Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/19

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Jeanloup Sieff
From: TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com)
Date: Wed May 19 15:26:59 2004

Greg,
 I had the opportunity to meet Jean Loup Sieff several times while we lived 
in Paris 1982/83. We used to have breakfast at Caf? de Flore on Fridays. It 
took a couple of months before we talked, but in the true European fashion, we 
nodded "bon jour" for several Fridays until we decided to talk! The fact that we 
both carried M's with the basic lenses on them; 21/3,4 S-Angulons, 35 
Summicrons, and 50 Summicron established the connection. Oh, and the plastic bag full 
of Tri-X, too. We both carried our copies of Liberation and Intn'l Herald 
Tribune, too.
 He was a devoted Tri-X user, processing in D-76, either 1:1 or straight, 
depending on the contrast he wanted. He, like me, mixed his own D-76 from scratch 
and we had several discussions on cutting the Sodium Sulphite down to get 
more distinct grain (S/S mushes up the grain a bit). He used a D2 Omega enlarger 
and also had the largest supply of dodging tools I have ever seen. He did some 
of his own printing but a lot of his exhibition work was done by Jean Yves 
Bregand of "Imagenoir"  who also printed for Sebastian Salgado and Joseph 
Koudelka (how establised can you be!),
 Sieff was very much a "basic shooter" - no fancy stuff, but he had mastered 
the equipment he used and saw no reason to change. His Hasselblad stuff and 
4x5 stuff was different - that was strictly commercial and film/developers were 
targeted to client need and "art directors" whims. Oh, we designed a hell 
suitable for Art Directors : all shag carpeting (purple and mustard color), 
formica and chrome chairs and only incoming phone-lines - they could not phone out. 
They would all be stuck in this barn like structure and have to live with each 
other and wear ugly ties in perpetuity!
 The photographers' heaven had unlimited supply of Tri-X, D-76 was always 
fresh and the developing trays would magically replenish themselves with fresh 
solutions every morning! All exposures would be perfect and all models would 
listen to the photographer and not throw fits.
 In the early 80's his choice of paper was Ilford fixed contrast paper, but 
we both discussed the Multigrade papers as a potential boon for darkroom work. 
His paper developer was a variation of Dektol (increased amount of Sodium 
Carbonate for deeper blacks). I think Bregand also mixed his paper developers from 
scratch and somewhere I have his formula for a warm tone developer. Both 
Sieff and Bregand were heavily addicted to Ferrocyanide, doing individual blades 
of grass on entire lawns!
All the best,
Tom A
P.S. Tuulikki, My wife studied French in Paris while I used my school and 
college French. I did explain to the Parisians that the reason I used mostly 
present tense was that I had "no past and no future in Paris". Sieff was deeply 
impressed by the logic of this statement and quickly changed to English as our 
language of communication!
--------------------------------
Tom Abrahamsson
Vancouver, BC
Canada
rapidwinder.com

Replies: Reply from s.dimitrov at charter.net (Slobodan Dimitrov) ([Leica] Jeanloup Sieff)