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!
Montmartre am Main
Every once in a while, when you stop trying so hard to do something, it just shows up without you doing anything. I'm sure the gurus have a name for this kind of thing, I just call it ironic.
For many months, maybe I can even say years now (2 years plus), I've been sending our queries to German Kunstgalerie (Art Galleries) and various German artists that seemed to be interested in photography. All I've ever wanted is to find some kind of community and share/show my work with the German public. Until yesterday, nothing had happened in Germany for me.
Here's the backstory. Two weeks ago, I received an email from a very nice lady named Kathy. Kathy is an American artist that has been living and working Germany for many years. She, through many trials of her own, organized a group of artists to meet in Höscht, Germany to share and show work and mingle with the public. She asked me if I would be interested in attending and making some plates (do a demo/make some work). This was what I had been looking for through all my queries and begging for community - there it was, and she was contacting me. I had put an ad seeking Germans to sit for me for portraits in thelocal.de - Kathy saw the ad and emailed. I'm very thankful she did.
She said, "It's a totally open gathering of artists painting en plein aire along the riverside where a lot of Sunday strollers and bicyclers pass by. The artists attract a lot of attention and feedback." Her idea is brilliant and I want to support it as much as I can. I found this on a Frankfurt blog about Montmarte am Main:
The first "artspace" was probably back when Montmartre in Paris became the place for mostly unrecognized artists. Both Montmartre and Hyde Park were destined to symbolize the free artist together a group of like-minded but at the time, scorned artists. Now, Kathleen Schaefer is trying to start the premise of those two places in Germany where such a tradition was never tried out. It´s for all artists, especially the ones who are barred from galleries but who have earned through their talent the right to have their art be seen in public. At the same time an appeal is made to those "arrived" artists to support, by their presence at Montmartre am Main, the idea that the work of all artists the right to be seen. And, let's not forget the 99% of the population that does not feel comfortable entering an art gallery in the first place - they also have the right to see art in a natural and casual manner - just like at Montmartre am Main!
I totally agree. Here's her website.
Trudy, an artist set up next to me, did a wonderful sketch of me, I'll post it when can scan it. It was just a lot of fun to meet people, talk about art and make photographs.
Update: Here's the sketch she made of me - wonderful!
Quinn at Montmarre am Main - Frankfurt, Germany
Here are some of the portraits I made yesterday. I will use some of them in my project.
Helmut, a German painter.
Karin, a German painter.
Sandra, from Frankfurt, Germany
Trudy, a German artist.
Gabi, from Frankfurt, Germany
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.
Barcelona Wet Plate Workshops
I wanted to post an update on our Barcelona trip. I'm somewhat burned out writing here and on my forum, so I'm going to throw in a couple of links to the forum board. If you want to see more and read more, you can check these out:
Barcelona Wet Plate Collodion Workshop #1
Barcelona Wet Plate Collodion Workshop #2
We had a wonderful time in Spain. By far my favorite country in Europe. It's mostly due to the fact that people can be who they are and not be stared at or chastised for being different. That's a very different way of life from Germany. Maybe I am over-sensitive, but Germany is a difficult place to live at times. 
16" x 20" Clear Glass Negative (Scanned) - The Jacobsons 
ATELIERETAGUARDIA Studio members, left to right; Israel, Ricard, Arcangela, Rebecca, Quinn, and Marti.
Glasgow, Scotland
On Friday (May 2) we hopped on a flight (Ryan Air) to Glasgow, Scotland (UK). It was about an hour and forty minute flight. Too easy.
I meet a lot of people through my wet plate photography interests and this is how we ended up in Scotland. Carl Radford and his wife, Liz, (and their dog Lewis) welcomed us, put us up in their beautiful home, fed us, walked us around Glasgow and even picked us up and dropped us off at the airport! How kind is that?
We had never met Carl until last weekend. He is hosting a wet plate Collodion workshop that a Californian bloke named Kerik Kouklis is flying over to teach. Kerik and Carl have been friends for a couple of years.
It was great fun to be involved in the revival of wet plate Collodion in Scotland after 150 years of it being gone. Carl and I made the first plates in Scotland since (probably) the 19th century. It was a blast.
After the wet plate Collodion events, we wandered the streets of Glasgow and went to a great Japanese restaurant (oddly enough) called Wagamama. It was really good. It seems to be very popular in the U.K. The Radfords also cooked us haggis and traditional Scottish meals. Scottish food is outstanding, very, very good. And yes, haggis tastes excellent.Enjoy the photos (click to make them larger) and video (below)!
Bagpipes, bagpises and more bagpipes. 
A wee bit more - this guy was actually pretty good.
Carl wanders Glasgow.
Carl, Liz, Jeanne, Summer and Quinn in the Glasgow subway.
Downtown Glasgow, Scotland.
"Hey, there we are!" (3D Map of downtown Glasgow)
Scottish pounds. 1 pound = $2.05 (at this time) - OUCH!
These guys were good, too.
University of Glasgow
Making & Printing A Wet Plate Collodion Negative
I'm always thinking about how to improve my craft. I've found that teaching about what I do helps me learn a lot about what I do.
