I Am A Sensitive Artist – John S. Hall

John S. Hall - PoetThe poet, John S. Hall is the author my favorite poem. Summer had his book out last night and I felt compelled to share it here (for future reference).

This poem makes me smile ear to ear and sometimes I just crack up laughing when I read it. I know people that would wear this like a glove. For me, it sums up the pretentious attitude and bullshit that some artists buy into. It’s almost like a religious chant for the fundamental cult of artists.

I am a sensitive artist...

I am a sensitive artist.
Nobody understands me because I am so deep.
In my work I make allusions to books that nobody else has read,
Music that nobody else has heard,
And art that nobody else has seen.
I can't help it
Because I am so much more intelligent
And well-rounded
Than everyone who surrounds me.

I stopped watching tv when I was six months old
Because it was so boring and stupid
And started reading books
And going to recitals
And art galleries.
I don't go to recitals anymore
Because my hearing is too sensitive
And I don't go to art galleries anymore
Because there are people there
And I can't deal with people
Because they don't understand me.

I stay home
Reading books that are beneath me,
And working on my work,
Which no one understands

I am sensitive...
I am a sensitive artist...

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!

1st Annual European Collodion Festival & Bièvre Photo Fair 2009

Amazing, and very fun! I’m gob smacked! Paris was magnificent!

I’ll start by thanking everyone that made the journey for the 1st Annual European Collodion Festival:

Carl and Liz from Glasgow, Scotland
Rebecca and Marti from Barcelona, Spain
Alexei from St. Petersburg, Russia
Dmitry, and Tamara from Moscow, Russia
Stefan and Mario from Vienna, Austria
Indra and Bart from Maastricht, The Netherlands
Eddie from New York, USA


There were my regular photo friends there from Brussels, Gent and Paris. I made some new friends, too. I met Vincent earlier in the day. He’s from Paris and was very interested in getting started in the Wet Plate Collodion process and Joe (an American) that’s been living in Paris for 20 years or so. What a great group of people! I’m honored to know each one.

We arrived in Saclay, France (hotel) Friday afternoon. About 1PM. Carl and Liz had a bump and got stuck on a train and a train station and didn’t get to the hotel until after 4PM. We decided to go into Paris even though it was later than we had planned. After a “sardine in an oven” like ride on the train, we got to where we could jump on the Metro and ended up at the Eiffel Tower at about 7:15PM. We had a dinner date at Martin Becka’s house at 8PM, so we only hung out at the tower for a little while. We jumped into a taxi and headed to Martin’s house. 

It was a lovely evening talking, laughing, eating, drinking and looking at Martin’s new project; cityscapes of Dubai – 16”x20” paper negatives (Calotypes) printed onto an Albumen-like paper – wow! These things were amazing! Martin is a great guy and a wonderful artist/photographer. His wife, Sophie, made us a delicious French meal of beef, vegetables, potatoes, ice cream/fruit, bread, and the cheese! OMG, makes my mouth water thinking about the cheese. Oh, and yes, we drank a few bottles of wine – I counted seven or eight – maybe more. They know how to live – are you listening my American brothers and sisters?

Saturday we slept in. In the early afternoon, we met a lot of the group for lunch in Bièvre. The shopping and consuming of large brass lenses and old wooden cameras started early on Saturday. There was quite a bit of good Wet Plate Collodion stuff, but I really didn’t have time to shop and negotiate with the sellers. I did see some nice stuff though. After lunch we found my booths and started setting up. We used one side for an exhibition space and the other side for the “Collodion Performance” (making plates). In a perfect world, we could have been a bit more  organized – timetables, literature in French (oops) and a tad bit more space. We’re sorting things out for next year – it will be spot on! We had work out Saturday for people to look at and we just kind of relaxed and talked. We had a nice meal and some drinks and headed back to the room for an early Sunday morning.

At 7AM Sunday (Sunday Morning Coming Down), we arrived with the Toyota loaded with camera, dark-box, chemicals, plates, head-brace, etc. to unload at the booths. The only people there were Carl, Liz, Jeanne, Summer and I. We unloaded and setup everything. We were making plates by 9AM. As the light changed throughout the day, it was quite easy to adjust exposure and bounce the light a little bit. I’m not sure how many plates I made, but several of them were taken away and I have 12 plates at home (to be varnished and sent to the sitters). So, I’m guessing close to 20, maybe even more. It was a lot of fun, but like I said, some better organization would help a lot. I have two images that I kept for my collection. These are posted here.

