Collision Bend - A Print Series

[Axle]

Last August I set out on a specific mission to collect photos from the The Flats and Industrial Valley of Cleveland, Ohio. The idea was to build a print series. So I made sure I had three things with me, one camera, one film, and my trusty Pentax Spotmeter V. The Camera a Rolleiflex 2.8F with a Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 lens, the film Kodak Tri-X. The idea was to shot with the intention of printing, so right from the beginning I knew consistency was going to be key. There would be no other films/cameras being used to capture the two rolls of film worth of image (a total of 24 photos). So I set off fairly early in the morning to catch the great morning light in the area. When I got home, each roll was hand developed in HC-110 Dilution B, my favourite developer to work with when it comes to Tri-X. And then it sat and waited as the fall and early winter got super busy for me...and I really couldn't get into the darkroom to start printing. The first step of course was to create the two contact sheets (I may share those after I post the whole series), I set myself a target, I could only produce 12 prints out the the set, I figured a 50% hit rate on a total of two rolls was a good and achievable goal, as I was having trouble making the selections. And then it was back into the darkroom to get the final shots going. Of course it's not a one-and-done deal, and the first print is always the hardest, finding the right filter, the exposure time, ect. But once that's done, it's easy to create the base prints, then choose where to dodge and burn. But in my first session I managed to get more than 50% of the work done. I've now posted the first three. The scans don't really do the prints justice, they look much better in person. But I really can't invite the entire internet over to enjoy them, so here's the first three.

The Lone Bridge


The Cafe


The Furnace


So where does the title come from, it's a section of the Cuyahoga River that winds through the Flats, and one particular curve is blind, so in the days before radar and radio, there was a great many collisions between ships. More to come as I post!

The Technical Details:
Original Neg:
Rolleiflex 2.8F - Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 - Kodak Tri-X 400 (400TX) - Kodak HC-110 Dil. B 6:00


Print:
Paper: Ilford MGIV Satin RC
Exposure: 5" - f/11
Filter: Polycontrast No. 3 Filter
Developer: Dektol (1+2) 1:00
Tone: Selenium (1+4) 2:00
Scanned: Epson V700

[michalopher]

Good photography . I like to do photography of nature and always keep a collection of photography through panorama print . I have formed this collection just to check how much improvements , I have made in my work .

[randolph]

Such interesting pictures!

[GB1]

Axle - Congrats on your photo series. I still own three film cameras myself, but I've found that it takes discipline to walk out there w/o my digital camera, where I can get immediately feedback.

Nice,.. that industrial look that you can't fake. My favorite is the middle shot, seems like the building has character. I do wish it had a person (in an old grey suit) walking by. It would look pretty retro like that. The contrast is high here but like you said scanning prints doesn't always produce perfect results (I've found scanning magazine pages just impossible!) You captured the essence however.

I'll be checking back for the rest,
G

[Axle]

Thanks all! Here's the next three!

[Axle]

Got some more scanned in!