Puppet Shows & German Neighbors

The world is a strange place and so much of it is relative. In other words, we seek truth, we want truth, and sometimes we even believe we have truth, but most of the time it’s not truth at all, only our interpretation of truth. (Please keep in mind when I say “truth” I’m referring to "reality" – mostly).

I have a funny and relevant story to tell you now that I’ve laid that ground work. I’m writing it down, because I want to refer to it when I see something and assume that I know what it is without inquiring or doing research about it. It will force me to ask questions and do the research before I make up my mind as to what it is I’m seeing, reading or listening to, I hope.

In Germany, you’re always being watched. At least to some degree. If you have 80 year-old German neighbors, like we do, most likely, everything you do that can be observed, will be observed. I have my own opinions on why this is, but it would defeat the point I’m trying to make and would take much longer to write about than I have time for (I have to be in a certain mood and a certain frame of mind to "blog" – I just can’t "turn it on" whenever I want).

Anyway, our neighbors, the Knopps (Ka-Nops) let our landlord know that they were very upset about us putting some plastic in the wrong recycle bin. We have four, yes four, recycle bins: paper, Gelbe (yellow sack, for plastic, wrappers, etc), Bio (for coffee grounds, food waste, etc.), and Abfalle (yard waste, leaves, grass clippings, tree limbs, etc.).

The Knopps inspect what’s in the bins and keep a tight reign on recycling waste. Sometimes, we make mistakes, but not often. On a side note, about a month ago, not far from here, a German man beat his neighbors to death for putting the yard waste in the wrong bin – true story. The Knopps also told our landlords that we need to spend more time on our yard and sweeping the street on Saturday morning (German ritual – to stave off chaos).

Now you have a good sense of what our neighbors are like (which is typical here) let me tell you the rest of the story. The Knopps had one last thing to tell our landlords about us. Most every weekend, you can find me, and a lot of times Summer, making photographs (Wet Plate Collodion) on our winter garden. The Knopps can see what we do – so I would imagine they’ve watched us make a lot of photographs. But going back to my original point, what the Knopps watch is not two artist’s working in their studio making photographs, they see the American neighbors putting on puppet shows, yes, I said puppet shows. They mean this in a derogatory way, too. Does that blow your mind? I can understand why they “see” that. The camera is always facing the opposite way from their view and every time someone goes under the dark-cloth it must look like a performance as the sitter is looking on and sometimes holding props or wearing some kind of costume. I can’t imagine what the dark-box represents – maybe that’s where we make the puppets? Can you imagine what they’re thinking as they are watching the puppet show from the crack in their window blind? Wow! I was blown away and literally started laughing when I heard this and it’s been on my mind since. I now refer to making Wet Plate Collodion photographs, as a puppet show - “Hey Summer, do you want to do a puppet show today?” 

Happy Wet Plate Day - I Hope Your Hands Are Black!

It's a beautiful day today and we made the most of it. Today is Worldwide Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009! We're honored and pleased to be a part of it.

Summer and I made plates most of the day and was lucky enough to have a couple of sitters for some portraits. We had a lot of fun. Summer knocked it out of the park with her Converse shot. She'll have to tell you what it's about - consumerism and being a teenager, I think.

As a group (Collodionistas), we decided to set a day aside to honor the man who invented the process - Frederick Scott Archer. We also want to honor the process itself - however ones sees fit to do that (usually by making some photographs). Unfortunately, today is Archer's death date. He died 157 years ago! We don't know his birth date, if we find out, we may change the date we do this on.

It's easy to forget what role photography has played in our lives and in history. Frederick Scott Archer played a significant part in making photography what it is today. We tend to take it for granted - pour a few plates and that might make you think twice - that's not a bad thing, either (ether).

If we really wanted to honor Archer, we would all be making 8x10 negatives and printing Albumen - maybe next year!

Here's some of what we did today:

 

"Jürgen, der Klempner" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - burnished & cropped - Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype - by Quinn (I love the texture of the glass showing through)  
 

"Converse From Berlin" - 5x4 Alumitype - by Summer 
 

Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009, Montmartre, & Budapest

"Anna In Austria" - Workshop 2009

There are a lot of times when I feel confused and frustrated about how to manage or organize events and opportunities in my life. Sometimes, I feel like I’m running out of time and other times, I feel like I haven’t maximized the opportunities I’ve been given. It’s always a lesson about being present to your experiences and your life. We’ve been living a hundred lifetimes over the last three years here. It’s been the most rewarding and enlightening time of my life.

