Tuesday, September 1, 2015

A Surreal Wash. DC



This one is an *oldie but a goodie*, fer sure! - a very surreal take on cherry blossom time (March?April?) in Wash. DC.
Done in 1989 or 1990, i forget which. Well before any Photoshop.

It is definitely the wildest montage I have ever done, 27(+/-?) different exposures done over 2 days. Yes, 2 days. How do i keep the developer from going bad? Cover it w/ a very large piece of freezer wrap/plastic sheet, let it fall into contact w/ the liquid, that'll keep the air out. Infinitely re-usable, throw it in a sink and rinse. This was a collaboration - just about all the contributing photos were taken by another photog, Steve Uzzel, the piece was done as one page in a printing companies calendar, the assignment being? 'pull out ALL the stops, go wild, be mind-blowing!!'

Mission accomplished, me thinks. There's cherry blossoms on the trees, the Jefferson memorial (the domed thing in the middle), and Jefferson himself super-sized, numerous gargoyles in the trees, and several moons in the sky.
Yes, folks that's how strange Wash DC can be. And then some.
This was selenium toned, and then hand colored just a bit, the moons, the cherry blossoms, and especially the roaring lion, in the middle, to the right of center.
I think he is the only honest guy around - roaring his discontent to all else. Especially congress and the White House.
It's been so many years, i don't remember many of the production details, but i do know that many of the smaller elements ( gargoyles and moons) were masked with lith film so i could  expose them without any additional background tone. Same goes for the gargantuan Jefferson and the the lion.
After all these years, I like the lion the most.