Photographic Amusements 1922 — Walter E. Woodbury and Frank R. Fraprie (PDF)

A hundred year old handbook for achieving novel effects in photography all achieved by a balance of mechanical manipulations and weird chemical formulations. Lots worth stealing from.

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Some of my favourite sections:

Magic Photographs

Photography for Household Decoration

Photographing a Catastrophe

Photographing the Invisible

How to Make a Photograph Inside a Bottle

The Disappearing Photograph

Freak Pictures with a Black Background

Sympathetic Photographs

Photographs Without Light

Moonlight Effects

Comical Portraits

Pictures With Eyes that Open and Close

Photographs on Apples and Eggs

My fixation for darkrooms isn't satisfied by just printing in them. Being under red light in an isolated room makes even the simplest surroundings photogenic. I found some glow in the dark gaffer tape which is sometimes used when printing in colour darkrooms where there is no 'safe' light. Not really something used in b/w process but I started playing with it nonetheless because of strange crossover luminance of this green glow under dim red safe light. The combination made it kind of look like it was lacquered with sugar; glossy and hard.

After listening to the Aught Fraught episode with Eileen Quinlan I felt really excited about mixing everything that I normally keep in neatly contained art / non art areas together into a slosh of assorted photo formats and materials that I am constantly engaging with throughout my life. I feel encased by photography in all aspects of my life. Not in an 'anxiety of images' kind of way but in the way that my day job / night job / artistic interests / closest relationships are all various strains of photography that I interface with. Even when it is not mediating as a tool it is the media holding my life together. 

These instant film photos were made in 2016 and I walked around with them for a couple of years like they were trading cards but for no good reason really. Then they ended up pasted in a photo album after I got tired of it. I'm trying not to edit text too much. This is a good hobby.

technician pictures 2

technician pictures