In reply to shaw:

OK Chris
The early pictures where hand printed on 5x4 postcard sized agfa paper, but not to a very good standard I admit .
I do not have a lot of patience in the dark room when bulk printing in order to see what I have on the film,
But as a form of record print it surved the purpose.
All the pics are from medium format either mammia c220 r bronica.
I asked all the people in the pictures if I could take there pictures and in most cases had only met them five minutes before.
The beefy guy at the top here was just there showing of and it was a picture worth having.
What I was trying to do with this series was to get a glam CK feel to every day people as a documentary or semi documentary.
I would like to take pictures with a rougher edge in the future but dont feel that I could get it with a medium format camera.
I also want to experiment more with the human form and nature.
Going back to what you said in another thread.
I should put a rougher edge to my work, this is bering done in a lot of peoples work inlciuluing your I should think its your artistic intterpritation the book shelves are full of such, I have no problems with doimng explicity image making but I would want it to have style and textures related to nature also.
Qute intersting and amusing the book website has had well over one thousand hits over the week end and some great feed back with so far non of them negative.
A fashion magazine editor said in a mail that it looked fantastic and when will it be published, in his words.?
I might be wrong but I am getting the impression from what you are saying at the moment that you are a bit low, if so I hope all is well with you.

In reply to Chris Summerfield:

no im not low mr chris im just.....DOWN...FOR THE DAY!..good to hear about your printing..im for having an archive my self so the reason why i asked is to see if you had a whole load of "proper"prints of the project or you just did it piece-meal,as you went along not making good prints etc.
its expensive and exacting to make a lot of A3 fibre-based prints but it is worth it in the long run..thats my experience...and if it "takes off"as in a book and exhibitions at proper gallerys..then you have "vintage" prints to sell.
transfer digital files to negative!the irony of that..but thats what labs are now offering!old tech is best!more permanent.

In reply to shaw:

I know what you mean, with me as you say its the cost, as I give everyone I take pictures of a free copy even as documentary,now I get everything printed through labs on 5x4 print paper as well as getting a digital copy,9 no dark room to work from any more) so that I can get pics to the people photgraphed as well as having the digital record, medium format is now very expensive and I am still waiting to collect work from last summer.
Thanks for the play on words joke, I have a bit of a hangover from an opening at a gallery last night and needed it.
Got to stop binge drinking free wine.

In reply to Chris Summerfield:

so -what was the answer to my question?do you have a load of fibre-based prints for this project?
there are a lot of images..but are they not printed yet?i mean thats another issue images for repro-do you give your subjects good prints or just inkjet facsimilies?
it could be really valuable in a few years time but you need to do it properley now..think of the future..this archive could be you pension.

In reply to shaw:

I know what you are getting at I would never g9ve the models ink jet prints but do give them orginal prints from the labs or when I have done a resinsin paper print run, If my work becomes of value I will then also run a top quaity picture of for the model. So the models at the moment have the first copies of everything I take of them, and then a fee if I sell.
So the pics on the first run have been on resin paper, untill the dark room I suee closed and then the labs do resin mat prints as well as digital copies.
As I am prolific in bulding up an image bank at the moment it is the only way I can afford to move forwards at the moment. What about you.?
Two 112x 16 pictures of mine where effectivly stolen from me last year and sold at auction for £148 weach,not bad for a relativly un known photographer. they where of the artist Robert Lenkiewicz.
How do you work Chris.?

In reply to Chris Summerfield:

money=printing=money....its interesting the whole process requires faith and lots of self-belief..i can see it with you
you talk about an "image bank"i think yur talking about a digital,and or negatives/resin prints non.?
i mean this is the cheaper way...self-belief when you say..."if my work becomes of value".....?
money=printing=money....think of it as a buisness you have to invest in that buisness to get a return.
my own experience is that of myself printing and printing for years and years and not selling any prints.100,s of A3 size forte grade 4,s with the odd 20 or 30 oriental seagulls...then one day i sold my first prints....
the printing on archival paper is the expensive and getting more expensive bit...it sorts the men from the boys...but without it theres no record of your existence..i need to print for 6-weeks solid- and that time will come..money=printing=money!!!

In reply to shaw:

Thanks for the last blog Chris it has made me realise that in a lot of ways we are coming from the same angles and our art is everything to us.
And we are allways looking to take it a step further.
I know and understand what you are saying and we possibly have more in common than what you think when it comes to our work.
If I did not have confidence,faith or was not motivated in what I am doing, I would possibly be in a moor mondaying job with money to do tnings instead of plowing all in to my work over the years.
We all have diffrent ways of achiving our goals, whilst I am taking pictures that I am happy with every year on medium format and getting the work printed at this stage with no financial return as I am constantly moving forwards, I am allways trying to find money to get work out of the labs.
Last year was a great year for me photographicaly as other years have been, this meant that costs on labs alone ran up a large bill.9long hot summer)
through the winter I have had to find the money to get last years work out of processing and still have £60 worth to collect. Which to me is constantly frustrating.
The feed back from the industry is telling me that my work is very good but that is still not money in the bank.
Once I start getting a return then I can print to the highest quality and hopefully my work will become highly collectable as I hope that yours does.
We are boths using the creative route to a career in photography and film I guess rather than a totaly commercial one.As mentioned in an earlier blog, last year I should have had two folios of pictures printed at least in one magazine as promised, that magazine would have releasd £800 which would have paid the costs of on going printing and cleards of some of the debits built up trying to get established.
The magazine collapsed in August so nothing came of it.
After sending work to another fashion magazine on request in April last year with a sugestion of a September run that did not happen, it looks as though it could now print in Setpember 07 which is 18 months since sending the work through, time runs away with its self and at the same time, time is all we have.
I was flatterd and pissed of last year when I found out about the two pictures of mine that where sold in auction after being taken, by the looks of things behind my back at £148 each.
All my work is on negative format but one or two lost negs have the master pics on CD.
Our frustrations and dedication mate sorts out the men from the boys. All the best.

Tomorrow I hope to post one of Nick Nights pictures on here from the New Arena Homme + mag if thats OK with the team.

In reply to Chris Summerfield:

The latest news on this project from this morning, looks good.
It aint there till its in print so to speak.

Dear Chris!

Thank you very much for your inquiry!

We had a closer look on your homepage and found many interesting images. The Fistral Beach photographs are very appealing, you have cought the atmosphere at the beach perfectly. We could imagine to make a book out of your material. But please be aware that this is no promise, since there are other people here at B. G. that have to decide…