It’s Coming Along Nicely, Thank You - The Paris Exhibit

For the last few weeks, I’ve been able to ignore most of the distractions in my life and concentrate on getting ready for my exhibit. It’s been really nice. We don’t have a television but the other technologies can be a huge distraction. Give up Facebook, email, (fill in the blank) forum(s), for a week and see what happens. Your attitude toward these things change a little bit. (In all honesty, I didn’t give them up completely, but cut way back).

I’m on track and feeling good about most everything. There is still a little bit of anxiety – I want it perfect, or as close as possible to perfect as I can get it.   Framed work waiting to be wrapped, packed and sent to Paris.

I’ve been framing and varnishing images for the last few days. Two coats of varnish per image and several days of drying – it’s process but they look outstanding! The plates look wonderful matted and framed, too. I get a rush seeing all of this – I can’t believe that I made all of this work (sounds ego-oriented, but true)! Where in the hell did I find the time to do all of this and sleep? There are 70 pieces, almost 100 images! Keep in mind, this is Wet Plate Collodion work!

It looks like we are going to rent a VW Transporter and keep it in Paris while we’re there. We had originally thought to rent a van, drive it over to Paris, unload it and turn it in there in Paris. Then we would take the train back home after the first week (opening, lectures, demos, workshops, etc.). I think I’d be “stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime” doing it that way not to mention the hassles and headaches. We’ll pay the fees and keep the van and drive it back. By the time we pay for a taxi, train, we’ll pay about the same (which is a lot).I hanged and varnished 10 large ink jet prints for the show. They turned out very nice.

From what it sounds like, I’ll be making a lot of portraits there. I have five days and one night of making portraits. Standing room only, 20 minutes per session – really? There are that many people interested in having their portrait made? Maybe I can pay for the van for the week (grin). I think I’ll do okay on that front. 

The gallery has pulled out the big guns – they’ve got some great press on the event. I’m going to have a journalist from Réponses Photo (French magazine) in the first workshop. I should have the cover and a portfolio spread from it. That won’t be too bad, eh? There are a lot more doing pieces on the event, too. Yummy! 

I’ll post more as things unfold. So far, so good.

 

Vernon Trent, from Düsseldorf came down yesterday for a Wet Plate Collodion "refresher" and to make some images for a piece for stern.de. I think there was a totally of nine images. He made a couple of really nice ones. Here's a couple of snaps from the day. We capped it off with me making a portrait of him with his new camera.

The models: Christian and Carina. 
Whole Plate Alumitype
Vernon - photo by Quinn Jacobson - Whole Plate Alumitype
Wet Plate Collodion images – Viernheim, Germany 13 February, 2010

Tre

I have a lot to write about but no time to write. I had a very successful workshop in Kefermarkt, Austria and an unforgettable trip to the concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria. I will never look at granite the same way again in my life.

In the next several days, I'll make another post with images and descriptions of our adventures in the mountains of Austria. It was both beautiful and disturbing - a lot like life, I suppose.

Summer and I made plates all day today (7 - 8 hours, plus varnish time). She was working the Collodion hard and did a wonderful job making some work she's wanted to do for a long time. I couldn't help but post a portrait I made today.

Stay tuned - I'll be back in a few days with some thoughts and images from Austria.

"Tre" Viernheim, Germany Black Glass Ambrotype

Kristallnacht 2008

This November 9th (and 10th) is the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass." Almost 2000 synagogues were desecrated or destroyed. I'm hoping to have a body of work (wet plate collodion images - photographs on glass plates) to exhibit in Germany on one, or both, of these nights.

I'm well on my way to getting my project started (the actual image making part). For the last several months, I've been doing a lot of research. My point of view and opinion about this event has changed a lot. It's one thing to understand an event like this in the abstract, quite another to walk this land, see these places and, in a lot of ways, feel the misery and hurt of the people murdered here - it changes you.

Viernheim Memorial
This is the Viernheim, Germany memorial. I live in this village. This memorial is a five minute walk from my house. To me, this looks like a tombstone. The wet plate collodion process has also created a visual that looks like fire below it. The background is "spinning" because of the old lens I'm using - it's pregnant with metaphor.

The work that I am creating now will be more "radical" and more conceptual than this. Not that there is anything wrong with "documents," I just want to say more visually. Let's see if I can make it happen.

Der Metzgerei

You've got to love the local signs here. I'm not sure if they "get it" or if I'm just over "Freudian" about these kinds of things; but the idea of a pig holding a piece of Wurst like that and the owner's name below.. hmmmm... he might be trying to say something here about his meat. I think it's BIG TIME funny.

We live very close to this Metzgerei (metz-gur-eye). They have excellent Weiss Wurst (it's Bavarian, you boil it for 10 mins and server with sweet Mustard and Preztles - OMG!!) and serve the famous "halbe meter (Kleine) Wurst" at Fest time.