going down to a few inches from the subject. I routinely shoot such ‘in-your-face’ candid photos.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/order-women-like-pizza/

My goal with The Americans…60 years after Frank is to put the best photograph I can in the book. If candid shots work best, that is what I use. If posed photos are better, then why should I deny the posed photograph in favor of my ego? Some photos do better with a little posing – everything cannot be had, or at least perfected, as a candid.

I have a talent for shooting photos of people that look posed, but are in reality completely candid.  I may end up marking each photo description with a (C) or (P) to differentiate a candid versus posed photo. For instance, the next 4 photos are all 100% candid…they didn’t know I even shot them.

Infrared flash photograph.

There is a big difference between posed documentary photos and staged, phony photos. If I hired models to pretend they were lesbi gals to model for the camera…that is staged, phony photography. All I am doing is paying an ‘access fee’ to document actual lesbians. I pay access fess all the time to get into events. I had to pay almost $200 for access to make this photo…(Candid)

Paying an access fee has nothing to do as to whether a photo is real or phony. (Note: After running a few ads for 4 weeks, no lesbians were interested in being in my book or even replied to my ad…so I keep looking.)

Photogs paying for access is not some new idea I came up with. Eve Arnold paid $1000 ($7,700 in today’s $.) for access to shoot the Black Muslims in 1960. Just because she paid $ to a fixer does not mean the photos are phony or staged. Sure, some of her pix may be posed, some may be more of a candid nature, but without the access fee no button pushing would happen.

Some people hate candid photography and think permission should always be asked first. Others hate posed photos and think candid is the only way to go.  In reality, I am not trying to please either group by putting a mix of genre in it. As a documentarian, I must do what is best for the photo and not put popular opinion in control of things. Personally I prefer candid work over posed. But bottom line is…posed is always better than nothing.

A transwoman and her friend at a bar – Infrared flash photography. (Candid)

My early work as a social documentary photog was based on the credo ‘meet on the street…shoot at the home’ as my ultimate goal. That was how I produced a lot of iconic shots back in the 1970’s.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/meet-on-the-street-shoot-at-the-home/

But, that was back in the 1970s when I was in my 20’s. Nowadays people are paranoid and wont go for it. They are also pretty much self-sufficient with their photo needs and don’t need me. (Well, self-sufficient as long as the electric is on and Wal-Mart has a good supply of $29 inkjet printers.) So, meet on the street…shoot at the home does not produce well for me any longer.

I’m in my 60’s. If an old bastard goes up to a lesbi couple on the street and asks them to take him home with them, take off their clothes so he can shoot some erotic pix of them in bed or one gal siting naked on the lap of the other and he will be glad to give them a free photo…do you honestly think he’d ever get anywhere with that approach?

But, all is not lost with the lesbians….

I have many candid street shots of lesbi couples I can include in my book if need be. I was just looking to improve on what I already had. And in the big picture, my Americans book is not about lesbi gals or tanswowmen. Although I would like to put ‘one’ photo of each group in the book just to round it out. I felt any book taking stock of 2015 Americana should have at least one of each group represented in it.

As far as exploitative?

I am trying to include these groups in my book to honor them, nothing else. One lesbi couple wont make or break my book whether they are in it or not. I don’t do photography to make $…I do it for love of freezing time. Profit or loss never enters the picture with my work. The only time money questions come about are when I ask myself if I have enough money to fund a certain project. I’ve always subscribed to the credo – don’t shit where you eat. If I did photography for $, all my actions would be tainted by the profit motive and I could not be authentic to my work.

The book is scheduled for completion of principal photography by year end of 2016.

The Americans…60 years after Frank as well as Piercing Darkness are projects under joint consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Is it easier for the rich photog?

Tags

artists' book, birding, budget photo travel, children of weegee, curator, d.teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, de wallen, decisive moment, infrared, infrared flash, infrared flash photograph, infrared photography, infrared strobe, ir flash, ir flash photography, is it easier for a rich photographer, Mary Ellen Mark, photo projects, piercing darkness, poor photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, rich photographer, street photography, Teoli, traveling with your camera, Twins Festival, Twinsburg Ohio, weegee, yoshiyuki

Article Dedication 

In honor of

Donna Ferrato & Lucas Samaras

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On a photo forum someone asked if it is easier for the rich photog compared to the poor photog.

Money is stored energy, so whenever you have a chance to build up your energy…do it. But $ does not buy a good eye or skill. (Although you can buy an assistant with skills!) I see lots of rich people buying Leica’s that shoot shit for photos. So this post is prefaced on ‘all things being equal’ more so than ‘just throwing more $$’ at a photog.

If your thinking that you can only produce if you have the best gear, then you are sadly mistaken. It is the photog and not the cam that decides when to press the button.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/what-is-the-best-camera-in-the-world/

Over at the Leica forum I read about a camera fondler that wanted to buy the screenless Leica limited edition for $20,000. He swore the screen was the foundation of his problems…a distraction. This is a common delusion that fondlers foster to distract them from the real issues that are disturbing them. As long as they keep a spark of hope the problem lies outside of them they can keep going. So they must always be looking at the next ray of hope that will fix them…and it usually involves buying something.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/the-camera-fondlers-delight-pimping-their-cam/

This Leica fondler felt if he could omly get back to basics…then he could produce masterpieces. The $7,000 M240 Leica was no good, only the $20,000 Leica, sans screen, would do. I suggested he put gaffers tape over the screen of his M240 and save $13,000, but that was scoffed at.

Well, he had more $ than brains. The truth is he could not produce in film days nor can he produce with or without a screen in digital days. The screen was not his problem, he was the problem. Here is a case where just throwing $ at photography does not do anything…other than buy you another camera to fondle!

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/the-red-dot-is-not-your-problem-you-are-the-problem/

If you think I am a little tough on the fondlers, understand this. The fondlers have been tough on me to start with.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/censorship-in-photography-circles/

As such, I see no reason in pulling punches. My job is to write about truth. It is not to write about fantasy, camera masturbation and bullshit. That is a job for the photo forums and rumor mills. If I did otherwise I would be doing you a disservice.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/opinions-are-like-assholes-everyones-got-one/

When W. Eugene Smith died he had $18 in the bank. Money was always an issue for him, like in…just trying to get by. Still, he produced many iconic shots. As long as he had a cam and some film he was in biz.

http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/post/124105646848/weugene-smith-was-not-living-high-on-the-hog-when

A few years ago I was planning to shoot at one of Mary Ellen Mark’s old spots – The Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Luckily for me I checked with them ahead of time before driving a couple states over to shoot it. They told me I needed to pay a $1200 freelance credential fee to take photos there.  I told them I was not using the pix commercially and just shooting for my own use. They said it didn’t matter…$1200 or you get thrown out. So, money stopped that project in its tracks.

