Dresden: The Final Adventure

For the past four years, Wet Plate Collodion photography has taken me east to Budapest, Hungary, west to Glasgow, Scotland, north to Gothenburg, Sweden and south to Barcelona, Spain; plus many other cities in between.Some of the places I've traveled to teach, exhibit and make photographs.

I just returned from Dresden, Germany. It was probably the last Wet Plate Collodion adventure for me in Europe; at least until I return to Paris in a couple of years.

Like so many places in Europe, Dresden is a beautiful city with a lot of interesting history. I especially like the photographic history of these places. Dresden was the largest manufacturer of albumen paper in the 19^th century. Albumen means “egg white”. The albumen printing process was invented by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard in 1850. He was from Lille, France.

The Dresdener Albuminfabriken AG (The Dresden Albumen Manufacturing Company)
They produced 18,674 reams of albumen paper in 1888. Each ream consisted of 480 sheets 46 cm x 58 cm (~18” x ~23”) in size. To coat a ream of paper required 9 liters of albumen solution, obtained from 324 eggs; only the whites, separated by hand. All of the paper was made by women – all by hand. In 1888, this one factory consumed over six million eggs – that’s about 16,500 eggs per day! There were a lot of bakeries around making custards and other pies/pastries with all of the egg yolks, too. Can you imagine what Dresden’s collective cholesterol level was in the late 19^th century? Women in Dresden making Albumen paper.

The Dresden Museum Wet Plate Collodion Performative Lecture
I was invited by the Dresden Museum to do a Wet Plate Collodion performative lecture in conjunction with the August Kotzsch exhibition. Kotzsch was a German photographer working from the 1860s to the 1880s in Dresden/Loschwitz, Germany. He lived in that area his entire life. He mainly photographed rural German life, but wanted to be graphic artist. The exhibit shows his early drawings from the 1840s – he was quite good. He did a lot of still life work, too. His albumen prints are amazing. One of the city historians told me that Kotzsch made his own albumen paper – how strange is that and, moreover, why would he do that in Dresden?

The Dresden museum is beautiful and the Kotzsch exhibition was nothing short of that. It was an honor for me to be there talking about Kotzsch’s process and showing the people how he made his photographs.

The space they had arranged for me was perfect; large (non-UV) windows and even a sink close by. The museum is in the center of the city. People were walking by watching me turning back the hands of time with the Wet Plate Collodion process through the large windows of the museum.

There were about 25 people in the audience; the perfect size. Ernst Hirsch was one of the attendees. Ernst is a filmmaker and photographer. He is well-known and admired. I asked him to sit for the demonstration. I later learned that he made a book about Kotzsch and his work. After the lecture, he presented me with a copy of the book (August Kotzsch 1836 - 1910. Von den Anfängen der Photographie in Loschwitz bei Dresden) and a print from one of Kotzsch’s negatives. It was a very nice addition to my book collection of 19^th Century photographers. Ernst owns several hundred original prints of Kotzsch’s and knows his great-great-grandson – who, by the way is a successful fine art photographer today.

I ended up making a few portraits. I had a very nice time. The trip was a great way to end the Wet Plate Collodion adventure in Europe, at least for now.

I want to thank my wife, Jeanne for taking all of the great photos, Richard for translating all of my stories and jokes during the lecture, Ernst and Cornelia for the book and print, Jan for making the trek to Dresden from Berlin, and Frank for the DVD/prints and the long conversation at the hotel about communism and photography. I learned a lot about the former East Germany and the communists.

We miss you, Summer XOXOXO

A Dresden egg. I should’ve brought some home for paper!

Quinn doing his thing in Dresden, Germany
"Is that Chuck Close?" someone asked. No, it’s the museum’s curator, Fredrich. 
Practicing on Ernst – the sitters need to practice before we expose the plate. 
Can someone get a photo of this? Please! 

The afternoon produced these images.

The afternoon produced these images.
Frank

Richard, my translator and museum coordinator for the lecture.

Richard (negative) – so he can print on modern paper.

Herr Kotzsch und Herr Jacobson, standing on the shoulders of giants…

The Paris Exhibition Part One

I’m sitting here exhausted and elated. I’ve just returned from 9 days in Paris. Needless to say, a lot happened. First I want to thank Jeanne, Summer, Olivier, Pierre, and William. Without you, none of this would have happened. There’s nothing that compares to having people in your life that care about you and support you – thank you, merci, thank you, merci!Leica Group member - he volunteered for the demo - a portrait.

For me, this event was like the striking of a match (wood stick match). If you watch closely, you can see the phosphorus burn and ignite the wood.  So now, my match is burning – in the center of Paris, France. It’s a good feeling.

