Summer is upon us again. Amazing how fast time is flying! Didn't we just gear up for the Guild exhibition at the Viewpoint Gallery in Sacramento? Hard to believe that was a year ago!

This issue of the Contact Printers Guild Newsletter features articles from and about Tri Tran, Ray Bidegain and Susan Huber. These three members couldn't be more different in terms of what they photograph and how they approach it, and yet they are united by their dedication to the contact print as the ideal medium for their vision.

Enjoy these articles and check our web site often for updated images!

-Gerhard Bock, guest editor

Contact prints are universally valued for their remarkable qualities of optical sharpness, fine detail, and sensual textures. Contact printing has evolved to a forceful aesthetic today, one of purity and perfection that is actively practiced by Guild members. The decision to make handmade contact prints reflects a method of working that necessitates contemplation. It is a time-consuming process that records each detail in the print quality to achieve the unsurpassed graphic and textural form present in each print.

On the left is "Nest" by Jason Miguel Russell, a hauntingly beautiful albumen print available through our Online Gallery. Because we understand the difficulty of seeing the true beauty of a contact print from a scanned image on your computer, we offer an unconditional guarantee. If you are not satisfied with any photograph you have purchased from the Online Gallery, you can return it for a refund. We currently have over 400 photographs available for sale. Just click on the link below to quickly and easily view our catalog. The Gallery is a secure site that allows you to purchase using your credit card or PayPal account.

Click here to visit our Online Gallery.

For many years, I shot only small and medium formats, mostly weddings in color. I even managed to win some prizes and made good money, too. I got bitten by the large-format bug a couple of years ago and bought my first LF camera: an Ebony 4x5. After merely three months, I swapped it for a bigger 8x10 Deardorff because I got addicted to contact printing, and bigger negatives were needed. I have been on a slippery downward slope ever since: an 11x14 camera followed by a 12x20 in less than one year. I could not stop and was debating whether my next purchase would be a 16x20 or a 20x24. There were issues of cost, weight of the camera, and the difficulty level of operations. I called Hugo, Chamonix Camera's US representative. We figured out that I should skip the 16x20 if 20x24 was my final destination, given the fact that a Chamonix 20x24 camera costs only 10% more than their 16x20 camera.

My goal is to shoot both vertical and horizontal formats with still life, portraiture, and landscape as subjects. I also want to use big brass lenses from 100 years ago to give my platinum/palladium prints a special look. Based on my unique needs, Chamonix built me a 20x24 camera with a reversible back and a big front standard to use my Toyo lens boards. When I go out and shoot landscapes, I carry the main camera, and its 35" bellows is more than enough for my 35" Artar lens. When a long bellows is needed for still life, I simply put on the extension frame and rack and attach the extra bellows, giving me 65" total bellows draw. So I am all set with my tools now.

For the last two months, I have had lots of challenges and fun with shooting, processing, and printing. For film, I choose Lith film for two reasons: It is a slow film that works very well with the brass lenses I have, and it is fairly inexpensive at $4/sheet for 20x24.

I prefer .007 polyester base and the Ultrafine Ortho Litho is highly recommended if you shoot format bigger than 8x10 to avoid film sagging. It can be processed with Dave Soemarko's LC-1B, PyroHD diluted or Jim Galli developer. The film is blue sensitive only, so you can use red light during loading and processing. Its ISO rating is around 3. With my brass portrait lens wide open, the exposure takes from 4-8 seconds in the open sun and up to 20 seconds when your subject is in shade. I develop the film for 15-18 minutes, rinse and fix like any other film.

I am still trying to solve some problems, but the following are what I have learned so far with this big 20x24 size:

1. You need a bigger work area, including a big table for coating the paper if you do platinum/palladium and adequate space to dry your prints. You will also need a 30x40 processing tray.

2. A lot of chemicals are needed for this size. For example, I use a JOBO 3063 drum to develop my film and at least one liter of chemicals for a single sheet.

One nice thing is that you don't need a sink anymore because you bring the print out to your back yard and just use the hose to wash your print. Working with 20x24 is fun, but very labor intensive. After two hours, it feels like a good workout.

What I have done most so far with my 20x24 camera is portraiture. I've photographed my family and friends, and any willing sitters. I even did some portraits shots with other photographers three weeks ago during a Chamonix "shootout." Looking at beautiful curves on the 20x24 ground glass is just heavenly. The biggest challenge in natural light portraiture with lith film and shutterless brass lens is the movement of your models. Few people can stand or sit perfectly still while you count your 15 seconds. Some of your pictures will inevitably be blurred. But a good one will bring a big smile to your face.

