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Media Storm

In India, all women must confront the cultural pressure to bear a son. The consequences of this preference is a disregard for the lives of women and girls. From birth until death they face a constant threat of violence. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/undesired

After a few days of after shocks

We are all tired, we have had 30 people over, in steams in the last two days. I realise now how important it is to have clean water and power, easy to forget. Collecting water, having showers, tea and conversations. It is quite hard getting sleep when the house moves every so often. We are back to the one room mode, funny, much to every ones amusement I get to be under the big wooden beam, we haven't decided if that is a good idea or not, so we are all moving to the outer walls, were the house is single story. So keeping up the "normal behavior", cutting grass, collecting eggs and cleaning up slowly. Strange the audio book I am listening to is "lucifers Hammer", a disaster novel, about a comet strike in 1970's California, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. We have some very homeless people turning up to use the cottage. I had an email from Batches and Holiday homes, the company that used to advertise our holiday home in Hanmer, to renew our booking fees. So...

Another Earth Quake

very frightening, when cars are sinking in liquefaction. Annie was almost trapped in her work building bleeding people and falling walls and glass. I was just angry, spent the last two days getting into survival mode, we have a generator, lots of tinned food, a gas shower. The chickens were huddled in a corner and the dogs were rattled. Drove a very fast around the holes to get the kids, found them at school comforting other kids. Annie took hours to get home, driving around holes and wrecked buildings, and people sitting by the side of the road getting treatments. We have an artisan well so lots of water. I am eying the cows in the our field and thinking about fresh steak We have a refugee family staying in our cottage, and more coming in the next few days. Thank god we got this farm. Thanks for the thoughts we really appreciate it and feel very lucky to be alive.

Gum Bicromate from Fred Endsley

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GUM BICHROMATE PRINTS Historically, the gumprint is an offshoot of the old style of carbon printing. Gumprinting has survived among both technicians and artists because of the variety of possibilities in the technique and quality of the obtainable image ranging from very fine color separation to a controlled Sumi or loose painterly application. The comparative inexpensiveness of the materials, the ease in applying the colors of your choice, both generally and locally; and the ability to work into the surface of the image with other media have maintained the gum prints popularity, although it is a far more difficult process than Blue or Van Dyke printing. Materials: Any paper which will stand repeated soakings in water and has a slight tooth; coarser papers result in more break-up of the image and also tend to trap unexposed emulsion (a good grade watercolor or rag fiber etching paper - e.g., Reeves, D'Arches, Strathmore - works well). Negatives : As this is generally a co...

Fred Endsley

He was a great teacher and is fondly remembered. I sent him an email years ago and tried to contact him but he had passed away. He inspired me to move to digital technology. This is his site still supported as a Memorial. http://www.artic.edu/~fendsley/

COATING PAPER AND OTHER MATERIALS

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Another great article, and the basis of my Salt printing, from Fred around 1998, old history in terms of the web. Fred Endsley COATING PAPER AND OTHER MATERIALS Application of cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and gum bichromatic solutions can be carried out in any way which achieves the desired result. A good quality hair brush with soft bristles may be used for an even coating, or cheaper brushes can be used to reveal the kinds of marks the brush can make. A cotton swab, or aerosol spray may be used for the kinds of marks that they will make. Paper or material can be floated directly in a tray of the solution (though this requires a lot of solution). Be careful however,when using this technique with absorbent material for it will soak up enormous amounts of solution. When coating fabrics, they can be soaked and wrung out, but please wear protective gloves. Since the paper is sensitive to light only in the coated areas, you could consider coating areas selectively, ...

BASIC COLOR THEORY FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Color forms the basis for some of our strongest visual impressions. It is inherent to the functioning of nature as well as man-made reality (both as physicality and concept). The interrelationship of colors allows, in part, the efficient performance of life on this planet. Stop signs are red because red stands out best against greenery (if foliage were orange, stop signs would probably be blue) and in order to survive, chameleons change color to blend with their environment. Color not only functions physically, but also conveys ideas and feelings, although in this more abstract sociological sense, color is subject to more rapid evolution. As visual artists, it is impossible not to deal somehow with color whether we are seeking it out or avoiding it. Even as exclusively black and white photographers we must understand how color creates black and white tonality, how filters work, how panchromatic film is sensitive to all color while ortho-chromatic film and printing paper ...