pleasant surprise

my first spring roll of 2013: Kodak Portra T 100

I did it again. It was not the first time I made this mistake - I was absolutely sure to have filled my Yashica Mat with a roll of severe outdated Kodak T-Max, but instead it was a Kodak Tungsten color reversal film. The big letter T on the black and yellow film wrapper gave me for the second time the wrong impression. The films were bought once with discount and didn't came in a cardboard box. As I don't shoot very often with Kodak films, I'm not very familiar with their package design anyway. But this time it was a very pleasant surprise. At the first sunny day of this year, I took the dogs for a long walk and passed an allotment complex next to the railways. While making some photos, I wished I have loaded my camera with color film, but to get the images in black and white was also okay.

temporary construction in allotment complex

The film was left for some weeks in the camera and after the last photo was made, I took it out for developing. At this point I recognized the words "C-41", "Portra" and "Tungsten", so I went to the small lab in town and had it developed in a day. My quickly scanned negatives have a wide color range, which makes it fairly easy to adjust them to "normal light".

all images © Norman Beierle

handmade a-spherical lenses

van blokje acrylglas tot handgeslepen lens

(sorry, Dutch only - an english translation isn't ready yet) 

Één van de dingen die ik altijd had willen doen, was het zelf slijpen van lenzen voor het maken van foto's. Dit heeft verschillende beweegredenen. Ten eerste is dit een stap in richting van de onafhankelijke fotograaf, die met het zelf vervaardigen van de optiek (voor zijn zelf gemaakte camera's) zo min mogelijk aangewezen is op tussenhandelingen van derden. Ten tweede is het een eerbetoon aan de pionieren van de cameraoptiek, die in de tijd - vóórdat Petzval zijn eerste objectief heeft berekend -  de lenzen op empirische weg hadden vervaardigd. En ten deerde is het een redelijk snelle en directe manier om te begrijpen wat optieken überhaupt doen. Na het maken van enkele rudimentaire optieken, stijgt de waardering voor de prestaties van een simpele triplet overigens enorm. Maar niet te min ben ik geslaagd in het maken van drie lenzen (waarvan twee geschikt waren voor het maken van opnamen) op geïmproviseerd apparatuur in slechts twee dagen. 

de geïmproviseerde slijpmachine

Bij het grofvuil vond ik onderdelen van een ventilator, die ik samen met wat oude fittingen, mijn schroefbank, een overgebleven krat, gerecycled klompenband en wat pakketsnoer tot een bruikbaar slijp- en polijst-gereedschap heb omgetoverd. Het achtkantig gezaagde plastic schijfje had ik met dubbelzijdig plakband op een schroeffitting geplakt, zodat ik de lens op elk willekeurig moment voor controle van de slijpmachine kon halen. Een roterend opzetstuk met schuurvellen voor de boormachine was handig om de ruwe vorm te verkrijgen, waarna ik met messen en  grof schuurpapier de eigenlijke lenskromming heb bepaald. Uiteindelijk werd het schuurpapier steeds fijner gekozen en na het nat slijpen met 1000er schuurpapier ben ik overgegaan op een polijstmiddel voor dof geworden autolak.

de derde lens met 6 cm doorsnede in LUC-sluiter

Mijn eerste lens was plan-convex geslepen, die naar de buitenkant toe en iets stijlere kurve had gekregen. De brandpuntsafstand (ca. 60 mm) heb ik nog niet eens heel precies uitgemeten. Ik wilde zo snel mogelijk een opname maken, maar opeens bleek de brandpuntsafstand kleiner te zijn dan mijn Monorail camera aankon. Nog voor zonsondergang heb ik toen de lens op de achterkant van een oude lensplank gemonteerd. Helaas is er een stukje van deze constructie te zien op de opname, alsook het voorste stuk van mijn Graphic View II. Maar over de prestaties van deze eerste groothoeklens van eigen ontwerp ben ik volop tevreden.

aspherical plano-convex 'landscape' lens, 4x5 instant film

Na dit succes besloot ik meteen een grotere concaaf-convex lens te slijpen. Toen ik een aardige plan-concaaf (dus holle) lens had gemaakt, heb ik de andere kant convex geslepen. Tot mijn verbazing was het resultaat een aardige lens om te zien, maar volledig ongeschikt voor het fotograferen, daar het midden van de lens het licht niet brak. Ik had de lens dusdanig geslepen, dat het midden van de lens de doorzicht absoluut niet vertekende. Naar de randen toe had de lens iets breking, maar dat was niet voldoende voor een beeldvorming op het matglas. 

portret van Harold de Bree, 4x5 Fuji instant film 

Mijn derde lens was een betere versie van de concaaf-convex lens, slechts het buitenste puntje in de midden had een iets te sterke breking ten opzichte van de rest, waardoor ik wel een lichtsterke lens had gemaakt, maar die dusdanig veel verschillende brandpunten liet zien, dat ik genoodzaakt was enkele daarvan te temperen. Omdat met een gewoon diafragma het midden juist extra verduidelijkt wordt, heb ik besloten er een puntje op te plakken, om de ergste vertekening te ondermijnen. Bovenstaand portret is met deze lens gemaakt.

all images © Norman Beierle, 2012

seen the unseen

Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs @ Peter Lav Gallery (DK)

