Ken Allen and Shawn Waldron from Condé Nast
Condé Nast Archives
May 22, 2012Wax Coating Inkjet Prints
April 9, 2012At Ken Allen Studios we are continuing to experiment with coating inkjet prints to protect them from surface abrasions. In particular are the fine art semi-gloss papers that can seemingly scratch if you look at them the wrong way. Current protection methods include lamination and spray varnishes but these have drawbacks of there own and do not work well with all paper surfaces. Typically smooth gloss papers work best for lamination and matte papers work best with the spray varnishes, hence trying to find a solution for the fine art semi-gloss papers. Of course the best protection is done by framing the print behind glass or acrylic but sometimes this is not desired and there can also be a lot of handling between the print coming off the printer and having it safely installed behind glass.
We have been experimenting using renaissance wax to coat inkjet prints and have been quite pleased with the results. We have seen beeswax used on inkjet prints to build texture but we really wanted a wax and application method that would provide protection while also being imperceptible, with little to no shift in the color and tone of the original print.
It is important that the prints be allowed to cure for at least 24 hrs. before applying wax or any other coatings. The wax is buffed on by hand using a soft cloth in a small circular motion. It helps to have some raking light on the print so you can ensure you have applied the wax evenly, which takes less then 5 mins. for a 20×24 in. print. If done correctly you will not see the difference between a section that has been coated and an uncoated section. Actually the only way we can really tell is by sliding a fingernail across the surface; It glides across the wax coated section and drags and scratches pigment across the section with no wax. It clearly provides some surface protection especially from those hairline scratches. A scratch might make an indentation in the wax but this can be buffed out and its better then damaging the actual pigment.
The wax is practically imperceptible, offers scratch resistance, and additionally reduces bronzing. Also, while the coating is barely perceptible there is one area where a beneficial shift can be seen; By coating a large section of black one can see the waxed blacks read slightly richer to the eye then the unwaxed.
This observation of the blacks is echoed in an analysis done by Eric Chan, a color scientist, who we sent coated and uncoated targets to. “Each attached image is an L* slice (lightness slice). On the right side is a comparison of the color gamut for the uncoated (red) vs Renaissance Wax coated (green). In the very lightest tones (high L*) you can see that the uncoated has a slighter larger color range. Over most of the rest of the range, though (esp. darker tones), the coated version has the more extended range. In the middle lightness range, there is a wider green gamut from the coated targets. Gamut extension is increased in most hues in the darker tones.” It is important to note that while these shifts can be detected by equipment they are not really perceivable to the human eye except for a slight extension in the darker tones.
We have successfully applied renaissance wax to several semi-gloss papers including Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta, Harman Gloss Baryta, Innova Warm Cotton Gloss, and Ilford Smooth Pearl. It does not apply well to matte papers or at least not with the application method we are using. In a more extended test, we have a print that we coated 2 years ago and it shows no signs of yellowing or other side effects that would be caused by the application of the renaissance wax. In conclusion, the benefits include: time and ease of application, increased surface protection, little perceivable shift in color and tone, reduced bronzing, and more extended range in darker tones while the main drawback is that it does not provide UV protection. For those photographers, artists, and printers looking for additional protection of their semi-gloss papers you may want to give the renaissance wax a try.
Introducing ultra-thin LED panels
March 14, 2012The new ultra-thin light panels are a marvel of LED technology. They are thin enough that we are able to use high quality wood and metal frames (not included) instead of the bulky, snap-together frames used with other light boxes.
In this example we worked with our custom framer to create beautiful, solid wood frames for the finished piece which allow room for an AC power cord. Finally, to make sure the presentation is perfect we face-mounted the transparencies to PlexiGlas for a beautiful glowing presentation.
The fluorescent bulbs often used with Duratrans™ tend to fade the image quickly. We have been testing light panels over the last several months and are excited about the durability and color integrity of transparencies with these new ultra-thin LED panels.
These panels can also be displayed without a frame for a more pronounced effect. The light panel not only illuminates the transparency but also creates a nice wash effect on the wall which the piece is displayed.
