Busacca Gallery

Glasses by photo artist Bob St.Cyr Pinhole Photography of a series of glasses on a table. Printed on gelatin-silver fibre photographic paper. The medium format negative offers great detail from pinhole images, which is why I prefer working in medium and large format for both pinhole and lens camera work. This particular image took about sixteen minutes to make as it was late in the day and indoors. Thankfully it was a Friday afternoon and quite quiet in the building. Pinhole imaging can be extremely challenging without the aid of a view-finder or large exposure apertures, thus facilitating the viture of patience and contemplation whilst the inner-eye is permitted time to reflect and calculate appropriate composition and exposure time. This photographic process stresses the art, design and pattern of the subject, more than just a simple photo of glasses. Limited Edition of 5 at the 11x14 size.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin_silver_process

Gelatin silver process: When small crystals (called grains) of silver salts such as silver bromide are exposed to light, a few atoms of free metallic silver are liberated. These free silver atoms form the latent image. This latent image is relatively stable and will persist for some months without degradation provided the film is kept dark and cool. Films are developed using solutions that reduce silver halides in the presence of free silver atoms. An 'amplification' of the latent image occurs as the silver halides near the free silver atom are reduced to metallic silver. The strength, temperature and time for which the developer is allowed to act allow the photographer to control the contrast of the final image. The development is then stopped by neutralizing the developer in a second bath.

Once development is complete, the undeveloped silver salts must be removed by fixing in ammonium thiosulphate (rapid fix - ILFORD HYPAM), and then the negative or print must be washed in clean water. The final image consists of metallic silver embedded in the gelatin coating.

All gelatin silver photographic materials are subject to deterioration. The silver particles that comprise the image are susceptible to oxidation, leading to yellowing and fading of the image. Poor processing can also result in various forms of image degradation, due to residual silver-thiosulfate complexes. Toning increases the stability of the silver image by coating the silver image with a less easily oxidized metal such as gold, or by converting portions of the silver image particles into more stable compounds such as silver selenide (Selenium toning).