Mt Evans Workshops 2012

I’m getting excited for the summer. Rupert Jenkins from CPAC suggested I offer a field course in Wet Plate Collodion. Great idea! Not only for the people that attend, but also for me! I need to mix it up this year.

I’m still working out my next project idea. I don’t really like to say too much, because things change all of the time. I’m not even sure what process I’m going to use!  However, I’m excited about living in Colorado and what that means photographically. I want to get out of the studio, too.  So, for right now, I’ve decided that I’m going to offer two VERY special workshops this summer. I’m calling them the Colorado Wet Plate Collodion Field Workshops.

These will be special for at least two reasons. First, not only do you get to make photographs by hand in a wonderfully revealing process (and get away from the computer for a while), you get to spend time in some of the most beautiful landscape in America.

The details will come in a few weeks, but I’m thinking about taking a group to Mt. Evans. There’s a paved road (the highest paved road in North America, by the way) that goes to almost 14,000 feet above sea level (that’s 4.300 m for my European brothers and sisters). Has anyone make Collodion plates at those elevations before? I don’t know.  The scenery is spectacular and to spend a day making plates there sounds fantastic!

I’m going to offer two workshops; a direct positive course (not an introduction), where we will make Ambrotypes, Tintypes, and Alumitypes.  And a negative making course where will we make negatives and then spend a day back in the studio printing those negatives on Albumen, Salt and Collodion Chloride paper.

Here’s what I have so far: The Colorado Wet Plate Collodion Field Workshops: Direct Positive Images: Friday, July 27, students will meet at Studio Q in Denver, Colorado at 4PM for an overview. They will cut, clean and prepare four pieces of glass; two clear and two black. Two metal plates will be ready to go, too. Saturday, July 28, students will meet at Studio Q early (not sure maybe 0600) and depart for Mt. Evans. We will spend the day making six plates each (in portable dark-boxes). We will return to the studio late in the day and look at and talk about the images (maybe have to varnish the plates in the studio, too). This course will have a prerequisite that you have worked in the positive Collodion process before.

The Colorado Wet Plate Collodion Field Workshops: Making Negatives & POP Prints: Friday, August 10, students will meet at Studio Q in Denver, Colorado at 4PM for an overview. They will cut, clean and prepare six pieces of glass. Saturday, August 11, students will meet at Studio Q early (0600/6AM) and depart for Mt. Evans. We will spend the day making six negatives each (in portable dark-boxes). Sunday, August 12, students will meet at Studio Q at 1200 to start the printing out process of their negatives. At the end of that day, students will varnish their negatives and we’ll talk about what we did throughout the course. This course will have a prerequisite that you have worked in the positive Collodion process before and understand it well.

The Colorado Wet Plate Collodion Field Workshops: Direct Positive Images: $595

The Colorado Wet Plate Collodion Field Workshops: Making Negatives & POP Prints: $695

PayPal add 3%: sales@studioQ.com

 

Taking My Own Medicine: Daguerreotypes

Half Plate (clad) Daguerreotype. Quinn Jacobson 2012Once again, I’m faced with a chapter of my life closing and wondering what to do next.

 In a couple of weeks, Jeanne and I will be back on the plane headed to Paris. We’ll teach some workshops, maybe do some portraits, and then close the exhibition. I’m looking forward to all of that, but I’m also thinking about what’s next.

 In 2010, I started working in the Daguerreotype process. My friend, and photographer, Rene Smets (Belgium), built all of my equipment. My goal was to make a body of work for the 2014 anniversary (the 175th, also known as the Terquasquicentennial) of the Daguerreotype; 1839 – 2014. I've been thinking that this is something that would be nice to "highlight" that year. However, I'm not sure that's where my heart and head should be. 

 This is still a bit of a struggle for me. I’m finding myself over analyzing all of my motives, thoughts, and ideas. In other words, I’m not sure if I care enough about the anniversary to make a body of work. I would prefer that I make a body of work and it just so happens to be an anniversary of the process that I’m working in. There's far too many people making photographs for the wrong reasons. This is creating a lot of "noise" in the historic photographic world, at least it is for me. I'm not sure we need anymore parties about the processes, we need people making serious work. 

 The other part of the problem is that Paris seems to be more interested in Joseph Nicéphore Niépce than in Daguerre. And if you see anything about Daguerre in Paris it’s usually something to do with his diorama work. I’m not saying the work wouldn’t be received well, but I have my doubts about how effective it would be in raising awareness for the anniversary. Just typing this I’m realizing that I shouldn’t be making work based on that event.

 I’m making Daguerreotypes in my studio in Denver now. I just (in the last week) got the go ahead for Hg levels in my darkroom. I had a mercury vapor test run for a couple of days and the results say that I’m way below the OSHA and NIOSH permissible exposure level. I’ve spent a lot of time and money getting setup here to do this. It’s on my docket to make happen, but I need some quiet, uninterrupted time to think about what I want to do and WHY! If I feel good (and authentic) about my conclusion, I think I’ll have a Daguerreotype show in 2014. If not, I might retire. 

The American West Portraits; Hanging

I was very pleased with our trip to Paris to open my show. The photographs were received well, attendance was great and we had a wonderful time. 

