Author: Nicolai Grossman

New Holgaroid (Polaroid back for Holgas) shoots current pack film!

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Freestyle Photographic has the new Holgaroid back! Here’s their product description:

Turn your Holga into the most unique instant camera you’ve ever seen with the new Instant Film Back! It’s custom-built to fit both all Holga and Woca cameras, installing easily onto each of them within seconds. It comes with a Polaroid type film back, a mask to hold batteries in place in a Holga 120FN or 120 CFN camera, built-in tripod socket a .3x diopter which adjusts the Holga’s film plane to accommodate the Polaroid back and newly designed plastic viewfinder (included).

This film back will accommodate Polaroid T-80 series films [still available but no longer in production] as well as 690/669 size films [still available and in production].

Note: T-80 series films result in a full frame image. 690/669 type films images are slightly off center.

Price is $129.99.

Via Randy Smith of holgamods

CPOPportunity show, Detroit, MI, US

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Photographer Katie West writes:

I will be showing two images in the show that opens March 10th and runs until April 9th. The press release should come out soon but I wont’ be in the country next week, so I thought I’d post this now. It’s a juried exhibition, with four of the participating artists being selected to participate in the "CPOPportunity Showcase", their own group show in July 2007. Over 100 artists will be showing their work from all over the world: LA, Calgary, Chicago, Brooklyn, the UK, Denmark, Oklahoma, Montreal and Italy.

All artwork will be for sale and the artists get 90% of the sale price, which is pretty amazing. If anyone can make it out, that would be really cool, as this is a great opportunity for me and I’m very excited.

If you’d like to check out the Cpop website, it’s in transition at the moment, but you can look at it anyway, www.cpop.com. Or for more information on the show, you can look here: www.myspace.com/cpopgallery (which also has the history of the gallery as well as people who have showed there: Iggy Pop, Dee Dee Ramone, Mark Ryden, H.R. Giger to name a few).

"Lightleaks" toy camera photography show, Melbourne, AU

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Australian photographer/neuroscientist Hamish Innes-Brown writes:

Me and 11 other people (some from this Flickr – fotojux, mikelefevre, artpunk, maybe others?) are in a show that opens this Thursday night called LIGHTLEAKS [not the magazine]. It is called this as all the images are shot on dodgey crappy cameras with useless lenses and hideous light leaks. Sound good? Come along, they’re all for sale!

The show runs 23 February – 8 March, 2007, at Kerala Gallery, 283 High St., Northcote, Melbourne, AU.

Opening at 6:30pm 23 Feb, be there!

Art is mystical shit

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Stuart Davis is an artist who kind of defies categorization: he’s a [kick-ass] musician, painter, potty-mouthed mystic, and a bunch of other shit. He wrote:

I was conversing with this intelligent presence (no body, no form) which was fluent in Is (the language I’m constructing). It was quizzing me, basically, saying "au-VAIH-sool, what does that word mean? do you remember?" I was like…

…

au-VAIH-sool would be more like Insight-Eureka-Enmorphature (?), a subject released from a bind or chimera (physical / emotional blocks, mental patterns, spiritual limits) by dying into its next-self-birth (the one slightly bigger, slightly more inclusive). It’s perception at new depth, discovering anatomy which was previously undetected (due to insufficient awareness), and this newly accessed item facilitates un-stuckness (the difference between dhukka, or stuck-wheel, and sukkha, or un-stuck wheel). But the critical thing here is that the Insight-Eureka-Enmorphature is never repeated, never duplicated, so even though the subject arrives at a deeper depth, a higher level of being through au-VAIH-sool, one cannot simply repeat the formula at the next level of course.

I don’t want to jack his entire post on the subject, so go finish reading it, paying particular attention to the sentence about the safe. Then think about how this applies to making art. It’s short and worth it.

Katie West on a group show gone horribly wrong

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Have a look at photographer Katie West‘s account of a group show of erotic art gone pear-shaped. Misguided show publicity, admission fees, stolen work… it’s all here.

I started getting messages from people who had seen the flyers in the strangest places, like Toys R Us, and The Childrens Place. I thought to myself, wow, those are strange places to advertise an erotica show…

It gets worse from there. Continue reading in West’s Flickr photostream.

Ilford SFX 200 infrared film returns

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35mm and 120, hell yeah!

Direct PDF links: data sheet, development chart

Ilford press release:

Monochrome enthusiasts will welcome the news of the reintroduction of ILFORD SFX 200 infrared film – the unique medium for adding incredible definition and texture control to outdoor black-and-white photography.

