big prints

For a while I've had in my head this way of pushing my epson 4800 to print large format pictures. It's pretty obvious, but I'm cutting images in half and in thirds and printing out "panels" of those images. I'm definitely pushing the print quality to the edge and maybe a little beyond. I'm also unsure of the final format; I have a few ideas I'll share later. The two forest pictures are from 4x5 negatives, the deer is from a 6x7 negative.

Here's a picture illustration of my process. A couple of issues: cutting glass was a new idea in order to speed up the proofing of pictures. You don't see it, but the glass fits into the scanner and hold an 8x10" sheet of negatives flat to the scanner, much like you would in the darkroom. The other thing you don't see is the film development, but it's much like in any darkroom except I'm squatting over the shower basin. The third thing you don't see here is the larger proofs I print out to fine-tune the image and the splitting of the image in photoshop. I guess some things you'll have to just imagine.

Developing in the shower


The clean-up


Cutting glass for contact sheet scanning


Good cut/bad cut


Scanning negatives


Printing out contact sheet


Looking at contact sheet


In process


A couple other larger format prints


The almost-finished picture

pictures from the late spring

Here are some things that remembered to take pictures of this spring:

Hanging out at Katie's
she claims to be androgynous, but she's sooooooooo cute!

Sonya was there
ohmagaimsoexcied!
battering chicken and my fingers
student work - i should've given out more A's
I rode out to the Eunice Williams' bridge

allergies!

then i treated myself to a sandwich at Bart's
Yesterday Chris Zinn and I hung out here's the result.... click.

wavering

yes yes yes and no. i want to talk about atheism, anarchy, authority, but each time i sit down to write it comes out all wrong. this format - a public journal, is not for me. to much exposure, not enough thought. i haven't posted for a month because of my discomfort. i've finished teaching for the term and so the only things i can post about, things that might have some interest are my personal inner thoughts, and the picture work that i'm making. i can't very well talk about job because of the hipaa law i've spoke about earlier, and my inner thoughts i'm saving for myself. so all that's left is my picture work. okay, that's the direction i'll take for the next few posts.

but first,

here's some video still captures from iran:

the dark disc in the sky

Yesterday my team went out to the Ashfield Lake for a goodbye group for the grads. This is a group of students that have been with me my entire time at Swift River. They swam, we ate food from the Ashfield Lakehouse, we played Frisbee. Then, last night, I woke up with a terrifying image in my head -- it was from the frisbee game: a long floating pass into the endzone, the boys gather around looking into the bright white sky. The frisbee hangs in the sky vibrating and growing larger. I squint and feel the shuffle of bodies around me. We are caught for a moment staring at the growing disc, darkening the sky, blotting out the sun, the sky the trees. I freeze, unsure of what to do, I know I need to jump, but the shuffle around me, the pain in my eyes and the growing disc threaten immenent doom.

I didn't catch the firsbee, in fact, I got knocked in the head by somebody's elbow, but that moment is haunting me, worrying me. To leap would be an act of desperation, as if the frisbee is a black hole and to leap, to bend my knees and leap, I might throw myself into the abyss. Fear of loosing myself, and at once the desire, nagging, burning desire to loose myself into that leap, to reach for the sky, for the black hole, to reach,to stretch towards the thing, the shimmering, shaking thing, growing darker, bigger, vibrating, swallowing the sky. I know, and yet, I cannot act. I can only pray that with practice I may learn to leap up into the dark disc.

100 things

When I was seven I counted to 100. My dad recorded each number in his slanting chaotic script. It was the first of a dozen accomplishment in this life -- it's been slow going. The other day I started saying the number 100 in my head over and over again when I realized that certain things, upon reaching 100 are accomplishments by themselves. Some of the things I was thinking about: 100 post cards, 100 prints of one certain size, 100 push ups(100 days in a row, yeah, beetch!), 100 seedlings, 100 houses, 100 miles, etc.

I guess the nice thing about 100 is that it maintains a certain childhood innocence as a "big number." Sometime in high school I learned that 100 dollars wasn't as much as I thought it was. And 100 people was a crowd, but not a huge one. In this inflationary culture when we're working our way from the gigabyte billions to the terabyte trillions the lowly 100 is very^10 small. However, an individual with only two hands one mouth and two feet can still approach 100 as a truly monumental task.

I won't promise to do any of the things on my 100 list right now; I'd be working towards 100 things I didn't do, maybe in 100 days.

boredom

I'm running at 55mph these days, you know, the limit in times of scarcity. I mentor trouble teens, teach them photography and now I'm working on a short movie. Idle hands are the devil's playthings(or whatever). I have a lot to offer, so it's sort of like I'm the very popular guy, everybody wants to participate in what I'm doing. But they're all teens, and our relationship is, by nature, prescribed by the mentor/menti, or teacher/student boundaries. That's a good thing and necessary for that part of my life, but I'm feeling a lack in the other. All of my creativity is going into work. That's okay, but when work is bounded by very strict laws about privacy, rules about intimacy and establishing good boundaries, well, I'm limited. And without creative relationships outside of work, I'm stuck.

So, I'm looking for a friend who wants to work on a project. Something big, something huge, ambitious and over-grand. Someone who can withstand my stony-faced disregard, ignore my whining and self-loathing, someone, anyone, who can keep up.

**this is not an equal-opportunity offer, applicants must be male, or of male persuasion and be between 5'9" and 6'1". Applicant much not work with teenagers or children, must enjoy working in silence, and performing manual labor. Applicants must have better musical taste than me and be able to provide musical entertainment when required. Attractive applicants are desired, though not too attractive, you know, cute, or hunky, but not so drop-dead gorgeous that you outshine me. Applicants must enjoy beer and liquor, but not drink too much because the last thing I need is a co-dependent. Smokers are acceptable, as long your brand isn't Camels, though, with cigarettes the price they are maybe you should quit, we could buy ink and paper for the price of those cigarettes, I mean, come on, eight dollars a pack. Applicants should be C++CAD. Applicants must furnish proof that they have spent some time in a mental health facility. Applicants must not wear green. Applicants must have a cool haircut. Please send application with a self-address stamped envelope to:

Friend c/o
Clayton Salem
6 Main St
Apt 4
Greenfield, Ma 01301 literate and have familiarity with

another quick one

Today was our lesson on shutter speeds. The students use my camera to capture motion blur(dark against light, light against dark) and freeze-frame. We didn't get to panning, maybe on Friday.
Mr. Salem loves being in pictures
Motion blur
I've been planning to make some big prints using two or more pieces of paper. Here's a first attempt, of course I forgot to put something in for scale, let's see, the clock in the lower left is about five inches wide...