If I was a politician and I could pass one bill, it would be called, “HB 2009 The Americans Abroad Act”. It would state that every American must live abroad for at least one year. They would be given a small stipend but they must also contribute to the community that they live in and earn money. The bare essentials would be provided, nothing more. And they must also document their experiences (journals, blogs, photography, art, etc). I would appropriate some of the stimulus package money to make this happen. It would be one the best investments America could make in all aspects of the word investment – financial, moral, spiritual, and cultural, etc. This would change the world, I would guarantee it.

I have some really cool things happening that I wanted to share with you. First, this Saturday, May 2, 2009, is the Worldwide Wet Plate Collodion Day. People from all over the world will be making plates Saturday to honor F.S. Archer, the inventor, and to celebrate the process itself. Over the next few weeks, I’ll gather the images and publish a catalog of the work, and the event, that people can purchase. The idea is to raise money to put a headstone on Archer’s grave.

On Sunday, we’ll be back in Frankfurt (Höchst), weather permitting, making portraits and showing work. The Montmartre Am Main event is always a good time.

I just received word that I’ll be going to Budapest, Hungary at the end of May to do a Wet Plate Collodion workshop. This will be a great trip. We’re driving so it will be a 9 hour trip each way (1000 km each way). We’ll go through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and then into Hungary. Which is better, Buda or Pest? I hear Buda is mountainous and Pest is urban. With 2 million people there, it’s a substantial city. We'll be spending the Hungarian Fornit - 100 HUF is .45 cents USD (today).

And finally, we’ll be traveling to Paris, France in June. There is a huge photo fair and art fair in Bièvres, just outside of Paris (15 minutes). Jeanne and I went once in 2007, it was a lot of fun. We met some great people. This time, we’ll be in good and familiar company – our friends and colleagues from all over Europe are converging at the fair. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m trying to arrange for a space next to the French Alt Photo people to setup my dark-box and chemistry laboratory. I want to do some demonstrations and make some portraits. You couldn’t ask for a better audience.

Progress With My Project: Portraits From Frankfurt

India, Romania and (the former) East Germany, and Russia represent some of the faces I photographed yesterday in Frankfurt.

Kathy Schaefer organized the Montmartre am Main in Höchst, a village that's part of Frankfurt, Germany. We meet right on the river (Main) - artists from all over come to paint, draw and of course, make photographs. Kathy's idea is a great one - she understands the difficulty and the politics of galleries and the general public's reluctance to visiting an art gallery, let alone interact with the artist. I applaud her, it's a wonderful thing and I'm honored to be a part of it.

The Frankfurter Neue Presse had a journalist there and did a little story about the event. If you can read German, you can read the article here. It's kind of a weird photo they ran, but it's okay. People in Frankfurt are learning that there are alternatives to galleries and that artists aren't a bunch of recluse weirdos (or are we?).

It was beautiful yesterday. Bright blue sky, sun and about 20C (68F) degrees. The breeze from the river keeps that area especially cool - it's very nice. We setup next to the old castle wall and work. Summer came with me and helped out a lot! She setup and kept the workflow going. She also varnished all of the plates (did an excellent job, too!). We started about 2PM. Around 3PM or 4PM, there were a lot of people hanging out and looking at everyone's work. Since I'm working on my project, and I have willing sitters standing in line to have their image made, I draw quit a bit of attention.

It's great to see so many lay people blown away by this process. It excites me and encourages me to "evangelize" the process and photographic history even more. The younger people don't even know what film is, let alone, what Wet Plate Collodion is. There were a lot of them there yesterday just waiting to see the next plate. I thought that was very cool.

I've started making photographs for my project without sharing a lot of information about what I'm doing. Who I choose to photograph, how I position people or compose the image, the props I use (or not), how I execute the process: flaws, no flaws, size of image and even the substrate I use. Yesterday was a testament to that methodology working for me.

I'm seriously considering an entire body of work on 4x5 aluminum. I may experiment next time (2 weeks from now) with the Whole Plate (6.5" x 8.5") size to get some of that vignette I love so much. I had excellent results with aluminum yesterday - I wasn't that excited about using it, but this worked out very well! How much play do you think 30 or 40 small aluminum images would get in a world of 40"x60" color digital prints? It makes me laugh to think about it!

