Work of an undiscovered woman photographer surfaces in Chicago.

http://www.vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Doug Aikenhead for alerting me to Vivin Maier's work.

A Slow and Frustrating Process

Yes, it has definitely bee a while since I started this!  First I needed to be sure I had adequate ventilation in my darkroom.

When the darkroom was finally ready, it was time to work with the chemistry and get organized for making a tintype.  I started off in my sunroom, but did not get a good image on the plate

This plate is WAY under-exposed.

Joe Smigiel, my former teacher recommended I try an out of doors photograph.  It was 12 degrees out!  I opened the door wall and focused on the trees outside.  This is the test strip.

Beginning Wet-plate Process on My Own!

BEFORE

Last spring I sent for chemicals from Bostwick and Sullivan in Santa Fe to make tintypes on my own.  But before I could even start; I needed to get my darkroom in order--not a simple task!  Yes, the photo above is where I began.  This storage room had been used in place of a garage; I had already removed the bikes and beach chairs but I had a long way to go.  I had moved to a new home last summer and all my darkroom supplies had been put into storage now it was exciting to see them find a new home.

AFTER

The dry sink is made with exterior plywood and pine 1 x 6 followed by multiple coats of polyurethane. I sat it on top of some old kitchen cabinets.  The ventilation fan and sink with water are still on the wish list.

It is October 2010 and I have yet to make even one tintype.  But today I will start by re-reading the information that came with the chemicals and rereading workshop notes from a workshop with Marc Osterman and France Scully I had taken in Austin Texas at The Harry Ransome Center and last summer in Good Hart Michigan with Bill Schwab and Joesph Smigiel plus current websites.  Wish me well~J 

 The Wet-collodion Photographic Process

In June 2009 Cynthia Motzenbecker, Cindy Greig and I took a workshop taught by Bill Schwab and Joe Smigiel in a northern Michigan woodland near Good Hart.  Each of us had brought a different level of experience with the medium but each left excited with the knowledge of how to make these marvelous civil war era photographs. Following in the path started by hoop skirted, nineteenth century women photographers, we too stained our fingers dark brown, when the silver nitrate reacted with sunlight on our skin; evidence of any sloppy technique.  Using the wet plate collodion process to make photographic images was once the providence of only wealthy or astrocratic women and men.  In the mid- nineteenth century Queen Victoria had darkroom facilities available at Windsor Castle [1] and used by the ladies of her court, who along with The Queen, enjoyed photography as an artistic pastime.  Lady Jocelyn, a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria would set up friends and family members in scenes depicting their daily lives and used the laborious wet-plate-collodion method to record these portraits. [2]  The group meeting in Bill Schwab’s wooded yard were of a much more democratic mix.

Bill and Joe carefully explained the process to the group of nine eager students, sitting in a circle around the outside demonstration table much like the Native Americans, who originally had inhabitated this area of northern Michigan, might have sat around their campfires.  Even with the precaution of working out of doors,  the aroma of the ether made its way to some of us and we needed to move further back.  Bill and Joe were constantly reminding us of the safety precautions necessary to keep in mind while working with the  hazardous materials necessary for this process. [3]  One of the great pleasures of attending this workshop was our ability not only to see the process from the start; how to mix the chemicals and select the base materials, but  having ample time to make our own glass plate ambrotypes or tintypes using the wet-collodion process.  My reward for making the long trek north was the thrill of watching the developer release the image captured on the metal plate of my first tintype.

 A simple still life of a basket of yellow onions, lifted from my kitchen counter, as I packed for the trip, looked beautiful, rendered by the nineteenth century process we had just learned.

STEPS IN MAKING THE WET PLATE

1.  The preparation of the chemical is the first step; salted collodion solution,  silver nitrate sensitizing solution, developer and fixer. 

  

                      

Bill Schwab measuring cadmium bromide that when in solution with potassium iodine and distilled water will be mixed with a solution of collodion USP diethyl ether and grain alcohol for the resulting salted collodion solution then storing the working solution for future use.

2.  The glass or metal plate ready to be coated.

                            Joe Smigiel polishing glass plate with a calcium carbonate solution.

                    Cindy Grieg practices pouring the salted collodion solution onto a glass plate.

3.  The prepared plate is coated first with the salted collodion, then, after  an important wait of 15-30 seconds, placed into the silver nitrate solution for 3-5 minutes and then carefully placed into the specially designed negative carrier.  This step must be done under amber or red safelight.

1~ adapted negative carrier

2~ salted collodion solution

3~ developer

4~ wash water

5~  silver nitrate solution

6~ amber glass window

4.  The still wet and now light sensitive plate is slid into the camera’s back.  The camera has already been set up for focus and exposure.  Time for the exposure is determined by the amount of UV light; experience of the photographer with the process is vital as trial and error is costly I materials and time.  Exposure time may be in seconds.

