Contemporary Alternative Photography

are abandoned in favour of the newest machine or process. Just as increasingly, people turn back to the older, the obsolete, or the redundant, to recapture the experience and enjoy the unique results that now stand out from the current mainstream tools and methods. Just as musical technology advanced and the record was replaced by the cassette and then the CD, vinyl albums remain popular as ever and in recent years people have been rediscovering the fun of making a mix tape. Photography, too, has been experiencing this phenomenon. Lomography and general film photography is possibly the quickest turn around in terms of older technology being taken up again after being technologically eclipsed. While daguerreotypes, for example, took a number of decades before a noticeable rise in practice, people have gone back to, or taken up, film photography in almost no time at all after being deemed out of date or impractical by digital photography. This highlights both the economic and ease of use factors in prevailing technologies; digital photography is easier for the average person, but easier does not equate to as being better aesthetically (within film photography itself, 35mm became the standard due to price even though 120mm provided better quality for enlargement). What is alternative photography, who is currently practicing it and what are the reasons behind this movement?

old-time photography as the avant-

Allain Carrillo. 1

Alternative photography is based on the technical medium - pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, lomo, for instance - as opposed to styles, such as street, portrait, landscape, etc. Its early origins can be found in the late 1800s, when division was created between pinhole enthusiasts founded by George Davison.2 They were interested in creating im results being more in line with painting. This became known as pictorialism, which was the precursor to art photography. 4 Pinhole photography then is the earliest form of alternative photography. From the 1960s to the 1990s, pinhole photography was revived by a number of artists. Their reasons were not unlike the pictorialists; they re-questioned the sharp, focused, single image and the standard, mass produced camera. There are two main streams of alternative photography. One is more process based, using older techniques to create the image in different ways, practiced mainly by artists. The other is camera and film based, and is more mainstream. The former is a group of processes that were mostly invented in the 19th century. Contemporary photography revivalists do not only create photographs with these techniques but also the conditions, equipment and chemicals which increase the scale of effort for their photography, immediately outweighing the relatively quick process of digital capture and print.
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The collodion process, for instance, requires that exposure and processing of the image takes place while the plate is still wet. To do this outdoors, photographers would need portable darkrooms to take with them on site. Modern collodion process artists also practice this, with some artists converting their station wagon or vans into mobile darkrooms. The list of alternative photography processes include: Platinotype/platinum photograph Cyanotype Polaroid Pinhole Infrared Palladium Kallitype Salt print Vandyke Argyotype Gum bichromate Tempera print Albumen Polaroid emulsion lift Calotype Carbon Print Woodbury process Gumoil Photogravure Ambrotype Wet plate collodion Tintype Photo intaglio Lith print Anthotype Chemigram Chrysotype Uranium print

The latter is film photography, which is primarily being transformed into Soviet cameras cheaply made for the masses, it is a recent movement and/or fashion scene whose basis expired film. This is the comparative alternative to current consumer digital point-and-shoot cameras, and is very popular. Two common uses for lomographic are for travel photography and for documenting a night out, with the resulting images being shared on the internet. Most lomographers shoot digital as well, though it is not uncommon to find those who choose to shoot purely in film. As the genre builds, - nology as compared to digital.

The camera was entirely bellowed and folded flat. This can be seen as the very first disposable camera.
In the nineteenth century, photographers were incredibly curious in seeing what the camera could do, how it could portray something in contrast to our eye, and to create an image that is more than just a straight documentation of reality. This is a driving force for some contemporary alternative photographers.

Darren Glass is a photographer who took up building of his own cameras whilst studying photography, inspired by a paper negative his brother made. His work often looks at natural or manmade structures that could be converted in to being a pinhole camera that goes unnoticed, or at least, not noticeably a camera e.g. a military pillbox. His work takes the image and process further and further aw For example, he built a pinhole camera made from a wheelie-bin, which is moved around to take street photos from the point of view of your every day garbage bin. His underwater pinhole camera required the camera to be loaded into an air tight jar which itself is needed to be loaded into a light proof bag for travelling between the dark room and shooting location. You swim underwater with the camera still in the bag, before removing the jar from the bag to expose the image. Once the photo has been taken, the jar needs to be returned to the light proof bag before resurfacing and transportation to darkroom for developing and printing. For another camera, Glass used a Paua shell for a lens, where the light reflected off the opal-like interior surface for an abstract and varying effect. This shows that alternative photography can go wider in art, blurring the line further between tool and work. He also created a series of Frisbee cameras, designed to be tossed and then retrieved. He took 365 6 ) over an 8 year period. culpture, part photography and part performance art. He uses the everyday spaces and objects, such as bathtubs, washing machines and even an entire house, and turns them into cameras. In part, this shows what is seen by the object and to reflect on the material in our life. These cameras have a direct relationship to their subject. In 1986 German artist Thomas Bachler used his mouth as a camera. He loaded the cut pieces of film in his mouth and left the dark room. This way, he took self-portraits by standing in front of a mirror and exposing the film by opening his lips. His lips were now both the shutter and the aperture. This is possibly the closest way to becoming a human camera, blowing away the notion that photographs are taken through a plastic or metal object used with your hands, separate from the body and mind.

the interpretation of its subjects. Like early photographers who transported giant glass negatives in wagon-darkrooms in pursuit of extreme resolution, I have made cameras that are large, difficult to carry, and often intended for the depiction of remote pictorial sites. I like to think that the work of experimental camera design, begun by Nineteenth Century pioneers of 7 Darren Glass

