Stripping

I spent the day stripping this chest of drawers of paint. The resulting finish was pretty gnarly, and I'd love to keep it like this, but Claire won't let me. It's ok with me though; it would probably give our gestational bundle nightmares - and I'd spend all my money on shrinks.

I had hoped that I'd be able to use it as part of a black&white composition, but when I noticed it had several paint colors I decided it made more sense to make a color digital photo with my point'n shoot.

This color photo also brings a bit of contrast to the otherwise monochrome pictures I post here. I think this is artistically legitimate - while the corollary is not. I do not think it is artistically valid to use the "black and white" programmatic effect to "artify" color digitals. I'm looking at you, headshot photographers. I am not without sin in this respect. I'll admit that I've done it. I did it because I needed to boost the contrast of a composition I wasn't happy with. I should have just discarded the file, and I weep whenever I think about it... well, not really, but I feel really dumb.

If you find yourself doing this, step back and ask "how retarded is this?" I'll tell you, it's pretty retarded. It's not pushing the limits - which should at least partially be a motivating factor in any artistic endeavor.

Black and white chemistry photography is a different matter. There is meat on the bone to be had with processing film and using an enlarger. No print is the same, unless you want them to be. Tonight I hope to have some time to spend on more printmaking. The end result will be a 4d photo - I tripped the shutter for 4 seconds and flung my camera through the air. Oh, and I used 400 speed Kodak TriX that had been in some guy's basement since the Clinton administration.