|~dayblog~| Epson 3800 profiles using Monaco EZColor (from Chris Engholm.com)

In preparation for the Esperanza show, we’re starting the print run this week. After receiving a 100′ roll of Epson Enhanced Matte paper, we could tell instantly it was crap just by looking at it, so we purchased a Hahnemuhle sampler and some Pearl photorag to start profiling the new Epson 3800 and our monitors. We’re using a Monaco EZColor calibration unit to do this, which so far, has been straightforward, though we haven’t run a print yet. We just saved a monitor profile and now we’re creating a printer profile using the Hahnemuhle pearl paper. We’ll keep you abreast of the process…


This card was scanned, viewed, and then printed using a custom profile created with Monaco EZColor. All versions appeared identical (see running account below).

This is the color test chart that you print and scan as part of creating the profile.

Book Review: “Jan Saudek” published by Taschen (from www.chrisengholm.com)

One of the most important photographers of erotica, Jan Saudek is a crazed poet-genius of gargantuan fame in the Czech Republic, and growing in notoriety elsewhere. This book is 400 pages of beautifully reproduced images, enlightening text, and great layout. You can get the book new on Amazon for $37, making this one of the best bargains in photography book publishing. Some won’t like all of Saudek’s personal documentation and myth-making. Some won’t want to see the same approach to background and lighting repeated over the course of 20 years. But his is important and ground-breaking work, testimony of the power of photographs to tell a story and even a fictional one at that. These are black and white prints that have been hand painted. The effect is transcendent, and not to be missed. Makes the top 5 in my collection of 350 photography books. Bravo Taschen.

|~dayblog~| Shoot at Soboba Pow Wow for “Gathering of Nations” photography project (from Chris Engholm.com)

Soboba Indian Reservation. The original intention was to begin a portrait project at this year’s pow wow, but with little extra time right now, I decided to keep it simple and shoot some digital this morning at the Guord Dance before the Grand Entry. You’re not supposed to shoot the Guord Dance so I concentated on the arriving dancers, the kids, beautiful Indian women wearing their traditional ceremonial clothing. The people at a large gathering of nations like this are great subjects — regal, proud, open to being captured by a camera (especially if you ask right). There are three more pow wows to happen locally here over the next few weeks, and I plan to keep at it for another year until this project is complete. Though I shot digital today, the real intention is to create lit portraits on medium format. We had fun today, however, just getting some nice grab shots.




This one was grabbed at a second’s notice as these three women ascended some steps in front of me. I saw the flag behind them and just clicked. I waited there with the 80-400mm on the monopod but no other opp like this happened again. This is just the jpeg verson; the 14 meg file will be a nice test of the new Espon 3800 using ultrachrome inks.

Peter Granser color negative technique (from www.chrisengholm.com)

Peter Granser creates square format color prints / books that have that wonderful warm pastel patina that can make mid-day sun look inviting and evocative. His books such as Sun City and Coney Island and filled with American social landscapes shot with a Blad and all printed with this unique look, which frankly I have not be able to imitate with digital. On search Photo.net I found a years-old post that described Granser’s technique based on feedback from the artist himself: he used Kodak Portra 120 film up to ASA 400 and overexposes one stop, then prints light and warm. I’m using Agfa 160, which is a great warm film, and an Epson 3800 to get a similar look outside of the traditional darkroom.

|~dayblog~| Shoot in Tijuana manana for “Border Color” (from Chris Engholm.com)

Up early and headed to TJ, continuing with the “Border Color” exhibition. Tomorrow’s subject: the evocative steel wall that divides us and the crazy tomb markers on its rusted facade reciting the names of those lost in escape from the South through the searing desert spaces between poverty and opportunity. I’ve been amassing this portfolio of square negs shot with the Blad for about 6 months, looking down at the fresnel, inconspicuous in the crowd, visualizing Peter Granser-like color schemes — y’know, that warm desaturated hazy unpolarized color of mid-afternoon. I love the square of the Blad, Germanic in its pretense of authority, precise, revealing of plain shape and hue beyond normal comprehension. A zap to the somambulant sensibility. Crossing the border and there’s color everywhere…Color and chaos. Tijuana.