Greetings!
I hope this note finds you healthy and happy. We are doing well and enjoying the beautiful fall weather and beautiful scenery here in the mountains.
You’re probably reading this because you’re interested in what I have planned now that my darkroom and studio are almost finished. I have a list of experiments that I want to accomplish before I start my new project. And if you’re into historic photographic processes, I bet you’ll find it interesting.
First things first, in that order. Starting next year (maybe a bit even this year) I want to make a new body of work. I plan to make mostly landscape work (The Red Earth Project) but am not going to limit myself or “box myself in” on anything, so I’ll just keep it open. In order to make the work, from a technical standpoint, I want to experiment with several different processes for making glass negatives. I’ve spent months going over 19th and 20th-century photography literature on my Studio Q Show LIVE! on YouTube. Every Saturday, for over a year, I’ve presented technical information on the Wet Collodion process and many other processes and variants. I’ve been doing the show for years, but have been doing the weekly show for 15 months now.
I’ve concentrated on “finding the perfect process for making negatives” - or searching for different processes to accomplish that. This will be the basis of these experiments. Normally, I would just pursue the project in the Wet Collodion process, but I want to push the envelope with this work - do something unique, hence my research and experiments. The old-timers had something special going on with their negatives and prints. You’ll never see anything today that can compare to the work made in the 19th and early 20th centuries I want to “find” their secrets! And now, I can work full time on it to make it happen!
My goal is to make Rawlins Oil Prints on glass. In other words, the negatives that I make will be used to print (positives) on glass. The Rawlins Oil process is beautiful. You can see some of my experiments from 2020 here. I know what my final product will be, the question is “how do I get there?”
So, what are the experiments going to involve? Here’s a shortlist (if you’ve watched the videos you’ll get a better grasp of what these mean).
1. Sutton’s Iodizer Only Negatives (Method #1) - August 7, 2021
2. Sutton’s Bromo-Iodized Negatives (Method #2) - August 14, 2021
3. Sutton’s Albumen Printing (with Method #1 Negatives) - August 21, 2021
4. Sutton’s Dry Plate Processes - With Tannin and Gum Arabic - August 28, 2021
5. Long’s Albumen on Glass - September 25, 2021
6. Towler’s and Photographic News Albumen on Glass - October 2, 2021
7. Monckhoven’s Collodio-Albumen on Glass - October 9, 2021
8. Mr. Madd’s Collodio-Albumen on Glass - October 16, 2021
9. James Mudd’s Collodio-Albumen on Glass - October 30, 2021
10. James Reilly’s Salted Paper & Albumen Book: Arrowroot Salt Prints - November 13, 2021
There are a lot of little ancillary tests and experiments I want to do as well. For example; Sutton’s washing and resensitizing the wet collodion plate for increased sensitivity, Estabrooke’s ideal collodion (viscosity), and how it takes on the iodides as well as some developer additives; i.e. gelatin. It should be fun, entertaining, and very enlightening!