News
From Silvergrain Labs
News related to Silvergrain or Ryuji Suzuki.
Wanted: inoperative Konica Hexar AF for parts
I'm looking for an inoperative Konica Hexar AF (any variety) for parts. Specifically, I need this part:
I acquired a camera that has damaged resistor network used to electrically encode the aperture information. If you have an inoperative Hexar (beyond economical repair) and can give it to me, pleaes let me know!!
Ryuji 19:27, 17 November 2007 (EST)
New improvements to Silvergrain chemical products
As of today, new improved Silvergrain darkroom chemical products were introduced.
- Tektol Neutral developer is replaced with Tektol Black developer. Tektol Black (used at 1+9 dilution) is colder toned and develops faster than Tektol Neutral, and the new Black has improved shelf life and tray life, but other properties are unchanged.
- Tektol Standard developer (used at 1+9 dilution) has improved shelf and tray life, but photographic quality is unchanged.
- Clearfix Neutral is an overall improvement of Clearfix Alkaline. They are both equally excellent in archival processing, while saving time and water, and also both are compatible with pyrogallol and catechol developers. However, Clearfix Neutral fixer (used at 1+4 dilution) has significantly lower level of ammonia odor without loss of efficiency of fixing, washing or any other photographic or archival properties. I recommend current users of Clearfix Alkaline consider making a transition to Clearfix Neutral.
- Clearstop is a new product introduced today. This is an odorless citric acid stop bath (used at 1+31 dilution) and it is free of dyes and fragrance. Clearstop may be used in place of acetic acid stop bath or plain water rinse.
All of these products are available in quart and gallon sizes, and Tektol Standard and Clearfix Neutral are also available in 5 gallon cubes. All of these products are now available from Silvergrain business partner, Digitaltruth Photo Ltd as well as Freestyle Photo, which will also distribute the products nationwide to many retailers.
Ryuji 00:05, 24 June 2008 (EDT)
Silvergrain.org website slowly being recovered
Due to the the major server disaster in later summer of 2007, a lot of work was permanently lost. The lost work includes major upgrades made to the server, server software configurations, modifications, and new contents added between May and August 2007. There is no way to restore since all the backup copies were lost at the same time as the data loss at the server.
There is only one way left to recover the site: rebuild the site from much older backup copies. This copy of backup is from the time when I was using a different data center and it is quite dated. So this operation is very daunting and painful. But I'm slowly getting to this work... You'll be seeing some of the changes I made in early summer 2007 back, with some new features as well. But it'll take a long time as I'll never get a big chunk of time to spend on this project for a long while... and I also have to rebuild silvergrain.info.
--Ryuji 08:59, 12 November 2007 (EST)
So far, the software platforms are updated to the latest state. The site now includes RSS feed of this page, and a couple of new features. Also, the wiki-based contents are now available for mobile browsers with much simpler page layouts. The gallery page is also being restored.
Ryuji 05:33, 15 November 2007 (EST)
A full-page article in Artscope magazine featuring Crosstalk and Walk-In Friends
Artscope is a very popular arts publication covering art news, exhibition reviews, and the works of artists for New England readership. It is distributed through about 700 museums, galleries and cafés.
January-February 2007 issue of this magazine features an article about my work, on page 21, by Brian Goslow. The article covers how I started photography, what I try to achieve in my images (with two images--Crosstalk and Walk-In Friends). It also describes my darkroom chemical products as well as encyclopedia sections.
If you are in New England, you can pick up a copy of this magazine at your local museum or gallery.
Cover art of Artscope January-February 2007 issue.
--Ryuji 03:48, 20 January 2007 (EST)
Crosstalk Won Grand Prize of Blue Man Group's Vortex Exhibition
My very recent photograph "Crosstalk" won the Grand Prize ($2500 cash) of this year's 4th annual Vortex: A Juried art Exhibition hosted by Blue Man Group. This competition was open to all media, but the theme of the exhibition was specified: interconnection. (The Blue Man website may take a few days to include the 2006 results.)
This work (16x23 inches, silver-gelatin print, toned in polysulfide and selenium) will be displayed in the lobby of Charles Playhouse (74 Warrenton St.) in Theatre District, for one year. If you visit the area, please stop by and check it out. (See also Blue Man Group's Vortex winners page.)
There was the Vortex unveiling party in the evening of 30 October 2006 at Limelight Studios in Boston's Theatre District, where each prize winners introduced their work to the audience. The party was hosted by Billy Costa of Kiss 108, and Blue Man characters. I had great time talking to other prize winners, Nora Donnelly (one of the jury committee members), and other guests.
