How to make Crickets Making Salted Paper Prints for Crickets
Projects tagged with ''wet-plate collodion''
Manual Project Behind the Scenes
Anthropocene

2019 - Ongoing
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.
Pythagoras

2016
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.
Tintype Portrait of Nick

2012
Eleven collodion wet plate portraits made with color anodized aluminum mounted in a carefully spaced overlapping pattern standing off the black velvet background in a 18.5″ x 22.5″ frame
Eleven collodion wet plate portraits made with color anodized aluminum. The strobe light was so bright I didn’t want to photograph innocent subjects who might not be careful enough to avoid looking at the 5000 watt seconds of lights when they flashed. So I used the only subject who I trusted - my assistant Nick.
Clematis

2003-2005
The unique (edition of 1) collodion wet-plate glass negatives are 4.25"x5.5" and can be contact printed as salted paper prints or silver gelatin prints. All images have been scanned and are available as limited edition digital pigment print enlargements up to 40"x50".
Clematis is a climbing vine with gorgeous flowers. These photograms are of the flower after the bloom has wilted, lost its petals, and gone to seed. The clematis flowers are placed in the enlarger and projected onto a collodion wet-plate glass plate.
Blog posts tagged with ''wet-plate collodion''
Tag: wet-plate collodion
An early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the “collodion wet plate process”, requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within the span of about fifteen minutes, necessitating a darkroom for use in the field. The collodion process is said to have been invented in 1851. During the subsequent decades, many photographers and experimenters refined or varied the process. It was most commonly used from the 1860s to 1880’s it replaced the first announced photographic process, the daguerreotype. One collodion process, the tintype, was in limited use for casual portraiture by some itinerant and amusement park photographers as late as the 1930s.
What are you doing?
Vanishing Worlds

Five of my Anthropocene sculptures will be in the show “Vanishing Worlds” at the Gallery at 14 Maple in Morristown NJ from March 12 to August 19, 2020. Because of the COVID-19 virus the opening has been postponed – date to be determined. Curated by Yvette Lucas the show also features Susan Ahlstrom, Janet Boltax, …
Lenscratch features Borderlands

A wonderful feature on the Lenscratch.com website and Lenscratch Daily about Borderlands! It was exciting to get the attention and amazing how many people emailed, called, texted.. and got in touch. Old friends and new, we have a great community in the photo world! Thanks to Aline Smithson for the thoughtful write-up. – article below …
PhotoLA 2020 with Imlay Gallery
Exhibition Lab

How do I get there from here? You might wonder where is here? and there? Good questions! First – The Exhibition Lab run by Michael Foley of the Foley Gallery helps participants get from here to there. The Exhibition Lab is a monthly critique group which helps participants refine their work to be exhibition ready. …
Ravages of Time
Time Machine
Making a Sunbeam

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 …
Necessary Complications
On The Edge of Reality

“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 …