Talking Peppers Art Photography

The technique was developed based on the results I obtained. The berries wereilluminated with normal photographic lamps but the light produced shadows that were toosharp and the shiny surface of the subjects gave annoying reflections and a lack ofdetail. The lamps, whose light sources, photographic halogen bulbs, wereshielded in order to have softer light beams as a result. In addition to the lights,I use white reflective panels and also black panels, which have the purpose, oncepositioned, to lighten or make the light fall on that point creating chiaroscuro.The very uniform lighting gives, in my opinion, little plasticity to the subjects, what is morepleasant is to create darker areas but with well-defined details. It was a techniquewidely used by old portraitists.Other improvements were necessary in the chemical development of the films.The developments are not all the same, these have been replaced until the one that gavethe most suitable results for the photographed subjects was found. I have obtained the best results with atwo-solution development, which keeps the highlights under control, giving prominence to thedetails and having a good result even in the shadows. This old development hasrecently been modified with more modern components and is easily found on themarket produced by several companies.The negative, 4x5 inch format of medium sensitivity is treated with the two-solutiondevelopment with modified development times until the optimal result is achieved.The great master E. Weston was very helpful to me, with his beautiful images ofonions, cabbages, shells and .........peppers. It was precisely these last ones that caused him manyproblems, so much so that he himself invented the famous ABC development, which is the one from which the modern two-solution developments derive. Weston's development, ABC, was,in reality, a three-solution development to be mixed together and diluted in water, the three solutionswere stored separately for better durability over time, the preparation of thedeveloper had to be used immediately due to its high perishability.

When the Nus-Nous project began, this was the name in the year 2000, I was notexactly aware of what I was doing. The Talking Peppers ArtPhotography project was forming during its journey, at the beginning it was born rather hazy,so much so that I thought of making about 30/40 works, enough for an exhibition; however,during the journey I was involved and I was stimulated to continue implementing theresearch with new works. The archive increased and the more it increased the more I was stimulated toimplement it further. An artistic project composed of 40/60 works is more thansufficient for any use. The number of works in the project is now at 1200negatives, some are very beautiful, others at a lower level, in my opinion but sincememories take over it happens that to an observer a photograph, for me not of the foregroundactivates some areas of his mind causing sensations that make the imageinteresting and in any case 1200 4x5 negatives for aphotography project is a huge number. There is no event where such ahigh number of works are presented, not even if it tells the whole artistic life of a genius.The fact is that I can't predict the closure of Talking Peppers Art Photography. Inany plot, everything resolved, they lived happily ever after, the end. The works that are bornforce me to continue searching. A pepper photographed from the front and back, above andbelow, that's it. In nude photographs when you have 8/10 photographs selected that's it,otherwise you run the risk of making duplicates and you have to stop. The Talking PeppersArt Photography project can’t stop, it always seems like something is missing, I can’tfind the final images, at least until now.

I started taking photographs in the early 70s, colour photography didn’t exist,in newspapers the photos were in black and white and even television was in black and white,the photographs were almost all in black and white. Black and white was and is easy, anenlarger, two basins and the negative developer, you can producephotographs even without an enlarger, by printing in contact, you can developfilm even without a developer. In those years photography was very widespread, almostin every home photographs were developed and printed, to the disappointment of parents whofound the bathroom at home occupied for hours.50 years have passed, colour has made enormous progress, digital too but Iam tied to my black and white photography, even if I sometimes takecolour photographs. With digital you can do everything immediately, bright colours, no dust,everything immediately visible, you don’t need a darkroom, you don’t need sensitive paper.I like the smell of the darkroom, the red light, the big oldcounter, seeing the image slowly appear on the sensitivepaper as if by magic, after 50 years I can't give it all up. Color is a traitor, itcheats you, vivid colors attract you and in fact they use them to make you spend, colors makean object attractive even when it isn't, color is a deception.Black and white is honest and discreet, it doesn't sneak into your brain to activate yoursensors and it still does its job and does it better. Do you want to know if aphotograph is of great value? open it in Photoshop and then switch it to monochrome, if thephotograph is of value it is beautiful even in black and white, but if you find it dull and insignificant itmeans that it is a poor photo, even if it is in color.I would like to clarify, the monochrome of digital images is not the black and white of analog photography, in practice a gradation of gray is assigned for each color and its shades, I find monochrome images, even if clean and glossy, flat, as if they had no relief. The Talking Peppers Art Photography project was born in 2000, color had already invaded magazines, television, cinema for years, it was everywhere, black and white was considered old and close to disappearing, sensitive paper and developments were hard to find. I created Talking Art Peppers Photography in black and white, 4x5 flat films on optical bench, old macro lenses created for scientific purposes, put out of use by digital and printed on archive paper with cotton support. 24 years have passed, black and white is not dead, indeed it is more alive than ever even if not very widespread, it deals with art prints and high-level work. Sensitive papers have returned to photography shops with excellent products, the old manufacturers of photographic equipment have started to distribute trays, thermometers and developers again.