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Rangefinder Magazine
June 2004

Insight/ On the Cover by Bill Hurter

It’s not always about the money, but it’s usually always about the final result in photography—the print, the slide, the negative, the separations, the digital file. The final photographic result is the product. This month’s Rangefinder focuses on the final form of image-making, whether it be a fine art digital reproduction of a Monet or a gum dichromate print. Regardless of its final form, technical mastery is always paramount, allowing the artistry to be conveyed. We’ve assembled a wide range of experts.

Craig Kienast (page 12) has taught himself to train his focus on the bigger picture, or sometimes the smaller picture, to find textures and patterns that he can use to add a unique flair to his senior portraits. The result is a transparent texture screen—simple technique in Photoshop, but one that is infinitely variable and visually interesting. Lorraine A. DarConte has found herself going back to the basics, or at least back to traditional, if not so basic, “alternative” printing processes (page 18). Cyanotypes, Van Dyke prints and other fascinating art forms are discussed. Meanwhile, Albert Koetsier (page 54) and Masami Mori (page 42) are using less traditional ways to create and output their photography. Koetsier uses X-ray photography up to 11x14 inches and often hand-colors his prints, while Mori uses various techniques with Polaroid materials. David Michael Kennedy (page 22) is a world-famous platinum/palladium (frequently called the most beautiful photographic process) printer who has since gone back to silver printing in order to dramatically increase his output of work. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has perfected using photographic technology (digital capture and painstakingly controlled output from an Epson Pro 9600 printers) to make reproductions of artistic masterpieces.

New this month is the “Lab Profile” column, featuring Buckeye Color Lab. As the business model for labs changes, moving away from film and to digital, the professional lab is reinvneting itself on almost a weekly basis. New services and products are being developed, and this new column will take a detailed look at the differences.

Bill Hurter, Editor

ON THE COVER

PHOTOGRAPHER: Albert Koetsier
Subject: Crocus flowers
Camera: Modified X-ray generator
FILM: 8x10 X-ray film
ENLARGER: Modified Omega enlarger with a custom-designed cold light head
PRINT: The Agfa Multigrade Classic print was hand-colored with Marshall Oils by Albert’s wife, Anne
COMMENTS: Albert, who is a former radiological engineer, was inspired to try his hand at X-ray photography while trying to solve a technical problem for a customer in Würzburg, Germany, where X-rays were first discovered. While in a doctor’s office, he spotted a calendar hanging on the wall that featured pictures of flowers taken with an X-ray machine. Impressed, he studied it for a while and decided to try this technique, at some future time, himself. After being transferred to the U.S., Albert found and purchased an old, discarded X-ray machine that gave him perfect results and is the one he still uses today. Albert considers this type of photography dangerous, considering that “the technology can kill you in several dramatic ways.”

For more about Albert Koetsier’s beautiful images, see Larry Singer’s article “X-ray Visionary,” on page 24.