Budapest, Hungary

Posted on May 27th, 2009 in Europe | Leave A Comment

My head spins a little bit when I think about how to tell the stories and describe the adventures we go on with words and a few still images. It’s a lot like trying to explain how to tie your shoelaces over the phone – impossible, but I’ll try.

We arrived in Budapest, Hungary Friday afternoon. It was an 8.5 hour drive. It was problem free and beautiful. We drove in four countries in one day; Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary – 1000 kilometers – averaging 140 kmph – 160 kmph.

I have two friends from Budapest named Zoltan. Zoltan F. and Zoltan K. Zoltan F. lives in Jerusalem. And Zoltan K. lives in Budapest and invited me to do a Wet Plate Collodion workshop there.

Zoltan K. has a major exhibition coming up in September and wanted to spend a couple of days working in the process both as a refresher (he attended the workshop in Vienna last year) and to see what it would be like working in his studio with natural and artificial light.

Budapest is split into two very distinct areas; Buda, the “suburban”, mountainous side and Pest, the flat, urban side. The Danube splits the city. It’s a wonderful city. It’s beautiful, interesting and full of diversity. It reminded me of a blend of Paris and Barcelona. The people are very nice and the city is full of art, culture, and history.

One of the most interesting sites we visited was The Great Synagogue on Dohány Street. It’s the second largest synagogue in the world. We also had a wonderful meal at Rosenstein’s Restaurant, an appropriate transition following the synagogue visit.

I have to admit that I was moved by the beauty and size of the synagogue. It still bothers me that they have to have the police guarding synagogues and anything Jewish here. In Berlin, I saw the same thing – they are huge targets for the nut-jobs of the world.

I bought two really cool black velvet kippahs. One has, “The Great Dohany Street Synagogue – Budapest, Hungary” on the inside. I collect kippahs. I have them from Worms, Germany, Prague, Czech Republic, and some other places, and now Budapest. I wanted to be able to collect something from wherever I go that has significant Jewish history; kippahs seem to work for me that way. We picked up some Klezmer music, too. Summer bought a really cool book called, “Beyond the Nose.” All in all, it was a great experience seeing Europe’s largest synagogue and collecting a few items to remember it by.

We visited the Hungarian House of Photography - Manó Mai House, too. The 19th century skylight studio was beautiful. It would be wonderful to setup and make portraits in that space for a day – or even a few hours! The images would be mind-twisting, for sure. It’s beautiful light!

The workshop was successful, too. There were four people in attendance; Zoltan (the host), Walter (from Oslo, Norway), Szabina, and Zolt. Zolt and Szabina are Hungarian and work with Zoltan.

Zoltan has a beautiful studio nestled at the top of a hill on the Buda side of the city. It’s both spacious and high-end. He’s put a lot of time, effort and money into it, for sure. Budapest this time of year is full of UV light – Collodion loves it there! His studio has a lot of windows, too. You can make plates by natural UV or by artificial lights. He had a 3000 Kelvin mono-light we blasted through a scrim – it was perfect. Exposures were between 4 and 8 seconds.

Zoltan has a large exhibition coming up and wants to make photographs of Hungarian Ballerinas in Wet Plate Collodion. I saw the space of his show – it’s mind-blowing huge! It’s an enormous (beyond enormous) atrium and three levels of galleries. It’s really beautiful right in the middle of the city. He made some really nice “test” or example plates during the workshop of one of Budapest’s top ballerinas. He’s going to do very well with the craft and the concept of Wet Plate Collodion.

Walter is from Oslo, Norway. He was going to go to the United States for a workshop, but ended up attending mine. I’m glad he did. He had some great stories and has a real passion for photography. He made a couple of really beautiful images. One of them was a Whole Plate Alumitype of Summer and it looked like it was made by someone who had several years experience in the process. I was impressed.