--Ryuji 00:31, 31 October 2006 (EST)
Art to Go at Cambridgeart this weekend
A weekend-long event called "Art to Go" at Cambridge Art Association this weekend (Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th) at Kathryn Schultz Gallery at 25 Lowell St., Cambridge. (Click here for map.) This is a sales program where you can try the art for 2 months (at a small fraction of the price) before you decide to buy the work. This event is for first-time buyers as well as long-time collectors, and I'm told that the system is very straight-forward. Each participating artist has 4 pieces, and many of us (including myself) will be there to talk to people at the gallery from 5 to 7pm on Friday, 3rd.
For more info on Art to Go, please refer to this link [1] and call them for more info. They are supposed to have a catalogue of representative work from all participating artists by now. If you know art-lovers in the area, please forward this information!
--Ryuji 00:31, 31 October 2006 (EST)
Crosstalk and Haymarket in Member's Prize Show of Cambridge Art Association
Another CambridgeArt exhibition starts at Kathryn Schultz Gallery, just west of Harvard Square. This is a New England-wide exhibition juried by Hiram Butler, co-director of the Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery in Houston, Texas.
There were 330 entries in the categories of painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and works on paper (drawings, prints, etchings). There are 47 pieces selected for the show, representing 47 artists. (But in reality you will see two of my photographs in this show, shown as a diptych. In this news article the pieces are referred by their titles given for individual pieces.).
The RECEPTION is Saturday, October 14, noon to 2pm at the gallery.
Hope to see you at the reception!
The SHOW begins on October 10, and runs through November 1.
Kathryn Schultz Gallery 25 Lowell St (rear), Cambridge, MA 02138 Hours: Tues - Sat: 11-5pm This is practically on Mt Auburn St, across from Mt Auburn Hospital, a 10 minutes walk west of Harvard Square. If the weather is bad, you can take a short ride on the 71 bus from Harvard.
Map: http://www.cambridgeart.org/map.shtml
--Ryuji 01:14, 6 October 2006 (EDT)
Ring Bell in Fall Salon Exhibition of Cambridge Art Association
The 62nd annual Fall Salon exhibiton starts on 12 September 2006 at two locations in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. My photograph Ring Bell is displayed at University Place Gallery at 124 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138. The gallery hours is Mon. through Fri. 9am to 6pm, and Sat. 9am to 1pm. The location is across the street from the Harvard Square post office.
The other location is Kathryn Schultz Gallery at CAA, 25 Lowell St., Cambridge, MA 02138. This is across from Mt Auburn Hospital, a couple of bus stops west of Harvard Square. The gallery hours is 11am to 5pm Tues. through Saturday.
Both locations are open to public.
The opening receiptin is Friday, 15 September at 5:30 to 7pm, at both locations. I'll be at the University Place Gallery. Hope many of you can come.
--Ryuji 18:20, 11 September 2006 (EDT)
Silvergrain products on More Hip Than Hippie podcasting
23 August 2006 edition of the podcast program Picture This of this podcast talked about eco-friendly ways to take photographs, and Silvergrain brand was mentioned.
http://www.morehipthanhippie.com/index.php?post_year=2006&post_month=08&post_day=23
The part where sivergrain gets mentioned is about 1/3 in the program.
--Ryuji 00:33, 29 August 2006 (EDT)
Silver halide photography exhibition in Belmont, MA
Two pieces of my work are to be included in an all-silver-based photography exhibiton at Landau Gallery located in Belmont Hill School. The opening reception is 2-4pm on 27 August 2006, and the show goes until 24 September 2006. I cannot attend the reception, but the reception is open to public.
One piece I entered is a diptych of b&w transparencies, entitled Cats. Transparencies (11x14 inch each) are hang in front of a brightly lit white wall. This piece was hang in University Place Gallery in Harvard Square last year, but they didn't allow me to install light for this piece, so it did not look as intended. This time, the gallery manager Whitey Morange assured me that the work will be hang as above, so I am very excited! When correctly displayed, transparencies have considerably wider tonal scale than reflective prints, and this is exactly what's needed for this work.
(These are scans of individual pieces, Caterpillar and Sleepy Cat but the exhibited work consists of two transparencies of matching size and hue, presented as a diptych, Cats.)
Look At This Picture (2006)
Another piece is a very recent work, and it hasn't been shown anywhere yet. This is a 11x14 print of a woman showing a picture on her digital camera screen to her mate. I like this image for various reasons, mostly because of richness of repetitive secondary subjects and their dissimilarities, creating interesting geometry in composition. Also the image can be segmented into largely high-key regions and low-key surrounds. This image is titled Look At This Picture which refers to the action of the main subject, not to my request to the viewer.
The gallery is described here:
http://www.belmont-hill.org/home/content.asp?id=635&pointID=674&zzSec=community
Location of the gallery and direction is described here:
http://www.belmont-hill.org/home/content.asp?id=37
The gallery is in the school but is open to public. Gallery hours: Monday to Friday from 8 to 5
Contact: Whitey Morange, 617-484-4410 x282.
