Shifting Priorities & Making Albumen

I've made a commitment to myself that I will spend more time making my personal work (completing my project here in Europe), and exhibiting/publishing my work. And I will spend less time teaching, answering email, and spending numerous hours on the public forum board.

Don't misunderstand me, I've enjoyed doing all of those things, but my priorities are going to shift to more personal goals - it's time to focus (pun intended)! My time will be spent making my personal work, following up on my commitments to the new book, DVD and web site and sharing some of my work and experiments with close friends. I'll still blog and I'll still post work occasionally, but I'm going to put more time toward my personal work - period. I'm an artist, and I want my life to reflect that.

I have a few workshops left this year and one scheduled for March of 2010. Other than those, and maybe one in Paris with a show, I probably won't do anymore workshops. I really enjoying teaching, but I need the time I have left here in Europe to complete what I came here to do.

It feels like a good time to do this, too. I think it was the completion the new book/DVD that allowed me to make this commitment to myself. It's like I can really focus now on making photographs. It's not that I want to close my site down, and become a recluse, I'm just seeking more balance. It seems that I'm always teaching or doing something instructional for other people. I've actually had a couple of people email me and tell me that they had no idea I made art. Those are not good emails! I know artists that don't even have a web site, don't answer email and are very successful making and showing work - doing their thing - no distractions. I'm envious of them and I need to follow their lead. It's true what people say, "You become what you do," and I've become a teacher when I want to be an artist (nothing wrong with being a teacher, but you know what I'm saying in this context).

Making Albumen

Friday, I stopped at a roadside Bauernmarkt where I get fruit and vegetables a couple of times a week. It's wonderful food. On Friday, I picked up 40 large eggs, too. They are big, fresh free-range chicken eggs. Dresden, Germany is a few hours north of us. It was the epicenter for Albumen paper in the 1860s - 1880s. They used 6 million eggs a year there! I'm hoping the genes of some of those chickens are in these!


Albumen Prints: The albumen found in egg whites are used to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper and became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the century, with a peak in the 1860-90 period.


There are very few people in the world today making Albumen prints with Collodion negatives.


It was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative.


The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard.


Summer's going to be making a lot of custard!


2 Liters of Albumen!

Thanks to Summer and Jeanne for shooting photographs of me making Albumen today. images!

World Wet Plate Day Book 2009

I'm most happy doing meaningful work. It's satisfying and rewarding for me. I've never understood how people can go to jobs they hate everyday. I know that a lot of people do that. It's both sad and wrong.

If there's anything I know, it's that I know we should do what are heart tells us to do. We should follow our passion. And we should pursue happiness and find fulfillment in our lives. Contrary to popular belief, those things have little or nothing to do with money and fame. We shouldn't settle for mediocrity or fall victim to fear or the illusion of job security.

I've been multi-tasking for the last couple of months, maybe longer. I've been living and breathing my DVD for a couple of years, but I've also been weaving other, smaller projects into my schedule. One of them is the World Wet Plate Day book.

I've had the pleasure (and I say that with sincerity and honesty) to edit and prep almost 80 Collodion images shot on May 2, 2009 from all over the world. It's very exciting! It's going to be a wonderful publication for several reasons. First, all of the proceeds are going for a great cause and it's the very first one of it's kind (every year we'll publish one). It should be ready in a couple of weeks! Please consider buying a copy.

This is a mockup of the cover (all of the way open - nothing on the spine) - it's an 8.5" x 8.5" full color, perfect bound book - almost 100 pages.

The World Wet Plate Collodion Day Book 2009

Three Wonderful Things Today

It's a special day today for three reasons. First, it's Summer's birthday! Happy Birthday Summer! It doesn't seem like it was very long ago that I stayed up all night (Sunday night) with Jeanne and then witnessed your birth at 05:55, Monday morning - July 20th - 17 years ago! Wow! We love you Summer! You will always be our beautiful (baby) girl!

