"chemical bath" artists: Marianne Priest

Marianne Priest is an American photographer living and working in northern lower Michigan. After taking up photography in the late 90s, she taught herself analogue photography and lith printing - the techniques that she uses now - through reading, experimenting and trial and error.

For the past several years, Marianne has been working exclusively with and perfecting the lith printing technique. Working with what normally is a monochrome technique, Marianne has recently started hand-colouring her prints with oil paint. Using 35mm and medium format film, and cameras such as Holga, and Great Wall, she makes small enlargements, no bigger than 8x10, which requires the viewer to get close to each image, making them engage more intimately with her images.

 

The subject Marianne portrays most often is nature, either landscapes or still lifes. She describes her style as close to pictorialism, an aesthetic that was most popular in the 19th and early 20th century before it was pushed out of mainstream by the so-called straight photography. 

During "chemical bath" we'll be showing a selection of Marianne's lith prints and hand-coloured lith prints. Marianne doesn't currently publish her work online, but keep your eyes peeled!

"chemical bath" - opening night

Morning,

here are some images from the opening night of "chemical bath" in Bargoed. We're happy to report it went well, with visitors both from Bargoed and towns further away from the Valleys. The opening coincided with an open air cinema night in Bargoed, which happened to be particularly cold, hence the thermal jackets of Bargoed councillors who were in charge of the screening!

The exhibition is now open till the 17th of October, Tuesday to Saturday from 10.30 to 6 o'clock in 52 Hanbury Road, Bargoed.

"chemical bath" - opening today at 6!

everyone is welcome!

 

"chemical bath" artists: Ladislav Viszoczky

Ladislav Viszoczky is an artist from the Czech Republic specialising in oil printing, a contact print process - predating bromoil - which requires the negative to be the same size as the final print. It was patented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855, who discovered the light sensitivity of gelatin mixed with dichromate; the method became popular with Pictorialists. Oil prints are usually made on watercolour paper and, depending on the surface of the paper chosen by the artists, different effects can be achieved. (You can find some interesting facts about history of oil printing on this page, which is where the above info comes from)

In his work, Ladislav focuses mostly on landscapes, waterscapes and rural scenes; the printing technique he uses give them the texture and hue of old illustrations that some of us may remember from their childhood books. The graininess, and sometimes coarse, and sometimes smooth blending of colours - greys and sepias, give Ladislav's photos a unique feel. Many of his photographs portray a tiny village, whose stillness, beauty and atmosphere are perfectly captured through the use of oil print. In other images, Ladislav uses the technique to render the dynamism of water and the slightly bleak atmosphere of the stormy sea, or the eeriness of abandoned buildings.

You can find more of Ladislav's images on flickr. 

"chemical bath" installation

mornin',


here are some images from the mounting and installation of photographs featured in "chemical bath". the exhibition is opening today in the Hanbury Road Gallery, Bargoed.

more information about the participating artists coming soon!

"chemical bath" artists: Anne Campbell

mornin'

We'd like to introduce you today to our second featured artist exhibiting in "chemical bath"... 

Anne Campbell is a Scottish photographer and artist living and working in the Northeast of Scotland. She works with many different traditional techniques such as infra red film, lith and oil printing and experimental processes such as mordançage.

As part of the "chemical bath" we will be showing several of Anne's photograms, which is a way of capturing or creating images on light sensitive paper by arranging objects on the paper and then exposing it to light. Anne also experiments with photogramming the chemicals involved in the photographic processes themselves.

Anne is interested in capturing and examining the textures of the natural environment and the techniques she uses allow her to render the intricate textures and delicate colours of the landscapes and objects she finds and portrays. Working with alternative processes has also drawn her to the aesthetics of chemical reactions that make up analogue photography.

"Alongside experimenting with a variety of organic materials found on my travels around Scotland, I also started to look at the chemicals involved in the photographic processes themselves. These tiny crystalline structures reveal an immense and surprising universe, of incredible variety and beauty which I have captured using the photograms technique."

Anne is part of the Donview Studio Collective, a group of artists based in Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, and belongs to Documenting Britain and the Bromoil Circle of Great Britain. She also runs darkrooms at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.

