Beginnings

I've created this blog to track the progress of my graded unit for college.

I'm currently studying for an HND in Photography at Carnegie College.  Most people think that photography students are "up themselves" and know everything.  I don't.  I enjoy learning about photography and I enjoy the social aspect of being a photography student.  If I hadn't gone to college and had set about becoming a photographer off my own back then i'd never have discovered how great Alternative Process photography is.

So, what is alternative process photography?  There doesn't seem to be a set definition.  For me, it's about experimenting a mix of old and new techniques.

My love of Alternative Photography started in September 2011 at College.  We had a credit to achieve from a list of 7 or so subjects.  I couldn't decide which one and as I kind of enjoyed being in the darkroom I pitched up to the first class on Alternative Processes to see what it was like and got completely hooked.  The processes we were going to learn were using liquid light, lith printing and cyanotypes.

Cyanotypes is by far my favourite at the moment.

So, back to my graded unit.  The graded unit is exactly what it says it is, it's a unit that we get graded on.  We did graded unit in HNC Photography last year.  I did Landscapes, it was a real challenge as I was pregnant for pretty much the entire college year so getting to some of the locations I wanted to shoot at could be difficult.  But, challenging ourselves is fun right?  Life would be boring if there were no challenges.  I was thrilled to get an A for my Graded Unit.  HNC Graded Unit was 10 images, this year in HND we are to do 20 images.  20 doesn't seem a lot but these need to be well researched, well shot and well presented images - all 20 of them!

My proposal for graded unit is to produce 20 images using alternative processes.  Some of these will be analogue and others hybrid (a mix of digital and chemical processing by producing digital negatives and contact printing using the old photography recipes).  My images are going to be split into 4 groups of 5 images that will work together as sets but also compliment each other as an entire body of work.  My subjects are: landscapes/ forests (lith), seascapes and beaches (cyanotype), old/ abandoned buildings (Van Dyke) and organics like grasses, flowers etc (salt prints).

So, over the next 2 college blocks, i'm going to be researching the recipes of these processes, purchasing papers, chemicals and other bits n bobs that i'll need.  I'll be doing my own paper trials although there is such a lot of information on trials that other people have done on the internet that I already know that Arches Platine is going to be the paper to go for.  I'll be out taking photos using my beloved Nikon D700 and my Mamiya 645 Pro (to think about 2 months ago I thought about selling her!). Another challenge here, if you'll refer to a couple of paragraphs above) is a certain 6 month old mini-me who will be accompanying me on some of my shoots when he's not with his grandparents.  To be fair he likes to be out and about and his pram makes a fantastic trolly for lugging tripod plus 2 reasonably heavy camera kits.

I've already started my research and have to say that The Book of Alternative Processes by Christopher James is an amazing resource.  I thought it was expensive when I bought it but it's most definitely underpriced given the work that must have gone into this book.  I've also spent hours on alternativephotography.com.  I've placed an order for paper and the raw materials I need to make up the chemicals.  My cyanotype solutions are all ready made up using the classic recipes.  I'm good to go with cyanotypes, all I need is good weather.