Revela - T and Barcelona

I'm fresh off of the plane from Barcelona. Jeanne and I traveled to Vilassar de Dalt, a small village just 20 km northwest of Barcelona to take part in the first Revela - T Foto Festival. It was a huge success and a lot of fun. A big thanks to Joan and Pep for inviting me and making this happen. What a great job they did!

I was scheduled to do a public demonstration and two workshops. It all went very well. There were almost 100 people in attendance between the demo and classes. A very nice turnout. 

One of the first friends we saw was Josep maria Ribas Prous. I met him in Reus, Spain in 2007. I was invited there to teach a week long workshop. This was the first public workshop in Europe open to artists and photographers. It started the revival that's happening today in Europe. I went on from Reus and taught courses all over eastern and western Europe for the next four years. And now that I'm back in America, I still travel to Europe at least once a year to teach. 

Quinn standing next to the information about Josep's American TintypesJosep was very kind. He brought us gifts. Beautifiul photographs for each of us (Jeanne and Summer). On top of that, Josep dedicated the exhibitoin of his 19th century American Tintypes to me. It was a great honor and I consider him not only an important figure in Catalan photography, but a good friend.  On this placard, it reads that the exhibition is in my honor. I was very humbled and excited to see a beautiful collection of American Tintypes. This was the first and last time these images will be seen in public. 

On Saturday, I gave a public demonstration about the wet collodion process. There was a very good turn out. Ilan Wolff gave his lecture before mine. Very interesting work and technique. 

Sunday was the first workshop. It was an introduction course held at Espai Photographic Association Nag - very nice facility in Barcelona. It was a large class and they all got on the process quickly and made some nice photographs. 

Monday was our day off. We wandered the streets of Barcelona during the day and relaxed in the garden until dinner time. We visited old friends and they made us a delicious dinner at their studio. Marti, Rebecca, and Rafel - thank you! We had a wonderful time!

Tuesday and Wednesday was the final workshop; making negatives and prints. Another large group but they all did very well. I had some old friends in that course, too. Muchas gracias to Ana and Lola. It was very good to see you again. This workshop was held at BCI FotoEspai School of Photography - another very nice facility! 

Thanks again to everyone that made this happen. I hope we can do it again next year.

The introduction to Wet Collodion course in Barcelona! Great group!!

Ana and Lola - very good friends and wonderful artists!

Cati and Maider - they made some great negatives and prints. We call them, "Las Chicas de Archer"! photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Las Chicas de Archer - photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Irene and Hawkey from Sweden. They took both course and did a fantastic job! Team Sweden! photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Anabelle and Estelle printing out their negatives on Aristotype paper - photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Toni and Pep - holding the show together! Thank you for all of the support!!

Quinn and Jeanne - loving life in Barcelona!

Quinn and Jeanne with Miquel's work at the festival!

Met some new friends at the festival - Las Chicas de Talbot

The opening of the festival with the Mayor of Vilassar de Dalt and all of the presenters - photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Another tattoo, Quinn? - photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Vilassar de Dalt - a beautiful village in the hills just northwest of Barcelona. - photo by Jeanne Jacobson

Miquel Angelo and his wife with Quinn and Jeanne - A great artist and a wonderful friend.

Our old friends from Barcelona - Marti, Rebecca and Rafel.

Thank you for everything!! We hope to return next year!!!

Native American Massacre Site Project (NAMS)

This year, I plan to have a very good start on the Native American Massacre site project. This project is yet to be titled. I'll call it NAMS for now.

It seems that I'm constantly pulled into other projects and things that distract me. Teaching is a big one. As much as I love teaching, I'm going to have to figure out a better way to have more time, and I think that translates to less teaching. There are plenty of people teaching nowadays, it wouldn't be a big deal if I cut back. Of course, I would have to make some changes, but I'm ready for that.

In the next several weeks, I will be traveling to a couple of different massacre sites. I have a feeling that I'll be making more than one trip to some of these locations. Which translates to a very long time to make this project a reality. And I'm very much okay with that.

In fact, part of my desire to do this project is to get away from the ridiculous "photography" pace I've kept for the past several years. I'm tired. And a little bit burned out.

As many times as I've tried to slow down and cut back, there's been more opportunities that are presented. However, now, I'm learning how to say, "No, thank you" as it relates to photography and art. My boundaries are being redefined so I can do the things I need to do. 

While I've been very fortunate in my career, taking opportunities for opportunities sake doesn't really satisfy me. As an artist, I'm supposed to be thinking, reading, writing, researching and making photographs. That's the opportunity I want to pursue.

For the past year, I've been doing a lot of research on the NAMS project. I'm not over thinking it, but I am trying to position myself to make several inquiries not only about these events in history, but about art in general as well as aesthetics. It will speak to a lot of my concerns, questions, and attitude about art in general, too.

Recently, I discovered a treasure trove of information here in Colorado about obscure massacre sites and places where treaties were signed (and later broken). These sites, and the information they include, are almost like 19^th century urban legends. The writing tells of fantastic events about Native Americans, men, women, and children being slaughtered, raped, burned alive, skinned alive, and enslaved.