To Giclee or Not To Giclee
February 16, 2012…How about not Giclee pronounced (zhee-clay) and instead archival pigment ink print or more simply pigment ink print. Sure they do not roll off the tongue in the same way as the French Giclee does, but it is an honest and transparent way of identifying the process. Any internet search for the word Giclee will tell you that Jack Duganne appropriated the term in 1991 to classify digital prints made on inkjet printers. At the time words like inkjet and digital prints had negative connotations and Mr. Duganne thought that a better word may elevate them to high art and appeal more to gallerists. So he adapted the french word “gicler” meaning “to squirt, spurt, or spray” or as a noun “giclee.” At the time it may have been a good move on Mr. Duganne’s part and I am not going to argue that he was right or wrong, but 21 years later I think it is time to reassess his neologism.
One major problem with his word choice is that “giclee” in french is also slang for male ejaculation, which is enough of a reason to completely remove the word from any kind of photographic printing process and save photographers all over the world from the potential embarrassment. Another reason to move on to using “pigment ink print” (or some variation there of) is that inkjet printing does not have the same negative connotations as it did in 1991. Pigment ink prints are now available with a color gamut and subtlety that surpasses either Iris prints or c-prints while also offering the best lightfastness and overall archival stability. Museums and fine art galleries do not label these prints as giclees but as inkjet prints or pigment ink prints because they accept the digital technology and are not ashamed to make it transparent. We no longer need an inappropriate neologism of a french word to elevate inkjet printing in the eyes for the art world; It can now stand on its own as a beautiful printing process deserving of a place in the history of photography.
By: Patrick Allen
A Camera as Big as a New York Apartment
February 15, 2012Imagine looking at a 24-foot photograph of your face, created with such detail that if you got up on a ladder with a magnifying glass you could inspect the angles at which your eyebrow hairs were growing. This is what photographer Dennis Manarchy wants to create. Manarchy is bucking the trend towards tiny, discrete digital cameras and Photoshopped perfection by creating a camera the size of a New York apartment.
The camera extends 35 feet in length—big enough for the photographer and his assistant to throw a tea party inside it.
This massive dream camera has not yet been completed—Manarchy is still raising money on Kickstarter, but in the meantime he has been playing with this far less mobile prototype:
This camera requires 4.5 x 6 feet negatives, which are viewed using an actual window as a lightbox. Developing them requires taking a shower in chemicals. But now that Manarchy has finally found film large enough for his purposes, he’s enjoying himself. (As you can see in the gallery above; for a while, he had to piece sheets together).
“Last night, we were down in the dark room, processing these huge sheets,” Manarchy tells me on the phone. “I’m entirely covered in chemicals, but I’m thinking I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”
His excitement is evident in his voice throughout our interview. This man who has been making portraits for decades sounds like he’s just discovered a new superpower. And in a way, he has: the power of going very, very big.
“What motivated me was Chuck Close, the painter, whose photo-realistic paintings I almost found more striking than the photos that he was painting, because of the viewing size,” he tells me.
If you blow up a tiny negative that big, the resulting image looks clear and faithful, he says. But then you compare the eyelash in the photograph to an eyelash made with single brush stroke. “It’s like the difference between a paper airplane and a rocket ship and it brings the whole thing to another level.”
Of course, we are accustomed to seeing people blown up big—on the sides of buildings and on billboards. But using film of this magnitude—offering 1,000 times greater detail than the average digital photograph—gives it a different, rather surreal quality, Manarchy says.
“Stanley” by Chuck Close at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. (Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images.)
There’s another side to working at this scale (and price), of course. There’s no room for error or for retakes. He makes each person’s portrait exactly once, which requires extreme selectiveness when it comes to choosing subjects.
Who deserves to be photographed in such a way? Manarchy believes members of “vanishing cultures” do. This is the name he has given to the project, and his work with early prototypes has focused on members of groups on the verge of extinction—Holocaust survivors, the Tuskeegee airmen, tiny Native American tribes, remote rural communties. That said, he’s a photographer fascinated by faces, so he’s not opposed to just throwing some “fabulous people of character” in there, essentially because they’re cool.
