fading away

and this morning was, indeed, the last few hours of class, with a few remaining drying prints - or, as here, test sheets of gum bichromate, seeing how much exposure time they needed in the sun for the black to take. Curious - I had been excited to try gum above all - I so love the effects produced by many artists in it (starting, I think, with seeing Elena Baca's work at Spanish Market many years ago), but I realized very, very fast that I wasn't going to produce anything in a day with which I would be remotely satisfied. Not that I'm 100% satisfied with any print that I produced - much though I like some of them, and I've both been reading about the production of high-end computer generated negatives, and also casting around for other outlets and courses. Christopher suggested that I stay on for next week's advanced course - wet plate collodion, among other things ... - but I think that I will save that up for next year, and also, next year, come with a definite project or two that I have been pursuing/want to pursue. Ideas are germinating ... I am already deeply conscious how, picking up the history of photography again, I have a far, far better visceral sense of what's going on. And I'm also horrified that somehow I completely missed the existence of this exhibition paralleling old and new uses of C19th photographic technology at the Harry Ransom center (and then on tour) - but excavating at least the reviews, and looking much more closely at Mark and France Scully Osterman's work should give a good boost to the neo-Victorian photography project...