I got to the field trip sort of early. During that time John asked me what I wanted to learn today. I knew that he used a platinum printing process and found it very interesting. I've taken a manual photography class before. I had to work with the chemicals, but what John does is so much more involved! Right off the bat when you look at his photos you can see just how much more crisp they are. There was one picture of a field. It must have been taken from the ground, because these leaves or plants were so large and full and detailed. I was mesmerized. John said platinum printing is so much more expensive than silver printing so not as many people do it. Plus, it's a harder process. He has to be so careful when working with these chemicals.
An interesting story John talked about was how during the war platinum couldn't be used as much because it was incorporated into bombing sites. He said something about it being a protectant to the areas. Because there was so much silver, which was much cheaper, Kodak capitalized on it, controlled the price and began to take the market. It's so interesting to me that these small details have such large stories behind them.
The value scale is very much at work in John's photos because they're in black and white. Of course, the sky is sometimes pure white, sometimes a different value of it. The water or buildings are in the black side. John said black and white silver has 10 values. But, with platinum you get 100 values. That's why when John uses platinum you can see that one tiny cloud in front of all the others in his photograph. It's so magical.
Being a journalist, I love Stacey's work as well. She and John both pointed out that she doesn't like to mess with the situation very much. She's a photo journalist in a way. I often feel this way when taking photos, so I connected with it. Stacey's photos are truthful. All of the pictures she showed us seemed to capture the people and what they did, where they lived and how they feel in some way.
My favorite photograph at the gallery was of the large tree in the middle of the water. This was one of John's photographs. The tree is so full and large. It just takes up the paper. The way the white values of the sky and the black values of the water frame it makes the focal point pop that much more. I love how he decided to frame it perfectly in the middle. My eyes just like to look at symmetry. It's pleasing. We even talked about this in class with the Greek paintings and sculptures. Balance was looked highly upon. I can see why. It's where my eye is always drawn to.
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