DIABETICGUY / KZOOFILMPHOTO

vials/// insulin developer/ 4×5 direct positive paper/ pinhole

•camera: pinsta go

•paper: ilford direct positive

•developer: insulin dev.

•scanner: epson v600 (no post)

I originally posted this photo here without much explanation of how I made the developer or developed the photo.

The photo was made on harman direct positive paper and was developed for 3 minutes (most likely). I’ve done similar developers with black walnut or mushroom extraction and I’ve found that three minutes is a good starting point for photographic paper. I developed with the developer temperature at approximately 70 degrees F.

I’ve developed tons of 35mm film in caffenol and in developers made from black walnuts or mushrooms. Some developers that I’ve made from pine/hemlock/cedar produced very thin film negatives, but developed paper pretty well. When I’m experimenting with a new developer, I like to test it on photo paper first before trying it on film.

I made the photo using a Pinsta camera. The camera is designed to take chemicals and to develop photo paper inside of the camera after it is exposed. The camera only uses about 20ml of developer, which is nice because it takes so long for me to save up enough insulin in order to develop one photo–I use an insulin pump and I save what little insulin is left in the cartridge or the tubing when I change everything over. I’ve combined that leftover insulin with expired insulin or insulin that has been time/temperature abused.

That said, I’ve tried to create the developer one additional time since I made the vials photo, and the developer failed. I’m not sure why, but I surely will try again.

For the recipe, I based it off of this caffenol recipe:

Caffenol-C-H

YIELD: 1000 ml

1000 ml Water

41 g Washing Soda

17 g Vitamin C

40 g Instant Coffee

Except I scaled it down to this:

YIELD: 25 ml

25 ml Water, distilled

1.0 g Washing Soda

0.4 g Vitamin C

1.0 g Instant Coffee

I simply omitted the water and instant coffee and replaced those items with insulin, so the recipe looked something like this:

YIELD: 25 ml

25 ml insulin

1.0 g Washing Soda

0.4 g Vitamin C

I should note that when I develop film, I start with a 15 minute developing time for 400 speed film. I also use potassium bromide as a restrainer/anti fogger every time that I develop film. 1 g per 1000ml water for the Caffenol-C-H recipe.

I used 20ml of insulin to develop this photo. 20 ml of insulin is the equivalent of 2 vials, and the amount of insulin that I need to stay alive for 30 days. at the time of making this photo, two vials of insulin had a list price of $660.

Part of Care Before Profit project (2019—present) and I did an interview with Lenscratch about this work. You can see more or the artwork here. You can now shop diabetes related merch. Thanks to Pepper for the email inquiry which prompted me to share this in more detail. <3

-Pauly ..i.,

P.S. as of this post, I spilled my saved insulin!! I almost has enough to develop another photo, too. SHIT!