Fixer Fixer

[Pit Gebeyaw]

A fixer is someone who carries out assignments for or is skillful at solving problems for others. The term has different meanings in different contexts. In British usage, the term is neutral, meaning "the sort of person who solves problems and gets things done".[1] In journalism, a fixer is a local person who expedites the work of a correspondent working in a foreign country. Use in American English implies that methods used to conceal their clients' identities or potential scandals are almost certainly of questionable morality, if not legality.[2] A fixer who disposes of bodies or "cleans up" physical evidence of crime is often more specifically called a cleaner. In sports, the term describes someone who makes (usually illegal) arrangements to manipulate or pre-arrange the outcome of a sporting contest.

Fixers may primarily use legal means, such as lawsuits and payoffs, to accomplish their ends, or they may carry out unlawful activities. The White House Plumbers have been described as fixers for Richard Nixon; their methods included break-ins and burglary.[3] Fixers who specialize in disposing of evidence or bodies are called "cleaners",[4] like the character of Victor "The Cleaner" in the film La Femme Nikita, or the fictional Jonathan Quinn, subject of the Brett Battles novel The Cleaner.[5]

In Britain, a fixer is a commercial consultant for business improvement, whereas in an American context a fixer is often an associate of a powerful person who carries out difficult, undercover, or stealth actions, or extricates a client out of personal or legal trouble.[1][6] A fixer may freelance, like Judy Smith, a well-known American public relations "crisis consultant" whose career provided inspiration for the popular 2012 television series Scandal.[7] More commonly a fixer works for a single employer, under a title such as "attorney" or "bodyguard", which does not typically describe the kinds of services that they provide.

In sport, when a match fixer arranges a preordained outcome of a sporting or athletic contest, the motivation is often gambling, and the fixer is often employed by organized crime. In the Black Sox Scandal, for instance, Major League Baseball players became involved with a gambling syndicate and agreed to lose the 1919 World Series in exchange for payoffs.[8] In another example, in 1975, Boston mobster Anthony "Fat Tony" Ciulla of the Winter Hill Gang was identified as the fixer who routinely bribed jockeys to throw horse races.[9][10] Other insiders may also be fixers, as in the case of veterinarian Mark Gerard, who, in September 1978, was convicted of fraud for "masterminding a horse-racing scandal that involved switching two thoroughbreds" so that he could cash in on a long-shot bet.[9]

In journalism, a fixer is someone, often a local journalist, hired by a foreign correspondent or a media company to help arrange a story. Fixers will most often act as translators and guides, and will help to arrange local interviews that the correspondent would not otherwise have access to. They help to collect information for the story and sometimes play a crucial role in the outcome.[11] Fixers are rarely credited, and often put themselves in danger, especially in regimes where they might face consequences from an oppressive government for exposing iniquities the state may want to censor.[12][13]

A map based on publicly accessible research data shows a visual representation of data collected from various studies conducted on both fixers and their journalist counterparts from over 70 countries. Gathered from the Global Reporting Centre, the survey demographic map had 132 respondents from North America, 101 from Europe, 23 from South America, Africa and Eurasia, 63 from Asia and 9 from Australia.[15]

Numerous films and several songs have been named The Fixer. As a genre, they illustrate the different meanings of the term. Most commonly, they refer to the kind of person who carries out illicit activities on behalf of someone else. For example, the 2008 British television series The Fixer is about "a renegade group acting outside the law to bring order to the spiraling criminal activity in the country".[16]

Indicator stop bath is only pennes more and changes color when exhausted if you allready have stop bath I would say a good rule of thumb would be 35-50 8x10's Fixer would depend on what brand and dilution I have a bottle of edwal hypo check you put a few drops into the fixer and if it is getting close it turns white on contact cool stuff. Hypo clear/wash aid usally says on the bag if you need me to check let me know I have a few bags in the darkroom.

Using everything on one-shot basis may be good for chemical companies, but it is bad in terms of the amount of chemical waste generated. I suggest that you do a bit of research on each product you use about their processing capacity, working life and shelf life.

