Recent Discovered Gem......

Detroit Street Corner, 5-1965

......Maybe, maybe not. As happens a lot lately, looking for something else I stumbled onto this one. Some would say "What's so special about a group of people on this Detroit corner?" And I do step back on occasion and ask myself what's so special about this picture or that picture? Maybe I see something that others do not. Maybe I read into many of my photographs armed with the memory of the circumstance of my being there. The memory of the before and after the shot. The memory of the elements on their way to falling in place, the anticipation just knowing that they will fall in place and the memory of the patience waiting for it. The memory of the impulse that pressed that shutter button. Of course, none of that is known to viewers of the work. To the photographer who does remember all of it, his judgement of a particular photograph may be distorted. The value of the photograph has nothing to do with the process. That's why the attempt by photographers to analyze, interpret, explain their work can sometimes lead to exercises in pseudo intellectual acrobatics. More commonly known as bullshit.

Now having said that......let me point out a few things about what I see now and a few assumptions if I may. I see 8 people clearly who contribute to the composition. Two gentlemen on the left are about to step off the curb to cross the street. An assumption can be made about why they are in this neighborhood seeing as how the Salvation Army Harbor Light Mission is near by. Since the shot was made late afternoon in the warm month of May and most everyone else is in light clothing, these two men have heavy coats on. My assumption here is that they are itinerants or locals down on their luck and may have all their possessions with them although I see only one man with a shoulder bag.

Next I see a guy hunkered down taking a smoke break possibly from his job nearby. Clean shaven, hair trimmed, a shine to his shoes and a crease on his pants. I think he knows the gentleman next to him. Maybe takes his break there often. The gentleman sitting on what looks to be a Bavarian Beer case turned on it's side seems to be selling something. A sidewalk vendor. I see an American flag on a stick and a tray of plants or flowers in front of him. His hat looks similar to those Salvation Army caps worn by the folks outside department stores with their red donation kettles. Is it coincidental that he is right there on that corner? Maybe.

The man crossing the street has left his suit jacket draped on the back of his office chair somewhere. In the mission possibly? Is he headed for the mail box to deposit a business related letter? Or is he on a dinner break because it is about that time of day and he will return to the office where his suit jacket awaits. The men loitering behind him may be just in time for their dinner break inside the mission only after, of course, attending a sermon. I know about this requirement from personal experience.

The two kids look to be just hanging out maybe waiting for someone to come out of the building that the man is entering. The late day shadows mirror the presence of seven of the main actors in this scenario.

I have no recollection of taking this specific shot. I do know what I was doing in this neighborhood not far from the downtown area of Detroit. But I have no memory of the immediate before and after. I do know I was "riding shotgun" that day shooting streetwalkers out the side window - those shots are on the same roll. And so we are stopped as commanded by the sign as are our actors. Since it's obvious the sun is setting in the West, the street is a North and South one. And I'm fairly certain it is Cass Ave. at Sproat St.

I, of course, did not see any of this at the time. And the assumptions I just leveled are just that. I could say I "saw" something and instinct and impulse took over. I like this shot for it's unwillingness to explain -- it's openness to conjecture - mine and yours. These people share this split second in time but couldn't be more different from each other. They have that in common and will never know it ...... wait a minute!! I must stop now least I dig deeper into the bullshit I warned against above - if I haven't already.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

          

Last Minute Printing Sessions

Mayor Coleman Young at Checker's Bar and Grill, Detroit   1980

This print of Mayor Young is included in a hand full or two of new prints. Mostly 13x19 with a few 11x14. Next meeting is May 1st. -  about 10 more days. Most are done but still have to dig around for a couple of elusive negatives. Will this one make it in? Or maybe sometime in the future. 

Update: Initial Thoughts and Plans for Exhibit

Agreed on title - "A Working Life: Detroit Photographs by Russ Marshall, 1958 - 2008". Looks like the main focus will be my labor, factory, industrial stuff. Nancy is thinking about a big grid with 20-30 photographs of the worker portraits. Maybe a few of the 16x20 portraits along side. There are a handful of 16x20s of the Rouge Plant that will probably fill out the wall.

The European/UK shots will find a home in the smaller gallery room adjacent to the main room. The music and night shots will be grouped. I suggested, sort of, a set of women musicians, singers and workers could work seeing as how the year 2020 will be the 100th year anniversary of the vote to admit the women's vote in elections. May not make any sense at all.

In the meantime I'm printing shots Nancy selected from Detroit Doc that she thought might be considered for either the exhibit or the exhibit book/catalog. Also have to dig up some tear sheets and get a few of my books together to take down at the end of the month.

I haven't told anyone about the exhibit next year in July except Nancy O., Pat R. and Penny M. I don't think anyone reads this blog so I'm fairly certain the secret is safe until I let it out close to the opening. 