Here's a video that Summer shot for me today as I demonstrated how to make a wet plate collodion negative and then P.O.P print. I know people will write me and say, "Why didn't you show the details in how you did this or that..." and I'll respond, "You'll get all of the details when I release my revised book and DVD set in July" - these are only demo videos... I'm just testing the waters and getting feedback.
Anyway, here's the video:
Flowing a Glass Plate With Collodion
Workshop in Reus, Spain
Well, I have four days of exciting news to try to fit into one (short) blog entry. I haven’t had time to write because I’ve been busy (non-stop) with workshops in Reus, Espana, or really Catalonia (aka Spain). If you’ve never been to Spain, I can tell you it’s my personal favorite place in Europe (yes, I like it better than Italy). The people are unbelievably friendly, the cities are gorgeous and cultural abounds (not to mention the food, wine and prices here). We left Germany early Saturday morning and drove to Avignon, France, a beautiful old city. We stayed the night there and got up early Sunday morning and drove into Reus, Catalonia (Spain). The Catalonians are wonderful people and are very protective of their culture. They speak both Espanol and Catalan here, however, they prefer Catalan. Reus is south of Barcelona. It takes about an hour to drive to Barcelona from Reus. Reus is a beautiful small Mediterranean city, full of culture. We came here because I was invited to do a three day workshop in Collodion at the Center for Photography, Reus (Mas Inglesias). The workshop went very well and kept me very busy! There were six people that attended. All of them very talented in their own ways (as artists), it was very rewarding and enriching for me. I had a wonderful time. Summer spent two days with me and Jeanne came over to the studio a couple of times too. Tonight, they had a journalist and a photographer there to do a story on the event – they took photos of me and asked questions (they also looked at my work and watch my DVD). Afterward, the city of Reus presented me with gifts and made me an honorary member of the Photography Society of Reus (a very high honor). They also awarded me the Gaudi Medal of Honor. I was beside myself. Finally, they gave me the last set of editioned Gaudi works (photographs and text) the center had. I couldn’t believe it!! Jean, Summer and Lucky was there to see it all! Tomorrow, we are on our way into Barcelona to do one more workshop. Friday we will see the city and Saturday we will head back to Germany.
Marigny le Châtel, France
Saturday July 14, 2007 - Marigny le Châtel, France!
We took off Friday after work and ended up in Marigny le Châtel, France! Me, Jean, Summer, Denise and Lucky loaded the camera gear and piled in the car and took off for the weekend. It was one of the best (if not the best) trip I've had.
Marigny le Châtel is about 1 hour southeast of Paris. It's a small village in the country. The people are nice and the wine and food is yummy!
Katrina brings more wine as Thierry and Jean wait patiently for another glass.
I really like this image - Jean, Denise, Lucky and I were out walking before breakfast Saturday morning and I saw this reflector disc - I love to shoot picture in them - this one made it so painterly!
A wet plate (5x7) Ambrotype of Dr. Thierry Queinnec. He is a retired medical doctor that worked with amputees and handicapped people in his village for 25 years. He wanted to learn (and see) the wet plate process. We met him last month at the Paris Foto Show. He told us that the "tripod" of France is bread, wine and cheese. Look at the relection in his glasses in this image. I like that connection!
Denise and Thierry having coffee after lunch.
A cool French butcher sign I saw.
Having coffee after a seven course French meal - it was unbelievable!
Denise and Summer checking out a plum worm - it came from a fresh plum from the tree.
Jean says, "Prost" enjoying a couple of different French wines.
"The French Table" wife Katrina (left) and daughter Judy. Wet plate 5x7 Ambrotype.
Talking shop with Thierry - I can't speak French but I can say - Oui, Oui - Merci!
The gang having coffee Saturday morning with croissants! Magnifique!
Driving into the village.
The hotel we stayed at - we will be back again!!!
We took off Friday after work and ended up in Marigny le Châtel, France! Me, Jean, Summer, Denise and Lucky loaded the camera gear and piled in the car and took off for the weekend. It was one of the best (if not the best) trip I've had.
Marigny le Châtel is about 1 hour southeast of Paris. It's a small village in the country. The people are nice and the wine and food is yummy!
Katrina brings more wine as Thierry and Jean wait patiently for another glass.
I really like this image - Jean, Denise, Lucky and I were out walking before breakfast Saturday morning and I saw this reflector disc - I love to shoot picture in them - this one made it so painterly!
A wet plate (5x7) Ambrotype of Dr. Thierry Queinnec. He is a retired medical doctor that worked with amputees and handicapped people in his village for 25 years. He wanted to learn (and see) the wet plate process. We met him last month at the Paris Foto Show. He told us that the "tripod" of France is bread, wine and cheese. Look at the relection in his glasses in this image. I like that connection!
Denise and Thierry having coffee after lunch.
A cool French butcher sign I saw.
Having coffee after a seven course French meal - it was unbelievable!
Denise and Summer checking out a plum worm - it came from a fresh plum from the tree.
Jean says, "Prost" enjoying a couple of different French wines.
"The French Table" wife Katrina (left) and daughter Judy. Wet plate 5x7 Ambrotype.
Talking shop with Thierry - I can't speak French but I can say - Oui, Oui - Merci!
The gang having coffee Saturday morning with croissants! Magnifique!Driving into the village.
The hotel we stayed at - we will be back again!!!