Homage to Paul Graham

Paul Graham at the workshop in Fabrica in year 2000

Last week I was on a vacation and I’ve read a book review of newest project by Paul Graham at Aphotoeditor by Robert Haggart. I’ve first encountered Paul Graham’s work at an exhibition at Month of Photography in Bratislava, year 1994. It was an exhibition of New British Documentary Photography. When I was in Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research centre, year 2000, he had a two days workshop there. Until then I didn’t fancy his aesthetic, but I understood his topics and I loved his early works especially Beyond Caring and Troubled Land. His work you don’t understand on a first glance, it took me a while of reading and contemplation to get familiar with the idea that war photography can be done with medium format camera from far and it’s OK, that your pictures aren’t good enough because you’re not close enough.

While we had a workshop together he asked from us to go out and make pictures, that we wouldn’t otherwise, we were asked to make mistakes, rigorous technical and compositional mistakes. We went out and each of us shot a roll of film and I took it as a joke, throwing camera in the air and taking pictures with a timer on and of course nobody took an effort to look trough a viewfinder. And accordingly that’s how our pictures look like, a one big mess! Paul came along and start shuffling pictures and out of this mess of unsharp, blurry, over&under exposed pictures made a series that actually looked really cool! Then he was talking about possible connotations that this kind of aesthetic could be applied to. I was astonished! What a good workshop!

So when I read the book review that I’ve mentioned before I clicked through the book and as always it’s not on a first ball as we say it, but as all Graham’s projects it takes some time to get familiar with his new “invention” in photography. To be honest my belief was that diptychs, triptychs and other typtichs are for photographers who can not make a good picture, then they do some distracting maneuvers with juxtaposing several images together. In 99% it’s like that, if you ask me, or even more if the theme of the series is dealing with identity of a photographer (grow up!).

But, I’m also great fan of Duane Michals and his way of transcending an image with a sequence and Graham’s diptychs are sharing a some sort of rhythm that I like. Furthermore this is actually a street photography, a contemporary modern version street photography, that I adore. Robert Haagart wrote:

“But, inch by inch, I realized that the book’s locale is strictly allegorical. It could have been London, or Barcelona, or San Francisco, or almost any city on Earth. The title of the book is not “NYC,” it’s “The Present.” Mr. Graham is asking us to take him at his word, and look beyond the obvious.”

At the moment I was reading this I was at a vacation at the sea site in Nerezine, Croatia, so I wondered if it could have been NY, London, Barcelona, why not Nerezine as well? I took my camera and the very next day I’ve made a jackpot of an image that I’m publishing bellow. I’m continuing with the mining the concept…

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My love affair with middle format cameras (Mamiya, Bronica, Yashica, Fuji,…)

As followers of my blog might know, I got into large format photography. First only with Wet Plate Collodion technique, but then when I run out of chemicals, I started to shoot also film. I got into it right away! I mean I’ve shoot 26 film folders with about 100 films in each before I started digital, so it’s not like I discovered America, but I must admit, that in this digital revolution I left out many things, that I didn’t know I’m missing them. Like the smell of fixir on your fingertips

But seriously in this digital revolution suddenly all images are the same. The same optics, the same flashes, printers, the same images… And when I started to rediscover the analog cameras again, I felt a child-like joy and things started happening. Like the other day I was walking through storage room of a friend and noticed Zenza Bronica ETRS, format 6×4,5 and I borrowed the camera that nobody was using for a very long time. Then another friend borrowed me a Mamiya C220, a twin-lens camera format 6×6 and I loved it. I was publishing pics by this camera and a Facebook friend offered me a Mamiya C330 camera for 200 EUR. That offer you can not refuse so I’ve bought it. It’s in mint condition! The seller told me a lot about the former owner of this camera and I’m feeling kind of guilty that I’m dragging this camera constantly with me, whereas the former owner was taking it out only on special occasions.

On the end of the day I’m suspecting it’s middle age crisis kicking in. When I was studying photography in 90′s this cameras were really expensive. Like a camera like that was half the price of a car and now, thanks to digital revolution, nobody wants them anymore! Thank you, very much!

Here are few recent pictures. Square ones are with Mamiya C220, lens 80mm, f/2,8 and rectangular ones are with Zenza Bronica ETRS, lens 150mm, f/3,5.

The last image: Daughters are delighted by father’s new camera!