Look at MEM’s crew for her Twins project.

http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/125927444563

She was able to scout out the project years ahead of time and took 2 years to shoot it. She drove down there with 2 vans, a huge crew and loads of equipment. Just feeding everyone is a monster bill, let alone wages and other expenses.

Compare that to one of my projects.

http://dewallenrld.tumblr.com/

I could afford to spend 5 days to shoot it. (I was there 9 days. I lost 2 days in travel, used 2 days for my 180 project and had 5 days left to shoot De Wallen. In reality I produced De Wallen with only 4 1/2 days of shooting time as I was rained out for half a day.) I had basically no cooperation from anyone other than paying a few gals for couple minutes of shoot time. The vast majority of the work was candid.

The reason I split that trip into 2 project parts is nowadays you cannot be sure if you can place a project even for free. So, I spread the financial risk over a couple of projects. If I had room to take my IR flash gear I would have shot for a 3rd project, (Piercing Darkness) on that trip as well.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/piercing-darkness-update/

Everything I take for gear has to be carried on my back when I travel. I can’t leave it in my room for fear of theft, nor can I afford to travel with an assistant to carry some of it. Whatever fits in one backpack is my kit that is married to me for the duration…even when I go food shopping.

Having insurance wont help me. What good does it do me if I have my gear is stolen and the trip is ruined? Now I go back home to file a claim, fight it out with the insurance company, have to spend time to re-buy all my gear. Then have to rebook the trip and do all that uncomfortable travel to get back to first base to re-start shooting the project.

Imagine what I could have done if I had deep pockets and could have spent 3 weeks shooting De Wallen. Some photogs have been lucky to have been able to devote a year to similar projects. But, the hallmark of the skilled doc photog is that they produce with what time constraints and problems they find themselves in. That is what I did…I produced a landmark book in 4-1/2 days of shooting time.

I travel in the off season. I stay at cheap hotels. I cook on a hot plate, eat cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, apples and bananas in my room. On the flight to Europe I was packed like sushi. The rich photog could have traveled first class, ate at nice restaurants and took a break to get a massage every few days. The only breaks I got was to sit on a canal handrail to rest my feet.

That is always the way I have worked, so it is nothing new to me. I always have to work on a strict budget. Of course, being rich is all relative. Being able to spend $3000 on a trip to shoot a project in Europe may seem rich to the photog that does not have enough to pay for a bus ticket to the next town. Now, the De Wallen project was funded from a small inheritance I received when my mom died otherwise I could not afford it.

Recently I had spent a few days in Manhattan shooting for 7 book projects.  Actually I stayed at a campsite in Jersey City and took the transport. That was all I could afford and it was just barely affordable at that.

It was $65 a day to sleep in your vehicle or $55 a day to sleep in a tent. (You supply the tent.) I thought about taking the bus, but the hotel killed the deal. The bus was only $28 for a one way Greyhound from Pittsburgh to NYC, but the hotel was $2750. I asked if I could sleep in my vehicle at the Ferry parking lot in NJ, but they said no. If they would have allowed it, it would have cost about $19 a day.

Only bad thing about tent life is you have to carry all your gear on your back for fear of theft. I prefer staying in vehicles as you can hide some of your gear under the car seats and trunk. I boondock all over to save $…Wal-Marts, casinos, motel parking lots, rest stops, truck stops, so a Ferry parking lot is no big deal to me.

When on the road boondocking I can wash up in any bathroom I find or hit the showers at the truck stops every few days for $10 to $13 a pop. A good boondocking trick is to make a 25% dilute alcohol / water mix and use it to wash your body with a washcloth. Then wring out the cloth and use a water soaked cloth to go over your body. If you want privacy for a sponge bath, go into stall and stand or squat on top of the toilet.

My main work in Manhattan was for my artist’s book The Americans…60 years after Frank.   It is expensive to travel nowadays. Even if you sleep in a tent it is easy to spend $800+ for a week shooting in NYC. Since I am all self-funded and not rich I try to spread the financial risk around and work on multi-projects if I can, hence why I was working on 7 book projects. Still, I do OK getting the shots, even with a piss-poor budget.

NYC Metro  Infrared Flash Photo (Candid)

Sad Buskers Times Square 2016 – Infrared Flash Photo (Candid)

I felt bad for these girls. The one girl was crying – no one wanted to pay them to take a photo with their boobies out. NYC is a tough place if your broke. If I lived in NYC I’d be homeless. (Or she could have just had a stomach ache…I don’t interview my subjects.)

Staten Island Ferry (Candid)

A lot of the great photos produced throughout history were due to the photog being able to travel for projects. If the photog does not have enough money to travel, then they had better work like Ralph Eugene Meatyard and produce iconic work in their own backyard. Of course, even if the photog has $ to travel they still need skills to produce great work.

When a photog has $, they can maintain a roomy studio with a couch, fridge and A/C to work in. They can hire a publicist, professional models, an art director, assistants, secretary, makeup artists, hair artists, fixers, location scouts and managers, grips, post process artists and a truck load of strobes, cams, reflectors, diffusers, tripods and the rest…it all takes lots of $$.

I read about a bird photog that spent thousands of $$ hiring a charter boat and tons of chum bait to attract birds. Others hire helicopters and planes for aerial shots. Look at what this photog and crew brought with him for his project…what a cargo bill!

http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123547096728

Sometimes $ can also buy cooperation. Eve Arnold paid $1000 to a fixer to get access for shooting the black Muslims in the 1960’s. That was a lot of dough back then – WSJ says it is $7,700 in today’s money.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204257504577150641295316770

As people get squeezed more and more and have a harder time getting by, it is not uncommon for subjects to ask for an honorarium to allow photography and interviewing.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/with-the-high-cost-of-living-im-surprised-there-are-not-a-lot-more-homeless-people-in-the-us/

When it comes to developing projects and experimenting it takes $ as well. Money helps with professional connections. Money buys the best prints, project development and advertising…and isn’t it true that the high and mighty gravitate toward the rich?

When I first started to make artists’ books I spent about $2800 figuring out how to do it. I had to go through many binding systems, test books, printers and loads of papers to test.

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Same thing with my current project Piercing Darkness. (Infrared flash candid photography at night.)  I had to try many, many IR setups to find what worked best for me. If I didn’t have $4600 to experiment with I would not get the results I do.

Now, if you had $4600, could you have shot these IR pix? Is $4600 all that is holding you back?

Do a Goggle image search on infrared flash photography and see what has been done with candids’. There are plenty of photogs that have a lot more money to throw at a project than me. So money alone must not be the deciding factor. This is especially true with photo genre that requires skill, more so than money.

Money also buys time. The poor photog that works 2 jobs just to get by does not have much time or energy left for shooting. As we all know, the fringe areas of photography that is related to getting the picture out also eats up lots of time and $.

