Jules Victor
As I have long been inspired by the golden age of filmmaking, I wanted to work to create something with the same qualities of rich black and white tones, dramatic lighting, and soft, dreamy feeling.
The work for this project spans roughly a decade of experimentation, as well as trial and error with various subject matter. I have been looking for the right way to express that same unique quality of light with an appropriate subject matter as the vehicle for that quality of light. I chose the palladium process for its wide tonal range, and warm, rich, ink-like color. I also chose to use vellum tracing paper for its matte finish, its variable translucent properties, and dream-like quality. While there is still much to do with this work, I believe have am close to accomplishing the quality I am looking for. I feel that the figures in each photograph help to exemplify that same feeling of dream, and imagination. I see these photographs as a study in preparation for a more cinematic phase of this ongoing process.
These photographs are taken digitally using a Leica M10-P and 50mm Summicron Lens. They are then loaded into Photoshop to undergo the editing process. This consists of altering the color spectrum to create unique tonal shifts, and contrast. When finished, the image colors are inverted and turned into a negative to be printed on inkjet acetate for exposure. In the darkroom, the sheets of vellum are cut and the palladium solution is applied. They are then exposed together with the negative in a UV light drawer, and developed and dried to create the print.
Dale Rio
The images in this exhibition are a selection from a platinum/palladium portfolio I’m currently working on called “the first fifty.” They represent the various people and places I’ve photographed during the first phase of my life as a photographer.