WORKSHOP DAY 3
Day three. . . we gathered back at Cole’s studio by 9:00 a.m. Cole was again telling us more stories. . . he was sitting down today. . . all the walking the day before had him a little down in his back. . . Cole is 81.
This is the day to work in the dark room. Cole began the day by showing a stack of his brother’s negatives. Here he is holding one of Brett’s negatives and showing the envelope with printing instructions in Brett’s hand writing.
Cole removed Brett’s negatives from the envelopes and passed them around. . . we were given each negative and allowed to handle them. Here I am holding the negative in the air while Susan made a photo of it. I do not recognize this image. Cole had about a dozen of Brett’s negatives. . . we didn’t get a photo of Holland Canal. . .
I am now holding the Brett Weston negative of Monument Valley. The popular story is that Brett burned all of his negatives. . . the truth is he burned a few of them while some horrified on lookers made some photos of him tossing them into the fire place. . . actually he dumped hundreds of negatives into a drum and filled it with water, thus destroying them. He didn’t destroy the best of his work. . .
Notice there are holes punched in the negatives and writing along the bottom. . .Cole went to Brett and asked if he could have some of his negatives to show his workshop students. Brett agreed, but turned over the negatives only after running them through a hole punch and writing “DO NOT PRINT” across the bottom of each. This is the negative of Garrapata Beach.
We moved into the dark room to develop the film that Cole and Kim had exposed the day before at Point Lobos. Here Kim is mixing the Pyro developer using his grandfather’s hand written formula.
With all the chemicals ready it was time to turn off the lights and open the film holders. . .
Well. . . what can I say? You can’t make much of a photo in total darkness. You’ll just have to take my word for it. . . they processed the negatives. . . I didn’t make a photo of them once they were finished. . . OH WELL!
Cole showing us his Graflex 4×5 camera. . . his father’s 4×5 Graflex and 8×10 Corona have been donated to the Smithsonian.
Cole and his 8×10 dichroic enlarger.
Here is Cole holding the Edward Weston original negative he is preparing to print (Nude, 1936 233N). . . the negative is in its original sleeve. . . pencil writing is Edward’s printing instructions. . . the heavy ink writing is Brett’s, from when he made the project prints in 1955.
Cole is holding a reference print made from the negative. . . this is a print Cole had previously made on modern paper using one of EW’s original prints as a reference. This photo is Nude, 1936 233N. . . a photo of Charis Wilson on the sand dunes at Oceano.
Here is Cole’s contact printing light. Edward never owned an enlarger. . . he made contact prints only. A contact print is made by sandwiching the negative along with a sheet of unexposed printing paper into a glass and wood printing frame. Once the frame is closed, it is placed (glass side up) under a bare light bulb. The bulb is turned on for some length of time to make the exposure. NOTE: the bulb is covered with tissue paper. . . this diffuses the light and makes it more even.
Here Kim is making a test strip. . . the printing frame is on the table under the printing light (which is on). . . Kim covers sections of the printing frame for about 5 seconds each, during the 15 second total time the light is on. This makes a test strip exposure with different exposure times. The test strip is used to determine the final printing time.
Here is the wet test strip on the viewing stand after processing. . . note there are 3 different exposures. This test strip is used to determine the final printing time.
Cole is holding some of his father’s dodging tools. These are just small pieces of wire with small cardboard shapes taped to them. These are Edward’s original dodging tools used by him.
Here Kim is making a finished print. . . he is using one of the dodging tools to hold back just a little time from the model’s head. . . this lightened her hair and gave it more texture.
Comparing wet finished prints in the dark room sink on the viewing stand.
Here JB is in the dark room talking with Kim while he was finishing the prints.
This is Edward’s 8×10 printing frame. . . note that one of the springs is missing. . .Cole used this frame to make most of the EW/CW photos. He quit using it when the spring broke.
This is Edward’s negative retouching table. . . just to the left is his 8×10 printing frame.