I took this when I was 19 back in the early 70’s. Without having 2.5 hours of free time, a computer and LR it would not have been refined from trash to masterpiece.

The Sunlit Slipper

So…all things being equal…GD YES it is easier for a rich photog than a poor one!

Hand-printed artists’ books open up a new area for photographers to showcase their work.

Tags

A bonus to spiral binding photographs in book form is that they can be unbound at any time and the individual pages - which are original photographs and can be displayed in an exhibit., About 10% of the libraries that collect my book art also accepted loose prints into their collection., archival, artists' book, Artists’ books open up a new area for photographers to showcase their work., book art, book printing, bound portfolio, curator, curled paper, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, hand made books, hand printed books, Hand-printed artists’ books open up a new area for photographers to showcase their work., Here are the chapter listings from the Encyclopedia that gives you some options for DUO papers to test for you book project., I've ended up with thousands of dollars of useless paper over the years., mould made paper, Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, pocket portfolio, portfolio, presenting photography to curators and museums, rice paper, social documentary photography, Teoli, The closer the paper is to the center of the roll it is produced on, the more curl it develops., While most DUO papers do a decent job with the image - they all do not do a good job in making a flat book.

Taken in part from my forthcoming artist’s book:

Presenting Photography to Curators and Museums

Hand-printed artists’ books open up a new area for photogs that wish to place their work.

The business of art museums is to display art, so art museums generally only collect larger sized, individual photographs. I found out early in my career that most rare book and special collection libraries are not interested in collecting large size loose prints.  But, the rare book libraries will collect the same loose prints they rejected if I shrink the prints, spiral bound them and called it a book. That was how I got into book arts.

(About 10% of the libraries that collect my book art also accepted loose prints into their collection.)

I’ve tested various binding methods for my artist’s books and I settled on spiral binding. For hardcover books I go with side stitched binding. A bonus to spiral binding photographs in book form is that they can be unbound at any time and the individual pages, which are original photographs, can be displayed in an exhibit. Once the exhibit is done, the pages can be rebound in a few minutes and the photographs are returned to its original book form.

While I use inkjet printing for all my books, I originally used silver gelatin prints from my first artist’s book back in the 1970’s. When using wet prints the paper is dry mounted back to back to make a page. It is a lot more time intensive. I could never produce the amount of books I do now if I used wet prints.  Although, if your making a low number book edition, maybe silver, palladium or platinum prints will be an option for you.

Here is an early pocket portfolio I made a few years ago.

http://pocketportfolio.tumblr.com/

I used single sided fiber luster paper as it holds up nicely in the small pocket books. If you don’t care about printing on the back or having the back of the page match the front, you can use single sided paper for books. Although in theory, double sided paper should be more stable when it comes to warping than single sided paper – but that is not always the case.

If your interested in this subject I will go much deeper into book arts and artists’ book printing in my book Presenting Photography to Curators and Museums.

Matte paper will always need an archival plastic interleaf or you will get shinning and scuffing on the blacks. Gloss / Semi-Gloss / Luster paper holds up pretty good with no interleaf.

I have used pretty much all DUO paper out there. Sample can be seen in my artists’ book the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media. Some papers are better than others. While most DUO papers do a decent job with the image, they all do not do a good job in making a flat book.

A big problem for book printers is getting flat paper – I mean perfectly flat. If you use even slightly curled paper the books become warped. The closer the paper is to the center of the roll it is produced on, the more curl it develops. Unfortunately one cannot predict what part of the roll the paper comes from when we buy a box…or 50 boxes.

I’ve ended up with thousands of dollars of useless paper.  The plastic covers and interleaf also suffers from curling as well as defect issues. Once the box of paper is opened it is generally not returnable. If you are able to return the curled paper for a refund, the dealer generally wont sell you more if you keep returning order after order. But all is not lost, the reject paper can be used for maquettes, galley proofs and work prints. The plastic on the other hand has little use and ends up as lost money and is generally trashed.

Here are the chapter listings from the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media that gives you some options for DUO papers to test for you book project.

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Volume 5 – Chapter 1

DUO RC Gloss

Promaster Photo Image Album Duo Glossy

Red River Paper Pecos River Gloss Duo 86 lb.

Staples Gloss Duo 8 mil Germany

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Volume 5 – Chapter 2

DUO RC Semi-Gloss

Inkpress Duo Semi-Gloss 180 gsm

Inkpress Duo Semi-Gloss 210 gsm

Moab Lasal Semi-Gloss Duo 330 gsm

Premier Photo Semi-Gloss Duo 12 mil

Red River Paper Zeppelin Semi-Gloss Duo 45 lb

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Volume 5 – Chapter 3

DUO RC Luster

Ilford Galerie Smooth Luster Duo 280 gsm

Inkjetart Micro Ceramic Hi-Luster Duo – No weight listed

Inkpress Lustre Duo 9.5 mil 280 gsm

Mitsubishi Imaging Pictorico Duo Luster

Red River Paper Arctic Polar Luster Duo 50 lb

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Volume 5 – Chapter 4

DUO RC Matte

Brilliant Supreme Matte Duo 230 gsm Germany

Epson Premium Presentation Paper Duo Matte **** 48 lb Japan

Inkpress Duo Matte 30 – 5 mil

Inkpress Duo Matte 44 – 9 mil

Inkpress Duo Matte 80 – 12 mil

Moab Lasal Photo Matte Duo 230 gsm

Red River Paper Premium Matte Duo 32 lb

Red River Paper Premium Matte Duo 50 lb

Red River Paper Polar Matte Duo 60 lb

Staples Matte Duo 8 mil Germany

Staples Photo Supreme Duo Matte 11 mil Germany

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Volume 5 – Chapter 5

DUO Fine Art Matte

Arista II Fine Art Matte Bright White Duo 210 gsm

Arista II Fine Art Matte Natural White Duo 210 gsm

Canson Rag Photographique Duo 220 gsm

Hahnemühle Fine Art Photo Rag Book & Album 220 gsm

Hahnemühle Photo Rag Duo Matte 276 gsm

Innova Smooth Cotton High White Duo 215 gsm

Premier Art Fine Art Smooth Matte Duo 325 gsm

Promaster Natural Watercolor Duo 190 gsm

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Volume 5 – Chapter 6

DUO Fiber Matte

Arista II Fiber Duo Matte 215 gsm

Arista II Fiber Duo Bright White Heavy Weight Matte 330 gsm

Arista II Fiber Duo Natural White Heavy Weight Matte 330 gsm

Hahnemühle Photo Matte Fibre Duo 210 gsm

Harman by Hahnemühle Matte Fibre Duo 210 gsm

If you wish to view actual sample prints made with these papers, the 12 volume set of the Encyclopedia can be viewed at the Center for Creative Photography Research Library, AZ, the Rijksmuseum Research Library, Netherlands and Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

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Limited Edition Artist’s Books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