It was nice to sit and have a beer or two and dinner with him after a long day of Collodion work, too. He stayed in the same hotel as us. There have been a lot of Norwegians in my workshops – this is a good thing. They seem to bring a sense of passion and love for the craft. And they always have great stories about Norway. We hope to make it to Scandinavia in September, our fingers crossed! I just hope we can afford it, it sounds very expensive there.

Szabina and Zolt both did an outstanding job with the process. They both made wonderful images and seem to really like the process. Szabina is very photogenic. Summer asked her to sit for her. The result was a beautiful little 4×5 Alumitype of Szabina looking like a 1940s American film actress – gorgeous! The portrait of Zolt rocks, too! I really like the backwards, “Lucky’s Auto Parts” on his t-shirt. The whole workshop was a lot of fun! In the end, it was about passionate people working in a process and history that mirrors that passion so well. We had a little (private) exhibition at the end of the workshop on Sunday – wow, the plates all together looked so sweet! It was hard to believe all of that work was created in a couple of days by a handful of people. It made me proud and happy.

Europeans, for the most part, seem more intense and more engaged with learning the process than Americans (my apologies to my American brothers and sisters, just trying to be honest). In reality, I’ve taught a lot more Europeans than Americans, so maybe I’ve forgotten what Americans are like in a Wet Plate Collodion workshop. It’s been a while since I’ve been engaged with Americans. Europe has been my classroom for Wet Plate Collodion and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to teach so many here. I hope I can do that all the way to the end (2011?). I also hope that everyone here that I teach will teach 10 more and that they will teach 10 more and so on and so forth. That’s my goal. Unlike so many teaching workshops, I want to give people the tools and knowledge to pass it on to others and support them to do that.

 
The skylight studio in the Foto House – gorgeous!

My portrait of Szabina – natural light

 
Walter’s image of Summer – Whole Plate – an excellent photograph!

 
Zoltan and Zolt working on a plate.

The Great Synagogue!

Summer helping Walter with varnishing.

Zoltan’s image of one of Budapest’s top ballerina.

Zoltan’s image of one of Budapest’s top ballerina #2.

 
Zoltan’s image of Zolt.

Walter’s image of Zoltan exposed through the glass (plate in backwards).

I really liked the Stars of David all over the Synagogue.

Makeup and light!

I couldn’t resist!

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Nitrocellulose & The Dumbest Generation

Posted on May 17th, 2009 in Art & Theory, Education | Leave A Comment

I’m half artist and half geek. I’m interested in how things work. I seem to live in the “geek world” when I’m gearing up to write, teach or do some kind of experiment with Collodion, or Collodion related things.

Having a certain amount of knowledge about a topic or an area of interest helps you to achieve your goals and gives you more opportunity for growth. I don’t believe that every artist needs to understand their materials like a research scientist, but I wouldn’t discourage if they were so inclined.

Wet Plate Collodion photography opens the “geek door” wide open for me. Most people working in photography today don’t even understand the basics of how a photograph is made (I’m not talking pixelography here, I’m talking about light energy and silver). Again, I’m not saying that you need to understand how electricity works to turn on a light, but you would have a greater appreciation for it if you did. This applies to photography as well. Knowledge and connections – those are important to me. If you look at the history of photography, or the history of art for that matter, you’ll find that both artistic movements and technical advances were made because of profound understanding (knowledge) and connections.

So yes, I’ve been “geeking out”. This is how nitrocellulose is made (Collodion).

I was listening to an interview with Mark Bauerlein this morning on the radio. He wrote, “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30)”. If the statistics he used are true, we (people in our 40s) have a lot to be worried about when we get old.

It’s an irony so commonplace it’s become almost trite: despite the information superhighway, despite a world of knowledge at their fingertips, the younger generation today is less informed, less literate, and more self-absorbed than any that has preceded it. But why? According to the author, an English professor at Emory University, there are plenty of reasons. The immediacy and intimacy of social-networking sites have focused young people’s Internet use on themselves and their friends. The material they’re studying in school (such as the Civil War or The Great Gatsby) seems boring because it isn’t happening right this second and isn’t about them. They’re using the Internet not as a learning tool but as a communications tool: instant messaging, e-mail, chat, blogs. And the language of Internet communication, with its peculiar spelling, grammar, and punctuation, actually encourages illiteracy by making it socially acceptable. It wouldn’t be going too far to call this book the Why Johnny Can’t Read for the digital age. Some will disagree vehemently; others will nod sagely, muttering that they knew it all along. From David Pitt (Booklist).

