Last term at the Certificate for Photography program at University of Washington, I constructed a 4x5 box camera thinking I would make it for a pinhole, I did make it and made a shutter out of a floppy disk which you can see in previous posts. One of the projects I made from the film after making drawings for all sides of a factory was to develop the film and without enlarging it onto paper, cut the film into shapes and make an "architectural" model out of the film adhering the sides and clerestories with scotch tape. The 4x5 factory was a bit small and an 8x10 film camera would make a bigger sculpture from it's negative, so a new camera was built, originally designed for a pinhole lens, but made flexible to take any Horseman or Sinar lens board. The camera had set a focal length of a little over a meter and used a 210mm lens and lens board from a Horseman 4x5 view camera. On an 8x10 camera a 210mm lens is a bit wide, so so the drawings to be photographed were enlarged to fill the negative. Instead of hand drawing the elevations were constructed them in Google's SketchUp drawing program, printed at 11x17 and then about doubled on an enlarging copier. The pages were taped together to get a subject big enough to fill the image on the film. Color corrected compact fluorescent bulbs in two studio lights with reflectors and scrims were used to flatten out the light. After some sloppy developing (two of the negatives dislodged in the developing tank and blocked a lot of the chemicals for another two negatives, so they were faint) the negatives were dried and then cut out and made into the factory sculpture out of the film. The sculpture was placed upstairs in the study window and shot digitally south to Lake Union, Downtown Seattle and the Space Needle. The RAW files were manipulated in Photoshop and made a couple of great prints.

Simply stated, an economical scratch-built 8x10 camera box was built with a fixed focal length, a 210mm lens and a double sided 8x10 film holder were attached to the front and back of the camera, a set of sides were drawn electronically for factory shapes, the enlarged factory drawings were shot on film with the 8 x 10 camera, the film was chemically processed, the film was washed and dried then cut out to be joined with scotch tape, then the sculpture was digitally shot and the RAW files were manipulated in Photoshop and printed on the University's high-end Epson archival inkjet printers.

Seems so simple, doesn't it?

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I cruise the Web for all sorts of cheap ways to make components for large format cameras. I have seen several shutters for pinhole cameras made using floppy disks. The recently built 4x5 camera needed a better shutter than the taped black piece of paper that was being used. Shutter speeds are pretty slow for pinhole cameras, so time or vibrations are not as critical as cameras with the relatively large openings in glass lens. This shutter was cut down with a band saw and the rough edge was sanded. The floppy memory material was removed. A Lego "handle" was cut in half and one piece was epoxied to the slide and the other was attached above the slide on the body of the floppy case to act as eye hooks to make a frictionless path for the waxed thread (used for finishing off ropes for sailing). Another Lego piece (white) was drilled and had a small v cut into the drilled hole and the hole was reamed to have a round glass bead seat into the bottom to hold the slide open. That stop was epoxied to the lower part of the floppy. Two holes were drilled to the top and bottom of the floppy case for small stainless screws and washers to hold the shutter to the lens board in case another shutter wanted to be used or this one repaired. The tolerances on the slide are such that there is still room for the mechanism to move freely and remain light tight. On the photos of the open mode of the shutter you can see the brass sheet with the pinhole. This was not only fun to build and cost effective, it has very little vibration and is very effective and light proof.

Taking the Winter quarter of the Certificate for Photography class taught by Carla Fraga and David Johnson at the University of Washington requires an end of term presentation of your quarter's project. I stated that I would build a large camera to get large negatives shot of images of architectural drawings that would be scanned then inverted to "negative" readings in Photoshop, making more or less "positive " images on the film negatives. The film would be cut and taped or adhered to build sculptures similar to architectural models and then the objects would be digitally shot in front of landscapes whether they be rural, suburban or urban. The camera in this sketch is based on a fixed focal length lens with a fixed focal length from the lens to the film plane (no focus adjustment). The camera is designed to have lens boards traded out. An additional lens board will have a brass sheet drilled and sanded pinhole lens of the same focal length of 210 mm or approximately 8.3 inches. Too much information? Not to worry there is more, but first a design drawing that was started December 15, 2012 and has had at least two other additions of drawings and ideas from January 18 and 20th of 2013.

Here is a comparison of film holders to get a feeling of the scale of the 8 x 10 negative. The smallest is a recently purchased 3.25 x 4.25 inch Fidelity film holder, possibly from the 1940s or 50s. A set of two were purchased. These were basically unused made from aluminum, sheet metal, wood and an anti-static black plastic material for the dark slides. They are from a seller on eBay and had the original box and marketing flyer. These were attained because someone gifted me a box of Kodak electron microscope film slightly past its expiration date. A new camera will be built around these film holders and a variety of lens and pinholes. The next is the 4 x 5 inch negative holder, the most common used for the Taylor Art House film based photographic explorations. The last film holder is the 8 x 10. To the left of the 8 x 10 film holder is a start in pine and epoxy of the camera back being constructed for the new camera to hold the film holder. More postings will arrive as construction progresses.

Here are some images taken in low light of pre-developed parts of photographic contact sheets or instant film prints mechanically sewn over undeveloped photographic paper. Some of the pieces have been deformed at the top and fastened with the sewing to hold that shape to make funnels in some instances and some of the shapes have paper punch holes to allow developer to flow through the "funnel" or pieces that abstractly develop the new image exposed on the paper. If the developer doesn't touch the paper what is left is white. Many of the final prints have a background image of the water south of the southern overlook of Gasworks park.

The sewing is done in a bathroom with the window and door edges blacked out. A red darkroom light is the only bulb illuminating the room.

