God, The Holocaust & Aerosol Cheese: Things That Are Difficult To Understand
It’s difficult to comprehend most things in life, especially the big things. Things like God, the Holocaust, and aerosol cheese (okay, aerosol cheese isn't big, but it's difficult to understand). It’s difficult, because most of us never give enough thought to anything to even start to understand it, let alone make any effort to research it or read other’s thoughts on it. We seem apathetic and lazy. We, mostly Americans, seem obsessed with the superficial and the innocuous, things that won’t mean anything in six months, or a year from now. I don’t believe that we don’t care or that we’re lazy, I think it’s because we’re afraid. We’re scared. We’re afraid to know. We’re afraid of getting old. We’re afraid of getting fat. We’re afraid of going grey. We’re afraid that we’re not smart enough, good looking enough, thin enough, rich enough, strong enough, desirable enough, healthy enough, funny enough, never enough, enough, etc. etc. We’re afraid. And we do crazy things to hide and disguise that fear so we never have to face it.
Think about the pressure we feel to live up to other people’s expectations. Like the pressure to buy a big, beautiful house that we can’t afford or a nice, new car that we don’t really need. Things that we put a lot of “ourselves” into, at the very least, things that we anchor some portion of identity to. Think about what that means – saying that a big house or a new car is “me”, or that they represent “me”, is repulsive when you think about it. However, the need to say, “Look, I’m good enough, see!” is overwhelming and powerful.
How about the power of having money, that’s a big one. It’s sad, you could say you scrubbed toilets for a living but got paid $250,000 a year for it and people would be asking, “How do you qualify for that kind of job?” and, “Where can I apply?”.
We seem overly eager and very willing to sell out and prostitute ourselves for money. We’ll work at a job we hate for 20 or 30 years and be miserable every day, but we never really give our passions or our dreams a chance. Why is that? Do we still believe what our parents told us growing up? “You should be a doctor or lawyer; those professions earn a lot of money!” They said that because they were close enough to the “Great Depression” that they still carry all of that angst and anxiety and aren’t afraid to share it with us. Just because they never followed their dreams, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t follow ours.
I’m tired of being afraid. It’s back in the air now, credit crisis, bad economy, etc. We moved from the fear of terrorists to the fear of having no job. I’m tired of it. I want peace and joy back into my life and I want to follow my passions and dreams.
Pursue your passion, not your pension!
The Transports
The photo on the left is one I snapped at Dachau one year ago (December 2007). I remember thinking, "These are the rails that carried all of those people to their death". It was profoundly sad and visually striking to me.
This is a very insightful and interesting idea on many levels. It resonates with me simply for the fact of how much we us railroad metaphors and how they take on a whole new meaning here in Germany. For example, "derailed"or "derailing", "track wreck", "just the ticket", "off track", "one track mind", "railroaded", "fast track", "express", "letting off steam", "blowing your stack", "tunnel vision", "bells and whistles" and "end of the line". I see trains here in that kind of context.
The transports were usually cattle cars. At times, the floor of the car had a layer of quick lime which burned the feet of the human cargo. There was no water. There was no food. There was no toilet, no ventilation. Some boxcars had up to 150 people stuffed into them. It did not matter if it was summer, winter, boiling hot or freezing cold. And an average transport took about four and a half days. Sometimes the Germans did not have enough cars to make it worth their while to do a major shipment of Jews to the camps, so the victims were stuck in a switching yard - "standing room only" - for two and a half days. The longest transport, from Corfu, took 18 days. When the train got to the camps and the doors were opened, and everyone was dead.
Let The Video Podcasting Begin!
"I can't be everywhere, all the time! Or, can I?"
I'm going to immerse myself into online education. Not as a student, but as a teacher. I have this (brilliant?) idea to teach Wet Plate Collodion via video podcasts. And it's not only to educate, but to also build community.
I've fallen big-time for audio podcasts over the last few years. I have a whole heap of them that I listen to almost daily. Ira Glass, "This American Life", Joe Frank's radio show, Bill Moyers, Bill Maher's HBO piece, NPR bits and pieces, etc. I'm amazed at the amount of information we take in. Sometimes, I think my head is going to explode. There's never a dull moment in the 21st century, is there? Remind me to tell you about the Ira Glass story about building a better mouse trap - OMG! You'll freak!! I digress.