Around noon, Laura (event organizer) came by and said that I had been awarded something and I needed to meet near the county building at 12:30PM. Carl took over the booth with Summer and Liz. Jeanne and I headed to the award ceremony. They gave out about 5 awards and then I heard my name and went up and they gave me a medal, a certificate that says, “Grand Prix de Bièvre”, two wonderful photography books, a tripod, camera bag, etc, etc. a lot of stuff! It was very nice. At some point, I’m sure they will update their web site with the information, too. You can see a small video below – thanks Jeanne!

Along with the award, I was offered at least one exhibition (maybe two) and two workshops in Paris. And, I was offered an article in Photo magazine (Paris). Not to mention a nice spot at the fair next year, too – we’re looking forward to it!

Thanks again to everyone for making this a wonderful memorable event! Merci Beaucoup!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Script: I had one bad thing happen on the trip. I didn’t pack this image well enough and it fell out of the packing while we were walking into the hotel. It hit the ground and shattered – it kind of made me sick, but I got over it. I may glue it back together again. That’s what happens when you make photographs on glass, sometimes they break! 

I will post of the portraits I made tomorrow in a different blog.

Collodion Images For Paris

I’m taking this image (below) and some 1/2 plate (CGAs) I made when I lived in the states, to Bievres (Paris). We’re going to do a small exhibition/show there – we should have about five or six people showing work (maybe more).

I like this image a lot (Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype). I also like how this presentation of it exaggerates, or esteems the content (some would say it contradicts). I actually glued (epoxy) the BGA to the black glass in the frame. If you wanted to remove it without damaging the image, you could.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but I do. The distressed image is a nice contrast to the frame and the color/tone of the image matches the frame as well. It conflicts and disorients me, and I like that kind of feeling.

This will be for sale at the show. I’m looking forward to hearing what people think about the work and the Wet Plate Collodion process.

This piece was later reframed and sold at the "Glass Memories" exhibition.

Summer Sings At Graduation 2009 & Mannheim Idol

Summer sang the German National Anthem and the American National Anthem at the 2009 Mannheim High School graduation ceremony yesterday at Congressforum in Frankenthal, Germany. She has an amazing voice and to hear the anthem is quite moving. No (Grandmas and Grandpas) Summer didn’t graduate yesterday, she graduates 2010!

It was a hectic day. She had to be in Heidelberg at 0745 to take her SAT. That went until 1230 and then we had to drive to Frankenthal (~40km) to get to the graduation ceremony on time. Summer and I were suppose to be there at 1330 – we made it. They asked me to photograph the graduation ceremony, too. It was a very nice ceremony in a very nice facility.

After that, we ended up going out for a bite to eat and in a weird series of events, Summer got picked up for the Mannheim Idol competition. It’s the post (MWR) sponsoring it, but should be fun to watch her crush the competition! I’ll be sure to shoot some video and post it.

 
Summer singing the anthem – I think it’s cool how there is a couple second delay on the big screen.

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 Workshop: Budapest, Hungary

My head spins a little bit when I think about how to tell the stories and describe the adventures we go on with words and a few still images. It’s a lot like trying to explain how to tie your shoelaces over the phone – impossible, but I’ll try.

Budapest workshop students.

We arrived in Budapest, Hungary Friday afternoon. It was an 8.5 hour drive. It was problem free and beautiful. We drove in four countries in one day; Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary – 1000 kilometers – averaging 140 kmph – 160 kmph.

 

In the Budapest Photo House- skylight studio and all!

I have two friends from Budapest named Zoltan. Zoltan F. and Zoltan K. Zoltan F. lives in Jerusalem. And Zoltan K. lives in Budapest and invited me to do a Wet Plate Collodion workshop there.

Zoltan K. has a major exhibition coming up in September and wanted to spend a couple of days working in the process both as a refresher (he attended the workshop in Vienna last year) and to see what it would be like working in his studio with natural and artificial light.