Cut up pieces of exposed photographic paper are sewn on to an unexposed 8 x 10 piece of photographic paper. These sewn composites are put into a "dark" box and taken to a full darkroom with film processing area and enlarger developing room. A negative is put into an enlarger and the image focused on to a test piece of paper, the composites are taken out one at a time, exposed with the image then taken over to the developing tray. The exposed composite is held above the bath and the developer is poured with a beaker over the print held at an angle. The developer is poured over the sewn pieces directing the flow of the development to produce the best final indication of the history of the flow and creating the best image. Sometimes the developer is applied over previous pours to get overlapped darker grays and blacks. Note the flow of the chemicals around paper edges, sewn threads and through paper punched holes. Some of the earlier images with cut up smaller contact sheet images have white lines where the exposures were blocked by threads. These composites have been modified in a post developing stage and tacked with zig-zag sewing to pull the thread away from the white lines. The two factory composites have many sewn line marks to further define the outlines of factories and structure below the implied waterline as if they are sitting in moats recalling paintings of factories from earlier this year.

Many of these photos were accepted for the Blue Sky's Pacific Northwest Viewing Drawers in Portland, Oregon, juried selection 2013.

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During the last several weeks of taking classes and working in the darkroom at the University of Washington for the Certificate for Photography program this fall and visit with Jen Dalley, a partner with Thomas Bath at Parallel Lines Studio in Ely, Nevada just before classes started (Jen has several dozen cameras and has made a bunch of pinhole cameras), I was inspired to make my own camera.

Here are a couple of images that show some of the components during the build and some photos of the finished camera. I just bought some 8 x 10 film holders so I am going to scale this idea up for that format. Both cameras are optimized for the fixed focal length of the pinhole that roughly matches a glass lens coupled to a shutter and adjustable aperature mechanism. The 4x5 has an older Kodak lens - probably from a 2 1/4" format box or folding camera that I picked up from Jim's Camera in the University District just before he shut his doors for $10. The 8 x 10 camera will have a lens board with a pinhole and a lens board for a 210mm f/8 lens in a Copal shutter that I use in my Horseman 4x5 cameras.

More on the 8 x 10 at a later date.

If you double-click on the large photo, you will get larger images in a slide show that will have arrow keys when you pass the mouse to the left or right of the image.

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Two new developments:

A refinement to the backdrops and producing a film mask.

Back drops:

We were blessed with a visit in the midst of a busy schedule of an old friend visiting her parents in Bellevue with her 15 year old daughter. I asked if they could try out some new backdrops I had positioned under a white tent. Her daughter was game and I took several images of her and myself in this mid August shoot. These were all shot with a Horseman 4x5 view camera with a 90mm wide angle lens and a Fuji instant filmpack back. Instant film was scanned with a Epson V500 Photo scanner at 400 dpi with a dust removal program.

Film Mask development:

After the shoot, an extra dark slide was sacrificed for a "portrait mask" Here are some images of the standard double sided 4 x 5 film holder with a full dark slide and the modified dark slide made into the portrait mask.

To differentiate the portrait mask from the silver or white used on all other dark slides the mask top was painted orange.

What do you do when a friend gives you a container of 50 or so frozen, but past expiration date 4x5 inch Polaroid color film packs?

You give some away, you experiment with some longer exposures, you have some fun because it is free compared to the Fuji version at $30 bucks a 10 pack.

Here are some crude examples and experiments with a 90 mm wide angle and a 210 mm standard/portrait lens using an older Polaroid film pack holder set in a Horseman 4x5 view camera on our "ever so slowly being built over the decades and constantly redesigned" stairway in Seattle.

In the future Harmon reversal black and white paper that can be used in 4x5 film holders and some black and white film will be used to be developed and contact printed or enlarged. There will be a Mamiya RZ67 with some instant backs and film and a digital SLR and simple lighting for additional images during the shoots.

Why do double exposure on instant film when you could do it digitally? Because it is captured right on the photo paper with only manipulating a mask close to the film plane and, yes, it is cool. In addition, it will be fun collaborating with the subject and there will be other film and digital camera data to manipulate and print in the future.

For the process, the mask will split the image in half in landscape or vertical formats. Since the prototype masks are pretty close to the center of the image on the film or paper the two images of one person that has shifted from one side of the scene to the other between mask changes will appear as if taken once and have no "ghosting" associated with double exposing a full un-masked piece of film.

In the future dark slides will be cut for double film or paper carriers and there will be some dark slides made into masks for the instant film pack holder.

Horseman 4x5 view camera showing back with pack film holder inserted (right side of image).

Styrene cut to shape for vertical mask taped into Graflock back with painting tape. If you could be in the bellows with the lens to your back, this is what you would see, the gray plastic blocks the light.

: Shooting process is to take the first shot, reinsert dark slide, take off camera back, remove - flip and retape the mask - reinsert back, change subject position, remove darkslide, take second image. Simple, huh?

: Will this be the final setup? Maybe a scrim over the window, probably some photo lights will be added. Hopefully some more finished construction.

Want to be part of the Taylor Art House Double Exposure Project?

If you are interest in modeling for this project and taking home some images of yourself double-exposed, send an e-mail to artman.taylor@gmail.com, in the subject line put, "Taylor Art House - Double Exposure Project". Shooting times will be strung together when possible, probably on morning weekend days. Individual sessions will take about 30-60 minutes depending on your patience level. The setup will be in Wallingford, other locations may be considered. Photos will be used only with permission.

The intent of this project is to have a digital web-based show, possibly have a gallery show and/or publish a small edition book. If it gets enough interest there may be sub themes - not sure what yet - it is just starting.

More later.