New pictures for my Family Album

I haven’t been blogging much lately, since I am in a very productive period of my life. Unfortunately I can’t afford to be focused and I work on many, many different fields, mostly for commercial clients, but in this days I can’t complain about that, right. Also this blog gained quite some attention, although you don’t comment much so I think twice what am I publishing. But this formula just doesn’t work. Now this is my only second post this month and I decided to go back to my old habit to publish what I make during the day.

My niece Enja had a birthday party so I took few photographs on collodion and on film. I used my ShenHao 4×5″ camera with a fast lens Linhof 135mm f/3,5. How do you like it? Leave a comment, rate, like and Rock&Roll!

PS: More family portraits on my site www.borutpeterlin.com.

The opening of the exhibition “Family Album” was fantastic :-)

Yesterday I had an opening of my exhibition “Family Album” in Gallery Laterna in Črnomelj, Slovenia. It’s a small nice gallery with passionate public. The gallery was packed and at the opening not everybody could fit in. Even friends and colleagues from Novo mesto, Ljubljana and Zagreb came! On the end of the opening ceremonial I’ve made a demonstration of the Wet Plate Collodion and made a group portrait in front of the gallery. Unfortunately this was about half an hour after the opening, so not everybody are on the picture.

From the show I’m literally astonished what kind of quality does a small 9x12cm ambrotype contains! Bojan Radovič and Luminus made a print size 100x80cm and it’s perfect! I have some serious ideas with newly discovered potentials. What do I have in mind? Let me step back and describe a little the background inspiration for the show. About two years ago I saw an exhibition of Sally Mann in The Photographer’s Gallery in London. I immediately fall in love with Wet Plate Collodion process and this was also times when I had enough of my job as a photoeditor and news photography on general. I was looking for a person who would know something about it at the affordable price. Year later I’ve bought a kit from Bostick & Sullivan , but I had all the chemicals, plate and a camera, but still nobody to show me how to do it. In November 2011 I’ve finally met Miša Keskenović who taught me nearly everything that I know about this process. Since then I’m working almost every day with it and it’s Rock and Roll!

Motif-wise of course I was photographing mainly my family and finally I was indulging the need what Susan Sontag describes as a need of a parent to photograph child’s progress. The absence of photographs from your child’s childhood it gives us parents a feeling that you haven’t been a good parent. And I must admit I’ve took thousands of photographs of my children, but ony few of them are in our Family Album! Finally with Wet Plate Process I had a feeling I’m making pictures that are worth to keep for the future! With Wet Plate I was shooting also large format 4×5″ sheet film and I’ve totally fall in love with it!

When I got an invitation for the show, I was told that budget is no-budget, so if I had to finance the show from family’s budget, why not devote the exhibition to my family! This was the start, the inspiration. After working couple of months for the show, I discovered several potentials that will go beyond our family album pictures series. For instance. The photo of Lučka leaning on a tree is inspired by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson‘s (better known as Lewis Caroll) photograph of Alice Lidell (Alice in Wonderland) and when I developed the photo I said to my self this is sooo cool, I want to illustrate a whole book with this kind of images! I have many friends that are writing for children. If you have a tip for me, please contact me.

Anyhow, the exhibition will be open until 14th of June 2012, but before you visit, please call the keeper of the gallery Slavko on 040661802. He will be more then happy to open the space upon your visit.

Včeraj sem imel otvoritev razstave Družinski album v galeriji Laterna. To je majhna, čedna galerija v centru Črnomlja z zvesto, strastno publiko. Galerija je pokala po šivih in za časa otvoritvenega ceremoniala niti ni mogla sprejeti vseh obiskovalcev! Celo prijatelji in kolegi iz NM, Lj in celo iz Zagreba so prišli! Na koncu sem naredil skupinsko sliko in demonstriral tehniko mokri kolodij. Na žalost so nekateri že odšli, tako na fotki niso vsi obiskovalci, a se že tako vidi, da je bil žur!

Z razstave sem se mnogo naučil. Najbolj oprijemljivo je to, kakšno neverjetno tonaliteto, ostrino in nasploh kvaliteto vsebuje ena majhna ambrotipija velikosti 9x12cm! Bojan Radovič in Luminus je naredil inkjet povečavo velikosti 100x80cm in izgleda fenomenalno! Norišn’ca, vam prav’m!