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A Family Portrait – 1971

Engaging the Enemy Frigate – 2011

Anecdote – 2011

Imitation of Life – 2011

Pocket Art (Series 1 to 3) – 2012

Dye Transfer Printing from the 1950’s – 2012

Dye Stability Testing of Color Imaging Media – 2012

Peephole: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013

Portfolio: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013

Pocket Art (Series 4 to 7) – 2013

Twenty-Six Roadkills – 2013

Cutters: There is nothing I hate more than myself. – 2014

Encyclopedia of Photographic & Fine Art Ink Jet-
Printing Media – 12 Volume Set – 2014 (f)

De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District – 2015

Bikers’ Mardi Gras – 2015

Gender Benders from the 1970’s – 2015

Tonality – 2015

Skinned Alive – 2016

The End of an Era – 2016

Temple of Dreams – 2016

Meet on the Street…Shoot at the Home – 2016

Her Last Day Alive – 2016 (b)

A Day in the Life of a Drag Queen – 2016 (b)

Gone! Up in Smoke – 2017 (b)

Piercing Darkness  – 2017 (a) (d)

The Americans…60 years after Frank – 2017 (a) (d)

Dye Stability Testing of Color Imaging Media: Edition 2 – 2017 (b)

Whoop-Whoop – 2018 (b)

Gay Bar – 2018 (b)

Women are Beautiful: Beyond Snapshot Aesthetics  – 2018 (d)

180 – The Circular Fisheye at Large – 2018 (b)

Big Mouth – 2018 (d)

Charmed – 2018 (d)

Moo! – Forthcoming (e)

Girls of the Beat Generation: The Mix – Forthcoming (c)

Girls of the Beat Generation: The Bodies – Forthcoming (c)

Raw: Girls of the Beat Generation – Forthcoming (c)

Girls of the Beat Generation: Hairstyles from the 1940’s-1960’s – Forthcoming (c)

The Rainbow Girls of the Beat Generation – Forthcoming (e)

Girls of the Beat Generation: Outtakes – Forthcoming (c)

Girls of the Beat Generation: 6 Volume Master Set  – Forthcoming (c)

Presenting Photography to Curators and Museums – Forthcoming (c)

Eight Millimeter – Forthcoming (e)

Yum! – Forthcoming (e)

A Shadow in Time – Forthcoming (c)

A Hidden World – Forthcoming (c)

Secrets of Candid Photography – Forthcoming (c)

Eiffel Found  – Forthcoming (c)

Freezing Time: Vernacular Snapshot Aesthetics – Forthcoming (c)

Freezing Time: Vernacular Snapshot Aesthetics II – Forthcoming (c)

In Their Day – Forthcoming (c)

Double Take – Forthcoming (e)

Wide Open – Forthcoming (e)

The Ghost of Christmas Past – Forthcoming (c)

Pigskin Chronicles – Forthcoming (c)

Frosty – Forthcoming (c)

The Kennedy Files – Forthcoming (c)

All You Need is Love – Forthcoming (c)

Nursing Home Confidential – Forthcoming (c)

Majorette – Forthcoming (c)

The Dinosaur Hunters – Forthcoming (e)

Balling the Jack – Forthcoming (c)

Gimme the Finger – Forthcoming (c)

Painted Ladies  – Forthcoming (c)

The Great Tit – Forthcoming (e)

Artifices of Convention – Forthcoming (c)

All about Dick! – Forthcoming (c)

Shooting Blind  – Forthcoming (c)

Beatnik Lovefest – Forthcoming (c)

Going Postal – Forthcoming (c)

Plain Brown Paper Wrapper Girls: Bohemian Models from 1940’s-1960’s – Forthcoming (c)

The Animal Lovers  – Forthcoming (c)

Magnifying Lens Photography – Forthcoming (e)

Take it Like a Man – Forthcoming (e)

Iconoclastic Reporter – Forthcoming (c)

Iconoclastic Reporter 2 – Forthcoming (e)

The Flappers: The Mix – Forthcoming (c)

The Flappers: Raw! – Forthcoming (c)

The Rainbow Flappers – Forthcoming (c)

Flappers: Reflections – Forthcoming (e)

The Flappers: Hairstyles from the 1915 – 1935 – Forthcoming (e)

The Flappers: Outtakes – Forthcoming (e)

 The Flappers: 6 Volume Master Set  – Forthcoming (e)

Nightwatch – Forthcoming (e)

The Pre-Beat Bohemians: Girls from the 1930’s & 1940’s – Forthcoming (e)

Bathing Beauties – Forthcoming (c)

So…You Think You Got Troubles? – Forthcoming (e)

Mirror Image  – Forthcoming (c)

The Bohemians – Forthcoming (e)

Hyper-Real HDR Street Photography – Forthcoming (e)

Blow Man Blow! – Forthcoming (c)

Whoop-Te-Doo – Forthcoming (c)

Going Native! – Forthcoming (e)

Adorable – Forthcoming (e)

Hungry for Love –  Forthcoming (e)

Before Photoshop (Abridged) – Forthcoming (c)

Before Photoshop (Unabridged)- Forthcoming (c)

Pitch Black Crapshoot – Forthcoming (e)

Trucker Fags in Denial: A Closer Look – Forthcoming (e)

Harem – Forthcoming (c)

Vegas Undercover – Forthcoming (c)

Bikers’ Mardi Gras: Revisited – Forthcoming (e)

Pucker Up! – Forthcoming (e)

Rear View – Forthcoming (e)

The Broken Leg Variations – Forthcoming (e)

The Honeymooners – Forthcoming (e)

A Shot in the Dark – Forthcoming (e)

Blinded by the Light – Forthcoming (e)

The Lovers – Forthcoming (c)

America…in T shirts – Forthcoming (c)

Nosing Around – Forthcoming (e)

Strangers in Paradise – Forthcoming (e)

What is Spontaneous Bop Prose… – In Development

Thirty-six views of Bison – In Development

With Due Respect Beloved One – In Development

Notes:

(a) Under consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.  Edit 4.7.16 – Notified of Fellowship rejection from Guggenheim Foundation.

(b) Principal photography complete – pro forma book printing schedule.

(c) Principal photography complete – pending book printing, no date scheduled.

(d) Photography in progress – pro forma project completion date.

(e) Photography in progress – ongoing, no completion date set.

(f) World record for largest set of hand-printed artist’s  books ever produced.