Budapest is split into two very distinct areas; Buda, the “suburban”, mountainous side and Pest, the flat, urban side. The Danube splits the city. It’s a wonderful city. It’s beautiful, interesting and full of diversity. It reminded me of a blend of Paris and Barcelona. The people are very nice and the city is full of art, culture, and history.

One of the most interesting sites we visited was The Great Synagogue on Dohány Street. It’s the second largest synagogue in the world. We also had a wonderful meal at Rosenstein’s Restaurant, an appropriate transition following the synagogue visit.

The Great Synagogue - it lives up to its name - amazing! I have to admit that I was moved by the beauty and size of the synagogue. It still bothers me that they have to have the police guarding synagogues and anything Jewish here. In Berlin, I saw the same thing – they are huge targets for the nut-jobs of the world.

I bought two really cool black velvet kippahs. One has, “The Great Dohany Street Synagogue – Budapest, Hungary” on the inside. I collect kippahs. I have them from Worms, Germany, Prague, Czech Republic, and some other places, and now Budapest. I wanted to be able to collect something from wherever I go that has significant Jewish history; kippahs seem to work for me that way. We picked up some Klezmer music, too. Summer bought a really cool book called, “Beyond the Nose.” All in all, it was a great experience seeing Europe’s largest synagogue and collecting a few items to remember it by.

We visited the Hungarian House of Photography - Manó Mai House, too. The 19th century skylight studio was beautiful. It would be wonderful to setup and make portraits in that space for a day – or even a few hours! The images would be mind-twisting, for sure. It’s beautiful light!

The workshop was successful, too. There were four people in attendance; Zoltan (the host), Walter (from Oslo, Norway), Szabina, and Zolt. Zolt and Szabina are Hungarian and work with Zoltan.

The Great Synagogue - Budapest, Hungary Zoltan has a beautiful studio nestled at the top of a hill on the Buda side of the city. It’s both spacious and high-end. He’s put a lot of time, effort and money into it, for sure. Budapest this time of year is full of UV light – Collodion loves it there! His studio has a lot of windows, too. You can make plates by natural UV or by artificial lights. He had a 3000 Kelvin mono-light we blasted through a scrim – it was perfect. Exposures were between 4 and 8 seconds.

Zoltan has a large exhibition coming up and wants to make photographs of Hungarian Ballerinas in Wet Plate Collodion. I saw the space of his show – it’s mind-blowing huge! It’s an enormous (beyond enormous) atrium and three levels of galleries. It’s really beautiful right in the middle of the city. He made some really nice “test” or example plates during the workshop of one of Budapest’s top ballerinas. He’s going to do very well with the craft and the concept of Wet Plate Collodion.

Walter is from Oslo, Norway. He was going to go to the United States for a workshop, but ended up attending mine. I’m glad he did. He had some great stories and has a real passion for photography. He made a couple of really beautiful images. One of them was a Whole Plate Alumitype of Summer and it looked like it was made by someone who had several years experience in the process. I was impressed.

It was nice to sit and have a beer or two and dinner with him after a long day of Collodion work, too. He stayed in the same hotel as us. There have been a lot of Norwegians in my workshops – this is a good thing. They seem to bring a sense of passion and love for the craft. And they always have great stories about Norway. We hope to make it to Scandinavia in September, our fingers crossed! I just hope we can afford it, it sounds very expensive there.

Walter (left from Oslo) and Zoltan, showing off their "black paws" from the Collodion workshop.Szabina and Zolt both did an outstanding job with the process. They both made wonderful images and seem to really like the process. Szabina is very photogenic. Summer asked her to sit for her. The result was a beautiful little 4x5 Alumitype of Szabina looking like a 1940s American film actress – gorgeous! The portrait of Zolt rocks, too! I really like the backwards, “Lucky’s Auto Parts” on his t-shirt. The whole workshop was a lot of fun! In the end, it was about passionate people working in a process and history that mirrors that passion so well. We had a little (private) exhibition at the end of the workshop on Sunday – wow, the plates all together looked so sweet! It was hard to believe all of that work was created in a couple of days by a handful of people. It made me proud and happy.

