Istanbul Photography Festival and My Exhibition

An international photography festival is running on Istanbul and I invited to prepare an exhibition related with darkroom as a part of festival. One of the exhibition place was a ruined orphanage and festival committee offered a room in that building. After I saw the building I offered "My Childhood" project to be exhibit. I selected ten photographs from this project and printed them at darkroom.

Print details of all ten photographs:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy

Paper Size: 30.5x40.6 cm (12x16in)

Image Size: 21.6x32.4 cm (8.5x12.75in)

Developer: Tetenal Eukobrom 1+9

Toner: Kodak Selenium Toner

We talked with Jason Eskenazi curator of the festival and decided to convert the exhibition place a kind of darkroom. So we placed developing trays on the floor of the room. Put the photographs in it and filled them with water. Durability of the darkroom paper in the water is not too long. Emulsion of the paper getting dissolve in the water after a time later. I wrote an e-mail about this topic to Ilford and they replied that the  fiber based paper are more durable than resign coated one but still fiber paper emulsion dissolves in 2-3 days depending on water quality and air condition. As indicated below artist statement we also wondered transformation of the paper as our memories or the condition of the exhibition building.

Here is the exhibition place (Photographed by Kemal Cengizkan):

 Here is the artist statement of the exhibition:

"We are shaped by our childhood. Our current traits are formed during this early period: character, mimics, emotions, reactions, expressions… Well then, how was my childhood? In this series, I searched the streets for the source of my expressions. What kind of child was I? How did I express myself? I went about wandering the streets with these questions in my mind and concentrated on the pure form of my childhood, discounting differences in gender, place or time. These photographs are the outcome of my search for traces of my childhood, which stretches back such a long time.

The exhibition, formed from this series, is a conceptual and collaborative presentation between photographer and curator. With the continued interest in analog photography in the digital age we wondered how a gelatin-silver print would metamorphosize in water during the exhibition period just as our memories change over time, as we become adults, or how this abandoned building has been transformed from an orphanage into a photographic exhibition space."

At fourth day of the exhibition emulsions were started to dissolve and at the fifth day all emulsions were dissolved. Some parts of the photographs floated, so emulsion of these parts didn't effect.

Here is the last situation of the photographs:

Lastly I want to share video record of the exhibition place.

We Moved

I am starting to write here after a long break. We moved our darkroom and established a new and more comfortable one. We even have a proper ventilation system :).
After darkroom was installed, we had hosts and enjoyed so much. Eric Kim and Charlie Kirk stopped by the darkroom for one day darkroom workshop. They recorded it. Here is that video:

Are you bored of looking monitor?

I started to give basic darkroom workshop at my atelier in Istanbul for who is bored of looking the monitor and wants to touch photographs. It will be in English or Turkish. You can find the detail from below link:

http://www.galatafotografhanesi.com/atolye.aspx?pid=148

Please contact with me for your questions

Many Things Have Chanced

Too much time was passed that I haven't post here. I have excuses, lots of things have changed not only in my life but also in my country. I got married and moved a new flat. At the same period an uprising occurred because of a park (Gezi Park, which is so close to our home and darkroom). A generation claimed their environment, their honour and their future. It spread all over the country. Unfortunately five people were death during the clashes. You can reach some information at wikipedia as well a google search.
As a result of these,  I couldn't post anything for a while. I just don't want to write too much and want to share some photos taken in the Gezi Park during protests.

Here is the first one:

During the protest forums were made and people discussed about the situation of the resistance. Park was full with every generation especially young and children.

Print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Developer: Ilford PQ Universal 1+9 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned

Clashes around the Gezi Park were continued during the nights and people were exhausted after these rigorous  clashes. The man at the poster is Ethem Sarısülük who was death at Ankara during the protests. He was shot in the head by a police officer and he was at his 26.

Print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Developer: Ilford PQ Universal 1+9 (2 min.)

Toner: Untoned

People occupied the park and set up their tents. Lots of people start to live in the park.


Print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 1K Glossy

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Developer: Ilford Harman Warmtone Developer 1+9 (3 min.)

Toner: Untoned

I will try to post more prints about the Gezi Park protests. 

Summary of Life

Another photograph from my book.

Print Details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Image Size: 15.9x22.7 cm (6.2x8.9in)

Developer: Kodak Dektol 1+2 (3 min.)

Toner: Untoned

Film: Kodak T-max 400 rated 250 135 mm

Mother's Bosom

When I saw the negative of this photo I understood how I am lucky. It was taken in a very crowded corner in Eminönü, Istanbul. I just saw this mother and girl, rise my camera and took this isolated moment. It was luck of me that there wasn't anyone at that moment.

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Image Size: 15.3x22.8 cm (6x9in)

Developer: Ilford Multigrade  Developer 1+9 (2 min.)

Toner: Untoned

Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

Stuffed Mussels

I was so sick and busy. For this reason I had to put a long space again :). Also I couldn't print a new photograph. Therefore I am posting and old one.