I used to re-use fix and use a two-bath fix, but then I noticed that I was getting accumulated crud deposited on Acros that I didn't get when I had completely fresh fix. That problem went away when I started mixing up fix for one-shot use, too.

The temperature of the stop and fix is not critical. Most modern emulsions are much harder than they used to be so much more resistant to reticulation and less likely to be damaged by higher temperatures. A temperature of 25 C is not excessive but try to keep total wet time to under 20 minutes.

When you get to the fixing stage, drop the piece of leader, which you cut off from the film, into the top of the tank. Agitate continuously for 1 minute and check it. If it's clear then fix for one more minute. Fixing time is TWICE clearing time and this way you don't fix for any longer than is necessary.

About Bergger: They are getting their emulsions by Forte (Hungary) and indeed this is a very soft emulsion. Same with the single layer films of Efke (Croatia) or (the same) ADOX films. For sheet film development you could consider the use of a hardener for higher developing temperatures, for 135-36 or 120 rolfilm maybe only if you are using above mentioned emulsions.

Regarding reticulation, it is virtually impossible except for faster, thicker emulsion with older style manufacturing. Reticulation takes place with sharply elevated temperatures, frequently 150 deg.F or more and at that the last films I successfully reticulated were Verichrome Pan and TriX. And even at that, it sometimes is necessary to add some household bleach in the hot water to manage it.

Typically, you develop film and then immediately immerse the film into 150 degree (or hotter) water for a couple of minutes. Do this before the stop bath or fixer since certain of the chemicals (acetic acid, etc.) will toughen the emulsion so that it can't be reticulated.

If this doesn't work for you, assuming that you are using a nice fat film, add a couple of tablespoons of household bleach to the hot water per quart or liter. Dont overdo the bleach, it attacks gelatin.

It was the first of many times I received invaluable help and insight from fixers, the resourceful, well-informed locals who assist foreign correspondents. Most in this region are fluent in Arabic and many are aspiring journalists.

So Mohannad and I headed back to the street near the start of curfew. Vegetable sellers were rushing to restock their shops and close for the night. As we left a shop, goods in hand, a young policeman stood in our path. He cocked his shotgun and shouted at us.

Although he still works as a fixer, Moe has become an outspoken critic of foreign journalists. After one too many dealings with correspondents who he says mischaracterized context and people or outright distorted facts, he wrote a searing piece on his blog in 2010. He admits that fixers who are less than scrupulous sometimes mislead journalists, but says ultimately the facts and ethics of journalism are the responsibility of those who put their names on stories.

ILFORD RAPID FIXER is a non-hardening, easy to use, rapid fixer. This versatile chemistry is supplied as a liquid concentrate and is suitable for all black & white film and darkroom paper fixing in both manual and machine processing applications.

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I am just getting round to sorting out my darkroom and thought I'd give it a test run now the power was in. The first thing I wanted to test was that the old paper I was given still worked, if only for testing even if not final prints. Freshly opened I developed an unexposed piece and all was well. I then made a few test contact sheets and although overexposed because I didn't eyt know the speed of the paper, all developed well.

I then made a couple of test prints, which looked fine in the darkroom but having removed them and seeing them in normal light, the edges of the paper had brown discolouration. The test contacts I had made previously were perfectly fine.

Now I know the paper is old so there's a possibility it is this, but given that the top sheets of paper, which are the most likely to have reacted with the packaging were fine, this seems less likely than I first thought. There's also the chance of the fixer getting exhausted, and I'll have to check this at a later date.

The main difference between the test contact sheets and the prints I made was that because I knew I was throwing the contacts away I didn't leave them in the fixer very long. Being an amateur who has only had a few evening classes in the darkroom I was under the assumption that fixer is harmless, and the longer you leave the prints in the fix the better, so that is what I did for the prints. Given that it is Ilford Rapid Fixer I have they were in there for long over the recommended time, which I had assumed was a minimum for safe fixing.

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