The American West Portraits

"Chris Perez" 16" x 20" (40cm x 50cm) Black Glass Ambrotype - Denver, Colorado, USAMaking photographs, for me, is sometimes a painful and difficult ordeal. It creates anxiety in my life. When you want to see what's in your head on glass and metal plates, and can't quite get over the last hurddle, it can be very stressful. I’m in one of those times now, but working through it.

I’ve been making 16” x 20” (40cm x 50cm) Wet Collodion portraits (currently titled, "The American West Portraits"). I started planning this project almost 18 months ago by ordering a 20” x 24” camera, it's been non-stop ever since. And now, I’m struggling to get the look and feel on these large plates that I want. It’s 99% technical mostly a lens issue. I need a lens that will cover the plate and allow me to compose the image in a way that I’m happy with it. It’s more difficult than it sounds.

Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem. I would have plenty of time to resolve any technical or aesthetic issue I might have. However, I’ve got an exhibition opening on March 14, 2012 in Paris, France at Centre-Iris Gallery. I find myself anxious and preoccupied regarding how the images will look for the exhibition. I see them in my mind, I just need to get them on the glass and metal! 

Having been in Denver for six months doesn’t help me either. I need time to build connections and find the right people to photograph. And now it’s winter, the days are short. At best, there’s about three hours of good light to work with. I will say that there would be no better place to be than in Denver for light this time of year, when it’s shining, the bright blue sky is amazing. It means that the sitter I want to photograph must come to my studio within a certain window of time (1000 – 1300). That gets complicated and stressful, too.

These issues are forcing me to rethink how I work and what I work with. And how "exact" things have to be. I have a “King’s problem” and I understand that. I keep thinking, maybe in the end, I will make a far better body of work than if I had a year to work on it. We’ll see. 

This is a "working idea" - these will collect in my studio and I'll look at them over the next couple of months.

Here's a "taste" of what the show will be made up of - all 16" x 20" (40cm x 50cm) Wet Collodion plates.

Experimenting With Props





Knife, originally uploaded by quinnjacobson.

 
I've been experimenting with different concepts in the form of props. Every time I do this, I find myself going back to the beginning and photographing people - particularly faces – raw and pure. That's all I'm really interested in.

In the end, what I find most interesting is "less". Less as in fewer props, fewer distractions. I'm not very good at creating an atmosphere anyway. What I can do is show the depth of a person and sometimes, I can reveal something interesting in their face or spirit.

I enjoy this the most but I question if it's because I'm "comfortable" and I'm getting lazy or if it’s still valid to work what you feel most strongly about decade after decade. For now, I’ll continue doing what drives me; the human face.

Alternative Process Photography and Science Meet at the Getty

Getty just published a nice (technical) article on alternativephotography.com. My portion of the piece is about halfway down the page (embedded screenshot). Preserving the Chemical Photography Era

The project is called, “Preserving the Chemical Photography Era”. A very important project. I’m honored to participate. I have some more work to do for them, too; negatives, Albumen print, and some unvarnished pieces.

I’m not sure who the Bulgarian is they are referring to in the article. I’ll have to find out. I’m not sure what else you would call a Collodion image made on aluminum other than an Alumitype.

I need to update my gallery on alternativephotography. There are Collodion photographs there from 2003 and 2004! The images aren’t bad, but you can really see where I was (technically) at the time.

"Anonymous" 4"x10" Wet Plate Collodion Ambrotype

 Annonymous Ambrotype - 4" x 10" - Clear Glass Ambrotype - Viernheim, GermanyI made this image a couple of hours ago - it was overcast and cool. I used north light (for the mask/effect). It was a 20 second exposure with my Hermagis lens ~375mm - f/9.

This plate looks a lot better when you are holding it in your hand - believe me! It's hard to copy/scan plates, but especially difficult if they are on clear glass.

Here's a snap of my new camera, too:

 

Whole Plate Collodion Negatives

Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany
Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany - (the streak is from "lens flare")
Wet Collodion Negatives are intense and a lot of fun. They take some pratice and there's no "high-wow" factor for the public, but they are really special for personal work and for POP (Albumen prints/Salt prints) prints.

Time Goes So Fast… Make It Count!

Well, here we are beginning our third (read: 3rd) year in Germany. I can't believe it. Where does the time go? It must have something to do with the knowledge that our time is finite here. Wouldn't that apply to all human beings in relation to life? I digress.

Summer and I have been working hard on my video series called, "The Wet Plate Collodion Workshop DVD Series". I'm excited by all of this. I'll close this chapter of my life out with two new books, two DVDs, and a new web site. I'm going to try to launch, publish, produce all of those by the end of the year.  All of the proceeds from the sales of these books and DVDs will go into an account for Summer. She will be in college in a couple of years and we thought this would be a great way to get her some additional cash/tuition/car/etc. money. She is doing all of the editing on the DVDs and proof-reading/editing the books for me. She's working hard and earning her money.

I have two workshops planned for September and October. One in Vienna, Austria and another in The Netherlands. Those are confirmed.  I also have one tentative for Berlin in September and one hanging in October for Mallorca, Spain (an island west of Barcelona).  A lot of stuff and a lot of fun! That's how I like to roll ;-)  here's a frame exported from the video:

A screenshot from one of the videos in the series.

Next year, 2009, will be devoted completely to my personal work (other than a possible workshop in Finland). I'll be finished with all of the writing, teaching, and video making and will devote myself completely to my project. I still spend a fair amount of time working on my "Kristallnacht" project. It's difficult here and things move very, very slow.  I do have four images of the project showing in San Francisco right now. They are in a show called, "Into the Ether: Contemporary Collodion Work" at RayKo Gallery. I hear the crowd was large and impressed by the work. That makes me happy. However, the German people are the ones that need to see this work. And, moreover, think about it. I'm working on it.