Szabina, 1940s Style by Summer Jacobson Europeans, for the most part, seem more intense and more engaged with learning the process than Americans (my apologies to my American brothers and sisters, just trying to be honest). In reality, I’ve taught a lot more Europeans than Americans, so maybe I’ve forgotten what Americans are like in a Wet Plate Collodion workshop. It’s been a while since I’ve been engaged with Americans. Europe has been my classroom for Wet Plate Collodion and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to teach so many here. I hope I can do that all the way to the end (2011?). I also hope that everyone here that I teach will teach 10 more and that they will teach 10 more and so on and so forth. That’s my goal. Unlike so many teaching workshops, I want to give people the tools and knowledge to pass it on to others and support them to do that.

 

My dream, a Skylight Studio! 

Szabina - Budapest, Hungary
Waler's plate of Summer. 
Zoltan and Zolt working on a plate. 
And once again, The Great Synagogue!
Summer assisting Walter with varnishing.
Zoltan's plate of one of Budapet's top ballerina dancers.
Zoltan's #2 - great images!

Zoltan's image of Zolt. 
Walter's image of Zoltan exposed through the glass (plate in camera backwards).
The Stars of David are amazing - all over the Synagogue
Makeup!
I couldn't resist!

Nitrocellulose & The Dumbest Generation

I'm half artist and half geek. I’m interested in how things work. I seem to live in the "geek world" when I'm gearing up to write, teach or do some kind of experiment with Collodion, or Collodion related things.

Having a certain amount of knowledge about a topic or an area of interest helps you to achieve your goals and gives you more opportunity for growth. I don’t believe that every artist needs to understand their materials like a research scientist, but I wouldn’t discourage if they were so inclined.

Wet Plate Collodion photography opens the "geek door" wide open for me. Most people working in photography today don’t even understand the basics of how a photograph is made (I’m not talking pixelography here, I’m talking about light energy and silver). Again, I’m not saying that you need to understand how electricity works to turn on a light, but you would have a greater appreciation for it if you did. This applies to photography as well. Knowledge and connections – those are important to me. If you look at the history of photography, or the history of art for that matter, you’ll find that both artistic movements and technical advances were made because of profound understanding (knowledge) and connections.

So yes, I’ve been "geeking out". This is how nitrocellulose is made (Collodion).

 

I was listening to an interview with Mark Bauerlein this morning on the radio. He wrote, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)". If the statistics he used are true, we (people in our 40s) have a lot to be worried about when we get old.

It’s an irony so commonplace it's become almost trite: despite the information superhighway, despite a world of knowledge at their fingertips, the younger generation today is less informed, less literate, and more self-absorbed than any that has preceded it. But why? According to the author, an English professor at Emory University, there are plenty of reasons. The immediacy and intimacy of social-networking sites have focused young people’s Internet use on themselves and their friends. The material they’re studying in school (such as the Civil War or The Great Gatsby) seems boring because it isn’t happening right this second and isn’t about them. They’re using the Internet not as a learning tool but as a communications tool: instant messaging, e-mail, chat, blogs. And the language of Internet communication, with its peculiar spelling, grammar, and punctuation, actually encourages illiteracy by making it socially acceptable. It wouldn’t be going too far to call this book the Why Johnny Can’t Read for the digital age. Some will disagree vehemently; others will nod sagely, muttering that they knew it all along. From David Pitt (Booklist).

Part of the conversation this morning was about this generation (12-25 year-olds) reading and writing more than any other generation. However, only 23% of high school graduates are proficient readers! They also talked about communication. This generation communicates more than any other, too. Emails, Tweets, Texts, Facebook, My Space, etc. etc. However, they communicate about NOTHING! They drone on about what they had for breakfast and what when they went to bed, etc. meaningless to everyone except them. The explanation he had for this was very interesting and explained a lot about the “social network movement” and our mental health. And before you email me about my Facebook or Twitter account, I want to say that I’m making a concerted effort to stay away from them as much as possible. Eventually, I would like to delete my accounts – however, it’s a process, not an event.

Bauerlein mentioned two movies, too; Flunked and Idiocracy.

One more note; I had an interview Friday night (via phone) with an organization in NYC that operates private schools for underserved communities. They’re opening a high school in Harlem next year and may be looking for a fulltime art teacher – photography, digital media, video, etc. So maybe when I return to America, (sometime next year or the first of 2011) I’ll pursue something that will allow me to do my part in helping this generation live up to their potential.