“Foxtail Barley”. Whole Plate Palladiotype.
American Indian tribes had several uses for foxtail barley. The dried and moistened root was applied as a compress for eye inflammation and the seeds were pounded into meal and eaten.

Pure Palladium Prints - Clean Edges? Or Not?

Quinn Jacobson August 29, 2022

I wanted to see how I feel about masking off the paper and sensitizing only the image area and leaving clean edges. I did the “Sunflower” print freehand and used removable tape on the other two.

These are pure palladium prints (Palladiotypes). My negatives are perfect for this printing process. It is very expensive in comparison to Kallitypes or most any other silver or POP process, but I think the reward is worth it.

I’m going to live with these prints for a while and see if I like the “clean edge” approach or not. I know I do like the white space better. It tends to give the image some room. It feels good. I know there are a lot of folks that dislike the “brush stroke” look and like the clean edges better. And there are the other folks that love the brush strokes. To each their own.

“Ponderosa Pine Stump Decomposing”. Whole Plate Palladiotype.

“Sunflower” Whole Plate Palladiotype.
Sunflower was used in many ways throughout the various American Indian tribes. Seed was ground or pounded into flour for cakes, mush or bread. Some tribes mixed the meal with other vegetables such as beans, squash, and corn. The seed was also cracked and eaten for a snack. Native Americans commonly used the sunflower in their summer festivals to symbolize the harvest and its bounties and was often associated with the sun and fertility.

Plate #103. Deer Antlers. A very beautiful layout. This works so well for me. The prints are super gorgeous. The tremendous depth and warmth of these prints are wonderful! Palladium is a wonderful (noble) metal!

New Book Prototype Work: Palladiotypes & Text Images

Quinn Jacobson August 28, 2022

I spent almost all day today (my day starts early) making prints for my new book. I guess I should say, making prototypes for it. I’m in the process of figuring out what process I want to use, what format (size of book) I want to make and how I want to present the text.

These examples are getting very close to what I’m looking for. I left the old-school Kallitypes today and opted to work in a pure palladium printing process. I heated my potassium oxalate to 190F (88C) and got a very beautiful warm tone on the Revere Platinum paper.

The text plates are wet collodion Half Plate images. I processed them the same way. I’m very happy with the look and feel of the text. I mentioned in my last post I was going for a “weathered leather” look. I think I got it. I really like the artifacts and the raw look of them.

Every day, I get closer to getting a workflow that I can make several books with. Once I decide on everything, I’ll lock it down and only work in the selected printing process for the coming year or two. It will help me with making the rest of the work too. How to expose the negatives, how to process them, etc. All are very valuable for consistency. I don’t want contamination or confusion in chemistry. That’s why I’m working toward getting this figured out so I can keep making negatives for the project. It’s a process and I really enjoy the journey. It will take me several months to make one book. It’ll be a slow and demanding process for sure. I’m very grateful to be able to do this work. It’s unique and interesting (at least to me). I think history will be kind to me for doing it. I hope you can appreciate it too.

Plate #105 - Aspens. Palladiotype prints. Palladium is a wonderful (noble) metal!

This is a combination of printing techniques. The text is from a Half Plate wet collodion negative. It’s printed as a Palladium print (Palladiotype) with hot potassium oxalate 195F (90C) for the warm tone. I wanted to produce a weathered “leather” look. It worked well. I think I’ll end up using this with the “fuzzy” text.
The print (Plate #104) is a gold-toned Kallitype (old school) from a Whole Plate wet collodion negative.

Handmade Book: In the Shadow of Sun Mountain

Quinn Jacobson August 27, 2022

Now that I’m approaching 120 negatives/plates of this work, I decided it was time to fit in some prototype work for the book. Get a plan together so I’m ready when the project is complete. I got a taste of what it might look like and feel like. I also tried some gold toning on the old Kallitype process.

Here you see all of the prints and a sheet of vellum on my cutting table.

Since this book will be made of original prints, I wanted to include the text in some non-digital, non-offset web press way. I suppose you could argue that I printed the paper from a word file and that breaks the chain. However, the print is a photograph from a wet collodion negative. If my handwriting was better, I would write the text by hand. For now, this is an interesting and non-commercial printing way to address this work. And I think it looks very nice. It fits.

The negatives for making the prints. I used lithograph tape to clean up the edges. These are wet collodion negatives. The text is on Half Plate.

If you can imagine 40 handmade prints, each with a page of text. The text won’t be exhaustive, maybe a paragraph or just a sentence. In between the print and the text is a sheet of vellum bound in to protect both pages. That makes the book 80 pages plus the 40 sheets of vellum. And I know that I’ll have four or five prints of text for my statement. Let’s say 85 pages total plus the 45 sheets of vellum. That’s a considerable body of work.

I really like this “fuzzy” text. How did it happen? The litho tape raised the glass off of the paper just slightly. I can control how much, or none at all (see the other example). This was my first test. This is an old school Kallitype and no toning. I like the other output but with this text. Will run one tomorrow and see.

What a beautiful book this will be!!! I’m beyond excited! It motivates me to work hard before winter comes.

I hope to make a total of five books. I will keep them as uniform as possible, but the nature of the work makes each one unique, and “one-off”. Art wrapped in art. Yes, the content will be the same, but my hand will vary. It will make the work human or unique. I like that.

Plate #112 - “Ponderosa Pine Decomposing Stump” - Whole Plate toned Kallitype from a wet collodion negative.

Looking At Photographs: Plate #112 and Plate #113

Quinn Jacobson August 26, 2022

We all bring something to a photograph. When we look at photographs, we project our our experiences onto the image. Our life filters determine whether or not we like the image, or we’re ambivalent about it. What we know about a photograph helps a lot. That’s when we can start putting what we’re looking at into context.

Context is crucial when viewing a photograph. I always say without context, it’s like opening up a 300 page book to page 150. How can you know what’s going on. Or you start watching a 2 hour movie after the first hour. You just wouldn’t get the story. Photography is no different. Context and intention are key to understanding what the artist is saying or expressing.

Plate #113 - “Baby Ponderosa Pine” - Whole Plate toned Kallitype from a wet collodion negative.

For centuries, Native Americans have peeled away the outer bark of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees to obtain the tree’s soft inner bark (cambium layer) for food and medicine. In addition to using the inner layer of bark for food and medicinal tea, the Utes used the sap to waterproof containers and the bark to make cradleboards. Peeling leaves a permanent scar on the tree.
Today these centuries-old trees, known as culturally modified or peeled trees, mark the presence of Ute Indians who once lived in the Tava (Sun Mountain) region of Colorado.
A culturally modified tree is defined as “a tree that has been altered by native people as part of their traditional use of the forests” (Styrd, 1998). Culturally modified trees are an important part of the archaeological and historical record of the Utes.
Culturally modified trees provide information about Ute lifeways, disclose areas of occupation, mark paths the Utes followed, and indicate food resources.
When peeling trees, the Utes would make a horizontal cut through the bark on the outside of the tree with a hatchet or sharp stone. Hatchets made straight lines while a sharp stone left jagged lines. After making a cut on the tree, a sharpened branch or pole was placed under the cut and the bark was pried away from the tree. Strips of inner bark were then removed from the outer bark with a scraper.
The oval or rectangular-shaped scars left by the Utes on ponderosa pine trees can be very large–up to eight feet long and two feet wide.
Not all scars found on trees were made by Utes. Forest fires leave a triangular-shaped scar with the widest edge along the bottom of the tree. Scars caused by lightning are long and thin, extending along the length of the tree. At times lightning scars spiral around the tree. Animals like elk, porcupines, and bears also leave scars, which are often visible.
Tree-ring dating conducted by Golden archaeologist Marilyn Martorano at several Colorado sites shows that the Utes peeled most of the culturally scarred trees between 1815 and 1875 (Martorano, 1981). This period was one of the profound changes in Colorado. First trappers arrived, then miners came searching for gold, and finally, farmers and ranchers followed–all pushing the Utes from their land. As more people swarmed into the region, food became scarce. This led the Utes to peel trees for food at a greater rate.
*(From the Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds)*

Plate #4 Ponderosa Pine Tree - Dry Collodion Negative & Old Kallitype Process

Quinn Jacobson August 25, 2022

There are so many options to explore when you have collodion negatives. I think what most people miss when they’re only making positives (Tintype and Ambrotypes) is the wide range of prints you can get from a good negative.

The old Kallitype process post development, pre-clearing. All of the chemistry is different or used differently in comparison to the modern version of the process.

Lately, I’ve been exploring the old Kallitype processes. The modern version is a great alternative to Platinum Palladium as far as cost, but there are some drawbacks. I’ve made a lot of prints (the modern version) and find while they are beautiful, the original processes have a special something about them, starting with color. There seems to be more detail in the mid-tones as well. I’m going to do more testing, but I do know that Palladiotypes and Kallitypes are my “go-to” printing processes for this work.

Next year, I’ll be making a book of this work. It will involve printing the selected images on Revere Platinum paper and then binding the images with a page of text and a sheet of vellum between the print and text page. The book will be 40 images (roughly), 40 pages of text, and 40 pieces of vellum. Roughly 80 pages and vellum bound together (a lay-flat style) and then a cover put on it. The book will be 11” x 14” (28 x 36cm) I have high hopes of making five of these books over the coming years.

“***Medicine Wheel & Deer Antlers***” - Kallitype (K2) palladium toned on HPR paper from a Whole Plate wet collodion negative.

New Work: Plate #111 - Medicine Wheel & Deer Antlers

Quinn Jacobson August 24, 2022

The Medicine Wheel and the Four Directions

The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.

The Medicine Wheel can take many different forms. It can be an artwork such as an artifact or painting, or it can be a physical construction on the land. Hundreds or even thousands of Medicine Wheels have been built on Native lands in North America over the last several centuries.

Movement in the Medicine Wheel and in Native American ceremonies is circular, and typically in a clockwise, or “sun-wise” direction. This helps to align with the forces of Nature, such as gravity and the rising and setting of the Sun.

Meanings of the Four Directions

Different tribes interpret the Medicine Wheel differently. Each of the Four Directions (East, South, West, and North) is typically represented by a distinctive color, such as black, red, yellow, and white, which for some stands for the human races. The Directions can also represent:

Stages of life: birth, youth, adult (or elder), death

Seasons of the year: spring, summer, winter, fall

Aspects of life: spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical

Elements of nature: fire (or sun), air, water, and earth

Animals: Eagle, Bear, Wolf, Buffalo, Deer, and many others

Ceremonial plants: tobacco, sweet grass, sage, cedar

(From the NLM website)

Medicine Wheel #2 - Plate #109
The four sticks and the four directions represented here as a medicine wheel on a large granite rock.

New Work: Plate #109 and #110

Quinn Jacobson August 23, 2022

If you read my blog entry about making Half Plate work for a book, you’ll know I’m in the process of working out a making (handmade - bound, covered, etc.) a special set of books for this work.

I’ve scraped the idea of making Half Plate work and an 8x10 book and opted for an 11x14 book and Whole Plate prints. Such a beautiful format and it looks right and feels right.

The idea is to make a total of 5 books. These books will contain text and original prints (Kallitypes). Right now, I’m experimenting with printing on 11x14 Revere Platinum paper. Bound as a “lay flat” book with a custom leather wrap that represents the work. It will be art wrapped in art.

PIGWEED - Plate #110
Pigweed is said to have many medicinal benefits; it can be used as an astringent, antiseptic, emetic, emollient, and a febrifuge (or fever reducer). Early Native American healers valued this plant for medicinal uses and took advantage of its topical and internal applications.

Plate #107 - “Aspen Sapling & Grandfather” - Whole Plate (toned) Kallitype (K2) from a wet collodion negative - printed on Revere Platinum paper. This will lose a little bit of the red color when it’s fully dried down (tomorrow). “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”

New Work: Plate #107 and Plate #108

Quinn Jacobson August 22, 2022

PLATE #107
Today I attempted something unique in color, lighting, and trying to use depth of field in a creative or interesting way.

I mentioned before that sometimes I look at a scene or an object I want to photograph for a long before I attempt to make a negative/print. I’d been looking at this Aspen sapling for a month, waiting for it to get bigger.

I knew lighting and color were going to be an issue. The green sapling leaves are recorded almost as the same “salmon” color of the granite behind it. They are both in the 500 - 600nm visible light spectrum. Collodion has a difficult time recording them. So I knew I had to add some light. I used one of my 48” white discs to bounce some reflected east light onto the leaves. If you look close, you can see my focus was on the dew drops (water) on the leaves. I made the negative at about 9:00 am this morning.

The image is focused on the sapling, but it has much more than that to offer. If you look closely and observe the image you can see what I saw. I used a very shallow depth of field to exaggerate this feature but I wanted it to be obvious. I hope you can see it. Another thing I wanted was the top of the frame to be dark. So I turned the front standard to show the foreground (“spinning earth”) and darken the top of the plate. I wanted it to feel heavy and dark with this new life springing from the granite and the “grandfather”.

PLATE #108
I’m exploring constructing images in this work. I have a lot of ideas for images. They are mostly based on the symbolism and beliefs of the Ute/Tabeguache that lived here. This image acts as a metaphor for two different ideas or beliefs. The creation story of the Ute/Tabeguache and the four directions of the circle of life. For now, I’m leaving the description at that. You can see what I’ve done (I hope) and what it might symbolize.

Plate #108 - “Four Sticks” - Whole Plate (toned) Kallitype (K2) from a wet collodion negative - printed on Revere Platinum paper. This will lose a little bit of the red color when it’s fully dried down (tomorrow). “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”

“Sunflower” - Whole Plate (toned) Kallitype from a wet collodion negative. “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”.

How Photographs Change Over Time

Quinn Jacobson August 22, 2022

I don’t know about you, but I need time to “live” with the photographs I make. I need to see where they fit into the story, or not.

My photographs change over time. Some images that I feel ambivalent about turn into incredible pieces that support the story in new and exciting ways. And some, images that I thought I had hit the lottery with, end up missing the mark completely. It’s a strange sequence or unfolding of how images reveal themselves over time. It’s almost impossible to write how this process actually works. It’s a “lived” experience I guess, but it does work. You just need to be patient and present. Over time, it all comes together.

The way I put a story together involves the “big picture” (no pun) and each individual experience or image I make. The macro and micro if you will. I try to keep the general concept always in my mind and work each image out as the ideas come to me. Sometimes, I spend days or even weeks, looking at something or some composition of a scene. I look at it at different times of the day, week, or month. The flora work that I made is a good example of this concept. I watched as each plant changed over the months of summer. Growing, flowering, and going to seed. I could do an entire body of work on the flora here that the Ute/Tabeguache used medicinally and ceremonially. I know these images will be a big part of the final presentation.

There’s the now and there’s the future for the photographs, too. I often think that I’m not making this work for people today but for people in the distant future (death anxiety). I find myself looking at old photographs and reading about photographers and artists that lived a hundred or a thousand years ago. I would like to think I’m contributing something to that “future” viewer’s worldview, the way I appreciate and learn from artists and images from long ago. It does influence me quite a bit.

On that note, I’m back to making more negatives. I’ve decided that I will stay with the Whole Plate format. I’m fully committed (I always have been but was too influenced by the layout ideas for Half Plate). I have to go through these detours to ensure that what I’m doing is the right thing. This detour confirmed that I’m on the right track, 100%.

New Negatives & Prints: Plate #1HP, Plate #2HP, and Plate #3HP

Quinn Jacobson August 21, 2022

A (possible) fresh start. I got super motivated today. After Jeanne and I went for our walk around the mesa, I got busy preparing some Half Plate glass to make some negatives.

The Half Plate size seemed small to me after working in the Whole Plate format for so long. They’re a lot easier to handle and a lot faster to process overall. I would spend a full day of making three Whole Plate negatives and prints. I spent a half day doing these - half plate equals half day! ;-) Sounds about right!

I like these a lot. They feel right to me. The prints are drying now, I’ll post the dried color and contrast later. I accidentally printed the “Medicine Wheel” (aka Plate #1HP) upside down. I measured out the 8x10 Revere Platinum paper so I would be able to bind the prints into book form on the left side. The idea is that you can see the landscape orientation will not be a problem.

Excited to pursue this some more. I’ll have to make a decision at some point, but need time to really think it over. I keep going back to the idea of showing a book of this work, allowing one or two people at a time to see the prints and read the text. That really appeals to me. I think I’m over the mat and frame prints and hang them in a gallery. I want this to be the way this is shown and, moreover, experienced.

Stay tuned.