One entry that I read has rented space in my head. I can't get it out of my mind. It happened at at the Sand Creek Massacre site here in Colorado. It talks about the slaughter of native men, women and children by the U.S. military. As the natives were trying to run away, there was a little boy, about three years-old, naked running and crying toward the others. He couldn't keep up. One soldier pulls up his rifle and fires. He misses the little boy. Another soldier says, "Here, I'll get that little sonofabitch." He pulls his rifle up and fires. The little boy stumbles and falls dead into the sand. I cried when I read that.

Even that brief description doesn't come close to the things I've read about these events. I've visited a couple of these sites, without cameras, just to be there and to feel the land. One of them, just outside of Denver, is one of the most beautiful places I've seen here. To think about the horror, pain and suffering that took place there is almost like being back in Europe standing the gas chambers or looking at a blood ditch.

I'm reminded of Sally Mann's "Southern Landscapes" and "Battlefields". It's beautiful work, very haunting. The connection to the land is crucial. She imbued the work with that. You can feel how the land remembers. Those horrible events scarred the land.

My work will seem much more documentary in style, but will not be a documentary project. I don't even really believe those exist. This is about my relationship to my mother's heritage, to the land, and to genocide. It's a personal, very subjective look at my own thoughts and feelings regarding this terrible piece of American history.

Wet Collodion Negatives & Prints - April, 2013

When it comes to making photographs, you can't get more authentic or real than wet collodion negatives and printing out paper.

From Friday morning, April 12th to Sunday evening, April 14th, I had five students working in Studio Q. They learned how to make the wet collodion negatives, re-develop them. They also learned how to make Salt and Albumen paper as well as Collodio-Chloride paper (Aristotypes). They made negatives on Saturday and printed all of them on Sunday. It was a great workshop and we had a great group of people - Craig from Kansas, Euphus from Mississippi, Kevin, from Denver, Rustin from Carbondale, and Matt (assisted) from Denver.

I'll be in Europe next month, but will return (with tapas) in June and I have an introduction course set for June 15-16, 2013. If you are interested, please send me an email or visit this page for more details. 

All photography by Matt Alberts (www.mattalbertsphotography.com) - thanks, Matt!!

When you make negatives, you always start with a positive. Black Glass Ambrotype of Euphus.

The "Euphus Negative" after redeveloping.

Hot water being poured into the sizing and salt for Salt paperA good look at a redeveloped negative. Printing Euphus out on some Salt paper.Euphus printed out on Salt paper.

One of Euphus' first negatives of the day.

Kevin inspects one of his negatives.The "Cat Daddy" and Euphus ;-) This is a portrait that Craig made of Matt - a wonderful image!Euphus was ready for the group portrait before everyone else. "And that is Collodio-Chloride... let's pour it on some paper and make some prints!"Gold toning Craig's portrait of Kaitlan.Rustin gold toning a Salt print of Kaitlan.Euphus and his Bellocq print of Kaitlan (Bellecq's image is on the left for comparison).Bellecq... er.. Euphus and his print. Kevin and his group shot - Whole plate Salt print.

Whole plate Collodio-Chloride print from a wet collodion negative - Euphus Ruth

Barcelona Wet Collodion Workshops

I'll be in Barcelona in May teaching two workshops and doing a public demonstration. If you've wanted to learn this process, and its variants, sign up and join me in beautiful, sunny, Spain!

Click here to get more information and/or to sign up for a workshop. 

Spend Some Time in My World

"Jan in Berlin, Germany 2009" - POP print from a Wet Collodion Negative.My approach to making photographs has been grounded in three ideas or concepts. I call this my philosophical tripod. They are; identity, difference, and memory.

If you were to scour through the thousands of plates I’ve made over the many years of doing this, you would find these ideas supporting almost every image.

I’m most interested in the tension that comes from someone seeing themselves very differently than the world sees them. When we are photographed, we exude that tension. Especially the way I photograph people; I want that to be palpable. We all have it, some more than others. My friend, Caron, sent me this article the other day that sums this idea up nicely. 

When I receive an email or someone comments and they say something like this, "There’s something about your portraits that’s haunting and disturbing". I translate it like this, "Your portraits make me feel a little bit uneasy, but I’m attracted to them. It must be the tension the sitter is feeling being revealed in this way."

We live so much of our lives in the past. Our memories, good, bad, or indifferent, drive a lot of what we do and who we are. Some would argue that if you live in the past, you live in depression. Maybe that’s true for some people, and I can see this point of view. I use memory as a learning tool. While I don’t "live in the past", I often think about it and evaluate current events based on it, at least to some extent. The aesthetic of wet collodion screams memory. To my mind, there's no better visual description for memory than a wet collodion image. People recognize this, even if they don't know about the process. It's visceral and visual. 

Many years ago, I heard someone say, "How can every person have the desire to be unique yet at the same time want so desperately to fit in?" That has been in my mind for decades. It is the quote of difference that appears in every one of my images/portraits. This is the question I’m asking and the struggle of every sitter trying to answer. I can see it in the image. I can feel it when I’m making the image, too.

I’ve been fortunate to have people that will actually spend time with my work, read my statements and understand it. There are few feelings or emotions that are more satisfying than to have someone email me saying that they "get it", that the work resonates with them and they’ve connected the dots. What more can someone ask for? We spend so much of our lives in other people’s worlds; your employer’s, a television show, a movie, a book – so it’s an honor when someone spends time in my world.