You can see more of Anne's photographs and photograms on her page.

"chemical bath" artists: Toralf Sümmchen

mornin'

today, three days before the opening of "chemical bath", we'd like to introduce the artist whose photo you can see in the exhibition poster.  

Toralf Sümmchen is a German architect and artist based in Brooklyn who rediscovered film photography a few years ago. In his work, Toralf uses and experiments with a variety of analogue processes and camera formats, from 35mm through medium to large format and working with polaroids, 35mm & 120 film and wet plate collodion (tintypes and ambrotypes). 

  

Toralf's images cover a vast array of subjects, from still lifes and city life to portraiture. What links them is a watchful and subtle perspective on light and shade and the details brought out or obscured by it. Toralf's photographs have a quiet, sometimes meditative quality, capturing moments of stillness and peacefulness; be it in empty, but not unwelcoming urban spaces, interiors (usually shot looking out, towards the light) or the faces of his subjects.

As Toralf says, his "main interest lies the stories that these spaces, objects and subjects have to tell in their mostly overlooked small details".

You can find Toralf's work on his blog, page and Facebook.

You can also read more about tintypes, ambrotypes and other traditional and alternative processes on the Alternative Photography's page.

"chemical bath" - English and Welsh info

“chemical bath” is an exhibition of alternative and traditional photographic and printing techniques. The exhibition features five photographers: Anne Campbell (Scotland), Charles Guerin (France), Toralf Sümmchen (Germany/USA), Ladislav Viszoczky (Czech Republic), and Marianne Priest (USA), and presents the array of techniques that they use in their work.

Among the techniques included are photograms, a camera-less way of capturing images, and wet plate collodion, which produces a positive image on a glass or metal plate - and is one of the earliest photographic processes, dating back to the 1880s. We’ll also be showing a collection of printing techniques including cyanotypes, kallitypes, as well as oil, gum bichromate and lith prints, some of which were hand-coloured after printing.

The aim of the exhibition is to familiarise viewers with some of the oldest and most beautiful printing and photographic techniques, which despite the dominance of digital photography are once again becoming a popular medium for artists who prefer the texture, unpredictability and the tangibility of hand-printed and hand-made analogue images.

Hanbury Road Gallery, 52 Hanbury Road

Bargoed CF81 8QW

open Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 to 18:00

25th September - 17th October

Mae “baddon cemegol" yn arddangosfa o dechnegau ffotograffig ac argraffu amgen a thraddodiadol. Mae'r arddangosfa yn rhoi sylw i waith pum ffotograffydd: Anne Campbell (yr Alban), Charles Guerin (Ffrainc), Toralf Sümmchen (Yr Almaen/Unol Daleithiau), Ladislav Viszoczky (Gweriniaeth Siec), a Marianne Priest (Unol Daleithiau), ac mae'n cyflwyno'r ystod o dechnegau a ddefnyddiant yn eu gwaith.

Ymhlith y technegau mae ffotogramau, ffordd ddi-gamera o gadw delweddau. Mae colodion plât gwlyb, sy'n cynhyrchu delwedd bositif ar blât gwydr neu fetel, yn un o'r prosesau ffotograffig cynharaf gan ddyddio'n ôl i'r 1880au. Byddwn hefyd yn dangos casgliad o dechnegau argraffu yn cynnwys: syanoteipiau, caliteipiau yn ogystal ag olew, bicromad gwm a phrintiau lith, gyda rhai ohonynt yn cael eu lliwio â llaw ar ôl argraffu.

Nod yr arddangosfa yw cyflwyno rhai o'r technegau argraffu a ffotograffig hynaf a harddaf, sydd yn dod yn gyfrwng poblogaidd i artistiaid unwaith eto er amlygrwydd ffotograffiaeth digidol ar gyfer artistiaid sy'n well ganddynt ansawdd, natur anrhagweladwy a chyffarddadwyedd delweddau analog a argeffir gyda llaw ac a wnaed gyda llaw.