Here are a few plates from Höchst. I don't speak Bengali, Romanian, Russian or even that much German, so you can imagine how difficult this was to do without a head-brace (How do you say "Hold still, don't move, this will take a while). Most of the sitters would walk away after I focused and composed! Just another dimension/difficulty to making plates.

Everything is 4x5 Alumitypes shot with my Derogy (Petzval) Portrait lens wide open against the castle wall.  

"Calcutta, India - Indian Woman" 
Dresden, East Germany
Bucharest, Romania 
Bucharest, Romania 
Romanian Children 
The Frankfurter Neue Presse Article (no, it's not a hot dog) 

Wet Plate Collodion Positives & Negative From April 11, 2009

I'm suppose to be editing video for my DVD today. I'm not in the mood. After I get done with this post, I'm going to go make another espresso and sit on the porch and watch the day pass.

It's gorgeous today. It's sunny and almost 26C (~80F) degrees. That's my maximum comfortable temperature. If it gets past 26C I don't like it.

Summer and I had a good time yesterday making photographs. She's got it down. She helped me with the negative work and made several positive images on her own. I'll go out on a limb here and say that she's probably the youngest Collodionista in the world! I'm sure I'll get some email if she's not. I'm trying to encourage her to teach the process when she starts college next year. It would be a great part time gig for an undergraduate student, not to mention what doors it may open for her.

Here are a few plates from yesterday's effort (as always, click to enlarge):

 

"Summer's Fan" - Whole Plate Alumitype
"The Three Summers" - Whole Plate Alumitype 
"Westmalle Trappist Beer" - 5"x7" Negative Toned/POP
Sometimes, we run out of room on our mantle for glass and metal!

186 Steps in the "Stairs of Death" in the Mauthausen Quarry

The Mauthausen concentration camp was a Class III camp where prisoners classified as "Return undesired" were sent. It was a punishment camp where the inmates had to do hard time in a granite rock quarry. Those on the punishment detail had to carry granite boulders up steep stairs on their backs – the stairs are known as “The Stairs of Death”.

There is a sign (in German) at the bottom of the stairs that reads:

Here worked prisoners of various nationalities. With disregard of even the most primitive safety precautions, and with complete brutality, extreme work performance was demanded of the prisoners.

Here one had the best possibility to liquidate prisoners in the fastest manner. With a boulder weighing often up to 50 kg on the shoulder, while being forced to run through the quarry under constant beatings, the victim soon collapsed only to die in some corner unaided. (thanks Elke).

 

This leads into the quarry. You can see the distorted Menorah at the top quarry. This is where the camp is – to the left, is where I made the plate below. 
     "186 Steps of Death" - Mathausen Death Camp - 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype      

Mauthausen is a beautiful area, this absurd and evil thing takes all of that beauty away for me.

This was even more disturbing than Dachau in some ways. Being worked to death and used for profit adds a dimension of evil that exceeds simple execution. Don’t get me wrong, we walked through the gas chambers here and saw the table where they removed skin with tattoos and gold teeth, too. There were several places where they murdered the victims, hanged them, shot them, gassed them, and tortured them. Mauthausen has it all and then some. I will never look at granite the same way again in my life.

I didn’t make any photos inside the concentration camp. Only this 8x10 wet plate in the quarry and the color digital images outside of the camp.

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

Tracks Headed East

A sense of urgency overtook me today and I was able to get a couple of important photographs made. I'm exhausted right now, but elated. While I call everything an experiment, it's not exactly true. For now, however, I'm calling the work experimental.

The "train tracks" image below is something I've been meaning to try for a while. Most all of the tracks here were used, at least in some part, to transport Jews and other undesirables to either bigger train stations or directly to the concentration camps. My friend, Caron, mentioned that I should look at making some images like this - I couldn't agree more.

The feeling I get when I look at this empty, quiet image is one of anxiety. I'm waiting for a train to rip through this space headed east (the direction of this image) with cars full of people going to their death. Although, it doesn't look like it, I was very close to the tracks. It made me a little bit nervous. I shot this with my new (old) CC Harrison portrait lens - wide open - what a neo-pictorialist, huh? I was lucky to find a spot where I had access to the tracks (and schlep all of my Scheise to it). Sometimes, it's difficult doing these kinds of things. I was thinking about how I would probably be arrested in the United States for doing this... you know the whole terrorist scare thing. No one was around when I made the images. It was out of the way and "in between" towns.