System software upgraded
The software packages used for Silvergrain Wiki were upgraded. There were some moments when the site gave errors. Some pages (those containing images) may look differently now. The way images are inserted into the page is changed slightly, and the size of thumbnails is now larger. If you have problem in rendering the images and resizer correctly, please try to flush the browser cache (e.g., shift + reload for firefox on Mac). Some pages are being edited to fix this image placement problem. Apologies for all the inconvenience this may have caused.
--Ryuji 01:51, 13 August 2006 (EDT)
Mozilla/Firefox/Sherlock search plugin
A plugin is available to search Silvergrain Wiki site directly on your browser's search box, just like google or A9 search engine.
Steps to install the plugin:
2. Click on Silvergrain Photo
The plugin was tested by mozdev.org's mycroft validator, and it is hosted on the same mozdev.org server.
If the above link doesn't work, try http://tinyurl.com/lqldz or go to http://mycroft.mozdev.org/install.html and search for site name Silvergrain Photo and, on the search results page, Click on Silvergrain Photo.
--Ryuji 19:37, 12 August 2006 (EDT)
Silvergrain Chemicals are now on sale
Over the past decade, I spent considerable effort in researching photographic chemistry. Some are from theoretical interest, some are motivated by the desire to improve my own photographic practice. For example, I have made a number of formulae for processing chemicals and photographic emulsions, some of which are described on this web site.
Some of the formulae I devised have been commercially manufactured and they are now offered for sale by Digitaltruth Photo Ltd, well known for its informational web site. The phase 1 products are: Tektol Standard print developer, Tektol Neutral print developer, Clearfix Alkaline rapid fixer, and Clearwash washing aid. They are outgrowth of some formulae I posted on the internet before, but they incorporate several improvements and fine tuning. (There will be phase 2 release featuring film developers and other processing chemicals.)
Current and future users of my published formulae are by no means restricted by the commercial manufacturing of these products. They simply have an option to buy the mixed chemicals. I also heard from a lot of people who saw my formulae but were not ready to mix their own chemicals from scratch, or had difficulty in obtaining some of the ingredients. I now have an option to refer these people to digitaltruth web site to purchase ready-to-use chemicals, if they prefer this route.
Why commercial production, rather than publishing formulae? I believe very much in the open resource concept, and this is the major motivation in maintaining this web site, for example. However, when the formula requires compounds that are not readily available through photographic chemical suppliers, the formula is not useful to the end users, and I receive a LOT of emails asking me where they can buy the ingredients. From this experience, I defered posting some of the recent improvements made on DS-10, DS-12, DS-14, DS-15 developers, for example. Fairly recently, I learned that Jon at Digitaltruth prepared my developers and fixers himself for his darkroom work, and wanted to manufacture and offer for sale my latest processing chemicals.
From my perspective, this was undoubtedly a good option. I can simply buy my chemicals from Digitaltruth and spend more time for shooting, printing, or developing other chemicals. When other photographers ask me about my darkroom workflow, I can now simply tell them the product names, rather than cryptic formulae. Also, Digitaltruth will handle sales, customer service, tech support, and other business related matters. Users will get better "tech support" than what I could do in the past. (I am only an individual inventor who license the formulae to the manufacturer, and I am not running any part of the business.)
My apology is that I cannot post formulae for these products. Like I said, individual users can continue to use my published formulae, but at the same time, it wouldn't be fair for Digitaltruth's investment and effort if I publish the production formula. Indeed, the formulae will be more useful to the competitors rather than individual users, as some raw ingredients are not readily available.
Silvergrain products are described on and available from: http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/silvergrain.html
--Ryuji 21:27, 22 May 2006 (EDT)
Exhibition at Photographic Resource Center
My work Fearless Pig will be included in an exhibition at Photographic Resource Center from 7 Apr 2006 to 7 May 2006. The opening reception is 5:30 to 7:30 on April 6th.
Fearless Pig (2004)
This work was previously exhibited in 11x14 size in Decisive Moment Exhibition of Cambridge Art Association, juried by Judi Rotenburg in fall 2005. The actual print shown this time in the PRC is 22x17" size, toned in polysulfide and selenium to obtain slight split-toning effect (deep black shadow and orangish highlight).
--Ryuji 09:47, 21 March 2006 (EST)
Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography
Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography is a new three-volume-set encyclopedia published by Routledge. It came out at the end of 2005. I contributed four senctions in this encyclopedia: development process, emulsion, film: high contrast, and safelight. This is a pretty expensive encyclopedia but check it out at your local library's reference section!
--Ryuji 19:56, 19 March 2006 (PST)
Moved to new Platform
The silvergrain web site is changing its platform, and we've decided to start over the News section from scratch, instead of transferring the old news. In the old system, the news section contained mostly information of juried exhibitions in which my work was included.
--Ryuji 18:04, 19 March 2006 (PST)
