Polaroid Image Transfers

I am going back almost 20 years with this post. When I opened my first studio in Hotel Congress in Tucson, I offered taking polaroid image transfers, 3 for $25. Thing was, I kept the one I wanted and the customer got the two remaining. Everyone was happy because typically all three came out well, and I got one to keep for my portfolio.

I used a Noba studio camera with a 300 mm Heliar lens with Packard Shutter. I used type #59 polaroid film and did direct warm transfers on the back of an 8x10 lighbox which provided heat. Here are two of my sample works...

Aux Trois Mailletz in Paris

Near Notre Dame in Paris, is a Cabaret/Piano Bar/Restaurant called Aux Trois Mailletz. I had been there a few times having met the owner Jacques, and asked him if I could photograph with my 8x10 camera and make platinum prints. He would get copies of any good images.

I photographed on two occasions. One image, called the 'Song of Paris' was a double exposure of 1/4 second of a singer, with a double exposure of a panorama from the top of Monmartre. I took 12 shots in the club, and used 6 to double expose. One worked perfectly.

The second image is also a double exposure of two singers. Each one was a seperate exposure of 1/4 second, and they matched up as if they were singing together.

Both images were printed with platinum and palladium metal salts on Cranes ecru paper S116,

Timelapse in Montmartre

Rue Au Lapin:

Photographed with an 8x10 following an evening rain, I am attaching a straight platinum print, and one where I made a contact positive with ortho film and used cyanotype to fill in all highlights, and then a full coating of black gum bichromate to lower the intensity of the blue. All three versions are here....platinum, platinum with cyanotype and platinum with cyanotype and gum bichromate.

The single streak starting at the top center of the image is a motorcyclist I was talking with by cell phone, and just as I started the timelapse, asked him to race down the hill with his front light on.

The Louvre in Photopolymer

Three years ago I attempted to photograph at the Louvre with my 8x10 at night. Unfortunately for me, the security police at the courtyard in front of the pyramid informed me tripods were not allowed. So, no images taken. A year later, staying in the area around the Grand Palais, I pulled my trolly carrying the 8x10 and handcarried my Ries tripod the 1/2 mile back to the Louvre and Tulieries complex. Luckily, there were no police on this night, and I had two hours at night to shoot at will. I am posting two images printed with engraved photopolymer plates on Rives BFK paper. Persistance pays off.

A photopolymer gravure from a color digital image

As a photographer shooting film and processing using platinum metal salts and photogravure, it is only in this last six months that I traveled abroad with my 8x10 and a small canon G10 digital. I did capture one image of a gargoyle 200 steps up Notre Dame de Paris (impossible to do with my 8/10). I then used PS to transform the color digital image to black and white using color channels, printed a transparency on pictorico film, made a photopolymer plate, and printed it in gravure using carbon black printers ink. Enclosed is the positive image produced.

Upon returning from Istanbul for a public health congress, a copy of the May Royal Photographic Society Journal was on my desk. I had met the publisher of the Journal in Arles, France at the Recontres d'Arles during portfolio reviews. The cover was my first stage 'Day for Night' photopolymer gravure. The article and cover can be seen at:

http://www.garyauerbach.com/photo/articles/index_2.php

MMT MMTO