"Train Tracks Headed East - Bahnhof Ahead" - 29 March 2008 - 1305 - 10x8 Black Glass Ambrotype (destroyed) - Southwestern Germany (quiet countryside). 
I'm going to keep making images of memorials, tracks, and portraits (and whatever else strikes me). I'm also going to explore making images of smokestacks. All of these symbols are very powerful to me. I have no idea how all of this is translating, or will translate, but I'll keep making images, thinking out loud, writing my thoughts and ideas down and hopefully, someday put it all together.

 

Viernheim Synagogue Memorial & Some Project Thoughts

I can only imagine what goes through the minds of the people watching as I make photographs in the small towns and villages here.

This morning I went out to re-photograph the Synagogue memorial in the village I live in, Viernheim. They moved the memorial (I call them gravestones - they always seem to be weeping) a couple of months ago. They also included a little sitting area and bench. It's actually a lot better.

As I setup and made preparations to make a plate, several people walked by and stared - I mean stared! One old German man, maybe 70 years-old, or more, almost tripped, as he was walking by staring. He wasn't watching where he was going. I said, "Achtung, Baby!" - I wonder if he got the reference to the U2 album, probably not.

I don't mind people watching. I'm a voyeur by profession and passion. The thing that I don't is like not knowing if they're just interested, or if they're thinking, "I would prefer that this guy go away." It feels like the latter, but I'm hopeful that it's the former.

The photograph I made this morning is gone. It made me sick, but I wiped it from the plate. This is the only "evidence" that remains of the Ambrotype. What if I made this whole project like that? What if there were no plates in the entire project, only non-tangible (digital) representations? It would be a lot like the subject matter, no?

A friend/colleague emailed me the other day asked me about my thoughts on impermanence, or ephemeral art. He's working on his M.F.A. and doing some really interesting things with chalk-screen transfers. His images are only there for a short time on a chalkboard - this theme has been explored by a lot of artists, but it keeps coming back to me, time and time again. It feels like I'm not listening.

Just as the Synagogues and people were "wiped away", I think that this method may serve the project well. I first thought about breaking the glass, destroying the images, or having Germans do that in a performance. After some thought, I decided no, that's too much. However, wiping these images  from the plates, and maybe even keeping the Collodion I wipe off as residue may be the answer I've been looking for.

You have to remember, these images are extremely beautiful when you're holding them in your hand. They're a "precious artifact" in a lot of ways.  They're also a lot of work to make - a big investment in many ways -  time, money, effort, etc. So destroying them and only keeping (digital) representations creates a sense of loss for me - a lot like how I feel when I see (memorials) representations of these beautiful Synagogues (and people) that were destroyed.

I'm going to seriously explore this some more. Right now, in this moment, I feel very strongly about it.

"Destroyed Synagogue Memorial With Apartments and Playground" 8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype - 29 March 2009 - 0923, Viernheim, Germany (I flipped this positive so you can read the text) 
Notes: The memorials seem to be "weeping" every time I photograph them. The background (apartment buildings, trees, playground, etc.) appear as a painting or drawing, unreal, if you will. The gravestone seems to be emerging from a black earth - terrible and foreboding. 

CC Harrison Lens & Austria

We'll be leaving this week for Austria. I'm teaching a workshop in Kefermarkt. It usually takes me a few days to get ready for a workshop. I have to gather up a lot of equipment, do an inventory on chemistry, glass and aluminum, as well as get prepared personally. I'm hoping we can spend a day in Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp. We'll be about 30 minutes north of it. I want to stop in and make some photographs. I'm excited about the workshop, but I'm more excited about making some work for my project.

I bought a CC Harrison 300mm f/4 lens (1861, New York City, New York) a couple of weeks ago. It's American made and I wanted to own a piece of American Wet Plate Collodion history. I also wanted to test it out before the trip to Austria. Summer said she would sit for me and play her guitar while I made plates. So that's what we did.

1861 CC Harrison Lens - New York City, New York 
5"x7" Black Glass Ambrotype - 2 seconds, wide open. 
5"x7" Alumitype - 3 seconds, wide open. 
I really like the lens. I like both of these images, too. The second image, the tighter shot, is very cool because her hair is blowing around during the three second exposure. I call it, "Painted Hair". It's wild to see time pass in an image.