It was taken at a beach in Istanbul which name is Menekşe. The English meaning of Menekşe is violet. What a cool name for beach :)

The man in the photograph was collecting mussels for cooking and selling stuffed mussels which is a popular street food in Istanbul. You can buy and eat almost every corner in Istanbul. It was a sunny and very cold winter day and man was inside of the sea. It is definitely a hard job. 

 The most thing I like in this photo is superposition of geometric lines and tone gradation changing. Here are the print details:


Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 24x30.5 cm (9½x12in)
Image Size: 18.9x28.8 cm (7.4x11.3in)
Developer: Kodak Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film Format: 35 mm

My Big Anxiety

I know, very very long time pasted away and I haven't post anything. I was very busy but this is not excuse for it. I just lost my faith to this blog. Anyway it is long story and I don't want to talk about this. Now I will give a chance to this blog in honor of new year. May be I can find my desire for this blog again.

Today I want to share a photo that hanged on my wall. I generally like photographs with multi-sections and there are some layers which I like in this photograph.

I can write so many words for every part in the photograph but I am only going to mention about my anxiety. I am checking one bird in the photograph every morning and evening. I have a fear that bird will escape. I am not kidding. I real have fear. Bird is located at the left top of the photograph and it is marching. Here is the bird and details of the print:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade Warmtone IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)
Image Size: 14.6x22.7 cm (5.75x8.9in)
Developer: Kodak Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Enlarger: Kaiser VPM 6005 Multigrade Head
Film: Rollei RPX 400@250

Autumn Gloom

Nowadays I frequently come up pensive people. I think autumn gloom is over whole city. I hate this cloudy mood. I am a spring child and I couldn't handle such a bad weather. May be I am just seeing people who are in same mood with me. May be I am exaggerating :). Life is full of "May be"s. Nevertheless, I am a sun boy.

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)
Image Size: 14.9x22.2 cm (5.9x8.7in)
Developer: Ilford Harman Warmtone Developer 1+9 (3 min.)
Toner: Untoned

Enlarger: Durst M800
Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

Don't Let Them Shoot the Balloons

I am living in a weird country. We have some bizarre habits. In this image you can see one of them. Whenever you go for a walk at any coast line at Istanbul, you can easily face with balloons stretched between two stick or swimming over the sea. You can pay and then shoot with an air rifle to these colorful balloons. I never understand why people shoot and how they can enjoy with it. Balloons always awake childhood dreams in my mind and I can't shoot to dreams. Actually I can't shoot any thing. Whenever I see these balloons I remember an old film "Uçurtmayı Vuramsınlar" (a.k.a. Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite).
Moreover, when the guns are seen at the stage, a cowboy hat have to be seen.

Here is the print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt
Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)
Image Size: 12.3x22.8 cm (4.9x9in)
Developer: Ilford Multigrade Developer 1+9 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

New Camera, New Format and a New Start

I know, I gave a huge break and I couldn't post for awhile, but I have an excuse. I bought a new camera which is 4x5 Linhof Kardan Color. It is a monorail large format camera. When I bought it, camera was in a very bad condition and I had to work on it. That is the reason of why I couldn't post. Finally I manage to get the first results. Today I want to share these.
I have 9x12 cm film holders for these camera and unfortunately I couldn't find film for these holders at my local store. For this reason I used Ilford MGIV Matt paper as negative.  I developed paper negative with Ilford Multigrade Developer (1+9). Here are the paper negatives and their digitally converted positives.

Actually I did contact print with one of these negatives but it was at the end of the session and I was exhausted. For this reason I couldn't take appropriate tests. I just took a contact print ad ended the session. 

That contact print is at below:

It was not a good print but unfortunately that is the only one. Sorry :)

Alpy

Let's continue with the my newest favorite paper.
My friends' boy, Alp.

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Image Size: 16.8x16.8 cm (6.6x6.6in)

Developer: Ilford Multigrade  Developer 1+9 (2 min.)

Toner: Untoned

Film: Rollei RPX 100 120 mm

Shadow behind me

I showed you man behind me at previous post. Here another photograph of the shadow man. It is at left side of the photograph as is before post. Is it just coincidence or ... ?

And print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber Warmtone 24K Semi-Matt

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Image Size: 15.3x22.8 cm (6x9in)

Developer: Ilford Multigrade  Developer 1+9 (2 min.)

Toner: Untoned

Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

I am using Ilford papers for years and I tried almost every type of their paper range. I haven't used this semi mat paper before. Also Omar, who is great printer and blogger, suggest me to use warmtone paper with a normal developer. In this print as you see above I selected Ilford Multigrade developer instead of a warmtone developer. Results are impressive. I loved surface and tones I get. It has a "real" creamy whites and shadows between yellowish and brownish. I am getting angry myself for ignoring this paper for years. I am planning to use this paper as my matt choices.

Furthermore, I installed another enlarger which is Durst M800 and I print this photograph with Durst. Also a Rodenstock Rodagon 105mm f:5.6 was installed on it. I printed a medium format photograph before this print and I bother to change the lens and condenser for 35 mm :).

Someone watching us

I am in a bad mood nowadays. I feel tons of loads over my shoulders that I couldn't carry and I feel someone always watching me. Finally I managed to catch that man behind me. You can see the shadow of him at the left side of below photo.

