Tuff Triangle

There is this enchanting piece of nature called Cappadoccia in Turkey. An amazing history of thousands of years. Stunning churches carved into volcanic tuff. Fairy chimneys, each one a marvel of its own.  But when I returned to Cappadoccia last summer after a gap of 9 years I found that much had deteriorated. On top of other concerns, now the ATV business was thriving,  creating such a roar and churning up so much dust from sunrise till sunset...

...but hey, if it helps one to show off their great adventures on insta reels...and it fills some pockets...then what's the problem, right?

Anyway, here I was again, walking from one valley into the next, stuffing my backpack with discarded plastic bottles all along. It was getting hot, sweat was flowing profusely, I had a hat and sunglasses and my Rollei T...

...and plenty film. Tmax100 this time. Not my first choice, but I'd had so much frustration with other roll film over the last few years that I was happy to have anything that was simply trouble free. The problem I'm talking about are the well documented "white spots" on Ilford film, which came about by the backing paper interacting with the emulsion*. And with Kodak Tmax400 I had the backing paper imprint issue, where the writing on the backing paper would transfer over to the emulsion, so that your prints had "Kodak" written somewhere in them.

So, Tmax100 it was, and back at home I developed it in Tmax 1+9 at 24 degrees C. The negs are quite beautiful!

This print - a photo from that day - is on 24x30 cm Ilford Classic FB paper. My go-to paper & size for what I consider "finished" work.

Last weekend, whilst lost in daydreaming, I thought what if I make a big print by patching up four sheets of 24x30 cm paper, in effect giving me a surface area of 48x60 cm. Of course, I could've bought 50x60 cm paper, but that's beside the point, because I was simply curious about how a patched up photo would look (also, 50x60 cm paper is hard to find and very expensive, considering the rare occasion I use it; and another, although minor point: requires a significantly larger volume of chemicals).

I thought this picture would be a good candidate for this size, so I set to work. I used Ilford RC Satin because it lies flat and racked up the head of my Focomat 2c enlarger for a print size of 45x45 cm. After arranging the sheets on the baseboard and exposing them, I developed them individually. Here is the print (or should I say prints?), held together with magnets on my pin-up board next to a random, regular sized work print:

I quite like the not-so-precious DIY look. After taping the four sheets together on the back one could even get it framed.

By the way, most of the other clutter on the board is songs, exercises, strings etc. for the guitar. I've been a guitar learner for a few years now - still very much at beginner level and thoroughly enjoying it  - and I practice sitting on the couch opposite this board.

So, that's that. Summer in the northern hemisphere and its myriad challenges for the B&W film photographer is upon us. For those of you in the hotter regions, good luck trying to stay calm whilst spooling your film onto reels with sweaty hands in pitch black darkness; I feel your pain!

Take care and maybe I'll see you at another "agitation" 😎

* Ilford say they have solved the problem and indeed my latest rolls of HP5 have been spotless. And also, to Ilford's credit, they sent me replacement film after I contacted them. Of course I've lost some precious pictures, but still I appreciate their customer support.

An Envelope

A large manila envelope dating back to WW2. Itself containing many smaller envelopes that were used by photo businesses for storage of customer negatives and prints. The owner of the pictures was from Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany. They show scenes whilst he was in the Wehrmacht, stationed in the Caucasus in Russia: a dusty road during a march; looking out of a freight train; reading a letter in a field of flowers; a downed plane; artillery.

Many of the photos are annotated on  the back in the then common Sütterlin script, mostly not legible for me.

"Perutz" is a brand of film that often comes up in these envelopes.  The verso of tiny vintage prints reveal paper names like Agfa Lupex, Agfa Brovira, Gevaert Ridax, Leonar. All brands that have been washed away in the tides of time.

The negatives for a lot of the more interesting pictures are missing.  And many of the 6x4.5 and 6x9 negatives are in poor shape. This 6x9 neg looked pretty good though, and I thought it deserved to be printed bigger...

...not least because the soldier who made this photo was my grandfather; a devout farmer, dragged against his will into hell, like millions of others. Wasting the best five years of his life, he would return with a damaged lung that would trouble him until his death.  Still, he was so lucky to be able to make it back and see his children and grandchildren.

Here he is on horseback. The photo is not dated, but he looks very much a teenager, so I presume it must be before the war.