Black-and-white goes red

Underlining its commitment to the world of black-and-white photography, ILFORD PHOTO is in the process of reintroducing various specialist films. Leading this movement, and available from March 2007, is the much admired ILFORD SFX 200 infrared film.

ILFORD SFX 200 is a special red-filtered film perfect for landscapes, mountainscapes and similar subjects due to its ability to add high definition to green foliage, cloud formations and open skies, especially when combined with the ILFORD SFX 200 Cokin ‘P’ series mounted red filter. It is also popular with architectural photographers due to its characteristic for emphasising contrasting textures.

A medium speed panchromatic film, ILFORD SFX 200 is available in 35mm and 120 roll film. It has long been a favourite with specialist photographers, but was not continued when the company went through a corporate reorganisation in 2005. Because of its sensitivity, the film will be produced in small quantities on a ‘made on demand’ basis to ensure that it is always fresh and fully active.

"We have always been aware that the black-and-white market incorporates many photographers who revel in pushing the abilities of their film to the maximum in order to attain extreme results," says ILFORD PHOTO marketing director Howard Hopwood.

"The revival of ILFORD SFX 200 film will enable those specialists who concentrate on outdoor photography to achieve a remarkable degree of control over their images, utilising all types of weather conditions to produce their ultimate visual concepts."

A major user of ILFORD SFX 200 is professional photographer Dave Butcher: "Most of my photography is with Ilford FP4+ 120 film," he says "however, I use SFX for the striking effects it produces when foliage is producing infrared (in the Spring and Summer when the sun shines!). Unlike some infrared film, it can be handled in daylight with no special precautions, so it is very easy to use in the mountains where I spend much of my time.

"Another good reason to reach for the SFX is when there is a strong heat haze. It’s difficult to take big views on days like these with normal films like FP4+, but SFX with an infrared filter cuts through the haze and lets you get a shot of the view you can’t even see with the naked eye!"

ILFORD SFX 200 is available in special value promotional packs which contain three rolls of 36×135 film plus an ILFORD COKIN P red filter.

An ILFORD SFX 200 print competition is planned to encourage photographers to experience the versatility of this film, and to put their artistic talents to the test. Full details will be announced shortly.

A full technical data sheet on the ILFORD SFX 200 film can be downloaded from www.ilfordphoto.com

“Cheap Shots: The Silver Dreams of Plastic Cameras” show, MI, US

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Cheap Shots show flyer

“Cheap Shots is an exhibition of photographic art created with cheap, plastic cameras, old cameras, pinhole cameras, and Polaroids. In an age of expensive, hi-tech equipment, these simple cameras offer a refreshing, lo-tech view of the world in our time. The work in this show was created by seventeen artists from the Michigan area who call themselves the Krappy Kamera Club. This will be their first public showing in Ann Arbor.”

When: Cheap Shots will run from Friday, March 23rd to Friday, April 6th, 2007. The opening is March 23rd from 7:00pm to 10:00pm.

Where: Gallery 4, 212 Nickels Arcade, Ann Arbor, MI [US]. On the second floor above Arcade Barbers.

The gallery will be open during the show Thursday and Friday from 3pm to 7pm, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm, and by appointment. The show is free and open to the public.

More info on the show from Matt Callow.

Here’s a larger version of the flyer.

f295 Symposium registration information

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Tom Persinger writes:

f295 is pleased to announce registration information for the The f295 Symposium on Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes on Friday 27 April 2007. The registration for the lectures and round-table discussion will be handled by Conference and Event Services at Carnegie Mellon University.

We’re offering an early bird, discounted registration rate of $100 to all of those who register by phone before March 1. Students (w/ valid ID) are being offered a discounted rate of $70.

Rates are as follows:
Early Bird Discount Registration before Mar 1: $100
Registration before April 1: $120
Registration April 1 – April 20: $165
Late Registration and in-person (April 20 – 27): $200
Student rate with ID: $70

After March 1 the rate increases. The online registration system will also be available at that time. I’ll forward the URL at that time.

To take advantage of the early bird rate please call:
Conferences & Event Services
Phone: 412/268-1125
confserv@andrew.cmu.edu

Your registration fee includes:
This includes admission to all events of Friday 27 April including the 8 lectures and 2 round table discussions (9am- 5pm), name badge, coffee/tea/snacks during breaks, a program of the days activities, and access to the sale of books by symposium speakers.

Complete, up to the minute symposium information may be found on the website: www.f295.org/wordpress

See you in Pittsburgh!

Best,
Tom