Carbon print classes with Damiano Bianca
Categories: Carbon print — Tags: Carta tessuto, Carta trasporto, Corso, Negativi ingranditi, Trasferimento semplice, Workshop
Translations:
italiano •Pros of the course
The course is extremely detailed and precise. Damiano Bianca seems answering to every question, adding considerable and interesting historical digressions.
One of the points that mostly impressed me was the theoretical explanation, a possible and reasonable cause that solved the technical problem as answers, together to empirical attempts or working procedures. This way of teaching allows the application of learn notions together to other print techniques, maybe in different environmental conditions or other materials. I attended Workshops where teachers only showed the procedure it usually followed, without any further explanation than “it works”. When my paper didn’t work, the answer simply was to buy in USA the paper he was using. Damiano Bianca is light-years far away. You do not only attend his carbon print workshop, but rather learn how each element react to a determined technique, how to adapt every single procedure to your own needs, why a standard procedure is working, which are the mechanism hidden behind simple and precise gesture of a good printer.
The extraordinary precision held during the entire course is another impressive point. Every detail has been controlled, from room temperature and humidity to drying and hardening time. Every bath heat is fixed with precision, the mixture is attentively prepared, gestures are proper and precise, all the instruments are the most suitable and practical anyone could ask for. This way, any time there’s an error, there’s also a technical explanation of the problem. Therefore, it can be solved or at least a possible strategy to bypass it can be found. Everything we talked since now is referred to carbon print, but it also allows learning a useful operative way for those who wants to push the limits of the rigor of their own dark room experience of both alternative and traditional techniques.
Order and cleanness are essential. Damiano Bianca no-stops cleans instruments, table and the entire dark room. He is extremely attentive to dangerous chemistry, always uses gloves, avoids touching chemistry and doesn’t let chemistry contaminate himself or even the darkroom. This is another negative point of many other printers/teachers, which use chemical substances with excessive confidence, forgetting the real risks that characterize them, risks that they students have too (I’m talking about another personal experience, when during a stage held by an imprudent printer I breath a dusty cloud of uranium salt…).
Eventually, even if it’s not strictly related to the course, I really appreciated the sympathy of Damiano, his generosity and warm welcome that made me feel at home… ups, in my dark room…
To read the rest of this article go to page: 1 2 3
Andrea
said, September 28, 2007 @ 10:24 AM :
Grazie del resoconto dettagliato e “sentito”.
Damiano è senz’altro un Maestro con la M maiuscola … nonchè un artista sempre con la M maiuscola :-))))).
Peccato, per me, essere lontano da queste tecniche in quanto più vicino alla camera chiara :-D.
Saluti
Andrea
Fabiano Busdraghi
said, September 28, 2007 @ 5:17 PM :
Ciao Andrea,
se le tecniche antiche ti affascinano sei sempre in tempo per imparare. Alcune, come la gomma o il carbone, richiedono tempo e dedizione, il platino è molto caro… però altre, come il cianotipo, sono semplici, economiche e riservano tante soddisfazioni.
Non serve molto, acqua corrente, una stanza con le tapparelle, corrente elettrica.
Inoltre con l’avvento dei negativi digitali ormai tutte le tecniche antiche sono andate incontro alla camera chiara.
Se mai deciderai poi io sono sempre disposto a darti una mano.