Piercing Darkness…expanded preview

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Teoli Jr., A yawn does not last very long., amsterdam, An interesting aspect of infrared flash photography is how it shows up the veins of the body., Aoyama, araki, art, Art Students’ League, artists' book, available light photography, Balance crooked composition with excellent content, Best examples of infrared flash photography, big nipples, bikers mardi gras, black and white, blackout, blackout infrared flash photography, blackout photography, book art, breast, bubble bath pit, Bug eyed photos, candid, candid camera, candid photography, cartier-bresson, chiaroscuro, children of weegee, Chuo, circular fisheye, circular photography, city infrared, clandestine infrared photo, clandestine photo, clandestine photography, composition, crooked composition, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, Dark Flash Photography, decisive moment, digital infrared flash photography, documentary photography, Don't ever say no one breasts-feeds you the scoop. 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Article Dedication

In honor of

Weegee and Kohei Yoshiyuki

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Photos are from Piercing Darkness project – a forthcoming limited edition artist’s book of infrared flash photography by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Piercing Darkness takes over where Weegee and Yoshiyuki left off with their groundbreaking candid infrared flash photography.

Piercing Darkness along with my project The Americans…60 years after Frank are under joint consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

For those that are not familiar with this type of work, infrared flash coupled with an infrared camera, makes it possible to take photographs in complete darkness with little or no visible light coming from the flash.

Freak Show – man passing a hook through his nose and out his mouth.

The 3 shots that follow are some of the first photos I took with the IR setup. I was still learning the ropes of how to go about it. It is very hard taking pictures out in the woods in the dark when you can’t see the ground or your camera.

Although infrared flash night photography is a rewarding and interesting area to work in, it can be dangerous. At 2 in the morning there is always the threat of an attack or robbery. There is also the danger of going up to strangers and sticking your cam in their face. If you wish to try this type of photography I suggest you do so with self-defense in mind.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/self-defense-for-the-street-photographer/

Before I shot the 2 guys ‘tag teaming the gal’, I was almost run over by a drunk at 1 in the morning. I was able to jump out of the way at the last moment…just. Being of an ADD nature and always distracted, I was very, very lucky that night.

Shooting infrared flash in the darkness of night is not studio photography, most of the time it is a crapshoot. If your an anal photog and like your shots perfect…forget IR flash work. Just stick with your tripod, cable release, beauty dishes and tethered laptop. You never know exactly what you have until you develop it…just like the old ‘wet darkroom’ days.

I discuss the characteristics of the ‘anal photog’ here…about 2/3’s of the way down starting with large format cameras.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/what-is-the-best-camera-in-the-world/

Many times you can’t see the subject in your camera for proper framing nor can you even see the controls of your camera. Unless you can see in the dark, you have to be all set ahead of time. The focus may be off, exposure is off, lots of issues shooting in the dark. But when things work out and you get a great shot it makes it all worthwhile.

Homeless Couple Hollywood Blvd…with obligatory clichéd juxtaposition of foot for added interest.

If you shoot at dusk you may be able to see a little in your screen. You can also get some nice shots of the sky at dusk.

Those NYC gals can sure toss their hair!

The one gal doesn’t seem to like it. GD, she can toss it in my face any day of the week!

When you are shooting blackout flash photography some of the pix will be crooked. It is unavaoidable if you can’t use a viewfinder or see well in the dark. You may think you are a devotee of Winogrand with all the off-kilter work, but you should strive for something beyond Winogrand’s ‘snapshot aesthetics’ by balancing the crooked composition with excellent content,

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/shooting-from-the-hip/

If your crooked photos have strong content your photos wont be confused with Winogrand’s crooked mess that also had crap for content in a lot of his work….that is the difference.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/pd-project/

Here is a little trick I use that may help you if you decide to try IR flash night photography. I glue small pieces of toothpicks on my camera controls so I can feel them braille style to adjust controls in the dark. OK, I may be guilty of a little fondling and pimping my cam here…but I have an excuse!

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/the-camera-fondlers-delight-pimping-their-cam/

I’ve seen a fair amount of (sexual) breast suckling in my day. I have never seen it fail to put a smile on the face of the gal being nursed!

An old gal once asked me what fascination men see in breasts? I told her no one can say. It is the same way that no one can say why they like vanilla or chocolate…they just do.  I gave her a quote from Tennyson’s  Charge of the Light Brigade to make my point.

Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die…

I told her it is not her place to ask why, the only question for her is whether to provide the stimulation to men and women.

When I shot this next pix I had no idea the gal had almost 1 inch long nipples…nor that she had them poking out of the fishnet top. That is the beauty and mystery of piercing darkness.

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A little history on infrared flash photography…

Graflex 4×5 Speed Graphic press camera with GE 5R Infrared Flashbulb.

The Speed Graphic was a mainstay of Weegee. Loaded with 3 zinc ‘D’ batteries and a film holder, it weighs nearly 9 pounds!

The camera fondlers are spoiled nowadays. They complain their cameras that weigh a pound are too heavy. The old press photogs were real he-men lugging this thing around all day.

From Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection

Two of the founding fathers of IR flash photography were Weegee and Kohei Yoshiyuki. From my limited research, they were the only two photogs in history that have done any meaningful projects with IR flash photography.

Here is some of their work with IR flash…

Weegee

(You got to love those moments that pleasure the gals so much it makes their toes curl! GD…can there possibly be ANY more pleasurable work in this world than making women’s toes curl and crack!)

Lovers at the Palace Theatre – Weegee

There are many variations of this photo showing Weegee took various poses of the couple. The dates for this shot vary all over the place…1940, 1943 and 1945. Weegee said he prided himself in reality based photography, but he was not getting what his client wanted for movie theatre shots. So Weegee staged some of the infrared movie theatre shots….”helping realism along” as he wrote in his autobiography.

Weegee talks about his infrared flash photography on pages 117-118 of his book  Weegee by Weegee. He said he picked up a female model with a “peek-a-boo dress” and a male model from the Art Students’ League. He brought them to a theatre and told them “Don’t look at the camera and don’t laugh. Just make love.” .

Weeggee reenacting how he did his infrared flash theatre photography. He disguised himself as an ice cream vendor.

Weegee’s account of his infrared work is confusing. Many of Weegee’s early infrared photos date from the early 1940’s. He would have used a Speed Graphic 4 x 5 press camera in that era. In his autobiography he said he hid his camera in the ice cream tray, which sounds more like the 1950’s when he used small format cameras. It is pretty hard to hide a press camera.

Here is another version…

While the photo of Lovers at the Palace Theatre fits the bill for his staged infrared theatre photos, it was dated in the 1940’s. From his books timeline description his staged infrared theatre photos were done in the early 1950s. So, there is no telling which infrared shots are candid and which are staged when it comes to Weegee.

Well, I can’t hold Weegee’s staged lovers against him. I’ve been in a number of theatres and have not seen any love scenes as yet. I keep looking. Until then let me offer Weegee this IR theatre homage…

The next photo is by Yoshiyuki…from his project ‘The Park’.

Yoshiyuki’s project centered around taking IR flash photos at 3 parks in Japan (Chuo, Yoyogi, and Aoyama parks) where people would go to have sex (both hetero and homo) and voyeurs would stay in the shadows to watch them. (Sometimes the voyeurs would see how far they could push things and try to sneak into the action!)

