Collodion Wet-plate collodion photogram on stone, stand made of welded steel and rock - 3.5"x5" up to 8"x8" not including stand
The “Anthropocene” fossils are imaginary records of flora and fauna that might be found in a future geologic era. They are evidence of what was and hints of how it might have been extinguished. Just as the real fossils found by humans fill in the story of what lived and how it died in earlier geologic era, these created fossils are evidence what what might be becoming extinct as a result of human activity.
Ilfochrome Photograms (Propagation) and Wet-Plate Collodion photograms on glass (Maple Seeds) Color images are 10"x8", Black and White are 5.5"x4.25"
Maple Seed and Propagation are photograms of maple seeds. The black and white photograms are made on collodion wet-plate glass negatives. The Propagation series images are made on Ilfochrome paper.
Wet-Plate Collodion on Laser etched Trophy Aluminum (Tintype) 6"x8" or 6"x6" or 4.25"x5.5"
After 35 years of making photograms I felt challenged to make something new, but it seemed I had photogrammed every kind of object. I decided to create my own objects to make photograms with - and the best place to start is with simple geometric shapes. I 3D printed geometric shapes which were placed on the wet tintype and exposed to light. Before making the photogram I laser-etched photographs of the geometric objects onto the aluminum to achieve a layered effect. I was able to produce new imagery of timeless shapes using 19th century analog process combined with 21st century laser etching and 3D printing.
Wet-Plate Collodion, Silver-Gelatin Photograms, Salted Paper Prints, Digital Pigment Prints, 3D printed PLA Resin sculptures, Artist Books, Trade Edition Book, salted paper prints 10"x8", digital prints 15"x22" and 40x52", sculptures up to 5x8"
MANUAL is a collection of portraits of people from diverse backgrounds, occupations, ages, and cultures from around the globe. In each hand portrait is a study of the person’s dominant hand, revealing evidence of how they have lived, who they are, and what they may become. It is a collaboration between photographer and subject to expose their hands and their personalities. Without the distraction of faces, these images become honest and deeply perceptive portraits, reflecting the lifestyle, habits, and sensitivity of each subject.
Tintype photograms of 3D printed geometric objects on trophy aluminum - 4.25"x5.5" up to 8"x10" tintypes
After 35 years of making photograms I felt challenged to make something new, but it seemed I had photogrammed every kind of object. I decided to create my own objects to make photograms and felt the best place to start is with simple geometric shapes. I designed geometric shapes in Tinkercad and printed them using a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer in a translucent PLA resin. The geometric objects are placed on the wet tintype and exposed to light. I was able to produce new imagery of elementary timeless shapes using 19th century analog process combined with 21st century 3D printing.
3D printed artist books/sculptures of photography and text. PLA resin, digital prints on paper, USB drives, fabric, wood, found objects, pens, pencils, cameras - various sizes 2"x3" up to 8"x5" - some are edition 1 of 1 others are in editions of 10
The Gutenberg series of 3D printed books deals with the evolution of books and how knowledge may be distributed in the future. The content of these 3D printed books cannot be accessed – it is sealed inside the PLA resin binding. You must destroy the book to read the book. These books require the viewer/reader to trust the artist - is the content really in there or not? You can see something is inside but you don't know if it is really as the artist claims. Much of the artwork which is bought and sold requires trust in the artist and the dealer, and these books expand upon that leap of faith.
A time lapse video of making a hand sculpture using the Makerbot Replicator 2. The process was involved: At the Digital Atelier in Hamilton NJ we created a plaster cast of my hand and then made a high resolution scan of the plaster cast. The file had to be edited to cut the hand at …
How in the hell did I do that? Sometimes when I look back at an older photogram or print that I made I wonder how I got an effect or what kind of process I was using. Fortunately I have my own personal time machine. It works some of the time. It is pretty simple. …
A recipe for a Silver Sunbeam – A glimpse at how I made a 21st century edition of the classic 19th century book of photographic techniques. John Towler’s 1864 “Silver Sunbeam” was a revolutionary book that shared recipes for making those very new and magical things called photographs. The PDF of the 1864 edition The …
That would be me… the innocent bystander. Or I might be a teaching assistant, or the photographer/videographer or even occasionally a LSH (long suffering husband.) We were at Peters Valley Craft Center in northern NJ where My wife Lisa G Westheimer was teaching a Raku firing ceramics workshop. She has been a full time potter …
Some would say I like to make things unnecessarily complicated, and that might be true. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just press a button and be done with a picture, but I simply don’t know when to leave well enough alone. Take for example my new series Pythagoras… Named for one …
“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” (said to be from Ernest Hemingway, but the quote has been attributed to others and the source probably predates Hemingway.) Regardless of who said it, the sentiment is real. Writing isn’t hard, but writing well is very hard. …
“Photographs do not lie” …. but then again, they don’t tell the truth either. I like to say that and I love to make pictures that don’t tell the truth. A good example is my Borderlands series. They appear to be panoramic landscapes. But they are actually gigantic enlargements of the artifacts on the …
The annual AIPAD Photography Show is at the Park Avenue Armory April 14-17 and more than 80 galleries will be showing contemporary and historic photography. At Charles Schwartz Ltd. booth #415 I will be showing photogram tintypes, some the traditional monochrome and for the first time I will be exhibiting some tintypes with wild colors. …
I am a photographer, I think of myself as a photographer, or, as people say today “I identify as a photographer.” But in the past few years I have departed the flatland of photography and begun making 3D sculptures. It started with Ascent – 3D printed sculptures derived from a complicated process that derived from …
Returning to the basics, the Elementary series are wet-plate tintype photograms made using a cube, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, and a few other shapes designed in a CAD program and created with a 3D printer, I also returned to the most elementary image making technique: photograms and one of the earliest photographic technologies: collodion wet-plate to …
