Shifting Priorities & Making Albumen

I've made a commitment to myself that I will spend more time making my personal work (completing my project here in Europe), and exhibiting/publishing my work. And I will spend less time teaching, answering email, and spending numerous hours on the public forum board.

Don't misunderstand me, I've enjoyed doing all of those things, but my priorities are going to shift to more personal goals - it's time to focus (pun intended)! My time will be spent making my personal work, following up on my commitments to the new book, DVD and web site and sharing some of my work and experiments with close friends. I'll still blog and I'll still post work occasionally, but I'm going to put more time toward my personal work - period. I'm an artist, and I want my life to reflect that.

I have a few workshops left this year and one scheduled for March of 2010. Other than those, and maybe one in Paris with a show, I probably won't do anymore workshops. I really enjoying teaching, but I need the time I have left here in Europe to complete what I came here to do.

It feels like a good time to do this, too. I think it was the completion the new book/DVD that allowed me to make this commitment to myself. It's like I can really focus now on making photographs. It's not that I want to close my site down, and become a recluse, I'm just seeking more balance. It seems that I'm always teaching or doing something instructional for other people. I've actually had a couple of people email me and tell me that they had no idea I made art. Those are not good emails! I know artists that don't even have a web site, don't answer email and are very successful making and showing work - doing their thing - no distractions. I'm envious of them and I need to follow their lead. It's true what people say, "You become what you do," and I've become a teacher when I want to be an artist (nothing wrong with being a teacher, but you know what I'm saying in this context).

Making Albumen

Friday, I stopped at a roadside Bauernmarkt where I get fruit and vegetables a couple of times a week. It's wonderful food. On Friday, I picked up 40 large eggs, too. They are big, fresh free-range chicken eggs. Dresden, Germany is a few hours north of us. It was the epicenter for Albumen paper in the 1860s - 1880s. They used 6 million eggs a year there! I'm hoping the genes of some of those chickens are in these!

Albumen Prints: The albumen found in egg whites are used to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper and became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the century, with a peak in the 1860-90 period.

There are very few people in the world today making Albumen prints with Collodion negatives.

It was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative.

The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard.

Summer's going to be making a lot of custard!

2 Liters of Albumen!

Thanks to Summer and Jeanne for shooting photographs of me making Albumen today. images!

World Wet Plate Day Book 2009

I'm most happy doing meaningful work. It's satisfying and rewarding for me. I've never understood how people can go to jobs they hate everyday. I know that a lot of people do that. It's both sad and wrong.

If there's anything I know, it's that I know we should do what are heart tells us to do. We should follow our passion. And we should pursue happiness and find fulfillment in our lives. Contrary to popular belief, those things have little or nothing to do with money and fame. We shouldn't settle for mediocrity or fall victim to fear or the illusion of job security.

I've been multi-tasking for the last couple of months, maybe longer. I've been living and breathing my DVD for a couple of years, but I've also been weaving other, smaller projects into my schedule. One of them is the World Wet Plate Day book.

I've had the pleasure (and I say that with sincerity and honesty) to edit and prep almost 80 Collodion images shot on May 2, 2009 from all over the world. It's very exciting! It's going to be a wonderful publication for several reasons. First, all of the proceeds are going for a great cause and it's the very first one of it's kind (every year we'll publish one). It should be ready in a couple of weeks! Please consider buying a copy.

This is a mockup of the cover (all of the way open - nothing on the spine) - it's an 8.5" x 8.5" full color, perfect bound book - almost 100 pages.

The World Wet Plate Collodion Day Book 2009

Chemical Pictures - It's Finished!

Well, I didn't provide salvation for mankind, but I did finish my book, DVD, and web site.

After an inordinate amount of time, money and obstacles, the Chemical Pictures book, DVD and web site is ready for prime time (opening next week - July 20 - Summer's 17th birthday).

I'm elated, but at the same time, relieved. This has been a trying task, to say the least. While I understand that it's not perfect, I am very happy with it. If I had a couple of lifetime's and all of the resources I needed at my disposal, I could probably do a better job, but this will be fine for now. I think the users will be happy with it, too.

I'm most excited to hear what people think. About half of the content is malleable - at least the web site portion - so if users have suggestions for making it better, I'm going to listen. It's dynamic, too. I will do monthly video podcasts on a wide variety of Collodion topics. The technical forum board (yes, another one) will be active as well - but without the "noise" you get on public boards.

My biggest hope is that the students of my system will understand what I've put together here and maximize the opportunity to have access to a live, dynamic learning system. I hope that they will see the value of spending time with each video, each chapter in the book and ultimately really grasp the process and moreover, enjoy it.

The web site opens on Monday, July 20, 2009 and the book and DVD begins shipping the first week in August.

Some Portraits From Paris: June 14, 2009

Jenny The Waitress - 5x7 Alumitype
      Parisian Woman 5x7 Alumitype

   Pierre - Gallery Owner, Paris

Richard, Parisian Photography Professor

Christopher by Carl Radford

Preserving The Chemical Photography Era: The Getty

I was pleasantly surprised today when I picked up our mail. The Getty Conservation Institute gave me a nice certificate and letter for my contributions to the project, "Preserving the Chemical Photography Era."The Getty Cert and Thank You

I was happy to participate. I'm going to try to submit some more photographs over the next few months; the Collodion Negative, Albumen print, Salt print, and Ferrotype. I can geek out a little bit doing this stuff and make some nice images for the Getty to keep forever.