In a 1979 interview Yoshiyuki said that just as he started to test Toshiba infrared flashbulbs, they were discontinued. Yoshiyuki replaced the discontinued bulbs with Kodak (infrared) flashbulbs.

A quote from the 1979 interview done by Nobuyoshi Araki and Kohei Yoshiyuki:

Kohei Yoshiyuki

“I found out that Toshiba made flashbulbs- infrared flashbulbs. Before I had a chance to use  more than a few of them, they were discontinued. Then I looked around for filters, and ended up using two tricolor separation filters.  After a while I heard that Kodak had some flashbulbs, so I used them. At that time infrared flash units didn’t exist. Sunpak came out with them after I took these pictures.”

I have done extensive research on infrared flashbulb history and have never been able to find any information on Kodak making infrared flashbulbs or any flashbulbs for that matter.

I contacted flashbulb historian, dealer and expert Bill Cress about Kodak infrared flashbulbs.

Bill’s reply:  “Kodak did not make bulbs, if anything they may have had some private labeled by others but not made by them.”

Chuck Baker, another historian and collector concurred stating;  “As far as I know Kodak did not make their own flashbulbs.

I polled the Flashbulb Collectors Page, a Yahoo Group, on this subject. Unanimous consensus was Kodak never made any flashbulbs whether they be infrared or visible light.

Private label or not, nothing ever shows up in the historical record or on the second-hand market for Kodak flashbulbs either in the visible light spectrum or infrared. While it is possible that the Japanese had access to products not available in the USA, it is only conjecture.

Yoshiyuki started his Park project before IR strobes were on the market. But as he approached the mid-point and end of his project, IR strobes were readily available from Sunpak. The bottom line is; it is a mystery as to what infrared flashbulb or strobe Yoshiyuki was actually using for his Park project.

I like Yoshiyuki, so let me just borrow a quote from his interview to finish things up and say…”I better not say any more.” You can draw your own conclusions

The General Electric #5R, #22R and Sylvania Blackout 2 and Blackout 25 were the most common infrared flashbulbs of that era. The most popular infrared flashbulb of these four was the GE 5R.

In the December 1947 issue of Popular Photography, Weegee said he used “midget infrared flashbulbs.”  He goes on to say in the April 1956 issue of Popular Mechanics that he used 5R infrared flashbulbs.

I don’t know how much the 5R’s cost in the early 1940’s when they were first commercially marketed, but a package from the 1960’s was priced at $3 a dozen. Infrared flash photography was developed during WWII as a means of taking photos in complete darkness also known as ‘blackout.

A trade announcement in the May 1949 edition of Popular Photography said Sterling Howard Corp of N.Y.C. was selling infrared flashbulb coating kits to turn white light flashbulbs into infrared flashbulbs. The list price for the gelatin &  dye kit was $4.75.

https://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-infrared-basics.html

 BLACKOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

This document was taken from Photography: Naval Training Course, Vol. 1, NAVPERS 10371-A, prepared by Bureau of Navy Personnel, 1951.

A flash lamp pierces darkness about the way a 16- inch gun salvo rends silence. The ordinary flash lamp, that is. There’s one which is decidedly “un ordinary.”nA photographer takes a flash picture in pitch darkness. Only a few feet away there is not the slightest hint of it. But what about the flash? There wasn’t any. A flash picture with no flash? Well, for all practical purposes-yes.

Actually there was a flash. But it was made up almost entirely of infrared light, which is invisible. Yet the lamp illuminated the subject quite enough for a clear picture. This is infrared flash photography or “blackout” photography. The special flash bulb is coated with a Lacquer which transmits a maximum of infrared rays while holding back nearly all the visible rays.

It must be used only with infrared film and in total or nearly total darkness. Slow shutter speed (1/25 to 1/50) and wide lens opening (f/4 to f/8) are required. The phenomenon of blackout photography will work only at very short distances-usually 10 to 15 feet. But at close quarters it will produce a surprisingly satisfactory photographic record.

This procedure might have numerous military uses. An example would be in taking a vital picture when a brilliant glare of white light would tip off your presence to the enemy. There are also less ominous circumstances which would make the use of the conventional flash impractical or impossible.

http://www.graflex.org/flash/navy/

An early blackout infrared flash photo from 1945 of Kodak’s Aero Pan film spooling operation. A single GE 22R infrared flashbulb was suspended above each operator for illumination. Photographed with a 4 x 5 camera with infrared film.

In 1974 Sunpak introduced the first commercial infrared strobe. The Nocto 400.

The Nocto 400 was a revolutionary strobe as it was the first and only commercially produced dedicated infrared flash ever made. It weighed about 886 grams without batteries.

It’s downfall was it produced a visible bright reddish / orange glow when it fired. It had a high and low setting and ran off of A.C. or  4 ‘C’ batteries. The low setting produced a slightly lower glow that was only visible if you looked directly at the head. The high setting produced a visible orange glow that would reflect off the object if it was within a few feet and had a reflective nature. The recycle time was 7 seconds on high and 1.5 seconds on low powered by the AC cord.  The guide number calculator had a range of 57 feet for the high setting.

A few years later Sunpak introduced the model 622 which incorporated interchangeable heads – one head being a dedicated infrared flash head.

A technical tidbit…

On Flickr, member ‘t6b9p’ wrote :

 “…the Sunpak 622 IR head is actually fitted with two IR filters. An inner 0.2mm flexible IR filter with 50% transmission at 730nm and a hard outer filter that has 50% transmission at 850nm.”

I took apart a Sunpak 622 IR head and sure enough there are two filters as ‘t6b9p’ reported.

The spec sheet lists the following information for the  622 Pro IR head:

Peak Spectrum: 840 NM

Guide Number: 30/100

Angle of illumination: 65 degree horizontal by 45 degree vertical.

Coverage: 35mm lens on 35mm camera

Weight 3.8 oz / 100 g

The beauty of the Sunpak was its systemized design that allowed rapid change of 7 dedicated strobe heads:

Standard Head

Zoom Head

Wide Head

Ring Head

Infra-Red Head

Diffusion Head

Bare bulb Head

A vintage 622 with IR head installed and the zoom head.

The Sunpak 622 was a monster to lug around. While the head is light, the weight of the entire flash unit is very heavy at 1109 grams without batteries. Recycle time with 4 alkaline batteries was 12 seconds on full power and almost instantaneous at low power.

This is a very powerful strobe that is said to be roughly 250 watt seconds. Although the flash head still emits a reddish glow it seems a little less than the Nocto 400 emitted. The dual filter array does a good job in keeping this strobe stealthy.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/sunpak_auto622_pro.pdf

Sunpak Nocto 400 compared to Sunpack Auto 622 with IR head.

If you would like to use one of these vintage film era IR strobes on your digital cam you will need Safe-Sync adapter.

