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!

Time Goes So Fast… Make It Count!

Well, here we are beginning our third (read: 3rd) year in Germany. I can't believe it. Where does the time go? It must have something to do with the knowledge that our time is finite here. Wouldn't that apply to all human beings in relation to life? I digress.

Summer and I have been working hard on my video series called, "The Wet Plate Collodion Workshop DVD Series". I'm excited by all of this. I'll close this chapter of my life out with two new books, two DVDs, and a new web site. I'm going to try to launch, publish, produce all of those by the end of the year.  All of the proceeds from the sales of these books and DVDs will go into an account for Summer. She will be in college in a couple of years and we thought this would be a great way to get her some additional cash/tuition/car/etc. money. She is doing all of the editing on the DVDs and proof-reading/editing the books for me. She's working hard and earning her money.

I have two workshops planned for September and October. One in Vienna, Austria and another in The Netherlands. Those are confirmed.  I also have one tentative for Berlin in September and one hanging in October for Mallorca, Spain (an island west of Barcelona).  A lot of stuff and a lot of fun! That's how I like to roll ;-)  here's a frame exported from the video:

A screenshot from one of the videos in the series.

Next year, 2009, will be devoted completely to my personal work (other than a possible workshop in Finland). I'll be finished with all of the writing, teaching, and video making and will devote myself completely to my project. I still spend a fair amount of time working on my "Kristallnacht" project. It's difficult here and things move very, very slow.  I do have four images of the project showing in San Francisco right now. They are in a show called, "Into the Ether: Contemporary Collodion Work" at RayKo Gallery. I hear the crowd was large and impressed by the work. That makes me happy. However, the German people are the ones that need to see this work. And, moreover, think about it. I'm working on it.