Boerdonk, The Netherlands

It's always nice to return to a place where you've been. We just spent three days in Boerdonk, The Netherlands. I went back to do another wet plate collodion workshop. We were there last October doing a workshop.

"Look right here, Ger"

We stayed at "The Miracle" hotel/bb. Ger and Jan Coppens own it and run it. It's not what you think - they don't advertise, or have regular hours - you almost have to be invited by someone they know - not that it's elite or exclusive, it's just that they run their business in a different way. Jeroen, the workshop coordinator set us up with Ger and Jan. The rooms are nice, the Dutch breakfast, made by Ger is tasty and the little dog, Lennon, is cute and loving. We sat around in the evening and drank Westmalle (Trappist) beer from the tap and told stories - it's too involved to go into here, but Ger told some very funny stories about people who had stayed in the hotel or came into the cafe to drink - "Dickemeat" and "Zombie" - my personal notes for future reference. 

Jan and Ger - Whole Plate Black Glass AmbrotypesWe did portraits of the Ger and Jan. They really liked the images and appreciated the process. I'm going to do a still life of a Westmalle bottle and glass and give to them for their bar/cafe. "Ger" - Whole Plate Balck Glass Ambrotype

Jeroen and his parents had us over for dinner Saturday night at their house. They have a beautiful home and are wonderful people. They fixed Dutch mussels and Portuguese chicken. We drank three bottles of wine and talked about life, art and politics. Another wonderful time.

I had six great people in the workshop. As always, they did a terrific job. I've posted some photographs here they already emailed me - Sanne (from Belgium) and Willie Jan. I'll post more (from the workshop) when I get them.

It's a little bit frustrating trying to write about these experiences. I don't know how they translate, but I know it doesn't even come close to the experience.  

Drizzle that Collodion Home Dog!
Workshop Students (and me) - Veghel, The Netherlands (Pieter Brughel Art School) 

The Netherlands Workshop

I just returned from The Netherlands (some call it Holland). I did a two day workshop there at the Pieter Brueghel Art and Culture School. Jeroen de Wijs set it up and made it happen (thanks Jeroen!). He was a great host and the people at the school were wonderful too.

There were six attendees/students and we got to spend all day Saturday making 4x5 black glass Ambrotypes and Alumitypes. I don't do these workshops for money, and even if it were profitable, there's a far more important and rewarding motive to do these. To see people eager to learn a new way to express themselves and then for them to get their hands on the material and make something within a few hours of learning about it is amazing to me.

It doesn't matter if the images are perfect or the subject matter is interesting, the process and the interaction between people is the part that's most important to me now. I think I may be maturing in a new way - I feel less and less anxiety about the work and more and more desire to connect with the people. When was the last time you had the chance to be involved with a group of people sharing experiences, ideas, art, food, coffee and culture? I'm very blessed!

Thank you Summer and Jean for helping make these things possible. Summer assisted me Saturday and shot most of these images.

The Dutch Collodionista Group - 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype - Veghel, The Netherlands 
"Francie" - a demonstration portrait.
Quinn talks about "salted Collodion" - the introduction to chemistry.
Quinn lectures on the fundamentals of the Wet Plate Collodion process.
Let's talk about lenses - Petzvals, Rapid Rectilinear, and everything in between. 
The students getting started - let the Collodion flow!
Geert-Jan pulls Jereon from the cyanide! 
Cor's self-portrait.

Quinn looking for help from above!

Francie's portrait of Quinn - the Thinker (and very approachable)

Coming through the veil -

Heating and varnishing plates.

One of the most interesting plates of the workshop - Geert-Jan waited a bit too long before droping this plate in the silver bath.
The Thinker gets a coat of varnish. 
All setup to open "the Show" Friday night.  
Having a coffee in the breakroom. 
Draining varnish from "The Thinker" -  
Some photographs from Rudd, a workshop student.
"Let's talk about this plate". 
Using God's light making portraits.
This was the view from our room. The hotel we stayed in was amazing! It was in a little village called, Boerdonk, The Netherlands. The owners were very friendly and had a wonderful little dog called Lennon, as in John Lennon.
The hotel was very nice!