            Cynthia Motzenbecker counts off the seconds while xposing the wet plate to her still life.

5. Quickly returning to the darkroom, the plate is removed from the carrier and the developer is carefully poured over it.  The plate is developed for 15-90 seconds depending on the final use: positives; Ambrotypes on glass plates and tintypes (ferrotypes) on thin metal plates require less time than plates used as negatives for printing out with any of several alternate process such as cyanotype, gum or platinum.

My 5 x 7 View camera all set up and ready for wet plate.

  

The author is removing the plate from the negative carrier and pouring on the development solution in outdoor “darkroom”.

 6.  Fixing the negative is the next step and this can be done under normal daylight.  Washing the plate in several changes of water remove the fixer.

                                                     Bill Schwab washing plate in water.

7.  The plate must be dried thoroughly before applying a coat of varnish for protection.

                              Gum Sandarac nuggets are crushed in mortar for making varnish.

Heating the plate before the image is coated with varnish...

   .... and allowed to air dry.

Frederick Scott Archer wrote about the introduction of wet-plate-collodion process in 1851 and the method continued to be used for scientific work into the 1940’s. [4]  It was replaced in popularity by dry-plates in the last quarter of the 19^th century and eventually film and today digital images.  There are many reasons why an artist/photographer would enjoy the wet-plate-collodion process in spite of the effort involved when compared to the ease of digital or even conventional darkroom processes.  There is the excitement of learning a method used more that 150 years ago and the satisfaction of meeting challenges faced by photographers of that era plus the sheer beauty of the image; decisions regarding the color of glass or type of base material, timing of exposures or development make each photograph unique; an original, never to be duplicated.

Time for a well earned rest.

Footnotes

1.  A History of Women Photographers, Naomi Rosenblum, 1994 Abbeville Press, pg 49

2.  Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage,  Elizabeth Siegel, 2009, The Art Institute of Chicago, pg 17

3.  Wetplate Collodion Workshop, Bill Schwab and Joe Smigiel, 2009, pg 6

4.  The wet-plate process; a working guide, Marc Osterman, 2002, Scully & Osterman , pg 2

My son had my FIRST tintype; a willow basket of yellow onions, made at Bill Schwab and Joe Smigiel's Wet Plate Collodion Workshop last June in Good Hart, framed on a floating linen matt and he displays it on a table top--Thanks Bill and Joe!

Wet Plate Collodion Process

The wet plate collodion process was popular during the mid-1800.  Most well know when used to make tintypes but the same process with slight variation was also used to make ambrotypes.  Ambrotypes were made on a glass base whereas tintypes were on metal plates but not tin.  The "Tintype" label was more from the tin-snips used to cut the metal plates.  As it is difficult to tell the difference between the two when they are in similar cases, as was the custom during that time period; remember a magnet will be attracted by a tintype photograph and not an ambrotype.

During June I attended a workshop in northern Michigan to further my understanding of the wet plate process.  I had two marvelous teachers; Bill Schwab and Joe Smigiel.  The ambrotype above, Pamela's Circle was made during this workshop.  “Pamela’s Circle c. 1740” is a quarter plate ambrotype on black glass.  It measures  3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches and is still without a proper case.  This is now my favorite photograph because it was made in the 21^st Century, using a process devised in the 19^th Century with equipment from the early-mid 20^th Century to photograph a book written in the 18^th Century. One of the first English novels, Pamela or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson was first published in 1740 and is the story of a young woman, in servitude to the master of the house, who is also her tormentor.  She prizes her chastity, learns how to protect it and is rewarded by marrying the lord of the manor and in the final chapters learns her new role in society. Virtue rewarded.  The props in the photograph were carefully chosen to reflect the manners of Pamela’s social circle.

The picture accompanying my ambrotype is the set up I used in making the photograph and made with a digital camera.  I like how the juxtaposition of the two photographs shows how the ambrotype image is flipped; truly a negative image of the subject.  Both photograph were taken out of doors in natural light, filtered by tree leaves, late one afternoon.  My camera is a Kodak 5x7 wooden view camera.  The wetplate collodion process is familiar to most people as that used for tintypes.  In fact it is difficult to tell the difference between a tintype and an ambrotype when they are in cases and under glass. I use a magnet to identify a tintype as it will attract a magnet and the glass of the ambrotype will not. Ambrotypes are most often made on clear glass with a dark paper or black velvet placed behind and glass over the plate to protect it.  I will be writing about how to make an ambrotype in an upcoming edition of The Photogram.

“Pamela’s Circle c. 1740” also embodies for me the changing role of women from the rigid feminine roles of the 18^th Century to the freedoms enjoyed and the roles played by women in society today.                                          

   

 Judith Harrison Kalter 2009