After I successfully made the prints I was finally, one day before my ISP presentation, ready to start the experimentation with the various household chemicals. I started off with 10 prints but soon realized that that was no going to be enough due to two factors: 1. By using the bleach and the Drano is was very easy to obliterate the entire image in mere seconds so you had to make room for error. 2. Once you started seeing results you wanted to keep experimenting with different combinations of chemicals.
The following were my results. Enjoy!
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| Clorox and water 1:1 ratio - 10 seconds |
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| Clorox and water 1:1 ratio 8 seconds |
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| Povidone-Iodine solution 2 min 15 seconds |
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| Clorox and water 1:1 ratio - 5 seconds |
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| Pepto Bismol and bleach solution 5 minutes |
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| Listerine |
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| Coca-Cola, Povidone-Iodine, and Pepto Bismol |
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| Drano |
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| Bleach, NyQuil, Povidone Iodine, and Pepto Bismol |
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| Bleach and NyQuil |
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| Bleach and Dawn dish soap |
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| Bengay and Povidone Iodine |
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| Drano and water 1:1 ratio |
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| Drano and water 1:1 ratio left on for a shorter period of time than the one shown above. |
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| Every chemical mentioned so far |
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| Listerine and Bengay |
Needless to say I had quit e a bit of fun with my ISP. Once I started getting results I had to rush back to the darkroom to print 10 more copies so that I could keep experimenting. Once I finished I came to the following conclusions:
- Texture and potency of the chemical has profound effects on the photos.
- Bleach and Drano acted as the ferricyanide bromide solution used ins traditional toning (though it was much more destructive). It acted at the catalyst for the reactions that took place.
- If the goal was to have a slower reaction the following actions were found to be very helpful.
- Pouring over the image so as to limit the contact that the photo had with the solution.
- Quickly dipping the image into a tray of bleach solution.
- Creat a 1:1 chemial to water solution.
- Brilliantly colored solutions i.e. povidone-iodine, Pepto Bismol, and DayQuil acted as the primary toners.
- Dawn dish soap and Pepto Bismol halted all destruction of the picture that the bleach an the Drano caused.
- Bengay caused the most controlled alteration of the image quality. In addition, it also was the only chemical that changed the composition of the image without making the entire image bleed or run.
Despite the headaches from mixing possibly very dangerous chemicals and all of the smaller trials in the darkroom I learned so much and wouldn't hesitate to do it again or even make a tutorial for school credit about this ISP. I really enjoyed the unpredictable, yet very cool results that the chemicals gave me and believe that I achieve an ISP where science and art were combined.
I will be posting some final notes about the ISP along with the final paper that I am writing about my month. Until next time snap some photos and keep film alive!
