I’m now at the end of my psychogeography course with the Open College of the Arts, so I thought it would be useful to talk about my experience of the course. I think the strength of something like this it is that it gives you a framework for studying and producing work, along with a peer group to discuss and interact with. The idea of … Continue reading Psychogeography 2
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If you’ve tried cyanotypes and enjoyed them, you can take them a bit further by introducing cyanotype chemicals to black and white darkroom paper. What You Need This technique combines a lumen print with a cyanotype to introduce various tones and colours that you cannot achieve with cyanotype alone. For this example I’ve used Ilford RC (resin coated) multigrade paper, freshly mixed cyanotype liquid, turmeric … Continue reading Cyanolumens
How to Create a Lumen Print For this you will need: Darkroom black and white photographic paper; I’m using Ilford multigrade resin coated* Photographic fixer; I’m using Ilford Rapid Fixer Sunshine or UV light Running water to rinse Glass and board to put it all on, or a contact frame Plant material or something to block light that you want a photogram image of. I’ve … Continue reading Simple Lumen Prints
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A Really Simple Guide to Developing Film at Home I couldn’t find a really simple guide to developing film when I needed a refresher, so this post is to fill that gap. If you want to give film a try don’t be put off by not having a darkroom. You don’t need a darkroom to develop film and you don’t need a darkroom to print … Continue reading Developing Black & White Film
We’ll briefly cover history & science of cyanotypes, compare the three main options on chemicals and look at how to make an exposure. History & Science A Mini History The cyanotype process produces a beautiful, Prussian-blue coloured print. The process was developed in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, an English astronomer, as an easy way to make copies of diagrams. For much of the 20th … Continue reading Create Your Own Cyanotypes
Creating an Impossible Image with Polaroid I’m a big fan of instant film, and of Polaroid in particular. Enjoying creativity over a perfect outcome, Polaroid works well for the type of photography I practice. That’s why I now have several Polaroid cameras, a fridge full of films, and a Polaroid Instant Lab. What is Polaroid Instant Lab? The Polaroid Instant Lab is a device that … Continue reading Impossible Polaroids
Where do you get your love of photography from? I think I get it from my parents. My dad took hundreds of photos of my mum. She was clearly his favourite subject. They met when she was 15, he was 17. I’d love to say they stayed together forever more, but they didn’t; by the time I was two years old they’d split up, so … Continue reading A Few Family Photos from the 1960s & 1970s
If you want a step-by-step on transferring images to plaster see this post. I decided to experiment by transferring some images onto plaster: I printed the images using a laser printer, coated them with acrylic gel, and transferred them onto a plaster surface. I kept them outside on a windowsill during the summer, and my plan was that they would degrade when exposed to the … Continue reading Ageing Photos on Plaster
A Photographic Subject to Explore These images were taken with a Canon EOS 300 using Fuji colour film at Kingston Lacy NT in Wimborne, late summer 2018. This gallery contains a mix of film scans and photo scans and so the quality is variable and you can see there are some white lines and haze in some of the images which I think are the … Continue reading Flowers on Fuji Colour Film
These were taken on a Canon EOS 300 in about 2001, on cheap Boots Colour Slide film. They were scanned quite a long time ago on an Epson flatbed scanner. They scanned quite dark, but I’m guessing slide film would do that because they were meant to be backlit. These images represent some of my very early work, when I was just starting to get … Continue reading Slide Film from London, 2001
I feel that something fundamental goes missing from my experience of photography when I find myself shooting exclusively in digital. As soon as I realised that, I set up a temporary darkroom at home. I started shooting and developing a lot of film, printing from negatives and being a lot more experimental. But one thing I didn’t do was use much instant film. Instant Film A … Continue reading Film Photography: Instant Film
When I started photography digital photography was not wide-spread. My first proper camera was a Canon EOS 300. (No, not a 300D, just a 300). Apart from my house, my car and my wedding dress, it was the most expensive thing I’d ever bought. It wasn’t really very good; I think you can pick them up on eBay now for less than £10. As well … Continue reading Film Photography: My Story So Far
The Epic Compendium 
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