My theory is that if we use this technology the right way, everyone wins. Not to get off into politics, but look at the presidential election. It was all about Barack's presence online and especially the email campaigns his staff organized and executed. I for one, am very happy they could reach so many and that so many responded, as I said in a previous post, we have a chance! I digress, again.
I'm home for a while now and will be finishing up my new book and completing the video workshop series on Wet Plate Collodion. I'm being quite anal about the text and information in these publications. I'm trying real hard to listen to what people want to learn and write about it in an articulate, "easy" way. The last book (2006) was "sky-blue" stuff... nothing to go off of but instinct and my own experience, it was just the basics. This time, I have a lot to say about the history of the process as it applies to my work and, moreover, all kinds of new, modern gadgets and tricks to use in the process to make it easier. I'm psyched about it.
On January 1, 2009 (or a few days before), I'm going to allow access to a large amount of video data on the Wet Plate Collodion process. This will be the very first complete workshop online. It will be a series of "on demand" videos broken down into chapters. Subscribers will be able to view them anytime they login, jump to any part and watch them as much as they want. It's going to be uber cool!
It's about time, really. I get at least 4 -5 emails a week, sometimes more, asking about resources to learn the process. I hope to accomplish several things by doing this. One of the big ones is to quickly and easily point people to a high-quality, cost effective way to learn the process. This will be so sweet.
There are a few places in the United States where you can learn the process, but more and more, people are using the web to gather information and communicate about it. There are a lot of people that learn it on their own now. This is in large part due to the massive amount of information online now. My Wet Plate Collodion forum board has over 500 members and almost 15,000 posts. It's posted to daily. My point is that it's about time I do this. I know that it will be successful and fulfill a huge need out there. Not to mention, it will be fun as hell to do.
So, if you are interested in learning the Wet Plate Collodion photographic process and have $99 bucks, on January 1, 2009 go to The Contemporary Wet Plate Collodion School and signup! Within a couple of minutes you'll be watching videos and learning the process! See you in class!
A Week In Glasgow & Edinburgh, Scotland
The Jacobsons in Edinburgh! After spending a few days in Glasgow and Edinburgh, it makes me long to live a creative, free life. Not bound by conventional standards that include the "9 to 5 grind" and all of the meaningless motions that we go through everyday for money. It's not that Glasgow or Edinburgh brought this out in me, they just made me very present to the fact that there is life beyond the monotony most people live, day in and day out.
Glasgow is a beautiful city. It's our second time here. However, it was our first visit to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. There is a big difference between the two cities. Edinburgh draws a lot more tourists. Glasgow, not so much. While Edinburgh is worth a visit, we prefer Glasgow. We are not, and I repeat, not, fans of doing the "touristy" things. They are actually embarrassing to me. I know that sounds elitist, but that's how I feel. They are gross money traps that have very little or no cultural or human value. We avoid them like the plague. However, we found ourselves walking the "Royal Mile" yesterday, all the way to the castle. Every other store was full of plaid and kilts. Cheap, touristy plaid and kilts. It was gross. It reminded me people getting suckered into a "shell game" in a big city, only worse, they don't even have the illusion of winning anything, just dumping their quid.
The castle in Edinburgh Our visit was three-fold. First, we wanted a family holiday (vacation). It had been a while since we had a day or two to hang out and explore.
Secondly, we visited the "uni" or university with Summer. She wants to try to go to University of Glasgow. It's a beautiful campus/school. It's 550 years-old! It's amazing to walk on the campus and see all of the old buildings and grounds. Amazing. We were able to meet with an advisor and ask questions and get information about it. It went very well. The people in the UK, and all over Europe for that matter, are very lucky, they pay very little for higher education, if anything at all. We are looking at £9,400 per year, do the math.
And last, but not least, I was invited as a guest speaker/demonstrator by our friend, and fellow wet plate aficionado, Carl Radford. Carl is a great bloke! He and his wife, Liz (see earlier blog, May 2008) hosted the event. Carl invited several wet plate artists from all over the UK to attend this two-day get together. There were eight of us, talking, pouring plates, drinking tea and simply enjoying one another's company. Jeanne, Summer and I were able to meet some great people on this trip. John Brewer from Manchester, Jo Gain from Coventry (or near there), Katie from Edinburgh, Claire from Wales, Chavonne (sp?) and Craig from Edinburgh or Glasgow, I can't remember.