Pa tudi sicer sem nenadejano naletel na potenciale, katere nisem vedel, da obstajajo. Naj malo pojasnim o čem govorim. Pred približno dvema letoma, sem si ogledal razstavo Sally Mann v The Photographer’s Gallery in se v trenutku zaljubil v proces mokri kolodij na steklu! Ta čas je sovpadal z mojim naraščajočim nezadovoljstvom poklica fotourednik in novičarske fotografije v obče. Iskal sem človeka, ki bi me lahko naučil o tem procesu, po sprejemljivi ceni. Leto kasneje sem kupil cel kit pri Bostick & Sullivan , a še vedno nisem vedel kako se s tem operira. Lani novembra sem spoznal Miša Keskenovića, ki me je naučil skoraj vse kar vem o mokrem kolodiju. Od takrt delam ali se učim o tem postopku vsak dan in je čisti Rock&Roll!

Jasno pri učenju postopka mokri kolodij, sem fotografiral predvsem svojo družino in končno sem potešil vzgib, ki ga Susan Sontag opisuje, kot potrebo starša, da dokumentira odraščanje svojega otroka. Pač v sodobni družbi se starša, ki ne fotografira svojega otroka smatra za malomarnega starša. Seveda to ne pomeni dejansko to, a v principu tako se počutimo starši. Sam sem posnel tisoče fotografij svojih otrok a le nekaj jih je dejansko v obliki fizične fotografij in v družinskem albumu.Končno s postopkom mokri kolodij delam fotografije imam občutek, da delam fotografije, ki so vredne hranjenja za prihodnost. Medtem, ko sem snemal na kolodijske plošče, sem tudi začel fotografirati na 4×5″ velikoformatni plan film in se čist zacopal v mehovke in fotografiranju na stojalu.

Ko sem dobil povabilo za razstavo mi je bilo povedano, da ni sredstev za produkcijo razstave, tako sem pomisli, če že moram razstavo financirati iz družinskega proračuna, zakaj jo ne bi posvetil svoji družini! To je bil prvi vzgib, inspiracija. Potem ko sem delal za to razstavo par mesecev, pa sem odkril kar nekaj potencialov, ki bodo daljnosežni! Na primer fotografija Lučke, ki se naslanja na drevo je bila inspirana s fotografijo Alice Lidell (Alica v čudežni deželi) fotografa Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, bolj znanega pod psevdonimom Lewis Caroll. Ko sem razvil to fotko sem bil tako navdušen, da sem takoj pomislil, da ilustriram kako knjigo za otroke po tem postopku. Poznam veliko pisateljic, ki pišejo za otroke, tako se bo že kaj našlo. Če imate nasvet me prosim kontaktirajte

Razstava bo odprta do 14.6.2012 in če boste šli pogledat, prosim pokličite prej skrbnika galerije slikarja Slavka na 040661802. Z veseljem vam odpre galerijo tudi zunaj urnika galerije.

Photo: Damir R.

Invitation to the exhibition of my Wet Plate Collodion photographs

Dear reader, I invite you to the opening of my exhibition Family Album that will be in Galerija Laterna in Črnomelj, Slovenia on Friday 25.5.2012, at 19:00. I’ll exhibit a series of portraits of my family that I’ve made in last half a year. Some of it are made in Wet Plate Collodion technique, others are taken of sheet film format 4×5″. Large format rules! I’ll also make a live demonstration of Wet Plate Collodion portraiture. Fun it will be! Here are some previews from the show.
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Dragi bralec, predraga bralka, vabim te na otvoritev razstave Družinski album, ki bo ta petek, ob 19. uri v Galeriji Laterna, v Črnomlju. Razstavil bom portrete svoje družine, ki sem jih naredil v zadnjem obdobju, v tehniki mokri kolodij na steklu in na velikoformatnem plan filmu. Na otvoritvi bom izvedel tudi demonstracijo tehnike mokri kolodij. Bo zabavno! Tu je nekaj predogledov z razstave.

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My daughter in carnival mask

I just want to share with you a picture I shot & develop today. My daughter before going to kindergarden in her carnival costume. I love the expression of her mirroring cold morning and you could tell she’s not satisfied with her costume.

Photographed on B/W film Linhof Technika 9×12cm. Reproduction was done on a bad, scratched plexi glass. Negative is clear & clean. I bought a fresh developer and it took me quite few rolls films to realize that developer is bad. It was developing, but in very weak way, producing very thin negatives. I will need to find an old book from student years: Darkroom cookbook and mix it myself!
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Hčerka preden je šla v vrtec v kostumu. Kako zanimiv izraz! Vidi se, da je bilo mrzlo in, da ni bila glih navdušena nad kostimom.
Fotografirano na klasičen film formata 9x12cm s kamero Linhof Technika. Reprodukcija je narejena na slaben, spraskanem pleksi steklu. Negativ je lep, čist. Kupil sem razvijalec za Č/B filme in po petih filmih zanesljivo vem, da ne delam nič narobe, da so mi prodali slabe kemikalije in sedaj imam tanke negative. Moram najti svojo knjigo z recepti za mešanje kemikalij Darkroom cookbook!