While I’ve had other exhibitions and have shown my work in some great places, this exhibition is extremely important for me. First, it’s in Paris, France – the birthplace, or home of photography. I’ve always dreamed of showing my work in Paris. Any artist/photographer would say the same. Also, the Parisians/French have a particular love for the art of photography. It makes sense that they would. As you can imagine, I spoke with a lot of people over the last week about my work. Never before have I had so many people make comments about my photographs being important for something beyond the process. In other words, it’s not just the Wet Plate Collodion process that makes the work interesting. The concept of the work goes beyond the craft, or better yet, compliments the craft. Every time I heard that, I was overjoyed – that means a lot to me. It’s too easy to get caught up in craft and forget the concept. I heard none of that in Paris. I’ve always said that the French and Spanish have a certain sensibility when it comes to my work. They “get it”. 

Along with their photography culture, I also love the French for their food culture. We were treated to some of the best places to eat in the center of Paris. One afternoon, we had lunch with Jeroen and Geert-Jan, friends from Holland, in a restaurant that is in the oldest house in Paris (1407). It was surreal, and delicious. And Pierre and Olivier treated us to an incredible dinner at L’Autobus Impérial (check out the video). The food there was unbelievably good, not to mention the wine and final drink at the bar (the flaming cocktail).

The opening of my show was terrific. There were more people there than you could count. A big turn out – it really surprised me. My good friend, Bart from Moscow was there, thank you for your support! And Vernon and Christian came from Germany for the opening, thank you! Christian, that photo you made of me by camera is the best I’ve ever seen – we need to talk.

Pierre worked with the bartender from L’ Autobus and made a special drink/cocktail for my opening. It was like a Black Russian with wine and some other things, we called it, “Black Collodion”. It was delicious – I think I had four glasses of it! There were people from all over Europe that came to see the work. It humbled me, to say the least. After the opening, about fifteen of us went out for Japanese food – I had sushi and Sake – it was terrific!

I did a public demonstration on Tuesday for about seventeen people. It went very well. I made two Whole Plate portraits of two people in the audience. My friend, Chris Nisperos, kindly translated for those that  didn’t speak English.

Wednesday was the “Portrait Day” that almost turned into Thursday. I started at about 10AM, and with the help of Jeanne and Summer, I went until almost midnight making portraits of Parisians that lined up at the studio door. I poured was over 40 plates that day/night! The largest number of plates I’ve ever made in one day/night – and most of them were Whole Plate or 8”x10”. If that doesn’t test your Collodion fortitude, I don’t know what does. I made portraits of some very important people (they were all important, I should say “known” people), too. Well connected in the photography world. One was the managing editor of Photo Magazine. I’m doing an interview this week with them for an article.

Thursday was day one of Workshop #1 – seven people. There was a writer/photographer from Réponses Photo magazine in this workshop. I’m looking forward to a cover and several inside pages in the April or May issue. It was a great group of people and an excellent workshop.

That evening, I did a “perfomative lecture” for the Paris Photo Group (from Bievre). I got to see Marie Jo, the president of the group and we chatted a little bit about the photo fair in June. It will be another banner year! The group seemed to enjoy what they saw and asked a lot of engaging questions. It was a very large group.

Friday, I finished up Workshop #1 and prepared for Workshop #2 that started bright and early on Saturday. Workshop #2 had five people in it. Great group! They made some really nice photographs and seemed to take to Collodion like they had been doing it for years. Saturday night we enjoyed a very nice meal at L’ Autobus (see above).

On Sunday, I gave another “performative lecture” to the Leica Group of Paris. The image above is the demonstration portrait I made. I wish it were higher quality, but trust me, his beard looked wonderful! This group also seemed to enjoy what they saw. I was happy to do “perform” for them, too.

So, in a nutshell, this is what happened; I had an opening of a large exhibition. I sold several pieces the first couple of days and several more are reserved (this blew my mind). I taught 13 people the Wet Plate Collodion process. I made almost 50 portraits. I did three “performative lectures” and I’ve been published in over a dozen French magazines. All of this would not have been possible without the support of my friends and family, thank you very, very much!

Centre Iris Gallery 238 rue St Martin – Paris – The perfect venue for my work!

 This is a short clip of me making Franck’s portrait. It was a beautiful image. He gave me a piece he made of me – a painting/photograph – gorgeous! Great guy and wonderful artist!

A slower, more complete look the day before the opening.

 Summer shows off Jeff’s image – and some other large prints in the show.

We all enjoyed this "fire" drink at L’ Autobus Imperial one of Pierre's inventions – nice!