Secondly, today is the grand opening of STUDIOQ.COM - my Wet Plate Collodion Online Workshop, book and DVD. Although the book and DVD doesn't ship until the first week of August, the video workshop is online and there's plenty to see and learn in the interim. I'm excited about the launch!

And last, but not least, are the images I made yesterday in Frankfurt. Jeroen (also known as Dr. Herr De Wijs), our friend from The Netherlands, came down and stayed the weekend with us. He got to experience the Höchst public art making fest, also known as Montmartre Am Main. Erick, an American living in Ladenburg (near us) also made the journey to Frankfurt and witnessed the Collodion portraiture and the public awe of the event. He brought his dog Clover, too. It was a good day. As always, people gathered around and, with great interest, spent some time in my world.

Summer played guitar and sang some songs - it was very nice to be in the dark-box listening to her music while I was processing plates. Jeanne talked with people and got to relax a little bit after a long hard week of administrating the VBS - she worked until 9PM or 10PM  every night last week.

Here are some of the portraits:

"Greek Man In Frankfurt"

 
"Spanish Woman In Frankfurt"

 
"Greek Woman In Frankfurt"

"Romainian Girl In Frankfurt"

Chemical Pictures - It's Finished!

Well, I didn't provide salvation for mankind, but I did finish my book, DVD, and web site.

After an inordinate amount of time, money and obstacles, the Chemical Pictures book, DVD and web site is ready for prime time (opening next week - July 20 - Summer's 17th birthday).

I'm elated, but at the same time, relieved. This has been a trying task, to say the least. While I understand that it's not perfect, I am very happy with it. If I had a couple of lifetime's and all of the resources I needed at my disposal, I could probably do a better job, but this will be fine for now. I think the users will be happy with it, too.

I'm most excited to hear what people think. About half of the content is malleable - at least the web site portion - so if users have suggestions for making it better, I'm going to listen. It's dynamic, too. I will do monthly video podcasts on a wide variety of Collodion topics. The technical forum board (yes, another one) will be active as well - but without the "noise" you get on public boards.

My biggest hope is that the students of my system will understand what I've put together here and maximize the opportunity to have access to a live, dynamic learning system. I hope that they will see the value of spending time with each video, each chapter in the book and ultimately really grasp the process and moreover, enjoy it.

The web site opens on Monday, July 20, 2009 and the book and DVD begins shipping the first week in August.

Höchster Schloßfest Portraits

We setup near the tower there on the river - Main River, Frankfurt.Yesterday we were sitting under large Chestnut trees (Kastanienbaum) next to the Main River in Frankfurt, Germany eating peaches and souvlaki (yes, I said peaches and souvlaki).
 
It felt unbelievably good. It's been a long time since I've felt that kind of peace and "rightness". Do you know what I mean? Being in the right place at the right time and doing absolutely nothing.
 

I've said this before and will say it again - Europeans know how to relax and they have an understanding of what "community" means. This seems to be lost on Americans. I'm a little anxious about returning to the states. I'm trying to be present to what I have here. I'm trying to be "in the moment", feel everything and experience as much as I can.

It was a big day for the Höchster Schloßfest (Castle Festival). We were on opposite side of the river, normally, we setup where you see the white tents in this photo.

 We were given some artwork and a bottle of (private stock) Riesling wine yesterday by our artist friends. It was very kind of them (thanks again!). One of them, Mirjam, brought a catalog of an exhibition that was in Frankfurt a few years ago. All of the images were Dags, Calotypes, and Collodion. There were some beautiful Albumen prints! It's called, "Frühe Photographie im Rhein-Main-Gebiet 1839-1885" I'm going to buy a copy. You can see Mirjam's portrait in my June 22, 2009 blog.

I didn't do a lot of portraits yesterday, but the ones I did I'm happy with. I also made a negative of the the huge Chestnut tree we were setup near. I really like the feel of the image. Although, I consider myself a portrait photographer, I do like to make images (now and then) of nature.

  Chestnut Tree by the Main River in Frankfurt - Wet Collodion Negative.