Meet my new dog, Majk (Mike)

Long time no blogging and as you know, if I don’t blog, I’m working my ass off. A lot of stuff happened and I hope I can slowly describe everything. The biggest change that happened was that I got a dog Majk (Mike). He is two years old German Shepherd and it’s quite an interesting how I got it. I grew up with German Shepherds in a quite literal way I was 6 years old when I got my first REX, then Rex no:2 lived for 13 years and then Rex no:3. Rex3 was really an exceptional dog. He wasn’t a pure breed, but he was so, smart, so, so smart… When I was 22 years old, he was about five, an accident happened and he drowned in a river. I was on a dam, he was under the dam in the water. River was too strong. Very traumatic experience and after him I didn’t want another German Shepherd, since I knew no dog can top Rex no:3, so I decided to buy a totally different kind of breed, a Siberian Husky. I named him Sker which is Reks written backwards. Nevertheless I called him Skar (Scar). When he got euthanized because of age decease (link to the post) I didn’t want another dog.

We build a new house, we moved in, but I still I didn’t want a dog. I knew I’ll strongly attach to a dog and my life is too busy already. But then my parents gave our old house for rent and new residents brought a dog. I remember very clearly, repeating a question to my mother, they brought a dog? Yes, he is in the old cage, go and take a look. I didn’t ask what breed he is, but certainly I didn’t thought on a German Shepherd. When I saw Majk in Rex’s old cage I couldn’t believe my eyes! Rex is back! Rex is back! Love on first sight, I took him for a walk immediately. After that day when I had some spare time I went to my parent’s place and took Majk for a walk.

Last week a burglar broke in our house between in the afternoon but obviously he was disturbed by our returning home and he flew without stealing anything. That night I decided we need the best anti-burglar system and that is a German Shepherd. I borrowed Majk and offered their owners a decent price to sell it. After few days they sold Majk to me. He is two years old, very smart and with a character that I need. He loves children and children loves him although he can be a bit rough while playing. And not to mention his notorious quality to defend his territory, so we have a warm welcome for our burglar if he/she comes back.

Branko Peterlin, vse najboljše za 60 let!

Here are birthday messages by famous rock stars, actors, singers, artists, politicians and a porn star.
Starring:
Jean-Christophe Quet artist
Will Connolly, roof master
Junior, Jamaica man
Jonas, actor
Roberto Magnifico, rock star
Iztok Čop, athlete
Martin Strel, extreme swimmer
Igor Bergant, TV journalist
Andrej Rozman, Roza, actor
Tjaša Železnik, actor
Manica Ambrožič, news anchor
Borut Veselko, actor
Davor Krničar, extreme skier
Jure Robič, extreme cyclist, five time winner of RAAM
dr. Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, environmential expert
dr. Artur Štern, an intelectual
LaToya, porn star
Jure Godler, illuzionist
Danijel Popović, singer
Neisha, singer
Zoran Predin, rock star
Srečko Katanec, football coach
Severina, singer
Katarina Kresal, Minister of Internal Affairs
dr. France Bučar, first chairman of Slovenian Parliament
Jože Jerovšek, member of parliament
Drago Kos, president of committee for prevention of corruption
Borut Pahor, Prime Minister of Republic Slovenia
dr. Danilo Türk, President of Republic Slovenia

New progress in building our house

In August we’re moving in and here are few images of our house. Still lots of work are ahead but when we’ll move in everything will be easier. This is also a reason why I don’t blog so much, but most important reason is that currently I’m dependent on UMTS Internet connection that is slow as Monday.
PS: Tomorrow I’ll add few more pics.

Test of a lens Nikkor 85 mm f/1,4 – inspired by Annie Leibovitz

I’m planning to buy a Nikkor lens 85 f/1,4 (eventually) and I test it last Sunday. The inspiration was a book “At Work” by Annie Leibovitz , where on page 161 she’s describing how she took a portrait of Philip Johnson in his garage, so I decided to do something similar just before Sunday’s family lunch. I really like the result and I’ll take more pictures like that but in the meantime I hope you’ll enjoy the behind the scene movie & music of DMP, a song Otrok (A Child). On THAT link you can see also images of Enja, taken for DMP.

PS: More images on my on-line archive: