https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1U4AfaRHdA
We address attending a workshop and getting tutorials/online services.
(Administrated by Jean Jacobson)
The Studio Q Show LIVE!
Join me Saturday, July 4, 2020, at 1000 hrs MST if you can. Bring your technical and conceptual questions about the wet plate collodion process. Open conversation - it's always a good time.
We address attending a workshop and getting tutorials/online services.
(Administrated by Jean Jacobson)
The Studio Q Show LIVE! From the Rocky Mountains!
Greetings!
I hope everyone is doing well. I haven't had much time over the last couple of weeks. We've been crazy busy moving and getting ourselves set up to start our home build in the mountains.
I wanted to reach out and touch base with you and do a LIVE show today from our place in the mountains here - the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, U.S.A. Not much to show yet, we’re just starting, but we can talk wet plate collodion and "ask and answer" technical questions.
Join me if you can - tomorrow, Saturday, June 27, at 1000 hrs MST. It will stream LIVE on my YouTube channel as well.
We address attending a workshop and getting tutorials/online services.
(Administrated by Jean Jacobson)
Quinn’s Live Stream from Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/4sffpya3a8
Quinn’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoFXbRk1u4g
The Studio Q Show LIVE! Let's Talk Wet Plate Collodion Photography
Join me tomorrow, May 30, at 1000 hrs MST for the Studio Q Show LIVE!
Come talk about the wet plate collodion process! We'll talk about technical problems, philosophical problems, and even ontological problems (if you want).
We address attending a workshop and getting tutorials/online services.
(Administrated by Jean Jacobson)
New Book Released on Amazon and VOD
I've released my newest book the wet plate collodion photographic process on Amazon. I sold this as a LIMITED EDITION book over the last year, this book is the "standard edition" it is not signed and does not have the 13th chapter like the LIMITED EDITION did.
The book comes with access to the Workshop Videos. However, there are a lot of people that just want the videos, so I set up VOD - single videos or the entire series. Enjoy! and thanks for your support!!
My new book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0892DP6T1
Workshop Videos: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chemicalpictures
Mt Evans Wet Collodion Workshop
The first Wet Collodion Field Workshop to Mount Evans, Colorado was a great success! We just returned from a 14,000 feet/4.000 meters Collodion extraviganza.
Studio Q had a small group of newcomers and experienced Collodionists travel to Mt Evans, Colorado for a day of plate making. At that elevation and with that extreme light, it took a plate or two to adjust. But when they did, there were some spectacluar images made. In fact, one of the park rangers was suggesting we have an exhibition up there. Between the landscapes and the bristlecone trees, it would be an amazing show.
Mt Evans & Squaw Pass Day Trip
Jeanne and I spent yesterday in the thin air of the Colorado mountains. The temp was 99F/38C in the city (Denver) and 50F/10C at the top of Mt Evans. It is 14,000 feet/4.000m above sea level. It started to sleet/slush/rain when we were at the top. It's the monsoon season, so you have to go early. We'll leave the studio next Saturday morning at 0600. That will give us several good hours of making photographs.
The place is stunning and mind boggling all at once. We drove the longest/highest paved road in North America to get there. The drive was fun! A lot of it looks like what I would imagine some distant planet might resemble. Very few plants or animals can survive at that elevation - no trees - only small plants and grass. It's brutal! Jeanne and I were climbing over over some huge rocks to do some photos and I was instantly winded. There's not much oxygen at 14,000 feet. It freaked me out a little bit. I need to remember to move slower next Saturday.
The Collodion was thicker and dried faster up there. The UV was off of the charts. I was making exposures of one to three seconds with my lens stopped down to f/7 and f/22 respectively. My face got sunburned too. I thought living at 5,200 ft was intense, at 11,000 and 14,000 the sun seems overwhelming. It would be nice to work with f/32 and f/64 that way, you could do several second exposures and make some really nice photographs. One more thing, I was using old Collodion, too. I'm not sure you could get an exposure there with new Collodion unless you had a shutter. Stop action Collodion photography at 14,000 feet!
It costs $10 to enter - well worth every penny!
Quinn stunned at the beauty of Squaw Pass - 11,500 ft. photo by Jeanne Jacobson. 
Publications Summer 2012
I have work that's going to be published in the following magazines this summer:
View Camera (US/Global)
Eyemazing (Europe)
5280 Magazine (Denver, Colorado)
Where Colorado (Western US)
Please keep your eye out for them - I'm not sure what issues, etc. They are all great publications. If you can, please support them and pick up a copy!
