Film: Nudity: Gymnosophist and Tourist.

[Maris Rusis]

Gymnosophist and Tourist​

Gelatin-silver photograph on Ilford Multigrade Glossy VC FB, image area 24.7cm X 19.6cm, from a Kodak Plus-X 8x10 negative exposed in a Nagaoka double extension field view camera with a Commercial Congo 360mm f6.8 lens.

This was a difficult photograph. The subjects were laughing like drains and it was a challenge to force a moment of composure for the sake of a 1/4 second exposure and the cost of a 8x10 sheet of film. People at peace with their own persona, comfortable within their own skins, find ease and humour on a pleasant sunny day

 

[Maris Rusis]

I owe cheerful duo in the initial post a better scan of the original photograph.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Maris,

These a remarkably different. I really like and got used to the appearance of the photograph in the first scan.

Let's say that you really like the rocks and her hair in the first attempt but the lighter skin in the second, then would you be open to making a print with these characteristics by careful masking? Or do you simply say, that's the way the picture is as a whole and not carve out new interpretations as the great masters of B&W did when they revisited a negative, months or decades later?

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher, Maris,

Maris,

These a remarkably different. I really like and got used to the appearance of the photograph in the first scan.

Let's say that you really like the rocks and her hair in the first attempt but the lighter skin in the second, then would you be open to making a print with these characteristics by careful masking?

I went through the same trail of thought. The second rendering seems, at first glance, "feeble" compared to the first. Yet is is certainly a better bearer of all the detail in the scene.

Or do you simply say, that's the way the picture is as a whole and not carve out new interpretations as the great masters of B&W did when they revisited a negative, months or decades later?r

An issue here, as in many discussions in somewhat this same vein, is whether the art is in what the photographer does or in what he delivers.

In some spheres, for example figure skating, there is no product other than the process. When it's over, they send out a Zamboni to extirpate the artifacts.

In the other hand, in an ice sculpture competition, while some may be fascinated by the sculptor's technique, or outlook, or dress, or how he follows the classical schools of the art form, others will judge only the completed work, using an immensely-diverse set of criteria.

Painting is a verb (the gerund form, actually) and a noun.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi, Asher, Maris,



I went through the same trail of thought. The second rendering seems, at first glance, "feeble" compared to the first. Yet is is certainly a better bearer of all the detail in the scene.

...

Best regards,

Doug

Maris,

I much prefer this scan, though I suspect it still fails to do the print justice - not only in resolution, but also in the way the tones are expressed. The image is quite interesting as, apart from your portrait of a 'couple, happy in their skins', you could read something about western culture's different expectations of male and female physique (the exclusion of other culture is simply that I do not know enough to comment on their expectations). The lady clearly being toned and not overweight in comparison to her companion. Yet both are happy in their places.

Doug, I have found that prints often benefit from less density and contrast in comparison to the gaudy show of a backlit screen.

Mike