Reversed Special Effects
Thursday, July 28, 2016
You can be
almost sure that any person who might be listening to a Blue Note jazz
recording is at least over 60. You can make such blanket statements with enough
accuracy but you must also expect the fact that humans can be unpredictable. No
matter how good your statistics probabilities do not guarantee possibilities.
As a
photographer over 60 (in fact I will be 74 shortly) I am well-versed in what
used to be the only way to take photographs which was to use the stuff that
involved emulsion on flexible and transparent plastic – film being the short
word.
The
almost complete transition from film to digital has pushed film stuff into a
background that will soon be oblivion.
A byproduct
of all that, has really hit the film (as in movies) industry. Special effects
have to be beyond wow to wow us. At one time (and I can remember it very well)
we marveled at a typewriter working without human hands. Did anybody ever see
Naked Lunch (1991)?
That,
brings me to the three found images in an envelope in my garage (now studio)
attic. One is Fuji Instant Colour Film peel to which I bleached the black
backing and then reversed after scanning. Another is the image on a Polaroid
Colour peel (Polaroid peels did not fade as Fuji ones do. The third, the one in
b+w (but which I colorized and is the first image in the blog) is a combination of a reversed and an unreversed b+w Fuji Instant b+w peel.
By peel I mean what we stupid photographers (at least this one) used to throw
away not being aware of their special effects potential.
Digital
photographers (and consider that by my using a scanner and Photoshop I am
pretty well digital) might be able to imitate these effects. But without
knowing the effects (the non-digital ones) from the start they would be
imitating but not innovating.
