wet plate photography

[tim atherton]

Michael,

An interesting take on this - which I "think" is contrary to your fears, would be Sally Mann's use of wet plate technology - her landscape work, but especially her last body of work - whose name eludes me right now.

[Mark Erickson]

To me, the subject, composition, light, and capture workflow combine to make a photo what it is. What's wrong with tinkering with old capture workflow elements like tintypes, albumen, wet plate, etc.? To me, it's only one of the four factors listed above, and not even the most important in the image making process.

[Mark Sawyer]

Photography is different things to different people, and while my interests lie strongly in the art world, I try not to look too much down my nose at those with other interests, historical, technological, commercial, or otherwise. Art is not so easily threatened, though some artists feel quite insecure...

Sounds like a wonderful workshop; wish I could go.

One of the more surrealistic things I've ever seen was a few people in Star Trek uniforms wandering around at a Civil War reenactment, while the "soldiers" muttered "I wish they'd just go away..."

[Kerik Kouklis]

"Tim, that's right. When technique overwhelms art, when the image could be anything as long as it is done by a certain means, the photographer is going down a cul de sac. Photography is tied closely to technology, so equipment and technique can sometimes lead a photographer around in circles, or around to nowhere... "

Michael,

Sorry, but I find your point just as "already been done" as another picture of Half Dome. I've heard it many times before. Yes, to re-state the obvious, good, meaningful art is a combination of process and image. There are as many or more "cul de sacs" in current processes as there are in historical processes. If someone wants to learn an historic process in order to give themselves a new (to them) way to look at things, it's nothing but condescending for you to look down your nose at them. To me, your first posting on this topic came off that way.

[SL Freeman]

I have but one question, since I know I can't make the class. Can this process be done today without the Potassium Cyanide bath part. I heard it joked about that this stuff was the reason for the position of photographers assistant. Just kidding.

[Kerik Kouklis]

Yes, some people use regular hypo instead of pot. cyanide for the fixer.

[John Kasaian]

Sounds like a great opportunity---I wish I had some time off to go. I've got a few plate holders for the 5x7 and a suitably ancient pretzel lens on the sBAy way if I'm not sniped during the last few nanoseconds.

Cheers!