The book store To say we got a lot out of this trip is an understatement. It was both productive and very, very enjoyable. The wet plate Collodion gathering was terrific. We also enjoyed the galleries and bookstores both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We went to the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) with John and Jo in Glasgow. We met at a little place called, "The Social" and had an espresso. We just missed a Jo Spence show at the GOMA and wanted to see some photography. We ended up wandering into a place called, "Street Level Photography". They had a nice show of emerging artists/photographers there. There was some literature on the table and I found a card for a camera shop nearby. After the gallery, we walked to the camera store and started asking about old lenses. The owners said, "give us an hour and come back, we have some in the basement". So we went next door for some soup and a sandwich (and more espresso of course). An hour later, we went back and both John and Jo scored some nice wet plate lenses for a great deal. It was really cool.
Carl told us about a bookstore in Edinburgh called, "Beyond Words", nothing but photography books. It's small, but very much worth a visit. I saw some classic books as well as some new and interesting ones. I was thinking, "Mine should be in here... a taste of the wet plate world!" There was a little Phaidon book about Joel-Peter Witkin I almost picked up, but didn't. I will probably regret it.
Summer enjoying "Trainspotting" Summer picked up Irvine Welsh's book, "Trainspotting" (yes, like the movie - brilliant). She's almost finished it. A lot of it is in Scottish too! Here's an example, "Way tae fuck ya radge, ah say, shakin ma heid." Very difficult to read, huh?! And, yes, every other word in Scottish is the f-bomb. It's an adjective/modifier here.
I can't express how wonderful it is to walk into a bookstore and see all of the books in English, a language I'm (semi) fluent in! Brilliant!! We spent a lot of time doing things that we miss or don't have access to in Germany. Most people would think we're crazy, but we enjoy it.
This is our last trip for a wee bit.
Welcome To Wien (Vienna), Austria
Rolls Royce in Wien!We arrived in Wien last night. It was a longer drive than expected due to a 2 hour Stau in Germany. However, we survived.
We have a nice apartment right off of Simmeringer Hauptstasse. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn are close and we explored downtown Vienna a little bit tonight. I saw where Hilter was rejected from (Academy of Art) and made me wonder how the world may have been different had they let him in here - great novel/screenplay waiting to be written.
The workshop went very well today. One more day (tomorrow) and we'll wrap it up. The participants are motivated and off to a grand start! There are four students; Fritz, Reinhard, Stefan and Zoltan. Three are Austrian and Zoltan is from Budapest, Hungary.
Hypo versus KCN!
Remember, here in Vienna, I'm less than an hour from Bratislava, Slovokia and about 2 hours from Budapest, Hungary. I would like to take a week off and just go!
These are images from the workshop today. Showing the difference between sodium thiosulfate fix and potassium cyanide fix - amazing!
A sampling of the workshop plates.
Reinhard Reidinger
Wet Collodion Negatives Printed On Centennial POP
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.
Seligenstadt Synagogue in Wet Plate Collodion
Today, I made the image that will appear on the first page of my book (I think). The image shows the original steps of the Seligenstadt synagogue. These steps are the only thing left of the synagogue. It was burned on November 9/10, 1938 during Kristallnacht. If you think about the metaphor of stairs (especially ascending/descending) you'll get where I'm going with this.
The emptiness is what moves me the most when I'm making photographs where the mighty, vibrant synagogues once stood in these small villages. I'm almost trying to photograph what isn't there. It's very difficult to do. It's also very sad.
A friend from Berlin, Jan, met us in Seligenstadt this morning. His mother lives there and his step-father has done an enormous amount of research on the Jewish community (that was) in Seligenstadt.
After making a positive image and a negative image of the same scene (the steps), we (Summer, Jan and I) went for coffee and looked at the "stumbling stones" around the village. There was a significant Jewish community that lived in this village until 1938. It's the same story in all of these places. Jan had newspaper clippings from the Seligenstadt newspaper (from 1935) that showed a page of ads for office furniture, shoes and clothes, and in the middle of these "common ads" was another kind of ad that read, "The Jews are our misfortune" ("Die Juden sind unser Unglück"). Mind-blowing and very educational.
The last two images are the positive (8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype) and the negative (8x10). I'll make a POP print this week of of the negative.