Köln, Germany & The Netherlands

I needed to take break from writing my thesis/portfolio this weekend. Jean, Summer, Denise (a friend), Lucky and I took a trip to Köln, Germany and then went into The Netherlands to Maastricht.

The weather here has been in the 80s and very beautiful so the drive was gorgeous. It was a 1.5 hours to Köln and another 45 minutes or so to Maastricht. It’s amazing to cross (country) borders without even stopping!! In that way the EU is very cool.

We left Viernheim at about 8AM and got to Köln at 9:30AM so we decided to people watch and have a cup of coffee. Köln is a wonderful city. The people are friendly and the city is extremely “art friendly”. The waitress asked where we were from and I made some crack comment about Denise being a hillbilly from "West Virginny, USA" (she's not, she's from Washington D.C.) and the waitress said something like, “It doesn’t matter to people in Köln, we accept everyone” – Whoaaa! That blew me away, that’s not the Germany I know! I knew Köln was very different the minute I drove in.

August Sander (1876-1964), a well-known photographer of the 20th Century was born in Köln and did a lot of work here, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to see the city. He created a body of work called, “People of the 20th Century” – I have it. It’s a seven volume set of books, some 1400 pages. He classified the German people into groups. For example, “Artists”, “Farmers”, “Scientist” etc. and then made portraits of them. His seventh and last volume is called “Die Letzten Menchen” or “The Last People”. This is what I am most interested in. I wanted to know what it was like to see Die letzten Menchen on the streets of Köln like Sander did. And I did. Unfortunately, his portrait work is on tour. We only got to see a small collection of his landscape work. It was nice, but not in the league of Die letzten Menchen!

I haven’t been to a city or village in Europe I didn’t like yet. Köln is a place I will return to for sure. Simply for the fact of its connection to photography/art and it’s friendly vibe. The beer is good (Kölsch) and is exclusive to Köln, we had a nice lunch at an open air café called Casablanca and we saw a few of the more popular sites of the city (Köln’s Gothic Catherderal, Köln Turm, etc.) too.

Then it was onto The Netherlands. The border was about 20 minutes from Köln and you could tell you were in The Netherlands immediately. All of the signs were in Dutch (of course), it is a strange and difficult language to hear, read or speak (I tried years ago). In other words, you can’t even begin to guess what the road signs are saying. On top of that, the landscape changed, the look of the houses, the colors, everything – it was wild! The Netherlands are beautiful and the people are very, very friendly. They are an open and progressive people. We had a family (husband, wife and daughter) sitting next to us at a café telling us about how the Dutch feel about Americans. They said the Dutch people will never forget what America did for The Netherlands in WWII and believe that most Americans are good people. However, they don’t care for the current administration and have serious concerns about Iraq etc. but I think even most Americans are waking up to that fact now. We had a nice conversation with them about current world events and national identity. Very enlightening!

Onto the photos....

Yes, you can legally smoke hash, and marijuana in The Netherlands. The places are called "Coffeeshops". They are all over The Netherlands.

I really liked this cup. One side DREAMS, the other side CONFLICTS - this embodies the feeling of the cities in The Netherlands - very creative and art friendly.

Are we in Holland yet? Where are the bicycles???

Dutch signs... an easy read!

I couldn't resist this "Winnogrand" moment in Maastritch! I love this image!

A license plate.. hmmmm, why did I put this here?? It's different from ours in DE.

"Die letzten Menchen" - Heribert, on the streets of Koeln. I could only make out a few words... he was listenign to music and shared some with me. He handed me an earbud covered in blood.

I'm not sure what he was drinking... whatever it was, it was strong.

This seems out of palce, but this is the only thing we drank. Great beer! Made in Koeln.

The "new" RCA Dog in Media Park in Koeln. Lucky loved it and Jean and Summer thought it was kool too!

The August Sander Museum is in this building. They had a Lee Friedlander show and a Wessel show going.. no photographs allowed. This is where we saw Sander's landscapes.

This is another image I really like... the refelctions of two women in the glass, the red hair of the woman next to Denise and Denise's expression.

Starting our day in Koeln with coffee, chocolate muffins, brownies and people watching.