Manarchy hopes to raise enough money through his Kickstarter project to get the dream camera-RV rig built and then take it on the road. Right now, his prototype is not particularly mobile; to take pictures of remote groups, he’s had to build cameras on location. In a swamp in Louisiana, he turned an old fish house into a camera, after spending several days fishing and hanging out with the Cajun community. Surprisingly, perhaps, his slow, on-site method did not prompt any particular skepticism, he says. What would have left them truly alarmed, he believes, is if another photographer had suddenly arrived, snapped 1,000 quick photos and then sped away.
Via: http://www.slate.com
South Street Seaport Museum
February 8, 2012The South Street Seaport Museum successfully reopened on Jan. 25th 2012 under the direction of the Museum of the City of New York. Ken Allen Studios has a longstanding relationship with MCNY and Pure + Applied who beautifully designed the re-opening exhibitions. We reproduced the following 3 large historic prints and mounted them to Sintra for display in the new exhibition.
Judith Joy Ross
February 1, 2012Judith Joy Ross taking a break from printing to photograph our resident fish Lola with her 8×10 camera.
New Film Scanner
January 31, 2012
New Exhibit at Mid-Town Manhattan Library for CEO (Center for Employment Opportunities)
January 27, 2012Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s
January 13, 2012 |
| Daniel Meadows, Photographs by Daniel Meadows. Published by Photoworks, 2011. |
Daniel Meadows Daniel Meadows
Photographs by Daniel Meadows. Authored by Val Williams
Photoworks, 2011. Hardbound. 248 pp., color and duotone illustrations throughout, 10-1/4×8-1/4″.
In 1973, Daniel Meadows got a UK Arts Council grant of £750. He bought a double-decker bus, converted the top deck into a bedroom, fitted a toilet, kitchen and darkroom and converted the bottom deck into an exhibition space. With all his equipment in place, Meadows hit the road. His goal; to provide a photographic survey of the people of England.
Portraits from the series Photographic Omnibus form the heart of Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s. The directness, open curiosity and charismatic anonymity of the pictures make them a UK antithesis to Richard Avedon’s star subjects of the American West.
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| Daniel Meadows, by Daniel Meadows. Published by Photoworks, 2011. |
The bus portraits are relaxed, with a range of smiles that could be lined up in grids and displayed on the walls of Tate Modern. From Southampton, Meadows gives us the Brasher sisters, Lyn’s face wreathed in a smile that is game-show-hostess delighted. Resplendent in their Bay City Rollers style tartan jackets, a pair of friends from Barrow-in-Furness have questioning smiles for the cameras, the guy on the left sporting a Manchester United scarf and a haircut from a Farrelly Brothers movie.
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| Daniel Meadows, by Daniel Meadows. Published by Photoworks, 2011. |
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| Daniel Meadows, by Daniel Meadows. Published by Photoworks, 2011. |
It’s bad teeth, bad skin, and bad hair, the Big Book of British Smiles come to life on the page, Meadows’ unpaid and unsaying sitters (“Running the free portraits sessions was a discipline. It was a Quaker thing….”) addressing the camera with curiosity, bemusement and sometimes a disturbing intensity.
As well as the Omnibus pictures, there are also excerpts from Meadows’ earlier free studio project from Moss Side, Manchester, some colour shots from his time working at Butlins’ Holiday Camp (with Martin Parr) and his later under-appreciated suburban documentation of the conservative 1980s in full flow.
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| Daniel Meadows, by Daniel Meadows. Published by Photoworks, 2011. |
With an accompanying text by Val Williams that details the figures, funding and development of British photography from the early 1970s, Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s is a wonderful book that hits the visual high notes year after year.—COLIN PANTALL
COLIN PANTALL is a UK-based writer, photographer and teacher – he is currently a visiting lecturer in Documentary Photography at the University of Wales. His work has been exhibited in London, Amsterdam, Manchester and Rome and his Sofa Portraits will be published as a handmade book early next year. Further thoughts of Colin Pantall can be found on his blog, which was listed as one of Wired.com’s favourites earlier this year.