Part of the conversation this morning was about this generation (12-25 year-olds) reading and writing more than any other generation. However, only 23% of high school graduates are proficient readers! They also talked about communication. This generation communicates more than any other, too. Emails, Tweets, Texts, Facebook, My Space, etc. etc. However, they communicate about NOTHING! They drone on about what they had for breakfast and what when they went to bed, etc. meaningless to everyone except them. The explanation he had for this was very interesting and explained a lot about the “social network movement” and our mental health. And before you email me about my Facebook or Twitter account, I want to say that I’m making a concerted effort to stay away from them as much as possible. Eventually, I would like to delete my accounts – however, it’s a process, not an event.

Bauerlein mentioned two movies, too; Flunked and Idiocracy.

One more note; I had an interview Friday night (via phone) with an organization in NYC that operates private schools for underserved communities. They’re opening a high school in Harlem next year and may be looking for a fulltime art teacher – photography, digital media, video, etc. So maybe when I return to America, (sometime next year or the first of 2011) I’ll pursue something that will allow me to do my part in helping this generation live up to their potential.

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Whole Plate Alumitype (Wet Plate Collodion)

Posted on May 10th, 2009 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Europe | 2 Comments

 
#3 Whole Plate Alumitype (6.5″ x 8.5″) May 9, 2009
Viernheim, Germany

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Maybe Next Time

Posted on May 9th, 2009 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Europe | 2 Comments

This is one of those posts where I should be elated, but I’m not (so much).

I prepared all week to make some images for the Getty Conservation Institute today. The Getty invited me (and others) to be part of their project called, “Preserving the Chemical Photography Era“. I got the invite months ago, but between my book and DVD, workshops, Wet Plate Day, and life, I haven’t had the chance to do the work. However, I almost succeeded today.

One of my many weaknesses is perfectionism. Not on everything, and certainly not in every situation. But making plates for the Getty Institute tends to bring the proclivity for “perfection” out.

The irony is, I’m working in Wet Plate Collodion photography, “perfection” doesn’t exist. In fact, I’ve written many times about how I love the imperfection of the process - how do I reconcile that? The project isn’t even about what I’m trippin’ on - it’s really kind of a “geek” project. A cool geek project, I might add.

They are analyzing different photographic (chemical) techniques and documenting how the image was produced. It’s for future generations to identify images they have no clue about. When they discover the 5000 glass plates that I will have stored in my attic, they’ll know what they are looking at and how they were made. Cool stuff.

My dilemma is a personal one; I don’t feel that these images are worthy of the Getty. Primarily because I scratched the surface on #2 and it looks like shit now. I was so pissed, I almost had an anxiety attack, I’m serious. I flipped out. It was THE perfect image. I wanted to brush a mark off of the top of the glass and my finger left a huge mark on the plate, I was sick and wanted to scream. It took me two hours to get the image and it was gone in a fraction of a second. Even through I ruined #2, I think I still may put it in my book. What do you think, would you? I like #1, I distressed (forgive me) it on purpose, I really like his expression and “presence” in it. The piece of Collodion gone from the bottom right side doesn’t bother me at all on that one. 

Anyway, I’m not sending them to the Getty, but wanted to share them with you. I have to say, they had the potential to be some of the best images I’ve ever made. Maybe next week.

Please, CLICK ON THEM to ENLARGE THEM.

#1 Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype (6.5″ x 8.5″) May 9, 2009
Viernheim, Germany

#2 Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype (6.5″ x 8.5″) May 9, 2009
Viernheim, Germany

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