Wet Plate Collodion Negatives - October 2011

Robert shows off his beautiful Albumen print - printing out in the contact printer!It always feels like good things end too soon. The Wet Plate Collodion Negative Making workshop was one of those good things ending too soon.

 I had a great group of people in my studio for the last three days. Doug Winter, Kathryn Mayo Winter, Robert Krawiec, Kyleigh Morgan (assisting) and Jeanne; they truly impressed me with their ability, passion and excitement. If you wanted to be surrounded by motivated and encouraging people, this group would rank high for those attributes. A big “thank you” to everyone! Jeanne kept us fed and made sure things ran smoothly - thank you!!!

Negative making is a fussy, unpredictable endeavor. It takes awhile to feel comfortable with it and “get the rhythm down.” However, once you do, it’s very rewarding.

The group I had here was incredible. Not only did they get it going, they got the mojo going fast! Almost every plate and every print was a success. And they were even doing some beautiful, creative portraiture work. It was very enjoyable for me to assist and watch the magic happen. There were tears and Goosebumps from this beautiful process. I don’t understand why more people aren’t working in this process!

We started on Saturday with introductions and conversation about art, life and the Wet Plate Collodion world. Saturday afternoon I demonstrated how to make a negative, redevelop it and then made a Salt and Albumen print from it. I showed them how to make Negative Collodion and Negative Developer and we talked, at length about chemistry. At the end of the day, they prepared glass (Half Plates) for Sunday.

Sunday was a great day. They all made Negatives, portraits of Kyleigh. I could see they were going to have some really beautiful prints.

And yesterday, Monday, we made Salt paper and Albumen paper and printed like crazy! Really impressive stuff! Remember, these guys had never made a Wet Plate Collodion Negative before or printed one on Salt or Albumen. How could you not be impressed? I hope to see them all again real soon!

Lef to right, Quinn, Jeanne, Kyleigh, Robert, Kathryn, and Doug.Some of the Salt and Albumen prints made from thier negatives! Impressive work!!

One of Kathryn's prints - toned Salt print - unwaxed. 

 One of Doug's prints. Toned Salt print - I apologize for the digital replication - the prints are really gorgeous in your hand!

One of Robert's prints - toned Albumen - Half Plate.

One of Kathryn's prints "printing out".

Doug dries one of his Wet Plate Collodion Negatives down while Kathryn takes a photo with her iPhone. 

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.

Making Albumen Prints from Wet Collodion Negatives

Albumen printing is tricky, but pays off once you get it down.

Today, I was having issues with sensitizing the Albumen paper. I wanted to check the difference between the single coated and double coated paper that I made a coupe of weeks ago. I'm going to be floating a bunch this weekend and wanted to make sure that the double coated paper was worth the effort (it is!).

I used a Hake brush to sensitize (brushed the silver nitrate on the Albumen paper) and got some "measles" on one of the prints and "weakness" in areas of the other print. Tomorrow, I'm going to use the 3 minute float on the AGNO3 - it's much better.

So far, my German Albumen paper is "da bomb"! The final images on Albumen paper will be much better than these, but I wanted to show you the process - as you can see, it's not for pussies.

Checking the print in the contact frame. You can see I have some "brush strokes" there - weak silver from a previous batch in the brush - and my technique wasn't perfect either. Just some quick prints for testing.
Here, you can see those "measles" - other than that, it's okay. Keep in mind, these are "in camera" negatives, or foundation negatives, they have not been intensified or re-developed (yet). That's my next step - I'll compare Albumen prints - before and after.

 
This negative was a bit more dense (maybe 1.75) You can see the "silver issue" in the bottom right. Both of these images are gold toned.

Collodion Negatives & Waxed Albumen Prints

I’ve been working through making Albumen, Albumen paper, and started making negatives today. I really enjoy making work in my studio -  in my space. I feel completely in control and can get on the plate what’s in my mind more efficiently (lazy and scared, huh?).

Today, I was fortunate to have some very interesting sitters that were very cooperative. I only made four negatives, but I’m very pleased. I wanted to share one of those with you. I’ve been after these kinds of images in the negative form for a long time. The problem with making them, is keeping the sitters interested. I usually get them fired up after the first (positive) image. With negatives, however, there’s no “high wow” factor. It’s difficult, and it’s kept me from making this happen. No more, this is what I’m going to concentrate on for the foreseeable future (negatives and Albumen prints).

There a lot of things I like about this image; texture, light, expression, but most of all, I like what the image implies. It’s disturbing, or disorienting, and interesting to me.

4"x5" Wet Collodion Negative - Waxed Albumen Print

Shifting Priorities & Making Albumen

I've made a commitment to myself that I will spend more time making my personal work (completing my project here in Europe), and exhibiting/publishing my work. And I will spend less time teaching, answering email, and spending numerous hours on the public forum board.

Don't misunderstand me, I've enjoyed doing all of those things, but my priorities are going to shift to more personal goals - it's time to focus (pun intended)! My time will be spent making my personal work, following up on my commitments to the new book, DVD and web site and sharing some of my work and experiments with close friends. I'll still blog and I'll still post work occasionally, but I'm going to put more time toward my personal work - period. I'm an artist, and I want my life to reflect that.

I have a few workshops left this year and one scheduled for March of 2010. Other than those, and maybe one in Paris with a show, I probably won't do anymore workshops. I really enjoying teaching, but I need the time I have left here in Europe to complete what I came here to do.

It feels like a good time to do this, too. I think it was the completion the new book/DVD that allowed me to make this commitment to myself. It's like I can really focus now on making photographs. It's not that I want to close my site down, and become a recluse, I'm just seeking more balance. It seems that I'm always teaching or doing something instructional for other people. I've actually had a couple of people email me and tell me that they had no idea I made art. Those are not good emails! I know artists that don't even have a web site, don't answer email and are very successful making and showing work - doing their thing - no distractions. I'm envious of them and I need to follow their lead. It's true what people say, "You become what you do," and I've become a teacher when I want to be an artist (nothing wrong with being a teacher, but you know what I'm saying in this context).

Making Albumen

Friday, I stopped at a roadside Bauernmarkt where I get fruit and vegetables a couple of times a week. It's wonderful food. On Friday, I picked up 40 large eggs, too. They are big, fresh free-range chicken eggs. Dresden, Germany is a few hours north of us. It was the epicenter for Albumen paper in the 1860s - 1880s. They used 6 million eggs a year there! I'm hoping the genes of some of those chickens are in these!

Albumen Prints: The albumen found in egg whites are used to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper and became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the century, with a peak in the 1860-90 period.

There are very few people in the world today making Albumen prints with Collodion negatives.

It was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative.

The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard.

Summer's going to be making a lot of custard!

2 Liters of Albumen!

Thanks to Summer and Jeanne for shooting photographs of me making Albumen today. images!