#TBT Kallitype Photography

Kallitype Photograph of Chairs

I am not much on selfies, etc. so I thought I would share an image from my college days for Throw Back Thursday. This is an image from my college days (circa 1980's... pre-digital photography), it is from a course on an alternative photography process known as Kallitype. (You can read more about the Kallitype process HERE.)

Looking at the photos from this course some thirty years later, I see compositional changes, etc. I would like to do differently, like the plant that is creeping in on the edge of the frame. Back in the analog days, cloning this out was a very different process compared to these digital days. But, I love these old photography processes that are now referred to as alternative processes. I like them so much that I have started exploring the updated versions so I can start incorporating them into my personal work. There is a tactile component, and something about it challenges my creativity. I would really like to incorporate that feeling of creativity into a body of work using new tools and new knowledge. My journey of research is leading me to begin learning how to make the best digital negative possible because that seems like the best place to start exploring how to incorporate this passion for alternative photograph into my "new" digital photography skill-set.

As for this particular photograph of three chairs, if you are asking why I made this image, here is the story. I was at a Mexican food restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. I remember being drawn to these chairs at the perimeter of the room. So, mid-meal, I finally got out my camera and fired off a few discrete shots. It was only when I started developing them in the darkroom that I realize what I was seeing in this group. Each one of these chairs has something missing, broken, or "wrong". Can you see them?