‘SCAPE: Mitch Epstein

Omaha, Nebraska, from the series “What is American Power?”, Mitch Epstein 2008

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It is been a while since I do not post here. Time constraints along with the fact that I am in serious need for some vacations are the main reasons. However, another reason was preventing me to post more often. I was able to get a space to assemble my own printing lab. It is a small space but has an interior room, a living-room/kitchen and a bathroom with a shower cabinet, and best of all: is near my house. It’s perfect. I’ve painted the interior room mostly in white (matt); the part where the enlargers will be placed (about 1/3) was painted black.

The installation is still temporary; in the second semester I am planning to have something more permanent, including two workstations.

Some pictures to show you (taken with my mobile so ignore the low quality):

The enlarger (Opemus) with two safety lights (for now placed on the table), all the necessary accessories and a fan (Portugal weather); you can see the black background.

Here you can see the white and black paintings; I have decided to not paint all the room in black because that would decrease the lighting capacity of the safety lights.

 
Because I want to have low start-up and wrap-up times, the trays are covered with wood panels to prevent evaporation and oxidation; this way I just need to remove and place the panels which takes less time than transferring the chemical between the trays and the recipients. Let’s see if this works. This is the part where I realize that I am not young anymore; I definitively need to have a table there.

 
This is the shower cabinet. I bought a smaller shower cabinet floor to use as a washing tank; it is built with a polymer which makes it lighter and cheaper; my next challenge, to place it higher.

Finally, my first print being washed; 24x18 FB paper of a street scene needing some serious mask for the sky.

I’ll post more pictures when a more definitive installation is set up.

 

I want to thank Ricardo Canelas and Cristina for all the support.