If you have been in Amsterdam between last Wednesday and today you might have also seen the unseen for the first time. A nice mix of fifty photo galleries, of which the most came from abroad, an exhibition of (vintage) fashion photography, a special cinema program and all the lovely books at Offprint made my hours at the Westergasfabriek (the former gasworks) in Amsterdam a pleasureful time. Normally I am not a big fan of art fairs, as there are often too many galleries on a small spot with stressed gallery personnel, but nothing of the usual hectic at unseen. The interior set up in the former gas holder building was well chosen and the area with its historical factory buildings has a lot more atmosphere than a gigantic, but anonymous fair building. Albeit I haven't seen everything, I have seen a lot of interesting works, but I restricted myself to bring not more than five of my personal highlights in one post.

two platinum prints by Margarita Gluzberg at Paradise Row (UK)

As a poor artist I can't afford to buy any prints, but if I had to spend money at Unseen, I would have brought home at least three of Margarita Gluzbergs platinum prints. They have a rich grayscale and gave me at the first moment the impression of being film-stills from the 50's, when cinematographers used double exposures for their special effects. On the second look I saw that all the scenes where made in the present time in one of the numerous shopping malls, where the shop windows reflect partly the content from the shop next door. In this sense, her work reminds me of Don Eddy's shop windows he made in the mid seventies, but instead of using a palette of mixed colors, Gluzberg gave her images a grey uncertainness. This gives her photographic work a specific spotlighted dynamic and suspense, that turns her images into a time machine.

three prints by Fleur van Dodewaard at Seelevel Gallery

The Dutch Seelevel Gallery had a nice presentation with colorful (but luckily not over the top) works of five of their talented photographers: Diana Scherer, Anne de Vries, Isabelle Wenzel, Fleur van Dodewaard and last not least Koen Hauser.

the booth of East Wing and LhGWR (in the back)

Of course I cannot ignore the fresh and new gallery and project team from Qatar (Doha + Dubai): East Wing. They presented high quality work of Masood Kamandy (that arrived on time from the Documenta 13) and presented the group AM Projects, with the photographers Aaron McElroy, Daisuke Yokota, Ester Vonplon, Gert Jochems, Olivier Pin-Fat and Tiane Doan Na Champassak. East Wing shared their presentation space in collaboration with LhGWR from the Hague, which made this part of the fair an interesting place to spend more time than usual.

Drooling Tomato Family by Yumiko Utsu at G/P Gallery (JP)

Soon I will write about fine publications, seen at Unseens' Offprint.

all documentation images © Norman Beierle

portfolio pages

improvised ground glass on 4x5 cardboard camera

Last week I was busy to "update" my portfolio by making a new section on the right side with pages to give an overview of my recent activities. My former portfolio site wasn't updated for the last four and half years for different reasons and most of my new work isn't easy traceable between all the posts on the Mrs. Deane blog. Hence my effort to give my personal work an own, comfortable to reach section on my own blog, with the newest projects always on top.

You will find the ongoing work Classics, the Cardboard Camera Workshop, the Photographic Telepathy project and a photographic/architectural research of the construction plans of the city of Arnhem.

I hope to find time next week to dig more work out of my older backups and make it visible again.

another pyramid

the pyramid at FloraHolland (version 1)

If I combine my last two posts, I will come out at the pyramid on the FloraHolland area of Naaldwijk. I made some photos with my Rubyette on a sunny day, but I am not satisfied for a 100% yet. I think I have to wait for that ugly winter day to make the perfect shot of this building, which is a sort of glass house and I hope that the lightning inside the pyramid will ad the special touch to it. For now I have at least two crops of quickly scanned negatives as a reminder.

the pyramid at FloraHolland (version 2)

[tech+info]

both images: 

1/100 sec. at f 16 on Fomapan 100 ISO b/w film, handheld

1: 4.7/127mm Tominon lens, mounted in Boyer barrel

Thornton Pickard Rubyette No. 2 with Rada 6x9 roll film holder

developed in Amaloco AM 74

scanned negatives in plastic sleeve

ancient future fusion

I'm glad I found some time to mount my 150 mm G-Claron on the 5x7 Stereoscopic Graphic, that I bought a long time ago at the photographica fair in Houten. The inner section for stereoscopic use was already lost or removed by its former owner(s) and the shutter curtain was dried out and curled, but the wood and brass of the camera body was in a relatively good condition.

The G-Claron allows enough movements for all most of my wishes for photos of inner city landscapes, so I took some pictures of places I had in mind and re-photographed also some architecture images I made earlier with my Rolleicord.

After struggling with a lens shade (which was the reason for vignetted corners when rising the lens panel), I made some results that were pleasing. The first image in this post looks like an artist impression of a future city scape. The only thing that is missing are some people with kids, walking through the scene. What make these images look like architectural artists impressions is, that there are almost no disturbing items in the image, like signs with texts and illustrations, posters, trademarks, garbage on the pavement or in the corners, graffiti, et cetera.

If you don't like to manipulate the image afterwards (like me), you have to find the right spot, where you install your camera to avoid most of these disturbing things. This is of course not always possible, which means that most of the places I cannot bring in picture. The use of black and white material helps to make the scenery less fragmented and gives the final image a certain unity.

all images © Norman Beierle, 2012

man at work

Meanwhile I am not on a summer holiday, but I'm busy with my early-in-the-morning part time job at the flower fair near The Hague and I have to help a friend with her application for an art stipend. Both activities will leave almost no time to concentrate in my spare time (do I have this?) for a reasonable post. So I will give you some images of the outside of my work environment. Actually I can't say how old the whole building is where I am working. In 1998 was a major development by Consort Architects, but I have the feeling that most parts of the main buildings were build in the late seventies or early eighties, when I look at the architectural details. There is hardly any information on the net about the early trade facilities (or I can't find it). I took some snapshots with my trusty 6x6 Polaroid conversion, which I scanned within the sleeve... and sorry about the dust particles and the moiré.

all images © Norman Beierle, 2012