Print Details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy

Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)

Image Size: 14.8x22.8 cm (5.8x9in)

Developer: Ilford Harman Warmtone Developer 1+9 (3 min.)

Toner: Untoned

Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

Summer Days

Summer days about to finish and this year summer was too busy for me. I couldn't swim even. For this reason I couldn't post for awhile. In this post let's smell a summer breeze.

Print Details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)
Image Size: 14.8x22.8 cm (5.8x9in)
Developer: Ilford Harman Warmtone Developer 1+9 (3 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film: Rollei RPX 400 rated 250 135 mm

In this image I used a warmtone developer with a normal paper. It gives a little warmth to the paper which I liked. Also this developer is slower than Dektol. I think this enhance the shadow details a little in the print. 

Monster

Today I want to share a photograph from my book that I mentioned before. This image is one of my favorite one in the book. It was taken at April 2010, Kadikoy, Istanbul.

Contrary to common belief, taking photographs at demonstrations is very difficult task. There are lots of things going on all around you in demonstrations and you have to analyse and filter these complex situations as a photographer. Unfortunately, most of photographers are affected by this confusion environment and can not concentrate enough. 

Another difficulty is foreseeing the right moment in this fast evolving sequence of events and taking photograph at that right moment. For doing that a high concentration level and a sophisticated prediction talent are needed.

Here, I believe that I managed to overcome these difficulties in below image. Man with flag at the right and man with mask at the left of the image were both walking towards to me. I saw both of them in a second and I just imagined this frame. I could take only one frame in that moment. Even I didn't have enough time to focus. For this reason If you look carefully you can easily indicate that the image is a slightly out of focus. I felt I did something good when I took this photo. I am still getting exited when I look at this photograph.

Here are the image details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 24x30.5 cm (9½x12in)
Image Size: 19.6x28.5 cm (7.75x11.25in)
Developer: Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film Format: 35 mm

Rising the Bird

I have only one digital taken photograph in my portfolio. Hence I couldn't print it at darkroom, I was feeling uncomfortable. Then, one day I decided to print it by using an alternative processing technique and started to search an appropriate one that I can do. Most of them need several chemicals and they are too hard to find for me, but I faced with gum printing that need  just one chemical for making. It is potassium dichromate. I found it and decided to give a chance to it. 

For making these print I converted the digital image to negative and printed it to a A4 transparency sheet. Then prepared a 5%  solution of potassium dichromate. The other metarials that I used were gum arabic and  prussian blue gouache paint. For paper I preferred 425 gpm hand made, textured watercolor paper.

Paper was prepared under dim light conditions by applying solutions using a brush. Dried papers are contact printed under direct sun light.

Here are the print details:


Paper: Hand made, textured, 425 gsm, watercolour paper.
Paper Size: 21x29 cm (8.2x11.5in)
Image Size: 16.8x22.3 cm (6.6x8.8in)
Developer: Water
Toner: Untoned

Uploaded image is the best one that I could make. First problem that I faced was the exposure. What I read from the internet was suggesting 5 to 8 minutes exposure time under sun light. But in my situation I found best exposure time is 1 minutes. 

The other problem was details in shadows. I prepared three different negative which were low, normal and high contrast. This image was made with high contrast one. Unfortunately none of my negatives were not contain enough shadow details. I understand that I have to prepare contrast and more dense negative. 

BTW, most of the source I read about gum printing were suggested to size the paper but I didn't do it.   

Print taste

When printing a photograph generally you easily decide the contrast and exposure levels of the print. But pushing the boundaries at some photos may change the whole atmosphere. Here is an example of this.
At a heavy cloudy and very bad day, sun showed its face for a moment and below scene just happened. It was a perfect light with a darker background. I dreamed this atmosphere as soon as I saw it. In the darkroom I increased the contrast till the see was placed Zone II (Black areas with detail.) Also I placed the sail at Zone VIII (Textured white) by adjusting the exposure.

Here are the print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 24x30.5 cm (9.5x12in)
Image Size: 18.5x28.2 cm (7.3x11.1in)
Developer: Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Toner: Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner
Film Format: 35 mm

Also you can see the standard print preference at the below:




Which one do you prefer? :)

Star of Greece

After awhile I manage to post another image. This image taken at Alexandroupolis (Dedeağaç is the Turkish name), Greece. This images is forcing my imagination. Whenever I look this image, I am dreaming lots of shapes and also I am making stories. Form on the sky part is a star or a dancer? What do you think? :)

Here is the print details:

Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 24x30.5 cm (9½x12in)
Image Size: 18.5x28.2 cm (7.3x11.1in)
Developer: Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film Format: 35 mm

Intellectual effect

This image is very special moment for me. Two of the most important intellectual of Turkey are in the image. Baskın Oran and Yaşar Kemal. It is impossible to express my opinions about these two tremendous guys.

Print details:


Paper: Ilfrord Multigrade Warmtone IV Fiber 1K Glossy
Paper Size: 17.8x24 cm (7x9.5in)
Image Size: 15.1x23 cm (5.9x9.1in)
Developer: Kodak Dektol 1+2 (2 min.)
Toner: Untoned
Film Format: 35 mm