Salt print process with the help of Potassium Bichromate
Salt print process was invented by Henry Fox Talbot in 1839 and it’s known as a very low contrast printing technique. From The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes I’ve learned a technique to chemically raise a contrast of a salt print. You add a drop or two of potassium bichromate to a 28ml of sensitizer and heat it up to about 40C, expose it in the shadow, best under daylight UV skylight and then do a 5 minute prewash in a hot (cca 40C) distilled water with another 3 drops of potassium bichromate. It does raise a contrast, but it also cause speckling so you need to work with heated solutions and expect that it will not work the first time. Check how many test prints I’ve done until I figure it all out…
After the opening of my show
Myself and Misa Keskenovic, doing chameleon thing, blending with the landscape.
OK, the exhibition was a success. Many people show up, lots of media attention and feelings were great! At the opening Društvo mrtvih pesnikov were playing, which is an big honor. As I wrote in the previous post, the series is devoted to a painter Božidar Jakac. Concept is best captured with words of Tone Pavcek engraved on his grave: “You’ve remained part of the landscape, its pain and its beauties. And this concept is mirrored in the images. I wanted that in every of image there would be a presence of beauty and pain. More about the concept in the previous post (LINK). I’ve designed the exhibition to be dynamic. I’ve exhibited original tintypes, ambrotype glass plates, toned cyanotype contact copies and also some inkjets.
For the exhibition I must express my gratitude to the Gallery Krka for invitation, Miša Keskenović for teaching me this noble art and to Mark Osterman for generous support in my learning of wet plate collodion negative. Inkjet prints and framing was done by Luminus.si
I invite you to see images in better quality on my website borutpeterlin.com. Exhibition in open until 23.5.2013 in Galerija Krka, upravna stavba Krka d.d., Šmarješka cesta 6, Novo mesto, Slovenia, EU.
PS: Prints are for sale. Prices are from 50 EUR for a cyanotype print to notforsale tintype of frozen river Krka that I’ve done at temperature -17C (link on the post). My email address is borutpeterlin(a)gmail.com
Announcing probably my best exhibition opening
“A cyanotype print from a wet plate collodion negative format 10×12" (25x30cm). Print was toned with tanin from green tea. Part of the series "You remained a part of the landscape, it's beauties and it's pain", a hommage to a painter Božidar Jakac. A cyanotype print from a wet plate collodion negative format 10×12″ (25x30cm). Print was toned with tanin from green tea. Part of the series “You remained a part of the landscape, it’s beauties and it’s pain”, a hommage to a painter Božidar Jakac.
On Tuesday I’m opening an exhibition that will probably be my best show until now. In November I was invited to have a show in Gallery Krka in Novo mesto and I thought I’ll have enough time to do nice wet plate collodion plates until the end of April, but winter was lasting until day before yesterday and I was forced to make wetplate images in harsh conditions. I had an extensive help from my mentor Miša Keskenović and Mark Osterman, the world authority in alternative processes. Let me quote Mark Osterman: “Remember that no photographer in their right mind would have been making images in that severe cold in the old days..so you are doing ok. 
“. Topshit compliment indeed!
OK, I had a date of the opening of the show. I knew I wanted to do landscape photography from the beginning, which was not the smartest decision in winter time, but I also knew I don’t want to go for usual mainstream aesthetic, let’s call it national geographic kind of aesthetic or even Ansel Adams aesthetic if you want. I mention Ansel Adams, because he’s a huge influence to me, but I live in different times, I don’t want, can not and I’m not competent enough to replicate his perfection of his art. On other hand I also didn’t want to make shitty collodion plates, that would later be scanned and digitally fixed, printed as inkjets and call it an Art, that’s for sure! I mentioned before how I got inspired to do wet plate collodion process on the exhibition by Sally Mann in London’s Photographer’s Gallery. In her images I saw a huge potential to be explored, a huge vain of gold to be dig, so I was aiming for technical brilliance, but to somehow capture enchanting beauty of Sally Mann’s work. Mission imposible, I know.
Second resolution was, that I need to dig in art history and grow roots deep down there. One of my first tintype landscapes was of frozen river Krka at -17C in year 20012. Last time that river Krka got frozen it was some 85 years ago and at the time young painter Božidar Jakac painted the scene that astonished me as a child. Jakac later became a renown painter in Yugoslavia. I want to make a hommage to his work.
The title of the exhibition is “You remained a part of the landscape, it’s beauties and it’s pain”, that’s a verse of Tone Pavček engraved on his grave.