Hanbury Road Gallery, 52 Heol Hanbury 
Bargoed, CF81 8QW

oria agor Dydd Mawrth i Dydd Sadwrn, 10:30 – 18:00
25fed Medi - 17fed Hydref

"chemical bath" - opening on the 25th of September

(poster image by Toralf Sümmchen)

more info coming soon!

gallery walls: wall 4, part II and final day.

Mornin',

Now that the exhibition has finally come to an end, we'd like to share with you the remaining image of our gallery walls that made up the exhibition.

left to right: to unscream, c'est la nuit, the light of May

So there you go, we hope that those of you who were unable to make it to Bargoed have enjoyed this virtual tour of the exhibition.

We'd like to thank everyone in Bargoed who have been very supportive of the gallery and to those that made the trip up from elsewhere to see us.

And we'd finally like to thank Hanan for her participation in the exhibition!

We'll leave you one last image of the gallery and we'll have more information about our new exhibition soon, so keep your eyes on our facebook and twitter, as well as this blog.

gallery walls: wall 4, part I (and some cake!)

Evening everyone,

tomorrow - or technically today, as we're writing this after midnight - is the last day of "partially here" in Hanbury Road Gallery. To celebrate Hanan's exhibition, we've made a chocolate cake and will be sharing it with the last visitors tomorrow, so come and join us in Bargoed!

Here's also the penultimate set of exhibition images:

left to right: reveries, nights in red satin, that's why and maybe

(some colours may vary slightly)

gallery walls: wall 3, part I

mornin'

Today we'd like to share with you the first set of images that make up our 3rd and final wall in the gallery...

left to right: transparency, I fear like a child

left to right: underneath my skin, sailing

some colours may vary slightly in reality

Tomorrow we'll be sharing with you the final part in this series of images from the exhibition - and remember "partially here" closes this Wednesday the 16th, so you only have 2 days left to see it. We'll be open tomorrow and Wednesday as usual from 10:30 until 18:00.

gallery walls: wall 2

Evening,


tonight we're posting the third part of Hanan's images as they hang on our gallery wall.

 

left to right: caresse, green, black roses

I met Lady Death and she's lovely, drowsy head and folded wings, dry eyes and grey heart

  (some colours may be slightly different from the original versions)

"partially here" is re-opening on Tuesday for its two final days, 

so it's the last moment to see it in Bargoed!

gallery walls: wall 1, part II

Mornin' everyone,

here's the second part of what makes up our first gallery wall.

 left to right: cloth of sleep, red drowning, green waters 1, red drowning green waters 7

left to right: whispers of red, slowly as an afterthought, roses

some colours may vary

"partially here" by Hanan Kazma is open for three more days: today till 6 and then on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you can't make it to Bargoed though, come back here tomorrow to see images from our second wall!

gallery walls: wall 1, part I

Mornin'

Those of you who have been following us since Abertillery will know that we like to post images of the exhibitions. This has always been so that the artists we feature (who are unable to make it to the exhibition due to visas, cost, timing etc) will get to see how their images look hung in our gallery and will hopefully be able to experience it that little bit more.

We will continue to do this at the Hanbury Road Gallery, so for everyone who wishes they could see it, but just won't be able to make it - here is the first half of our first wall from "partially here" by Hanan Kazma.

 

left to right: I fear, hiding behind a lie, I dreamt I was a tree

 

 unlike things must meet

some colours may vary from the actual prints

Stay tuned for more updates!

"partially here" review

Morning everyone,

We are happy to let you know that Hanan Kazma's "partially here" has been reviewed by Celia Jackson in Photomonitor.

Just to remind you, there's one more week left to see the exhibition in Bargoed, so make sure you make it there if you haven't yet! 

We're open from 10.30 to 6, Tuesday to Saturday.

 

more images of Bargoed and the gallery

Evening everyone,

"partially here", a solo exhibition by Hanan Kazma, is now running for its second week. We thought it'd be a good moment to show you a little bit of Bargoed, where Hanbury Road Gallery is located.

And just to remind you - we're open 5 days a week, Tuesday to Saturday, from 10.30 to 6,

and the current exhibition is on till the 16th of September!