Seligenstadt Synagogue Remains 
I wasn't sure about the light, being in a hole and surrounded with "red" and "yellow". 
"Where does the shadow of my hand fall?" 1100 hours, 4 second exposure. 
Pouring Collodion on an 8"x10" piece of black glass. 
Putting the "loaded" plate holder onto the camera. 
Processing the plate.
"Seligenstadt Synagogue Stairs" 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype (sold) 
8"x10" negative - Seligenstadt Synagogue Stairs.
I'm going back to Seligenstadt next week. We're suppose to have a key to get into the Juden Friedhof (Jewish cemetery) - it was vandalized during Kristallnacht as well. Look for those images next week!
Thank you Summer and Jan. It was a great day. This is very important work, thanks for being a part of it.
Ich War Ein Berliner Für Drei Tage
Berlin is redeemed.
The first visit I had to Berlin in April of this year (2008), wasn't very good (if you're real curious, look in April 2008 of this blog). It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't "get it".
Berlin is one of those cities that you have to know to enjoy it. I would say it's analogous to wine, it gets better with time. I'm not saying that three days in Berlin gave me the knowledge I needed to enjoy Berlin, I'm saying you can "piggy back" on friends that know the city, and that's what I did.
Jessica and Steven (hosts of the workshop), showed us around the cool, artsy areas of Berlin. And yes, some of them looked like they were hit with an "art bomb" (thanks to Mike Doughty). We visited Kreuzberg, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and of course, Wedding (where the studio was and our apartment was). These are small (not really small in size, but concept) villages within Berlin. They are distinct in culture, and flavor too. We had dinner at places varied as Indian-Thai, Lebanese, and Italian. Art and "the other" all around us, all of the time.
Berlin Synagogue We were walking down Oranienburger Str. and I look up and see these huge ornate gold balls/domes. I immediately recognize it as the New Synagogue. It's really huge and really beautiful. The Synagogue was burned during Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) but the blaze was put out before much damage was done. The Nazis occupied the building in 1940 and desecrated the Synagogue by using it for storage. The Nazis also destroyed the Jewish cemetery in Berlin. The Synagogue sustained severe damage by Allied bombs during the war and for years it was left as an empty shell. Restoration began in 1988 and the Synagogue was reopened on May 7, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the German surrender. Like many of the Synagogues it is guarded around the clock.
Jessica and Steven were incredibly kind and were great hosts. We had a wonderful time enjoying the sights, flavors and sounds of Berlin. It's an amazing city if you know what you are doing.
Summer and I went to Berlin to do a workshop. Jessica attended one of my workshops in Barcelona and asked if I would do one in Berlin at her studio. Having had a marginal time in Berlin in April, I said, "yes!". She did a lot of work to make it happen. We had four people in the workshop (including Jessica). Claire from London, Jan from Berlin and Steven from Berlin. Jessica and Steven are studio mates and are American. Claire is British and Jan is German. We had a lot of fun. I really enjoy the diversity and the personalities in these workshops.
SOME WORKSHOP PHOTOS
The group cleaning glass.
Claire making a portrait of Summer. That's Steven crouching down (on the right). We had to open the windows for every exposure because the glass was UV protected - Collodion needs UV light to make a photograph.
A POP print (from a negative) I did of Jan. This was a 30 second exposure. I fixed in hypo, intensified with a very mild bleach and 15% AGNo3 solution and printed and toned on P.O.P. This was a demonstration on how to make negatives. His eyes in the print are striking!
Steven's boy, Jaden. He was a great little model for Steven. This is a 5x7 Black Glass Ambrotype. It's a beautiful plate, flaws and all. 
Claire heats an 8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype to varnish it. This is another portrait of Jan. He was a great subject/sitter. This image was made right on the end of the UV for the day and has a very "dark" feeling - figuratively and literally - a very nice photograph.
Jessica looking over the day's work.
Steven finishes the varnishing of his portrait.
Summer plays us out at the end of the workshop as Claire, Jan and Jessica look at, and talk about the photos.
Thank you Jessica, Steven, Jan and Claire. I really enjoyed my time in Berlin. I'm looking forward to a return visit.
Thank you Summer. You're a wonderful wet-head assistant and a talented, intelligent, beautiful and creative human being. I couldn't have done it without you. I love you.
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!