For all of you Chemical Pictures members, I just uploaded the September Video Podcast. It's all about exposure: Over, Under and Spot On. I show some working examples using my Cigar Box Guitar, and yes, I play a little bit, too - I hope you enjoy it.
Exposure: Making A Good Image
The website of Centre Iris Gallery for photographyI’ve had three photographic dreams my life. The first, to have a photographic exhibition of my work in Paris, France. The second, to have a book of my photographs published (a very nice 12” x 12” tri-tone, spot varnished images). And the third, to own and operate a (historical) photography school - the first three processes - Daguerreotypes, Calotypes and Wet Plate Collodion.
I’m happy to say that the first dream has come true! I’ve been invited to do a show in the center of Paris at a gallery called, “Centre Iris Pour La Photographie”. This is an incredible high for me. Paris is the birthplace of photography and the French, for the most part, really love and appreciate the art.
My exhibition will run from 9 March to 19 June, 2010. I will be doing a live demonstration of the process; I call them “performative lectures”, and a full-blown, two-day workshop during the exhibition, too.
This will be my second solo exhibition with my Wet Plate Collodion work. The show will consist of 50 – 60 pieces; Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Alumitypes, and Albumen prints (singles, diptychs, and triptychs). I’m going to exhibit both the, “Portraits from Madison Avenue” work and the, “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” work.
Wish me luck! I hope you can make the opening!
Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany
Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany - (the streak is from "lens flare")
Wet Collodion Negatives are intense and a lot of fun. They take some pratice and there's no "high-wow" factor for the public, but they are really special for personal work and for POP (Albumen prints/Salt prints) prints.
Albumen printing is tricky, but pays off once you get it down.
Today, I was having issues with sensitizing the Albumen paper. I wanted to check the difference between the single coated and double coated paper that I made a coupe of weeks ago. I'm going to be floating a bunch this weekend and wanted to make sure that the double coated paper was worth the effort (it is!).
I used a Hake brush to sensitize (brushed the silver nitrate on the Albumen paper) and got some "measles" on one of the prints and "weakness" in areas of the other print. Tomorrow, I'm going to use the 3 minute float on the AGNO3 - it's much better.
So far, my German Albumen paper is "da bomb"! The final images on Albumen paper will be much better than these, but I wanted to show you the process - as you can see, it's not for pussies.
Checking the print in the contact frame. You can see I have some "brush strokes" there - weak silver from a previous batch in the brush - and my technique wasn't perfect either. Just some quick prints for testing. 
Here, you can see those "measles" - other than that, it's okay. Keep in mind, these are "in camera" negatives, or foundation negatives, they have not been intensified or re-developed (yet). That's my next step - I'll compare Albumen prints - before and after.
This negative was a bit more dense (maybe 1.75) You can see the "silver issue" in the bottom right. Both of these images are gold toned.
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.
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
For my Collodionista brothers and sisters that are signed up for my Chemical Pictures Workshop: The August 2009 Video Podcast is online - you can find it here.
Comparing Varnishes - Old & New
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!
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
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"