I’ve started working on my Self-Directed Study (SDS) and my book, Glass Bones.
I made this negative today in the desert near my house. I’ve always loved the ocotillo. I even made a large painting (in bloom) of one that hangs in our bedroom (see below). This image comes from the place where rupture enters experience and refuses to remain abstract. In the desert, beauty and threat are inseparable. The spines of the ocotillo catch the midday sun until they appear almost skeletal, held in that narrow space where form begins to emerge under pressure. The collodion plate becomes a vessel for that exposure. What remains on the glass is not just a picture of a plant but a trace of light, time, and the awareness that everything we see is already passing.
For the technical geeks: f/8 at 6 seconds, Dallmeyer 3B lens, redeveloped negative (pyro + AgNO₃). It felt good to make this plate today. I’ll print it on a few different POP papers and see which one speaks back.
New Mexico—March 24, 2026
© Quinn Jacobson
Ocotillo in bloom—36" x 48” acrylic and mixed media. 2025