In the 2000’s third party cottage industries came out with IR flash adapters that slid over small, modern strobes and commercial strobes modified for dedicated IR use.

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When I’m out wandering around late at night I never know what I will come across for the IR cam to record…

Of course, to do it candidly, with live people, you must have great stealth skills. Just gluing toothpicks on your cam wont do a thing for you unless you got the rest…talent and skill. I hold the world record for how close you can get to someone and shoot a candid. I have daylight candid’s going down to 2 or 3 inches from people.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/how-close-is-close-for-street-shooting/

Still, if I get sloppy with technique I get caught even with invisible flash technology…but only 2 or 3 times out of a hundred. If you want to be a better street photog – learn how to be one with your cam.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/being-at-one-with-your-camera/

The best bet for stealth is when the subject is occupied elsewhere. This guy was a roving bartender. He had a bottle strapped to his waist. His motto was ‘drinks for tits!’

Even though he is looking right at me, this next photo is a candid. Same with most of the rest of these photos in this post…all candids. The only not-so-candid exceptions are the lady in the Indian headdress (I asked.) that is below and the 2 guys working on the gal. The 2 guys started out candid, then they turned around and told me ‘get that fucking camera out of here.’  (BTW…If I was on that tag team, the photog would have to set off an atom bomb to distract me and get my attention!)

In any case, I don’t care how stealthy you are (…and I am very good at it, http://dewallenrld.tumblr.com/)  you can only crawl up a person’s ass so far and still be invisible.

Being able to go right up to an person in the dark and shoot them without blinding them with a strobe is very liberating. The only drawback is being forced to have a larger foot print than I would like with my gear – the giant IR flash adds a huge amount of real estate to the setup.

After 12 to 14 hours of IR street shooting my infrared flash candid photography skills improved quite a bit. Before I shot the first 3 photos that opened this post I only had about 20 to 30 minutes practice shooting the IR rig at my house. Shooting people outside in the dark is very different than fiddling with the cam in the basement. Now, I can’t toot my horn too loud. Skills or not, big ego or not, as I said earlier IR flash candid photography in the dark is a crapshoot…I only show you the good ones!

Of course it is all luck! ~ Cartier-Bresson

Here…I have even included a Plain Jane photo for the conservative crowd that do not like anything sexual!

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/your-photos-are-too-extreme/

The guy below was doing his best with his advertising campaign to get a girl. This gal didn’t have any interest in his product. Since I’m not queer or a girl, I’m no expert…but his package looked like a nice one to me.

He would ask girls if they wanted to touch it…none accepted. This girl recoiled and held her hand as tight as she could to her body. I guess this underscores the difference between the sexes. If a girl was offering free touches of her delectable’s…she would not have to ask a (hetero) guy twice.

Even in the dark…if a gal wants to gets a guys attention all she has to do is to do a split!

Isn’t this what you all try for with your street work? You find a funny sign and wait 20 minutes until someone walks by it…the proverbial and clichéd juxtaposition.  Well, try it in the dark, with the signs moving and no viewfinder!

One of the problems with IR flash at night is most of the time you are dependent on flash for 100% of the light. The little ambient light that is available gets lost with IR. You can see the fall-off in the shot above; the foreground was pulled 1.5 stops the background was pushed 3 to 4 stops.

Below is an example of the maximum effective range for infrared flash using a medium power IR strobe set to maxiumum power.

Traditional photography has more latitude when it comes to blending flash and ambient light at night as you can see in this next shot.

In any case, either you can make it work in LR or not. Never force things, don’t rejoice in your garbage…trash it!

Cartier-Bresson on the subject…

“Yes…Yes…Yes…photography is like that and there’s no maybes. All the maybes go to the trash. There is a tremendous enjoyment in saying yes, even if it is for something you hate. It is an affirmation…Yes!”

I was at a meeting put on by lesbian separatists. Here is a little doctrine of the separatists in case your not familiar with that movement…

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/the-scum-manifesto/

One of the lesbians didn’t like me taking pictures and started pushing me around and was very abusive. As I left, a group of 5 or 6 lesbians surrounded me. They demanded I delete my photos. As soon as they confronted me I had my magnum can of pepper spray in hand with my other hand fingering a collapsible baton. I refused to delete any of my photos and ended the conversation in short order.

I find it does no good to keep arguing in these situations. The only thing that happens is tempers will start to boil. As I walked away they continued following me while verbally harassing me. Luckily for them they were all mouth. If things escalated I was ready to serve up some Tabasco and crack some heads.

An interesting aspect of infrared flash photography is how it shows up the veins of the body. Dr. Lou Gibson did a number of experiments in this area.

http://medicalphotography.com.au/Article_04/09.html

When picking your infrared flash you should choose the wavelength that is most conducive to the type of shooting you want to do. Some IR flashes do produce a little visible light that the subject will see if they are looking at it. If you are working with normal street lighting it is not a big deal. They most likely wont see much of the flash.

With my style of shooting I work in almost complete darkness and right up in people’s faces, so I try to go with no visible light. When you are shopping for your IR flash, pay attention to the sound it makes when firing and recycling. Every flash has its own sound signature and some are a lot louder than others.

If your shooting in a noisy environment then it wont matter much. But if things are quiet and you stick your cam in someone’s face, you don’t want a noisy flash blowing a stealth shot.

Some of these IR flashes have so many lights on them they are lit up like a goddamn Xmas tree. Red, green, blue lights…a nightmare for the stealth undercover photog. But, that is how the camera fondling engineers design this crap. They don’t know their ass from Randy’s proverbial donut hole when it comes to candid work…do they.

If your stuck with an IR flash that has lots of flashing colored lights working against  you, cover them up with gaffers tape and pinprick holes in the tape to allow a little of the light to shine through the tape.

Out of all things mentioned above, recycle time is of the utmost importance. One of my IR flashes had it all going except for one thing…a slow recycle time. I missed many shots with that flash. I seldom use it now, except if I need a disposable flash that I don’t mind being trashed.

Don’t ever say no one breasts-feeds you the scoop. I give it all to you, I hold back nothing.

But, you will never get this stuff on the photo forums…I’ve been banned from virtually all of em. The controlling pricks that run the forums are interested in $. I’m interested in the iconic photo…plain and simple. Get it any way you can!

The price you pay for total darkness is the flash range will be less than you get with the flash that emits a small amount of visible light. You may want a long distance IR shot once in a while, so you may wish to stock low and high power IR flashes in your kit. While you can get by with just a high powered IR flash, they are huge and work against you with candid photos.

A trick you can use to hide some of the glow of your flash is to use a Sto-Fen white diffuser. The diffuser masks much of the glow and you still get 95% of the IR illumination. The drawback of the diffuser is it does cut down on the flash strength by 1/3 to 1/2 stop.

