About Brendan Quirk Photography
The Cameras
Most of these photographs were taken with 35 mm cameras. Earlier photos
were with a Ricoh Singlex TLS, which was replaced in the late '90s with
a Nikon FTn Photomic. Lenses were either a 55 mm or a 50 mm, with the
occasional use of a 135 mm telephoto. Zooms were never used. The film
used was mainly Kodak Plus-X Pan, Panatomic-X, or Tri-X Pan. Some
travel photos were taken on whatever Kodacolor was available at the
time.
The Nikon and the Ricoh have been replaced in recent years with a
variety of Minoltas, mainly the XD-11 and X-570. Lenses are the 28, 35,
50, 135, and 200 mm primes, with a very small use of zooms, mainly the
50-135 mm. Film is Ilford FP4+.
The last couple of years have seen a movement to medium format,
specifically the Pentax 6x7 with the 45, 105, and 200 mm lenses. The
future will see the introduction of large format, as a Sinar F1 4"x5"
view camera has been added to the arsenal.
The Prints
All prints are optical enlargements on silver gelatin paper. No digital
steps whatsoever were involved in the process. Unlike most photographs
these days, these prints were not ordered from an internet printing
service, but were hand developed by the photographer himself. Although
modern inkjet prints can perhaps be as visually fine as the older
technology, there still is, to some, a certain dimension to the silver
gelatin prints lacking in the digital prints. It is with this in mind
that we still prefer the art of the darkroom, and hope that you might
feel the same way also. In addition, the long term stability of these
prints, especially the fiber based ones, is well established in a way
that is still open for the inkjets.
Enlargements from B&W
were made mainly on Agfa and Ilford Multigrade fiber based double weight papers,
with some earlier prints on Kodak Fine Art Elite or New Oriental Seagull
FB graded papers. Enlargements from color negatives were on Kodak
Panalure single weight FB or Panalure Select MW resin coated papers. As
Panalure is no longer available, these photos can no longer be printed
in B&W in this manner.
The Artist
Dr. Brendan Quirk is a photographer, chemist, and medical researcher currently living and working in Wisconsin. He earned BS and MS degrees from DePaul University (Chicago) in 1978 and 1989, and a PhD from the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) in 1995. Besides Wisconsin, he has also lived and worked in Riverdale IL, Chicago IL, Charlotte NC, Lisle IL, Charlottesville VA, and Durham NC. Although science has been his life; art, and specifically photography, is a strong and essential avocation for him that complements nicely the creativity of his principle daily work. Having maintained a traditional darkroom since the early 1970’s, he would like to remind the public that there is still room for and much life in the traditional photographic print!
Artist's CV