We'll go back to close the show in June and do some more teaching, portraits and research for my next body of work. It's all very exciting. Thanks to everyone that helped make this possible. All of the sitters, the gallery, and most of all Jeanne!

These are some images that Fabrice Pejout posted on Facebook. These show the space, you can see why I get excited about my work hanging in this gallery. 

Here's an English article about the exhibition: France Revisited  

 

All 16"x20" Wet Collodion Positives - raw and real. photo by Fabrice Pejout

 

The main hallway - but there is a lot more to the catacombs that the images show. photo by Fabrice Pejout

 

Two 16"x20" Wet Collodion Positive plates. Photo by Fabrice Pejout

A Short Respite and Satisfaction

Quinn holding three 16" x 20" (40 x 50cm) Ambrotypes. Photos by Jeanne Jacobson

It’s Saturday morning, the sun is shining; I have espresso in my cup and have absolutely nothing on my "to do" list today. I haven’t felt like this for over a year!
For the previous eight months, I've been working seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. I know that’s not healthy, but I had to do it at least for that finite time.
Since Jeanne and I landed at Denver International Airport last June, we’ve been setting up our personal lives, setting up a studio, making photographs, readjusting to America and preparing for the opening of my exhibition in Paris in three weeks. It’s been a long, exhaustive and expensive journey, but I can see the reward coming soon – soon as in less than three weeks – when we board the plane for Paris, France.
Like so many things in my life, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to make this happen had I known what it was going to take. And like so many things in my life, I have no regrets about saying, “Yes, I’ll do it”. Too often, people default to “No, I can’t” to every opportunity that presents itself.  They live with regret and miss out on living life. It’s a lot easier to say, “No”, than to say, “Yes.” It’s easier to be negative than to be positive. Why is that? 
I know it’s trite and cliché, but you have to ask what does “living” mean? I know it’s different for everyone, but the underlying theme is taking chances, taking risks, going where there’s no safety blanket or safety net. Getting out of your comfort zone, getting out there – and I don’t mean that you have to go abroad – it can be as simple as public speaking, changing jobs or quitting your job. Or, in my case, making an international move and then making a new body of work for an exhibition in Paris in six months time. Those things will make you feel alive. An English idiom we use is, “You have skin in the game”. That means you have something to lose or that you’re invested.
Regardless how successful, or not, the show is, I have already experienced something amazing. I arrived in Denver with nothing and in six months time, created a meaningful body of work that I’m proud of and that didn’t exist until I made it. It’s a very satisfying feeling. And to have a gallery in Paris that is excited and supportive means the world to me.  
The plates (glass and metal) are packed in the crate on the left and the photo supplies are in the foot locker on the right. These packages will be sitting in the gallery on Monday!Jeanne and I packed everything up Wednesday night. I had a crate built for the artwork and we used a hard case (large foot locker) for the supplies we need there. The inspiration for the blog was an email I received this morning telling me that the crates cleared customs in Orly, France and will be in the gallery on Monday.
Thank you, Jeanne! You made this happen for me! I love you!

 

2014: The 175th Anniversary of the Daguerreotype

The Daguerreotype

By Mary Bellis
Daguerreotype Portrait of Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) Photographer Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot 1844
Louis Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography. Louis Daguerre (Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s.
Louis Daguerre regularly used a camera obscura as an aid to painting in perspective, and this led him think about ways to keep the image still. In 1826, he discovered the work of Joseph Niepce, and in 1829 began a partnership with him.
He formed a partnership with Joseph Niepce to improve upon the photography process Niepce had invented. Niepce, who died in 1833, produced the first photographic image, however, Niepce's photographs quickly faded.
After several years of experimentation, Louis Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype.
According to writer Robert Leggat,"Louis Daguerre made an important discovery by accident. In 1835, he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard, and some days later found, to his surprise, that the latent image had developed. Daguerre eventually concluded that this was due to the presence of mercury vapour from a broken thermometer." This important discovery that a latent image could be developed made it possible to reduce the exposure time from some eight hours to thirty minutes.
Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype process to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
In 1839, Louis Daguerre and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.
In 2014, the world will celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Daguerreotpye. I will be in Paris, at the Centre Iris Gallery, with a body of work celebrating and honoring Daguerre and the process. My exhibition will run from March to June, 2014. If all goes well, I will be making Daguerreotypes at Centre Iris and offering to do some commisioned portraits. It's a long way off still and there's a lot of preparation and work still to do, we'll see what happens. I may even offer a Daguerreotype workshop. 

My Wish for 2012

"He who approaches the temple of the Muses without inspiration, in the belief that craftsmanship alone suffices, will remain a bungler and his presumptuous poetry will be obscured by the songs of the maniacs."

Plato

Pleistocene Specimen

"Pleistocene Specimen" 31 December 2011"Time waits for no man". There was never a more true statement - it's a truism. Rather than dwell on what we can't do in a certain amount of time, I want to concentrate on what I can do. It's not easy for me, I'm cynical, at least when it comes to this topic.

I have exactly 45 days from today to complete my project, "The American West Portraits" for Paris. On February 15, 2012, I will wrap up the project and move on to the next one.