Yes, 20x24 is very challenging. But what fun I have with it!

Photographer Susan Huber has won two awards, both Honourable Mentions in the 2008 Px3 Prix de la Photographie in Paris, in the Fine Art Architecture category for her Here We Pray series of photographs of rural Western Canadian churches and in the Fine Art Landscape category for her most recent series of foot journeys throughout Salt Spring Island titled My Land, My Home.

The Prix de Photographie is an international competition which promotes the appreciation of photography, discovers emerging talent, and introduces photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. Winning photographs will be exhibited in Paris and will be published in the Px3 Annual Book.

The 2008 Px3 jurors included judges from the Library of Congress, U.S.A., Corriere della Sera, Italy, Time Magazine, The Book LA, Grazia Magazine, U.K., several Galleries in Paris, FR and Magnum, Paris, FR

Susan's Here We Pray series was funded in part by a 2006 Project Assistance Grant from the British Columbia Arts Council, one of the 16 awarded each year. More of Susan's photographs of rural churches, an ongoing project, will be exhibited this year in Victoria, B.C. My Land, My Home was viewed favourably by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, ON and by Kathleen Ewing Gallery in Washington, DC last year. It is also an ongoing project, reflecting encroaching urbanism on primarily rural Salt Spring Island, where Susan resides. She will exhibit this series in Dales Gallery, Victoria, BC this year.

Susan is known for her large format contact printing on Printing-Out Paper, employing 19th century photography and processing techniques,which give an extraordinary wealth of tones and clarity to her photographs of disappearing Orthodox churches of Alberta and B.C. and the Quiet Lands, underappreciated subtle lands surrounding developing communities.

Susan has exhibited recently in the Carrier Gallery in Toronto, ON, ViewPoint Gallery, Sacto, CA, and the Point Light Gallery in Surry Hills , Australia. She has been a photographer since the age of eleven, Susan lives on Salt Spring Island, B.C. To see her photographs, or to contact Susan, visit her website: www.susanhuber. com.

I noticed something about myself the other day. I noticed that when someone, a stranger or even a person I already know, asked me about my photography I would immediately launch into a long description of my process. I would tell them about the finer details of platinum printing, the ultimate quality of the contact print, how it really is the finest and purest form of photography. I was always aware of the sort of glazed over look that would eventually come over the face of this person who had asked such an innocent question, yet I would continue on with my well known sermon. It made me feel good and it was easy to talk about. Still I began to wonder about why they looked so confused, or even uninterested. Why I would leave the conversation feeling a little funny deep inside.

It suddenly hit me. They did not ask me about how I made my photographs; they wanted to know about the work, and about me. As I think about this I realize how much easier it is to talk about the process, because it is less about my work and me. There is no doubt in my mind about how well I can print. No one can argue with the quality of the contact print. I am safe in this non-conversation about my work and me.

Talking about my work is not easy. Not because it is so complicated or conceptual. I'm not going to use the old quote "If you got to ask you are never going to know", it is hard because it is so personal, and it is the ultimate self-portrait. Striving to learn how to articulate my feelings about my work is my new, top of the list goal. I think it will help me to understand my work, and build my confidence as an artist. Process will still matter to me, as I believe it is a necessary element of my communication, but I will be talking about it much less. The process will live in the background doing its subtle job of bringing beauty to the surface of my photographs.

Please check out the Special Offers section of our Gallery for prints offered by Guild members through this newsletter. Using this link, you can buy selected photographs that Guild members have discounted for a limited time.

The image on the right is "Viktória's Derrière" by Ian Leake, available this month at a very special price. Some of our prints are also featured in the current B&W Magazine advertisement. Please visit the Guild's special-offer prints on our website.

Members' Workshops

Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee still have openings for their Iceland Workshop now scheduled for July 11-21. Please click here for details on these workshops.

Ray Bidegain and Patrick Kolb will be teaming up with workshop veteran Jeanette Altman July 10-13 for a four-day platinum/palladium workshop. This is an expansion of the popular three-day workshop series by Ray and Patrick. Additions to the agenda will be the study of tailoring a film negative to the platinum/palladium process, crafting a film negative for scanning, the scanning of the negative for platinum/palladium, and tailoring a digital negative to platinum/palladium printing. Their workshop will encompass all of this, as well as spending two days demystifying the platinum/palladium process. This very hands-on workshop will again be on the Washington State University campus in Vancouver, WA. Tuition for the four-day class will be only $395, and the group will be limited to a maximum of ten students. Look for additional information in future newsletters and on Ray's workshop page.