After I made a few images, we packed everything up in the Toyota and wandered around the fest for a while. We had a beer, Apfelschorle, Rindwurst and an Eis. It was a very nice day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Uwe - Frankfurt, Germany Uwe mit zig - Frankfurt.

Höchst, Deutschland: Portraits On The River

We loaded up and headed up to (north of us) Frankfurt yesterday (Sunday). It was cool and a rained a little bit. The rain has never stopped me from making photographs in the past so I set up and enjoyed the day.

It was the start of the Höchster Schloßfest in Höchst (suburb of Frankfurt). Every two weeks, during the summer, I try to meet with a small group artists (mostly painters) on the big river for Montmartre am Main. It's a beautiful area and there are usually a lot of people interested in what we're doing.

I think I know what I love most about doing this now - it's the "performance" and sharing. While the images are beautiful and I would never minimize that, the thing that I get the most joy from is the excitement and interest of the community. It's beautiful to watch people become totally engaged in my world, with no distractions and nothing pre-occupying them. They're removed from the stress of the world and completely absorbed in the art and performance of photography. That is incredibly satisfying to me. It's like giving a gift and experiencing the happiness, excitement and joy that the receiver pushes back over to you. Anyway, I'm waxing Collodion now.. here are the portraits:


Klaus - 4x5 Alumitype - June 21, 2009


Mirjam - 4x5 Alumitype June 21, 2009


Christian - Whole Plate Alumitype June 21, 2009


Team Q! Rockin' Frankfurt on the river!

Preserving The Chemical Photography Era: The Getty

I was pleasantly surprised today when I picked up our mail. The Getty Conservation Institute gave me a nice certificate and letter for my contributions to the project, "Preserving the Chemical Photography Era."The Getty Cert and Thank You

I was happy to participate. I'm going to try to submit some more photographs over the next few months; the Collodion Negative, Albumen print, Salt print, and Ferrotype. I can geek out a little bit doing this stuff and make some nice images for the Getty to keep forever.

Collodion Portraits

This is one of those posts where I should be elated, but I'm not (so much).

I prepared all week to make some images for the Getty Conservation Institute today. The Getty invited me (and others) to be part of their project called, "Preserving the Chemical Photography Era". I got the invite months ago, but between my book and DVD, workshops, Wet Plate Day, and life, I haven't had the chance to do the work. However, I almost succeeded today.

One of my many weaknesses is perfectionism. Not on everything, and certainly not in every situation. But making plates for the Getty Institute tends to bring the proclivity for "perfection" out.

The irony is, I'm working in Wet Plate Collodion photography, "perfection" doesn't exist. In fact, I've written many times about how I love the imperfection of the process - how do I reconcile that? The project isn't even about what I'm trippin' on - it's really kind of a "geek" project. A cool geek project, I might add.

They are analyzing different photographic (chemical) techniques and documenting how the image was produced. It's for future generations to identify images they have no clue about. When they discover the 5000 glass plates that I will have stored in my attic, they'll know what they are looking at and how they were made. Cool stuff.

My dilemma is a personal one; I don't feel that these images are worthy of the Getty. Primarily because I scratched the surface on #2 and it looks like shit now. I was so pissed, I almost had an anxiety attack, I'm serious. I flipped out. It was THE perfect image. I wanted to brush a mark off of the top of the glass and my finger left a huge mark on the plate, I was sick and wanted to scream. It took me two hours to get the image and it was gone in a fraction of a second. Even through I ruined #2, I think I still may put it in my book. What do you think, would you? I like #1, I distressed (forgive me) it on purpose, I really like his expression and "presence" in it. The piece of Collodion gone from the bottom right side doesn't bother me at all on that one. 

Anyway, I'm not sending them to the Getty, but wanted to share them with you. I have to say, they had the potential to be some of the best images I've ever made. Maybe next week.

#1 Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotyoe (6.5"x8.5") May 9, 2009 - Viernheim, Germany
#2 Whole Plate Ambrotype (6.5"x8.5") May 9, 2009 - Viernheim, Germany Later broken and then purchased in Paris.