                                                       May Day at the Reichstag, W. Berlin   5-1-1990

UPDATE: Deliver DIA Prints and Actual Exhibit Date

Delivered exchange prints plus new ones to the DIA on Thursday. 81-13x19 and 16-11 x14 prints of the U.K. and Europe from 3 trips there, 11-13x19 prints of the 1967 Belle Isle Love-In in Detroit, 7-11x14 prints from my Detroit Hookers Series and 4-13x19 prints from my Detroit and Other Misc Photographs group.

Came away with suggestions for more prints from perused pages in Detroit Doc over coffee at the DIA cafe. Also for the next meeting in mid-April, Nancy Barr needs some of the laminated pages from Solidarity's "This Working Life" features and a couple magazine spreads of Thatcher's England that were published in Solidarity and Outtakes. By the way, the actual exhibit date is sometime in July of 2020. I was thinking June of this year. She needs this stuff for the exhibit book/catalog by May 1, 2019. Some may go into the exhibit.

At this meeting a couple of days ago, Nancy had questions delving into my background for details. Mostly for now about how my interest in jazz started. Nothing yet about my first interest in photography. Also talked a little about the name of the exhibit. I'm thinking just "Russ Marshall: Photographs". I'm thinking about giving her copies of my books. She has This Working Life but the pages are falling out.

If there are a few to be printed larger than what I've provided, I'll have to take the negs to a lab in Auburn Hills, MI. Hopefully I'll be able to monitor the printing.

 

Ready To Deliver Prints

I've gone through and inspected all prints for flaws, density, contrast, etc

Seventy nine total 13x19 prints on the list. Plus 15 11x14. The DIA already has 11 good prints. So I'm actually delivering 68 13x19 prints plus the 15 11x14. Total delivering - 83 prints.Write captions, etc on back of the 11x14s and I'm ready to go. Probably next week

Docklands schoolyard, London, UK  1989

London street  1990

London subway  1989

B&W printing 13x19, PrecisionColors Inks and Re-prints Update

After all of the testing, experimentation with OEM, LD and PrecisionColors inks, I finally settled on a final solution.
LD dye inks of CLI-251 carts C,M,Y,G. Precisioncolors photo dye black for both CLI-251 Blk and CLI-250 PGBK.  The CLI-250 PGBK is supposed to be filled with pigment black but I am now and have been filling it with PC photo black. The reason is that after I printed the whole set of photographs from the UK and Europe and the Belle Isle Love In and actually delivered them to the DIA last May - I looked critically at the duplicate set I kept here and compared them to the prints I was making after May after having arrived at the system above (using photo black in the pigment cart), I realized to my horror that the pigment black prints were dull, lifeless and lacked deep, rich blacks. I decided that I would absolutely have to re-print all of them and I emailed Nancy B. and informed her of that fact and hoped they had not started to digitize them into the system. They had not.
So I ended up re-printing 2 new sets of the UK/Europe prints plus The Belle Isle Love In prints as well. Some of the prints were OK and did not need re-printing because I had originally printed in color mode and adjusted the colors and tones — about 11. The rest were printed using black only.     

Precision Colors Inks

From a Word Press blog post - July 25, 2018

Still printing from my England/Europe negs. Been reading about compatable inks other than LD which I was using before I went back to Canon OEM. As I posted before, I'm printing my b&w with OEMs using the 'gray scale/plain paper' setting which uses the pigment ink from the PGI-250XL cartridge almost exclusively. Gives me, as noted before, a harsher almost xeroxy look. But printing on matte paper doesn't produce saturated blacks.
I've decided to replace that OEM cart with a Precision Colors one filled, by me, with their photo black dye ink. In fact I have the ink, cartridge, re-fill needle but am waiting for an 'O' ring (rubber washer) for the ink bottle cap from PC.
I'm, of course, hoping to get better and deeper blacks and the cost savings will be welcome. Been buying the OEM PGI-250 pigments carts on line --- ebay at about 2/3 the cost.

Museum and Book Prints

This post from a Word Press blog - March 10, 2018


Since my last post I've been printing 13x19 b&w ink jets from a few random negatives of girls but primarily from my 3 trips to England and Europe - 1987, '89 and '90. These will be for the DIA if they will have them. Gifted of course so why wouldn't they.
I am also designing another Blurb book in one of their editing platforms called Bookwright. It's quite different from their other one called Booksmart which I've used for years for other books. Those books took shape as 8x10s, 7x7s and 6x9s. This one, called LONDON, LIVERPOOL and EUROPE, is in magazine format - 8.5x11 as was a previous one in Bookwright called FACTORY, published just a couple months ago.
Anyway,  I said in my previous post that I switched completely back to OEM Canon inks to see if I could print without the blues and magentas in b&w prints. Well I couldn't! That is, not the usual way.

