With the invention of photography in the 19th century, photographers opened the spectacle of the natural world to the scientific community and to an awestruck public. After the introduction of faster dry plate emulsions, photography as a tool for research of unseen realities extended scientific knowledge beyond the observable, and photography routinely presented the previously…
Tag: David Arnold Photography
Varanasi Streets | the ProCam App
The cameraphone merges the most important communication devices in the history of the planet—the telephone, the camera, and the internet. The camera phone or smartphone concept has dramatically reshaped expectations of photography and the look and feel of the camera. Camera phone conventions appeared in 1988, and the first wireless camera phone prototype appeared in…
Portraits, Jesuit-Guaraní Sculptures
After first establishing a mission at San Ignacio Guazú, Paraguay, in 1609, the Society of the Jesuits would go on to build 30 mission settlements called reductions among the Guaraní people in the fertile river valleys of the Parana and Uruguay Rivers, a region today spanning the countries of Southern Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. [1]…
Statuary Portraits, Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Designed by a French engineer Próspero Catelin, the Recoleta Cemetery is Buenos Aire’s most compelling tourist attraction. Mirroring the sprawling metropolis outside the large stonewalls of the Recoleta, over 6,400 statues, stone coffins, and burial vaults are crammed into the labyrinthine 14-acre cemetery. Opened in 1822, tall concrete, marble, and black granite mausoleums in every…
Luminances, the Ceramic Portraits of the Recoleta Cemetery, Asunción, Paraguay
Angel, Recoleta Cemetery, Asunción, Paraguay Photographs possess the remarkable ability to close distances of time and space and bring forward the person, place, or thing which stood before the lens. Referred to as “photography’s transparency,” this quality remains photography’s most distinctive feature.[1] In 1843, shortly after the appearance of the first photographs, Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning…
Transfers
In the arts and printing, transfer means to convey an image from one surface to another. By merging analog photographic processes with digital tools, the Transfers Series experiments with instant film image transfer processes as a departure point to comment upon the concept of change through time. The multiple processes of the Transfers Series pose questions about the place, event,…
Stones and Trees
At elevations from 200 to 1200 feet, the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Yuba and Nevada County, California features rolling hills of blue oak and gray pine characteristic of the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Once part of Camp Beale, a massive World War II-era training base, the area features numerous creeks, waterfalls, and from the western extension,…
Morning Glories: Lumen Print Making
Morning Glories, a series of lumen prints Lumen printmaking is one of the most fascinating camera-less photographic processes. Lumen prints begin with silver gelatin photographic papers, the traditional photographic paper used in the making of black and white prints since the late 1870s. Silver gelatin photographic papers are conventionally used in a darkroom under safelight…
Experimenting with Infrared Digital Capture
Constructed in 1955, MS Aurora was the first ship wholly made in German shipyards following World War II. MS Aurora began service as a day cruiser named the MV Wappen Von Hamburg, serving the ports of Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Heligoland, and Hornum in the North Sea. Later the ship was sold to new owners who converted…
Experimenting with a Telephoto Lens
Depth of field or the area of acceptable focus within a photograph is influenced by three factors: the aperture of the lens, the subject to camera distance, and the focal length of the lens. Our expectations for photographs are that they transparently represent the subject of the photograph. Each of the three components of the…
Using the Vest Pocket Kodak as an Experimental Lens
By introducing a camera that could be taken anywhere, and used by anyone, George Eastman revolutionized photography. I recently discovered a Vest Pocket Kodak Model B, a very popular Kodak camera manufactured from 1925-1934 [1], and began to explore experimental options with this beautifully designed camera. Touted by Kodak’s marketing as “You Don’t Carry…
About The Experimental Condition
First launched in 2013, The Experimental Condition is dedicated to presenting new approaches to the medium of photography. Photographic experimentation, the blending of unlikely materials to produce new photographic processes and new photographic devices is a permanent feature in photography’s history. The tradition of experimentations continues into the present day with computer programs, silicon, and…