17th January 2016
A single image posting, which is a rarity on Art Blart … just because the image is so fab. This is a brilliant image – the same year as Weston’s first Point Lobos images. Click on the image to enlarge it.
My mentor IL said of this image:
“I doubt that the film has been developed in a great tonal developer like pyrogallol or D-23. You would have to be the world’s finest technician to develop large format film as evenly as this in pyro – nor do the shadows show any compensation.
It is a standard developer – but a great film. There were films made by Adox (for example) that were rich in emulsion. I suspect a moderate filter to make the sky a little darker – (a yellow/ green filter or an orange, probably the former guessing the colours beyond the bridge). The way the blue shadows under the bridge are so dark, it could be either of these filters. I don’t think a red, it would be too dramatic in the sky.
Anyhow it is all to do with the sharpness and the tonal separation in the middle greys. This is a very early example of pre-visualisation – and being able to execute this that pre-visualisation. That is what I wanted to say!”
Werner Mantz
Bridge
1929
Silver gelatin print
Filed under: black and white photography, documentary photography, landscape, light, memory, photography, space, time, works on paper Tagged: black and white photography, colour filters in black and white photography, D-23, German art, German art between the wars, German artist, german photographer, German photography, large format, large format photography, pyrogallol, Werner Mantz, Werner Mantz Bridge
