Greta Thunberg wet plate photos by Shane Balkowitsch

[Two23]

Sodium or ammonium thiosulfate are toxic to plants. I have a two-year-old bare spot in my back yard where a student dumped a pint or less of fixer.

You don't dump the fixer from wet plate. It's poured back into the bottle and reused many times.


Kent in SD

[paulbarden]

Sodium or ammonium thiosulfate are toxic to plants. I have a two-year-old bare spot in my back yard where a student dumped a pint or less of fixer.

No fixer should be dumped on the ground. When exhausted, fixers should be submitted for silver reclamation, either through your local waste management company (our waste company has a "toxic waste collection day" at least once a year when they accept things like exhausted photo fixer) or by taking to the nearest photo processor. Luckily, I am only 90 miles from Blue Moon Camera and they accept fixer for silver reclamation, so I often drop off a jug or two of fix when I'm in the city.

Any wet plate practitioner who doesn't collect their waste water and take it home with them for disposal (opting instead to dump waste water/used fixer on the ground) is being irresponsible, IMO. If John Coffer wants to dump his exhausted Potassium cyanide fix into the soil on his own property, that's his business, but that doesn't mean we should all do the same, wherever we are working.

[Mark Sawyer]

You don't dump the fixer from wet plate. It's poured back into the bottle and reused many times.


Kent in SD

Agreed, but I've seen it done.

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

tons of co2. the whole process with the material overhead. imho, fkd 18x24 with a selfmade emulsion and caffenol is certainly better for environment. it is not enough to develop a photo in green grass.

[RodinalDuchamp]

I like the environment as much as the next guy but this whole thing seems ironically hilarious. She the spokesperson for environmentalism being photographed in this process which is arguably not great (I didn't say bad) for the environment. Hey I am allowed to have my opinion like anyone else but the irony is astounding.

[Tin Can]

Digital cameras are also very 'dirty' environmentally, from factory to disposal

I maintain Inkjet printing is far worse than any analog process if we consider the complete path to perdition

As for the young person, I wish I had been involved at that age

I like the environment as much as the next guy but this whole thing seems ironically hilarious. She the spokesperson for environmentalism being photographed in this process which is arguably not great (I didn't say bad) for the environment. Hey I am allowed to have my opinion like anyone else but the irony is astounding.

[RodinalDuchamp]

Digital cameras are also very 'dirty' environmentally, from factory to disposal

I maintain Inkjet printing is far worse than any analog process if we consider the complete path to perdition

As for the young person, I wish I had been involved at that age

There is no right answer I find it funny is all. Even oil paints are hazardous.

[goamules]

Every method of taking a portrait is environmentally unsound, starting with petroglyphs and moving through drawings on papyrus. But in terms of proportionality, I can think of a lot of more damaging things that wetplate. I like his work, he does a very good job. Yes, there are flaws (note the over iodized bath signs on the plate), but it's good enough.

[RodinalDuchamp]

Every method of taking a portrait is environmentally unsound, starting with petroglyphs and moving through drawings on papyrus. But in terms of proportionality, I can think of a lot of more damaging things that wetplate. I like his work, he does a very good job. Yes, there are flaws (note the over iodized bath signs on the plate), but it's good enough.

The plates arent particularly beautiful if we are being honest. That, actually bothers me because it seems like this is getting traction only because it was a wet plate and not necessarily a good wet plate. The pictures aren't particularly interesting either aside from it being a picture of a celebrity I dont think these would get a second look.

[dodphotography]

The plates arent particularly beautiful if we are being honest. That, actually bothers me because it seems like this is getting traction only because it was a wet plate and not necessarily a good wet plate. The pictures aren't particularly interesting either aside from it being a picture of a celebrity I dont think these would get a second look.

It's the problem with wet plate... takes a relatively boring image and covers it with a veil of process.

If this was on a sheet of Trix we'd all be yawning.