Returning From Paris and Reflecting
Paris, France
It’s five o’clock in the morning. I woke up at four o’clock this morning. I flew into Denver late last night from Paris. I’ll be on this “adjustment rollercoaster” (up early and tired early) for a few days. It’s also known as jet-lag. Fun.
It was a good trip. This was our second one in less than sixty days! Taxing and tiring to say the least. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. It is bitter-sweet when these exhibitions end. I’m glad it’s over but it’s sad at the same time.
Wet Plate Collodion: The Past, Present & Future
As I sit here in the quiet this morning and see the Facebook posts and read my email, I find myself thinking how fortunate I was to start working in Wet Plate Collodion when I did. It’s a madhouse out there now. Truly a head-spinning environment - so many people posting “their first plate” and “look how big” etc. – it’s emotionally draining to me. The competition grows everyday for a place at the Collodion table and there’s simply not enough room.
At some point, it will melt down and everything will even out again. Let’s talk in ten years and see who’s doing what. Most will fade away, I’ve seen it before and it will happen again. There will be less than a handful that make serious work with the process or accomplish anything significant with it. That’s how it unfolds.
My Wet Collodion CV
Over the past 10 years, I’ve accomplished a lot in this small, niche world of historic processes. My biggest accomplishment, and the one I’m most proud of, is that I created three bodies of work that were all exhibited in Paris and all received high marks from the viewing audience there.
2003 – 2006: “Portraits from Madison Avenue” (America)
2006 – 2010: “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” (Europe)
2011 – 2012: “The American West Portraits” (America)
Most artist/photographers would give their left eye to simply visit Paris let alone have a gallery, exhibitions and good representation there. I was told by the gallery owner on Saturday that my show, “The American West Portraits” ranked number one for seven weeks in the photography shows of Paris (Télérama). That’s amazing, I’m proud and honored. How can you feel “unaccomplished” with those kinds of things in your life? Not only did I exhibit there, I also made hundreds of commissioned portraits and taught several workshops; including Collodion negatives and printing (Albumen, Salt and Collodion Chloride).
I’m also very proud of the fact that I was instrumental in reviving the Wet Collodion Process in Europe. My five years (2006 – 2011) of traveling and teaching has spurred on a resurgence of the process that would have not happened without my efforts. My wife, Jeanne, and daughter, Summer made all of that possible. We worked hard and had a lot of fun, but we also changed the direction of photography there (in this context) by doing what we did. As with all educators, you get lost and replaced over time. In other words, the people you teach will teach and so on and so forth. That’s okay, it’s the natural evolution of things. The important thing is to remember the contributions, not simply the teaching of the process. That’s what I’m referring to here. My influence not only taught people the process, but it built community. You would have never seen Wet Collodion at Foire de Bievres (nor even heard of it) or had the Collodion parties and community assemblies without my years there.
Over the years, I’ve written three books about the process, too.
2006: The Contemporary Wet Plate Collodion Experience
2007: Conferring Importance; Thoughts on Identity, Memory and Difference
2009: Chemical Pictures (revised in 2010 and 2011) with DVD and Online Video Workshop
And the final entry in my Collodion CV would be The Archer Project (2010). I spent fourteen months and a lot of money to honor Frederick Scott Archer with a custom plaque citing his invention of the Wet Plate Collodion process. If you ever visit his grave in the Kensal Green Cemetery in London, you’ll see the fruits of that labor. The Collodion Collective that I put together was made up of a couple of British blokes; Carl Radford and John Brewer, but the bigger body consisted of 51 Collodionists from around the world contributing a plate to honor Archer. Although I had to take on the majority of the financial burden, I have no regrets and wear the effort as a badge of honor to Archer and to this wonderful process.
Reflection & The Future
When endings come in your life, like this show ending for me, you tend to reflect on what you’ve done and ask questions. And you end up in a state of melancholy – you go as low as your highest point was high – it’s tough.
I’m unsure of what’s next. Or if there will even be a next. That’s where I am now. Time will tell. I’ll take some time to rest and think it all through. However, should it end tomorrow, I’m very pleased and very proud of what I’ve done over the last decade. Thanks to all the people in my life that make it possible for me to do what I do. I love you and am eternally grateful for your presence in my life, these are your accomplishments, too.
Mt Evans Workshops 2012
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
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