Köln (Cologne), Germany Wet Plate Collodion Workshop

I spent the last couple of days teaching a workshop in Leichlingen, Germany (just outside of Köln). It was a great workshop – we had five participants: Vernon, Robert, Marcus, Artur, and Ugo. They made some wonderful images! Every student caught on fast and was up to speed making plates on their own in hours, amazing!

Vernon set up the studio space – it was very nice – ArtLight Studios. We made images with natural light and had two models to work with. I’m looking forward to seeing work from all of these guys, and Ugo, let’s talk about an exhibition in Belgrade, Serbia!

 

"Vernon Trent" - The first image of the workshop. This is made with window light and my Derogy lens - 12 seconds - 5"x7" Black Glass Ambrotype. 
Workshop student, Vernon Trent made this plate. A nice still life made with a Russian 5"x7" camera. This is an Alumitype. 
And another Alumitype. 
5"x7" Alumitype portrait from the workshop. 
And one more Alumitype - 5"x7"
There were about 30 plates made from the five students at the workshop.

Collodion Negatives & Waxed Albumen Prints

I’ve been working through making Albumen, Albumen paper, and started making negatives today. I really enjoy making work in my studio -  in my space. I feel completely in control and can get on the plate what’s in my mind more efficiently (lazy and scared, huh?).

Today, I was fortunate to have some very interesting sitters that were very cooperative. I only made four negatives, but I’m very pleased. I wanted to share one of those with you. I’ve been after these kinds of images in the negative form for a long time. The problem with making them, is keeping the sitters interested. I usually get them fired up after the first (positive) image. With negatives, however, there’s no “high wow” factor. It’s difficult, and it’s kept me from making this happen. No more, this is what I’m going to concentrate on for the foreseeable future (negatives and Albumen prints).

There a lot of things I like about this image; texture, light, expression, but most of all, I like what the image implies. It’s disturbing, or disorienting, and interesting to me.

4"x5" Wet Collodion Negative - Waxed Albumen Print

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.

National Resonator Guitar (Dobro)

Okay, I'll probably regret this - but what the hell - this is a snippet of me "hacking up" Mississippi Fred's, "You Gotta Move" today. It's a beautiful song - check it out here by The Stones.

I'll get better (timing, rhythm, notes, slide), just give me some time. This isn't something I share a lot of (for good reason). Please,  no nasty email!

I do enjoy pounding on this thing - it's very therapeutic for me. Sometimes, I can hit stuff that would give you chills, albeit only a note or slide or two, but it sounds great. Little riffs of Delta (super-swampy) metallic blues. This is my next big life project - I want to play in the streets, at parties, for friends, etc. I'll get there.

National guitars are known for having great tone and are all around sweet instruments.

(I took it down - someday, I may post another one).

Value, What Does It Mean To You?

I've been thinking a lot about value lately. The other night on NPR, there was a program about how Americans have lost the ability to discern what value is - they are confusing it with cheap.

It was based on buying cheap products that we know are "disposable" They used Ikea's business model as an example. That's no surprise, we've been trained to do that. Our options today are top-shelf (expensive) stuff or Wal-Mart. There's nothing that's well made for a reasonable cost available to us. At least not like the previous two options. I think our grandparents knew what value was (at one time). We've all been trained to buy cheap - get it as cheap as we can - use it and throw it away. We don't even look for quality - we look for cheap.

Quinn and his National Resonator Guitar aka, DobroIt got me thinking about photography. Photography has changed so much over the last 10 years, it's hardly recognizable to me. I don't want to sound like I'm stuck in 1851, or that I'm a Luddite, because I'm neither. My thoughts go to the word value, again. I wonder what's happened to "cheapen" photography so much?

Susan Sontag wrote that all photographs are meaningless and have no value. This was based on her belief that because we're inundated with so much imagery every day, it all becomes a big, blurry, meaningless mess. We are quick to dismiss images, or ignore them - I know I am. And Summer's (my daughter) generation seems to be far worse. This worries me and it also tells me that I can share some valuable information with those young whipper-snappers (as he reaches for his cane)!

When I'm out doing my "performances" there are some obvious things happening. There's a big wooden camera/brass lens and a portable darkroom set up - these are unique, not often seen items that draw attention. Moreover, there's something tangible in watching me "perform" and listening to my stories. They see quality, dedication and passion. They hear the narrative of photography - it gives meaning to them, even to the ubiquitous digital image.

The result of the "performance" is extraordinary, or special, to their eye (the image itself) mind and heart. Photography is universal, everyone understands the basic concept of what I'm doing, but I believe they recognize the value of what I'm doing.

And lastly, please don't think that the images I posted have any value - I just wanted to expose you to another set of meaningless images today.

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.