PX Emulsion Lifts

This was my first try at some emulsion lifts, I attempted it first with some Polaroid 100 Peel Apart with no luck so went onto PX70 Colour Shade & PX100 FF.

I'm going to buy more peel apart film and practice more in the summer.

...

First I got a small tray of cool water, and a bowl for my boiled water. 

All of the polaroids I wanted to practice peeling (Tip: Use photos you don't mind getting wrecked, it takes a few try's to get the hang of it), Scissors, Kettle, Small Paint Brush and I used some Ilford Pearl Darkroom Paper because I didn't have anything else that would hold the water.

Peel off the whole of the white border of the polaroid, and the black backing so you're left with just the image and the raw emulsion back. Pour freshly boiled water into the bowl and immerse the polaroid fully. Leave it in there until you can start to see the emulsion pulling away from the polaroid. Don't worry if loads of white stuff comes off the back (I freaked out and thought I'd wrecked it but it was fine!)

Have your piece of paper wet and ready in the cool water. Take the polaroid out of the boiling water and place on top of the wet paper. Very gently and slowly use your paint brush to tease the emulsion edges away from the plastic, eventually fully removing it.

Now you have your emulsion lift on your wet paper, gently tease it out to your desired effect, keeping it slightly wet all the time so it doesn't tear.

There you go! Mine are still drying, I will scan them in when fully dried :)

I also did one from PX100 FF film. 

I'm looking forward to doing this a lot more and can't wait for the results.

untitled

feeling blue

tumblr

I have a new tumblr account:

leannesurfleet.tumblr.com

I find it quicker to upload images but I'm still going to be uploading here.

px70 colour change

I shot some PX70 Colour Shade film a few weeks ago and scanned them straight away, I looked at them today in the box I keep them in and was suprised by the colour shifts and changes! I like them better actually after a couple of weeks developing.

Scanned day of exposure

Scanned 2 weeks later

Scanned day of exposure

Scanned 2 weeks later

sneak peak - noir

So this is the first project from uni that I have enjoyed and properly gotten into, the project is simply 'studio portrait'.

And after watching The Big Sleep I wanted to do a film noir shoot, so here are a couple of shots.

I'm currently still printing in the darkroom and editing down to my final image.

These are scans from the negatives, developed by myself at home.

cat is me

.....

cosy

I cant stop buying cardigans, oh well.

I also need to find more time to take photo's, the whole point of going to uni was to learn more and so that I had more chance of getting out there and showing people my work, right now its doing the opposite and distracting me and making me take photos that I dont like and dont want to take.

the snow

new year, old film

Happy New Year.

For me so far, it hasnt really been happy. Spent most of Christmas and New years ill, but I'm finally over it...I think. I still managed to get out and get some fresh icey air and take some photos.

lily

I've never really took photos like this before, I find taking photos of flowers lame and amatuer-ish, but for a project for uni I need to photograph 'fascinating objects' and so I photographed a lot of random things. These were taken on my Zenit E with a 29mm lens, on Ilford b&w film. The 2nd one is of the middle of the lily, using a macro attachment thingy. I do actually like the outcome of the 1st photo, it couldnt have looked any better if it wasnt shot on film. 

Nanna

So I found some old photos of my Nanna & Grandad from the mid 1940's, and some (like this one) are in need of a little care. Now I've never attempted to restore a photo before but I thought I'd give it a go. It was actually lovely to work on and more personal for me being a photograph of family.

Heres what I got, its not perfect but I still love it.

Original

Restored

shadow catchers v&a

I recently came across the V&A website and saw that they are currently showing an exhibition of Artists that are Photographers but do not use cameras; Camera-less photography.

The show is called Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography and it includes the work of Floris Neususs, Adam Fuss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges and Gary Fabien Miller.

Theres also a book that accompanies the exhibition which looks beautiful. 

The website has videos of each artists showing you their process of camera-less photography, it is actually really interesting if your interested in different processes of working with images and the outcome of all of their work is breathtaking.

I'm gutted that I wont be able to go see it as it is in London and I'm not going there until May, it is being shown from 13th October 2010 - 20th February 2011, so if you live in London or are planning a visit I'd recommend going to see it!

Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography

The Shadow Catchers Book

The image below is one of my favourites from the artist Floris Neususs, it is a full size whole body photogram.

light room