Experimental Photography Workbook

Buy it from the author here!

Christina Anderson

Including shipping to the US:
38 USDincl. postage & packaging

Including shipping to the rest of the world:
45 USD incl. postage & packaging

A technical book recommended both for beginners and pros.

The book will be delivered in approximately 3 weeks.

What's in it for me? See the table of contents

Review by AlternativePhotography.com

At first glance, Experimental Photography Workbook looks daunting with it's tightly written pages and dense text. However, once you've read half a page, you find yourself sucked into the text, which is clearly and conscisly written with a great sense of humour. Most importantly, the book makes sense of quite complicated processes. After a few chapters you'll probably find yourself itching to get your darkroom chemicals out.

You are likely to discover processes you may not have heard of before, like Lazertrans, Dye Mordanting and Encaustic. I'll be surprised if anyone has already tried ALL the processes described in the book. You will also find useful information on more familiar subjects such as Photograms, Infrareds and Polaroids. The only thing I think could improve the book is to include photographs of how the end result of each process could look. There are however some photographs at the back of the book illustrating some of the processes.

A well researched and well written book that is most likely to inspire you to experiement and stretch your horizons.

A technical book recommended both for beginners and pros.

What's new in the 5th edition?

This 5th edition has been made more "user friendly" with an easier to read layout and font, and subjects reorganized more logically and simply. New information has been added to the Sabattier and Chromoskedasic Sabattier chapters. The modern tintype process has been added to the Liquid Emulsion chapter, since it is liquid emulsion based. But the greatest benefit to the reader is the increase of color pages. By popular request, over 75 examples of processes from close to 40 students are now included.

However, due to the continuing cutbacks in film, black and white papers, and other analog supplies--no more Polaroid Time Zero film for example, certain outdated sections have been removed, as well as less necessary sections that I found my students never read.

The workbook continues to promote the traditional darkroom within its pages, defining "experimental photography" as anything done to mess with analog color and black and white film and prints. While we have analog darkrooms, let's use them!

Christina says: if a person has the 4th edition, the 5th is NOT necessary. They are too similar so it would be a waste of money to buy both.

Read an excerpt of the book on Distressing Negatives.

Description:

A no-frills, darkroom guidebook on a variety of experimental techniques. Compiled over the years by Anderson from classes taken and taught, it is filled with helpful hints. She covers cliche-verre, reticulation, cross-processing and the Mortensen metalchrome process. The book is spiral-bound to lay flat in those cramped darkrooms.

• Bozeman, 2006
• 206 pp
• 8"x11"

The author says:

The strength of this workbook lies in the thousands (literally) of hours of research and compilation to bring together, in one place, information on all kinds of photographic experimentation. Each process covered is explained briefly yet fully enough. This encourages more immediate exploration into experimentation. I like to term the workbook the "Cliff Notes" of experimental photography.

Non-silver processes and digital photography are not covered in this workbook, although they may be touched upon occasionally.

What this workbook encourages is exploration into ways a photographer can "mess with" straight photography - ways a photographer can have fun in the darkroom.

The workbook is designed to include enough processes to be accomplished in a typical semester of work at a university, if each week the student is given a menu of choices.

The workbook is also perfect for workshop format where a number of the processes can be chosen.

A word about experimentation: it is of utmost importance to enjoy the process and not seek an end product of perfection. Desiring perfection at the start is a killer for creativity! Going with the flow of process, with no specific outcome in mind, allows for creative energy to grow, and new discoveries to be made. When you think of it, how many experimental processes were born from "mistakes"? Let go of perfection and have fun playing.

One last word of advice: be open minded enough to try all the processes. If you hit a brick wall with one process and you feel frustrated, put it aside for the time being and try something else. Don't abandon it permanently, telling others "it doesn't work". It may not have worked for you at that particular time, but at a later date, having tried it and filed the process experientially in the back of your mind, you might have your "Eureka!" moment where the process falls into place. Ultimately there will be several processes that will appeal to you more than others. Take them and run with them. The entire workbook is designed to provide you with tools you can use to better express the content and creativity you have inside. Happy creating!

About Christina

Christina was born into an eclectic family in Baltimore, Maryland, with a scientist father and an artist mother. She had the fortune of being the youngest of seven girls and one boy. Such a large family spurred her interest in people. Such a large number of women influenced her interest in female culture. With excellent schooling as well as early encouragement in the arts, creativity was a way of life in her family.

Christina's first degree was in French from the University of Minnesota, where she also took art classes. She discovered photography in 1996 when pursuing her painting degree.

Graduating with a degree in painting and photography then, she taught at Montana State University in Bozeman for 3 years, before attending Clemson University in South Carolina, from which she received her MFA in May 2005.

Christina's specialties are experimental photography and alternative processes, specifically gum printing. She is all for pushing the photographic process. Her book, The Experimental Photography Workbook, contains 50 different experimental processes which she has researched and used in her photographic practice. She is also the author of Alternative Processes Condensed. Previously, her book called Tutti Nudi, Reflections on the Reemergence of the Nude During the Italian Renaissance, was selected to be published by Midmarch Arts Press in New York. These writings are Christina's gifts back to a culture that provides her with never-ending creative material.

Why is this book here? This book is a self-published book. It means the subject was probably too expert or narrow to be taken on by a big publisher, and the author has paid for publishing the book themselves.

Alternative Processes can sometimes be a very narrow field and to help authors distributing their self-published books we have a special section in the shop where these can be bought.

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