Jason Kittelberger Photography Blog

As opposed to the previous imagined nudity.

A print from a medium format negative using Ilford HP5+ film developed in Pyrocat-HD. Printed on Ilford Warmtone fiber-based paper with customized Defender D-55 paper developer. Selenium toned and then bleached. Unfortunately the scan will never be as delicate as the actual print, but hopefully you get the idea.

Kevin Spacey or just a rose…

Gratuitous picture of an over eager Labrador retriever, who also happens to be the best dog in the world. By far.

Just like I’ve been messing around shooting Polaroids to experiment and expand my vision, I’ve also been experimenting with different printing techniques in the darkroom. I’ve been trying all kinds of things as I work on a series of close-ups of different body parts. In my mind I think I know what I want, but instead of just going with my initial instincts I’ve been forcing myself to radically alter prints of the exact same negative in order to better see what is possible, and in a way to shock my system into seeing differently.

It’s been quite an interesting process and has certainly helped me to see that the first choice is not the only choice. It never ceases to amaze me how the same negative can produce two radically different prints. To me, at least fifty percent of B&W photography is interpreting a negative in the darkroom. The possibilities are virtually endless and I can’t imagine leaving that control in the hands of another person.

All that said, below are a couple of rough prints from the same negative. In the first print, the negative was printed almost two stops darker and with one grade less contrast than a relatively conventional interpretation of the negative would have. The print was then lightly selenium toned before being radically bleached back.

The next print was printed in almost the exact opposite way, with the negative printed about two stops lighter than normal convention would dictate. In addition contrast was increased by about one grade. The print was then heavily selenium toned before being lightly bleached.

I think both prints need some work and additional tweaking and have some obvious issues and inconsistencies. But that’s not the point. I just wanted to see what could be done with this negative and to push its limits. I think both prints have their merits and both go a long way in creating vastly different moods. All from one simple negative.

I love the all the endless possibilities.

As I spend more time sorting through all the negatives and contact sheets from my West Texas road trip, I find myself vacillating between excitement and disappointment. So far, it’s been quite a task to sort through hundreds of images trying to distill what best conveys what I’m trying to say, along with making sure the negatives I choose are of high enough technical quality to achieve the kind of fine prints I want to make.

What I’ve found is that with these images, the contact sheets from the 6×6 negatives are practically worthless. At best they give me a vague idea if the compensation works and if the exposure was actually somewhere in the ballpark. But that’s about it. In my mind, I want the photographs to convey the scale and grandeur and sheer vastness of the landscape that seemed to surround me during the trip. But I can’t tell if a negative conveys that feeling by looking at one of twelve tiny negatives printed on an 8″ x 10″ contact sheet.

So what I’ve started doing with negatives that seem to have potential is printing actual 7″ x 7″ prints on RC paper as proofs. Then I’ve been going through these proof prints and revisiting them over several days before I decide if they deserve a fuller treatment. As I make the proofs, I have been spending a decent amount of time trying to get the print contrast and exposure close to what I envision, and I’ve also been doing some minimal dodging and burning. So the proof prints I’ve been making are relatively representative of what I’m looking to achieve in the final print. But at the same time, I don’t want to spend a lot of time and waste a lot of paper making proof prints. So I’ve tried to limit myself to no more than three sheets of paper per negative.

Needless to say, so far it has been a very time consuming but rewarding process. Below is one of the prints that I’ve been struggling with. Part of me really likes it, and the other part of me says the composition is lacking. I’m sure looking at the tiny image on the computer will present the same problems I’ve found looking at the 6×6 contact prints, but as this image is one I’ve been thinking about a lot, I decided to post it anyway.

To me, the photograph is all about depth and scale. There just seemed to be a vast emptiness before me as I took the picture. The hills and rocks seemed to extend in layers off into the distance, finally disappearing over the horizon. And I think a bigger print does a decent job of capturing that feeling. What seems to bother me though is the sky. As it was on that day it prints almost as pure white, which along with the sharp horizon line, seems to lend a sort of cut-out feel to the entire image.

So I’m not sure how to handle the sky. I’ve tried burning it in a bit but that just turns the sky to an unappealing muddy gray. I’ve even tried printing the negative with the sky totally cropped, making the entire image nothing but the rocky landscape. I find that image interesting in an abstract way, but part of me worries that without the sky there is no context, and the scale and grandeur of the picture disappears and the photograph then becomes an exercise in abstract texture. So I’m not really sure what to think. At this point I plan to distance myself from the image and spend at least a week away from it. Maybe when I revisit it in the future, I’ll see something I didn’t see before and suddenly it will all become clear and I’ll know exactly what to do. I can only hope.

A few days after Thanksgiving I hopped in my car and drove west. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going other than some vague notion I was heading toward West Texas. I’d been to West Texas once before and had briefly been through Big Bend National Park. But I’d recently seen No Country For Old Men and the cinematography inspired me. In my mind, West Texas was nothing but a barren, desolate, and almost inhospitable place. I remember in my earlier trip driving for what seemed forever and hardly seeing a soul, let alone anything man made besides the road I was on.

But after seeing No Country For Old Men, West Texas seemed oddly beautiful. The hills, the rocks, and the sheer vastness of it all, intrigued me. I’m not sure there is a lonelier place on earth. So I wanted to see it all again, and see if it was like I remembered. So there I was driving west on I-10 one dark morning. I started early, and making good time I made it past San Antonio sometime before 5:00 AM. When I stopped for gas at some empty gas station outside the city, I looked up to see an American flag blowing alone in the darkness.

I hadn’t planned on taking any pictures then, I just wanted to get some gas and get to wherever it was I was going. But instead I stopped and setup my tripod and took a roll pictures standing in the bed of my truck. It seemed fitting that my first roll of the trip was taken of this flag. It was kind of like a sign welcoming me West Texas. The image posted below is the third frame I shot on my trip west, and it’s the first image I’ve printed beyond the rough print stage. I ended up shooting hundreds more, and still have lots of pictures to sort through and print. But I thought I’d share this one now, and I hope to share others from my trip in the future.