An attraction to the alternative genre is the varied effects caused by chemicals when printing such as subtle changes in colour and tone. There remains an element of the untamed lying in the compounds of film, camera integrity and printing materials. This uniqueness relies on chemical reactions. Emulsion affected by light, film and paper by developer and fixer. The combination of different chemical processes in non-digital photography and image making mean that it just needs a human touch to combine them and get the ball rolling. This makes actual photo-taking just a small part of an overall larger process, greater than that of the digital point and shoot method. The human user gives up areas of control in different ways. An expired film can affect irreproducible photos; the user has given up control over the colours in the photograph. Light-leaks can create random streaks in images and some lenses (often made from plastic) can alter the image by blurring, morphing or adding a vignette to the photograph. The redscale method of loading a film backwards so that the image is exposed through the emulsion gives a red-scale effect which is entirely surreal. -processing images by using an enlarger with dark room methods, and post-processing digital images in Photoshop, the latter lacks physical presence and the overall ritualism of alternate photography processes. Alternative photography can also mean an alternative look at the world, where something between the actual and the processed gets lost, gained, or changed. This may not be a true representation but its basis in reality combined with an abstract post processing gives a dream like feeling that is often surreal. This is a popular aspect of alternate photography processes for the added depth it can give an image. Artists have expressed that such images have more atmosphere, soul, or emotion. Sarah Van Keuren not 8 are not recorded due to the exposure time, bringing the inner feeling to the fore. Hungarian Sndor Szilgvi believes that digital photography and the replacement of physical film and depersonification 9 between artist, people, subject and format. 10 and experience, such as having a physical image to pass between people. Unfortunately, history shows that technical elements override the artistic qualities, with factors such as price, availability, ease of use and quality eclipsing the creative aspects. Daguerreotypes were phased out in favour of new technology. Looking at them retrospectively, it is one of the (if not the) most beautiful and interesting forms of photography, which makes you wonder how it was so quickly abandoned.

that

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Alternative photography can be likened to home cooking. While digital technology is like fast food, in being able to get exactly what you want in quick time, the alternative methods are like meals you make yourself. the changes in the state of the ingredients, ability to add subtle flavouring to result in a self-satisfying and well composed meal. Through this you can learn and master the techniques to make cooking (like photography) instinctive and intrinsic. By continuing to practice these processes, eventually you are able

to make work that you completely understand and emotionally linked to. A continued hands on approach gifts more satisfaction than computer screen and mouse, making alternative photography more of an experience than a medium, whereas d ed, with no need for rituals such as choosing, buying and loading film, learning to correctly estimate settings and why (as opposed to taking multiple digital shots until right, ignoring the need to learn how), develop the film, make prints, then hang, place in an album or to pass around amongst others. Some alternative methods are not simply, or at all, the process of a camera recording an image. Alternative photography can also move into the areas of performance or have sculptural elements to their exhibition, composition or experience. in particular showcase that photos in many bizarre and wonderful, imaginative ways, expands the scope of the already wide field of photography. Alternative processes allow the composer freedom from the responsibility and limitations of representing the world and the moment. Through the revival of old techniques, there is a way of looking forward by looking back.

Bibliography
Fabbri, Malin. Alternative photography: Art & Artists. Alternativephotography.com, 2006. A book showcasing a large number of contemporary alternative photographers, their work and the processes they used. Highlights the incredible range and places photography can go. Fuss, Adam. Pinhole Photographs. Washington & London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1996. Interview and photos by Adam Fuss, as well as looking at his techniques. Glass, Darren. A Field Guide To Camera Species. Auckland: Johnston Press Ltd, 2009. Presents a large number of different pinhole cameras built by Darren Glass. Has a different look at the approach of image making. Pippin, Steven. The Rigmarole of Photography. Brighton: ECA, 1993. Artists book with a number of images and concepts for large-scale cameras. Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography - Rediscovering A Historic Technique. Oxford: Focal Press Elsevier Inc., 2004. Gives a great historical look at pinhole photography, as well as current artists and the many different types of pinhole cameras that have been built. Rexer, Llyle. Photography's Antiquarian Avant Garde. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002. Examines alternative photography artists and practices in history and looks at contemporary artists and examples of their work.
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Fabbri, Malin, Alternative Photography: Art & Artists (published by alternativephotography.com, Sweden) 2006, 35.


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Renner, Eric, Pinhole Photography Rediscovering a Historic Technique (Focal Press, Elsevier Inc., Oxford) 2004, 58. Renner, Eric, Pinhole Photography Rediscovering a Historic Technique (Focal Press, Elsevier Inc., Oxford) 2004, 57. Renner, Eric, Pinhole Photography Rediscovering a Historic Technique (Focal Press, Elsevier Inc., Oxford) 2004, 58. Renner, Eric, Pinhole Photography Rediscovering a Historic Technique (Focal Press, Elsevier Inc., Oxford) 2004, 59. Glass, Darren, A Field Guide to Camera Species (Johnston Press Ltd, Auckland) 2009, 29. Glass, Darren, A Field Guide to Camera Species (Johnston Press Ltd, Auckland) 2009, 4. Rexer, Lyle, Photography s Antiquarian Avant Garde (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York) 2002, Rexer, Lyle, Photography s Antiquarian Avant Garde (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York) 2002, 74. Rexer, Lyle, Photography s Antiquarian Avant Garde (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York) 2002, 74. Rexer, Lyle, Photography s Antiquarian Avant Garde (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York) 2002, 23.

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