Living With The Dead

 

Scattered around Istanbul are small patches of Ottoman graveyards from bygone glorious days, that are accepted - with reluctance or reverence, I'm not quite sure - to exist in close proximity to the wild urban sprawl. If I'd consider this photo as evidence, I'd hazard a guess that neither the living nor the dead are happy with this arrangement.

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In this bizarre case I found a sycamore tree determined to take some kind of revenge from the dead...no matter how long it would take.

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The first photo is from 2022 and I printed it back then in my darkroom in Istanbul. The second one is from 2023 and I printed it for the first time just a week ago, in my new darkroom in Düsseldorf. It always caught my eye on the contact sheet, but for one reason or another I was never quite sure that it was worth printing. Now that I've printed it, I'm convinced that it was worth it...go figure. That's the power of  contact sheets; you come back to them again and again, and you might decide to give a picture a chance after all. In comparison, I've no idea when I'm going to look through all the photos from my digital camera again. I make a cull immediately after I’ve downloaded them, and that’s it. Those that didn’t make the first cull I put in other folders. They might as well be lost forever.

By the way, the second print is on graded Fomabrom N 111, a paper new to me. I'd decided to give it a shot and ordered a 24x30 cm packet of 25 sheets. It took some time to getting used to, but I like it now.

I was surprised to see how fast the Foma paper is. I have to expose Ilford MG Classic  around one and a half stops more. But then you don't have a filter in the light path of graded paper. So I guess it evens out.

And although it's graded as Normal (hence the "N" in its name), I find it's still slightly soft, even with the condenser light of the Focomat. The Foma webpage says they produce a C(ontrast) version as well, but my retailer doesn't stock it. Still, all is good, because these days I like my prints with a longer grey scale anyway. And I haven't explored selenium toning with this paper yet. I expect a good response, so this should be another option if I want a slight contrast increase.

When dry, the surface is slightly duller than Ilford's glossy FB, which I actually prefer.

FWIW, here's an iphone pic of the wet print.

So, my favourite season, summer is finally here. I was all set to enjoy it until I read that the experts are predicting a strong El Niño with all accompanying calamities: extreme heat, forest fires and what not. The planet hasn't much time left I'm afraid...well, the planet actually has, those living on it don't; apart from cockroaches maybe.