10" x 8" Gold Toned/Waxed Salt Print from a Wet Plate Collodion Negative
Because of the finish on the print, this didn't photograph very well (too much contrast). But you can get the idea. I "cooked" the print a little too long, too. I usually have a problem with not exposing long enough (printing out), but these print out pretty fast and I'm using my BLBs.
This was made with artificial light - 2 minutes 45 second exposure and I used an iodine/pyro re-development on the negative.
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.
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.
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!
Here are a couple of prints I made today. I still have some "experimenting" to do before I fully commit to a "style" and "methodology" for printing wet plate Collodion negatives for my project. Today, I used Centennial POP and gold toned the prints. The "Broken Headstone" negative was intensified, "The Stairs" negative wasn't (but will be).
Cenntenial POP
This is the negative from yesterday (70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht) in the Seligenstadt cemetery printed on Centennial Printing Out Paper (POP) and toned with gold toner. It has amazing detail and is very beautiful when it's in your hand - this is a reasonable facsimile, I guess.
Cenntenial POP Detail
This is a detail of the broken headstone. This print looks really good. I may have wanted to tone it to a little cooler color, but I'm okay with it.
Cenntenial POP
You can see that the lack of contrast is a little bit annoying (although it does look like a painting and the color is quite nice). This negative has not been intensified, once I do that ,and then print it, it will have contrast. I can color the color, to some extent, with the toner. The shorter the time, the warmer the color, the longer the toning time, the cooler the color.
P.S.
Centennial POP is no longer made - sad, but true.