Instant review is an important tool that benefits IR flash. It not only helps with getting the right exposure or something approximating it, but it also lets you know your IR setup is working properly. You can’t tell by seeing any light from the strobe, so all you can go by is the photo you just took.

From Women are Beautiful: Beyond Snapshot Aesthetics artist’s book.

It is hard to get perfect exposure with infrared flash while doing street work. You are always changing distances and if your working undercover you can’t always be changing your exposure. (Or even see your controls in the dark.) Other times the shot comes up so quick there is no time to fondle the cam. The only time you have is to decide do I take the shot as-is or not. You just have to do the best you can working with an acceptable range of exposure / framing / lack of focus and make it work in post.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/cropping-and-post-processing-can-make-or-break-a-photo/

Again, not something the anal photog has developed much skills at. The anal photogs are used to working with pretty perfect files and trying their anal best to get it perfect in-cam. Whereas street / documentary photographers are used to working with imperfect files and making something great out of it. When you do street or doc work, if you come back with 70% to 80% of what you were after, you can still have a winner.

Cartier-Bresson’s Rue Mouffetard Paris 1954 is a good example of the principle of imperfect perfection.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/73/c6/30/73c630cbb286e57b2a5f1dfc424bdac7.jpg

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Don’t yawn at me when I am lecturing you on the characteristics of the anal photog.

Before I took the shot above, I had thirty something photos ruined. Someone had bumped into me and knocked the IR flash slightly off the hotshoe. When I was taking photos I was not getting anything since the flash was not working. This isn’t the first time this has happened. If your shooting candid’s, you can’t constantly be reviewing your shots if you want to stay undercover. So, you have to balance reviewing in a timely fashion to shooting candidly.

As bad as it was losing 30 something photos from a loose flash, earlier that week I lost 300+ photos. As I said working in the  dark can be tough. When changing a memory card I dropped it and lost lots of good photos that night…a fistfight, a girl with pillowy and veiny breasts, girls in soapsuds, people yawning and lots more.  I had to learn the hard way to be extra vigilant when changing cards in the dark.

When out and about I sometimes get bored waiting to find the next great shot. I have a number of projects that I just shoot ‘off the cuff.’  Weegee used to like shooting pix of people picking their nose. One of my boredom projects is shooting people while yawning…candid. It is good practice for fast shooting…a yawn does not last very long.

Working indoors is also another are of interest to me. Here is one from my latest artist’s book project Gay Bar.  Shooting in gay bars is tough, I usually get thrown out in short order.

A transwoman and her friend. From Gay Bar artist’s book.

I have more IR images that are marinating a la’ Eric Kim style. I’m letting them ‘age’ cause I’m hoping my bad photos will somehow magically look better later on!

No, just kidding. Generally, you should NEVER marinate your photos – learn from your mistakes and successes ASAP.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/the-real-truth-on-marinating-your-photos/

Mine are marinating cause I don’t have the time to process them. I hate sitting on my photos, but that is how it is. It takes a lot of post processing to develop IR.

Digital IR images look terrible right out of the camera. They do not look anything like the old Kodak High Speed Infrared Film we shot back in the day.

Here is what a digital IR image looks like with no post processing.

Here is the same image after extensive post-processing

From The Americans…60 years after Frank artist’s book by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

With work you can get the IR image to look ‘something like’ a traditional BW image. Although, the tonal range and look of digital IR BW is still going to be different that non IR digital BW.

Here is a non-IR digital image.

When I go through the images, some can be tossed immediately. Other times an image has to have some processing done to determine whether it is a keeper or not.  In general, IR post processing takes a lot longer than traditional post processing. Sometimes you invest an hour or more of work in it only to find it is a borderline image and it still ends up as trash.

If you’re after the classic IR flash look, burn out the highlights some and pump up the contrast. I prefer a more extended range look myself, so I split the difference. If you are having trouble making good prints from your infrared flash images, make one good master print with the proper amount of burnout, then use it to help match your future prints.

You don’t have to scare people Bruce Gilden style to get ‘bug eyed’ shots.  If you keep your eyes open you can find them naturally occurring once in a while. If you are in a hurry for the bug eyed person, then you may have to resort to scaring people.

Now, there are no photo police to enforce any rules or certain ‘look’ when it comes to developing IR. With certain images you can process them to look a little like a poor quality traditional BW image. Since my early IR film days were based on Kodak High Speed Infrared Film, I strive for a little of that look with my digital post processing. But, we are all free to process them as we like…

When I go out to shoot street I seldom have an agenda. I shoot what I come across that interests me.  You prob wont believe this, but I am pretty shy. If I can avoid it I don’t like talking to people. Sure, sometimes I can be bold and do all sort of things to push people…if I need to. But it zaps my energy as it isn’t my natural way of being. My preferred M.O. is to get as close as is needed to get the candid shot all the while staying undercover.

Adult themed horror house – women examining their clitoris with a flashlight and mirror.

Man doing squats with park bench – Santa Monica

If you want to learn more about freezing time in the dark, get a copy of the bible on this subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Clandestine-Photography-Surveillance-Intelligence-Investigators/dp/0398086907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1440422185&sr=1-1&keywords=Clandestine+Photography

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Photos used herewith are taken in part from the following limited edition artist’s books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

The Americans…60 years after Frank

Piercing Darkness

Gay Bar

Secrets of Candid Photography

Bikers’ Mardi Gras

Women are Beautiful: Beyond Snapshot Aestheticism

Pitch Black Crapshoot

A Shot in the Dark

The Great Tit!

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Sex machine with vacuum nipple stimulator c 1930’s / 40’s

Selection from Iconoclastic Reporter artist’s  book

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection

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Photogs are a pretentious bunch…aren’t they.

Tags

artist statement, artists' book, curator, pretentious, puffery

I read a photogs artist statement. He had a nice shot and the rest were nothing special. Some photogs seem to go out of there way to explain why their crap is so great. Photogs are a pretentious bunch…aren’t they.

“Multifaceted, omnivorous, prone to hybridization and experimentation, (xxxx) manages to combine as few contemporary artists glam classicism and aesthetics , precision and rebellion , awareness of the rules but repudiation of the agreements, while still maintaining a strong and poetic defined in its production.

The art world for (xxxx) looks like a great palace with a hundred thousand doors and windows, each overlooking a completely reinvented, unconventional, sometimes seemingly hostile, but that seduces with a ritual graph permeated by passion and fascination for gothic for the most extreme feelings of beauty and pathos , love and death, the soul leaps into the unknown.

His photographic work performed with the patient and meticulous precision of a miniaturist or even a master goldsmith, as are the alphabet of a secret language, a mystic who dares to desecrate, in his darkest and extreme beauty, the mystery and the sacred.  A set of suggestions and stimuli that meet, collide and merge into a balance that reveals and charm; a poetic image that seduces and excites and makes his Fine Art Photography something truly unique and fascinating.”