I really enjoy making negatives and printing. In the collodion world, it’s easy to get swept up in the simple direct positives (Ambrotype and Tintypes) and never pursue the “real” thing. A lot of it is the “wow” factor. When you’re doing public demonstrations, workshops, or just making Ambrotypes and Tintypes on your own, you and/or the people you’re “performing” for, get to see the positive reveal itself in the fix. It’s fun, and there are always “oohs” and “ahhs” in a crowd. The positive process is simple, easy, and relatively inexpensive. After 20 years of doing that and only making negatives on the side, I wanted to move on. My heart and my desire have always been with the negative and the print.
There’s so much more information in a negative. Positives can’t capture nearly as much. In reality, a positive is a very underexposed negative and it is under-developed too. Underexposing by definition means that you are lacking information. Chemically speaking, a positive contains very little density or information. And above all of it is the fact that you can make many prints (and some different kinds too). You have so many options for toning, color, texture (type of paper), and just overall more flexibility with negatives.
I’ve made wet collodion negatives since 2004, but not like what I’m doing now. My full attention is directed toward one goal; making the finest negative I can and the most revealing print (s) possible. It’s exciting to explore the possibilities. I am limiting myself to wet and dry collodion plates and prints in the siderotype family. I’ll more than likely make all of this work in Collodion Dry Plate and print with Platinum Palladium, Kallitypes, and maybe Argyrotypes. I’m experimenting with all of them. I’ve just ordered the chemistry for the Argyrotypes. My friend in Argentina turned me onto it - thanks, Pablo. I’ll post some prints in the next few days. It’s a process created by Mike Ware. The two guys that did the POP Platinum - Ware and Malde. Really great stuff!
I apologize about the iPhone photo, but you get the idea. This is a Platinum Palladium (mostly Palladium) print from a dry collodion negative.
I apologize about the iPhone photo, but you get the idea. This is a Platinum Palladium (mostly Palladium) print from a dry collodion negative.