Cont'd 4/3/2018 * So far as of this date I've printed over 40 UK and Europe negs on 13x19 paper. I've settled on OEM for all colors and blacks (2) and gray (1). I'm primarily using the pigment black to print these pics. The printer mixes in the other colors and the one black and the one gray by default. The resultant print looks a bit harsh and xeroxy but there are absolutely no RGBCMY colors apparent. The grays and shadow areas get a bit depressed but as in the darkroom I can use the dodge, burn, contrast, brightness controls in PSE to adjust the tones. Also, printing on matte paper isn't ideal if the result wished for is snappy and brilliant blacks.
The main thing about OEM inks is the cost. I've buying the OEM black pigment carts on ebay at discounts of 20-30%. Not using as much of the other inks but am considering using the 3rd party color inks from 4Inkjets when comes time to replace. I still have a set of OEM inks to go through first.

What A Kick Printing 13x19 prints

The following is a posting on my WordPress blog from August 31, 2017

Ever since I was forced to print 13x19 b&w on my Canon printer, a whole new world has opened up for me.

Earlier this year I was informed that a local bank expressed an interest in a few of my Detroit architectural photographs for their art collection. A gallery I was once affiliated with was to be the broker for this sale.

My choices were to print them myself or farm them out. My other choices were to print wet or digitally. The 16x20 wet prints I would have to do myself since there wasn't and isn't any printers that I know of who print wet. I checked around for ink jet print labs and found one individual in Canton who seemed OK. (The largest paper size the Canon accepts is 13x19. The image size on 16x20 wet prints would have been about 12x18 with a wide white border. Image size on the Canon prints would have been 12x18 with a narrower border all around.)

But I decided to wet print the four negatives for one reason or another but mainly I realized it would be my opportunity to begin to use up a freezer full of gelatin silver paper. Paper that had been in there for 8,9, 10 years. I was curious to find out if the 50 sheet box of Agfa 16x20 matte paper was still "good" - hadn't fogged because of age.

I tested the paper and found it was good. Before I printed I wanted to give the Canon a chance to prove it's worth. Up to that point I was having trouble getting satisfactory b&w prints. I should say extreme trouble getting neutral prints without color casts of green, magenta, blue. Everything I tried in Photoshop to get the right combination matching paper to color management choices hadn't really worked up to that point printing my factory archives on 8.5x11 paper. Plus the four prints for the bank were to have a brownish/sepia tone to them. That's what the bank saw when they chose the photographs.

The digital prints were terrible. Blue color casts in the darker shades of gray and some magenta in lesser shades of gray. I left on a scheduled two week vacation during which I mulled over my problem. I returned and wet printed the first negative of "City Woman". I had to use a diffusion filter to throw off the sharpness but it also reduced the contrast considerably. But it was unsuccessful. I could not get the contrast up even while printing through the #5 contrast filter. (I realized later that I didn't really have to use the diffusion because the enlargement was so big that it softened the sharpness enough anyway).

In a panic I went back to the Canon and tried again. This time I was able to get the brownish/blackish tones to closely match one print to the other but still with the blueish/cyan cast in the darkest grays. I reasoned that the client wouldn't care or understand that the casts shouldn't be in there. I decided they would accept it. And apparently they did. I delivered the final prints to the gallery and I got the check payment in the mail a few weeks later. I have no idea how they look on the walls of the bank's offices or conference rooms.

Because of that experience I had a 50 sheet box of 13x19 Canon Matte paper with about 35-40 sheets left. It wasn't until this month - actually a couple of weeks ago and 2 months after delivery of the bank prints - that I tried a couple of 13x19 b&w prints on the Canon. In the interim I've gone back to printing the factory negs but still having problems getting a neutral b&w print without color casts. I was having some success until I stumbled on a combo that gave me completely color cast free prints. The combo consists of choosing Plain Paper in stead of Matte, gray scale in color management and color space.

The Canon has 6 ink cartridges; cyan, magenta, yellow, gray, photo black and an over-sized pigment black for printing text. Well, the settings above use more pigment black than anything else, especially the color inks.  The resultant prints can look a little xeroxy before I adjust the tones. I'm not getting the full range of 256 shades from pure white to pure black. a lot of the mid-tone grays are dropped. But I'm having success adjusting the black densities and bringing back the grays. I really like what I'm getting - higher contrast with deep blacks, suppressing extraneous detail. Definitely not the Ansel Adams school of zoning.

 

DIA Exhibit Set for June 2019

A promised exhibition of my work is now planned for June 2019. It was previously set for September 2019.

I learned of this change last week via a return email from the curator, Nancy Barr. My email to her was an inquiry to the possibility of an appointment with her to hand over reprints of a set of photographs I'd gifted to The DIA in May 2018.

Subsequent to that May 2018 set delivery, I decided they were at least substandard and decided to reprint. Took me several months to research paper and inks and finally to print again. I've ended up with close to 100 prints - mostly 13x19 with also around 15 - 11x14 which were not included in the May 2018 gift. Plus 8-10 from the Belle Isle series. By the time of delivery I may have added more. 

Most of the photographs are from 3 trips to England and Europe in 1987, '89 and '90. There are also a set of photographs from a (photo) shooting in 1987 at the so called Belle Isle Love-In on the island of Belle Isle in Detroit. There are additional photographs in each set than were delivered in May 2018.

So a March meeting is good, just have to set a date with Nancy.