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  #21  
Old 12th April 2020, 04:43 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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Maybe it's me, but isn't the look of the images originally being discussed here influenced by the fact we're looking at an online rendering of a scan of an original print of unknown type and quality?
I suspect the originals might look very different, and a modern print from the original neg even different again.
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  #22  
Old 12th April 2020, 05:05 PM
JakubV JakubV is offline
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That indeed can be a huge factor...still, there is (in my opinion) a 'theme' how cetain photographs from, I don't know 20's - 50's looked.
It would be super nice to have an opportunity to see or even work with the original negatives, to see how dense they actually are etc. and to print them on modern paper.

There is a photo gallery/museum in Bratislava (Central european house of photography), but I doubt that they have any archive of negatives and/or original prints as they are quite 'artsy' in the negative connotation (at least that's what I gathered from my visit). Maybe the National galery has something, but even if, it would certainly be off limits for mere mortals

Last edited by JakubV; 12th April 2020 at 05:10 PM. Reason: grammar
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  #23  
Old 12th April 2020, 05:32 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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i think over the years they have refined silver crystals made the silver thinner but sharper ,when they made Ilford hp3 hypersensitive film it was a high contrast film ,that the new hp5 is not as much ,here is a print ,I made from a old negative I picked up from somewhere years ago I would guess 1950s 60s ,I have many books that show the way film and photography has changed , one of them is the times , a century in photographs gardening 1900 to 2000 .I would say film was syrup but now its cream ,also I find if I develop my film a bit more I get more silver used on my negatives that I put in my condenser enlarger and most of the time I don't use Ilford Multigrade Filter .anyway here is the photo of an unknown person ……..Click image for larger version

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  #24  
Old 12th April 2020, 05:53 PM
Alan Clark Alan Clark is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
Maybe it's me, but isn't the look of the images originally being discussed here influenced by the fact we're looking at an online rendering of a scan of an original print of unknown type and quality?
I suspect the originals might look very different, and a modern print from the original neg even different again.
I am sure this is true, but the OP has expressed an interest in making prints that look like what we are seeing online....I think this is where things get complicated.

Alan
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  #25  
Old 12th April 2020, 05:58 PM
Alan Clark Alan Clark is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JakubV View Post
That indeed can be a huge factor...still, there is (in my opinion) a 'theme' how cetain photographs from, I don't know 20's - 50's looked.
It would be super nice to have an opportunity to see or even work with the original negatives, to see how dense they actually are etc. and to print them on modern paper.

There is a photo gallery/museum in Bratislava (Central european house of photography), but I doubt that they have any archive of negatives and/or original prints as they are quite 'artsy' in the negative connotation (at least that's what I gathered from my visit). Maybe the National galery has something, but even if, it would certainly be off limits for mere mortals
Jakub, I did a bit of an online search, and apparently Karol Plicka's life work and archive is housed in a museum at Blatnica. This might include negatives, cameras and lenses,, which could answer some of your questions.

Alan
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  #26  
Old 12th April 2020, 06:10 PM
JakubV JakubV is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Clark View Post
Jakub, I did a bit of an online search, and apparently Karol Plicka's life work and archive is housed in a museum at Blatnica. This might include negatives, cameras and lenses,, which could answer some of your questions.

Alan
Thanks Alan...could have looked it up, I guess nearly a month of country-wide lockdown changed my view of existence of material world

Jakub
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  #27  
Old 12th April 2020, 06:23 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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I had a look at the examples of the work of Karel Plicka via the links Jakub posted. I like the pictures. I see that he had his work published in a number of books. The first appears to have been in 1938, then there is a bit of a gap, most likely due to the War, until 1946. He then seems to have had a few publications in the ‘50s and ‘60s, with the most recent being around 1980. I would think, therefore, that most of his work comes from the period between 1946 and 1966, and that’s perhaps the period to examine. What materials were available to photographers in Czechoslovakia at that time? If you wanted to examine that question for the UK, for example, looking at periodicals of that time would give some clues. I think that materials in use at that time would depend on where you lived, perhaps more than today where ordering from anywhere in the World is routine. The things I noticed about some of the pictures is the odd, out of focus areas, perhaps suggesting the use of camera movements. That would make sense, given that a number of shots are of architectural subjects. Another thing that struck me is what looks like uneven development, particularly in the sky areas. I wondered if the linked images were taken from illustrations in books, rather than from actual photographic prints. The photo-mechanical reproduction used at the time would also have a bearing on the pictures as we are now seeing them.
It’s certainly been a thought provoking thread, and thanks to Jakub for highlighting this photographer.
Alex.


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  #28  
Old 12th April 2020, 06:54 PM
Michael Michael is offline
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This good thread reminds me rather of another, started by Alan Clark a long time ago. It's here
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  #29  
Old 12th April 2020, 07:32 PM
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MartyNL MartyNL is offline
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Reading this thread reminded me of a video recording I have about a Chinese photographer; Zhuang Xueben. Many of his images have a similar look.

I also feel many of the life magazine photos have a similar reproduction.
https://books.google.nl/books?id=N0E..._issues_anchor
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  #30  
Old 12th April 2020, 07:44 PM
JakubV JakubV is offline
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WVJUA6N738

Unfortunately, there are no subtitles (for that matter, can anyone provide subtittles or just uploader of the video?), but there is some nice footage and examples of photographs.
There is a scene where he uses a Praktisix, these were quite popular in CS as it was possibly the only available MF SLR (and got a nickname "east-german peoples revenge" for their vulnerability and unreliability).
As for the possible available materials in CS - from early 20's Foma, Forte (in Hungary), Svema (SSSR) and whatever Germany was producing at the time. After the war all these continued with east- german companies reorganized as Orwo.

Jakub
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