What a year it has been thus far, here is a brief synopsis in bullet form:
- Off to a busy start.
- Lots of studio time recording great musicians.
- Countless hours playing and watching basketball.
- SXSW (!!!!!), 43 bands in 4 days on crutches mind you.
- Photos in Recording Magazine.
- True love lost.
- Two page spread in 48HR magazine!
- Way too many airports.
- Lots of documentary/production work.
- Analog photo = 97.25%; digital photo = 2.75%
So much more really, but my focus this year has been on being offline, creating images by hand and building my body of work. Hence, this place has become rather neglected, and soon it is going to be sealed as a memorial of moments passed. I have created a mountain of work this year and am in the process of putting together a proper way for it to be viewed.
In the meantime, here are a few contact sheets for you to enjoy...
PEACE to you all!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Well Hello There
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Maui Rollin
Was in Maui for a day helping a friend trying to find a new place and we found this gem (actually there was two of them) parked out front of one of the apartment complexes we looked at. One day I would love to do a photo story on the real Hawaii - it's not all mai tai's and luaus. Thanks to the perfect weather and the tremendous high cost of living, there is staggering poverty and drug abuse. Here is a great photo story on the tent cities of Waianae.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Out of the Shadows
Captured this one with my handy little Petri 35mm camera, C41 developed by hand. To get the funky print look around the register, I used artists tape to tape the strip of negs to the scanner's glass instead of using the crappy neg carrier that came with the scanner.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Back In Action
Thanks to the loving generosity of a wonderful friend - I am now the proud owner of a very unique camera, the Zeiss-Ikon 510/2 - also called the Bob 510/2. So many things make this camera so special, first it was made in 1936 and for being 72 years old it is in fantastic shape (it was purchased from the original owner in a small coastal Spanish town). It uses 120 (medium format), which is very common and should (fingers crossed) be produced for many years to come.
It came with this cool leather carrying case which is also in fantastic shape for it's age, inside I keep a notebook, pen, and some exposure charts. Because there is no exposure meter built in, the aforementioned exposure charts are pretty crucial, unless you just want to wing the exposure. Each snap of the shutter I write down the shutter speed, f stop, focus distance, and scene details. Definitely not a rapid approach to photography, but certainly a record for a lifetime. 
To me the best part of the camera is the aspect ratio, which is 6x9! Pretty amazing for such a small camera, later versions went to the traditional square medium format (6x6). Below you can see that the negative from this thing is nearly 4 times the size of a standard 35mm - talk about resolution. However, this only yields 8 images per roll.
So far I have put three rolls of film through, and last night I developed a batch of C41 film by hand. Unfortunately, 2 rolls were damaged - partly to user error and partly because the new Kodak 400NC film stock really is horrible, very flimsy and hard to load, does not help I use a stainless steel 220 reel (always doing things the hard way). The surviving roll yielded an image I would like to share. Made this one on the platform of Civic Center BART - f/22, distance at infiniti, and winged it on the shutter time as the train sped by. 
PEACE to you all!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Over/Under
Starting to stretch myself pretty thin these days - working on so many projects, there are just so many stories I want to tell. A goal of mine this week is to really prioritize everything I am working on so my creative time is used more efficiently. One thing that is on the top of my priority list is to finish the trailer for documentary I am making about Mother's Kitchen, where I volunteer. Here is a screenshot from the cutting room floor.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Moon, My Love
To achieve the effect on the print below, I used an Anti-Newton Glass 4x5 carrier and used blue artists tape to mask off a custom frame.
Chromogenic Print, 1/2, Hand Developed by the Artist
Not for Sale
PEACE to you all!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Testing 1,2,3
While the love of my life is off traveling half way around the world - I have decided to confine myself to the darkroom for the next month. This is a test strip from a print I ran on Saturday. 
Friday, July 10, 2009
Fun
This is why I love film, there are things that can happen that are truly impossible to reproduce. Ultimately, this is a flawed photograph, my reel was a little wet which caused parts of the roll to stick to itself. But, to me it is beauty. This was a roll of Fuji Velvia 50, which I pushed to 100 and cross processed as C41 - developed by hand. Not sure what band this is, although I know that is Dr. Octagon's MC off to the right.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Fresh Batch
Spent about 3 hours on Monday evening developing seven rolls of film, then spent a subsequent 3 hours yesterday morning cutting, sleeving and scanning. I am pretty stoked on the results, but probably won't post to many of them here. Hand developing film makes the connection to the images so very personal to me, and just scanning many of them does not do the images justice. So, over the next few weeks I will be sneaking into the lab to print them by hand. 
Thursday, June 25, 2009
NYC MOMA
Snapped this strange little image using my old school Petri, which can be hit or miss, on my last visit to NYC. This as en E6 image (notice the E100G registration stripe) that I hand processed with C41 chemistry.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Unseen, Continued
In an earlier post I introduced you to those I called the Unseen during Bay to Breakers. Here are a few more images from that series - a few C41 images that I just developed at home.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Love Is a Battlefield
Last night I developed six rolls of color film at home, and just cut and scanned the results. I have a very cheap scanner, so a lot of the images appear to be color shifted but I am pretty sure that that is the annoyingly horrible automatic exposure correction.
The images below I shot back a few months ago when Israel was bombarding Palestine and a large rally was held in downtown SF. I was shooting with my Petri Color35, an old boutique automatic camera from the late 60's. The film as usual, was far past it's date of expiration. 
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Screen Snap
Working on a video tutorial on how to develop your own color film at home. My first foray into video and Final Cut Pro has made me realize why I love still images so much :)
Friday, May 22, 2009
M O S
Mates of State
Chromogenic Print
1/3, Artist Test Print
Registration is misaligned, but can be cut down.
$100 UPDATE: This print has been sold and is no longer available.
ryan.chahanovich@gmail.com
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Clothing Optional
Well, again this space has been unused for sometime and this time I am not going to apologize. As of late I have been spending less and less time on the computer and actually taking the time to enjoy life outdoors in the wonderful city I live in, I highly recommend it! Have been creating a lot of images though - all film - and developing rolls as well. Here is a shot of me at work with my Mamiya 645E manual out in Wilbur Springs.
Here is a link to a few more images from Wilbur.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Getting Back to Work
So, I have been focusing all my energy the last few weeks on my photo exhibition - printing, editing, mounting, promoting and the like. But now it is time to get back to what really matters, creating images!
I am starting to schedule more shoots for the "Living Canvas" series, which features the floating tattooed limbs. The other night though, just as I was somewhere in between waking life and sleep I was hit with a vision. I had to get up immediately and jot down what I saw, and all I can say about it now is "Adam and Eve." Not sure how it will be pulled off, but I am going to continue visualizing the image(s) and working on possible ways to make it a reality. The shot below is from a rough mockup I made yesterday for a necklace style piece that I saw in the vision.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Upper Haight Monthly Salon
So, this month is going to be the first Upper Haight Monthly Salon - which is a neighborhood artwalk with over 20 shops participating on Haight from Central to Stanyan. My work will be at C to the P and is featured on the artwalk. Flyers below...