I’ll make a video podcast about my show, but let me share an image from the show, illustrating what I wrote above. It’s a cyanotype print from a wet plate collodion negative format 10×12″ (25x30cm). Print was toned with tanin from green tea. I took this image like 100 meters from my house and left my dog to guard the camera Because it was a huge contrast between dark trees and white snow, I dodged the plate while exposing. The exposure was 6 minutes at aperture f/16 and 2,5 minutes I was holding a black velvet in front of the lens. Of course I was moving the velvet so it’s not visible. I used Vageeswari 10×12″ camera with a Rodenstock bistagmat lens from year about 1907 and it covers format 18×24 cm, but I wanted to have vignetting effect, so I put it on a camera format 25x30cm (10×12″).
See you on Tuesday 23.4.2013 in Gallery Krka, upravna stavba Krka d.d., Novo mesto, Slovenia, EU, at 19.00.
Wet Plate Collodion + digital illustration = a creative portrait of Kaja Avberšek
Kaja Avberšek, an illustrator
Month ago I’ve made this portrait, but haven’t published it on my blog. Kaja Avberšek is an illustrator, so I suggested her that I’ll make a wet plate and then she’ll draw on it. Unfortunately I was doing small 4×5″ plates, on the field, so she didn’t draw directly on the plate, but did it on her computer. This is the result. It was published in Mladina weekly and I love how it turned out. Sometimes the publication is an icing on a cake and many times it’s just the opposite, but this time it’s definitely presenting my picture in the best way. Is it a bird? Is it Superman? Or is it topshit?
OK, I’m introducing a new rubric on my blog. It’s a quizzzzzz!!! I’ll be publishing my mistakes I have done with a question what is the cause of the mistake and few days later I’ll publish the answer. Of course if you will not guess it first. Let’s start with an easy one. Here are two plates. Problematic plate has some lines in blacks and in the right bottom corner even collodion lifted off. The other plate has perfect blacks, no peeling problems. What was the cause of those lines on the crappy plate?
Today’s wetplate session in Josip Pelikan skylight’s studio
Christoph Staber, a photography student from Graz, Austria, portrayed in Studio Pelikan by Borut Peterlin. 6.4.2013, Celje, Slovenia, EU.
Here’s today’s portrait in Josip Pelikan skylight studio. The studio was built in 1898 and Josip Pelikan was working in it from 1920 to his death 1977. Now it’s a part of Museum of Recent History Celje.
On the plate I have some lines from not perfectly cleaned plate. I cleaned it several days ago and I thought it’ll be OK, but after few days, a plate in a box, needs to be cleaned again. I like it as it is but I strive to achieve Quinn’s perfection and then scratch it if I want
Those edges are from albumen coating, because I had that box prepared for wetplate negative. Nevertheless it’s kind of cool, I might use the effect in the future.
Below there is a wet plate collodion negative format 10×12″ (25x30cm), digitally inverted into positive. I wanted that everything would be sharp, so I had an exposure of 15 minutes at aperture f/32. It’s cool one, although I knew at the time that perfect exposure would be 25min, but I was afraid that the plate would get dry. It was quite warm in the studio.
The portrait was done with modified Plaubel Peco 5×7″ camera and Voigtlander Heliar 300mm f/4,5. Exposure 6 seconds, f/4.5
The studio was photographed with Vageeswari 10×12″ camera and same Voigtlander Heliar 300mm f/4,5. Exposure 15 minutes, f/32.
PS: Do you see the difference between collodion negative picture and the digital one? I didn’t notice that while I was developing the plate the keeper of the gallery changed a small detail and I don’t mean my 4×5″ camera. Leave a comment Internet!
Flooded tree in wet plate collodion negative
A flooded tree by river Krka. This is a digital scan from Wet Plate Collodion negative, format 5×7″. Photograph taken with (modified) Plaubel Peco camera and Voigtlander Heliar 300mm, f4.5, lens. Exposure 10 seconds at f/16.
Two days ago I saw this flooded tree and I knew immediately it will look good on picture, but there was too much water, I couldn’t come near the tree. Yesterday I saw the water level has fallen, but didn’t had time to make the picture and on other hand I knew the flood will be gone by tomorrow, so today I decided to make the picture. Only problem was that I had to work in Ljubljana, to make half a dozen on location portraits for Mladina weekly. OK, I did it with digital camera, but still a lot of work. I decided I have an hour to make the collodion image, no more. I drove to the place, set up the tent, made a test and then also the plate. All that in 42 minutes. I cleaned the set up and head to digital work.
Wet Plate Collodion negative snaps after work
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After finishing portraits that I had to do in Ljubljana, I’ve stopped at the spring of the river Krka. Since it’s flooding water is rushing out from the cave so I couldn’t get a decent point of view, so I started to photograph the spring of stream Poltarica. Wet Plate Collodion process is a complicated process and beside that you need to know how to do it, you need to figure out the workflow. Today I had two missions. One was to figure out why I had blisters on some plates few days ago and the second was if I can do 4×5″ negative wetplates in my small darkbox.
First mission was soon cracked. It was cold as it was the other day, it was 3 degrees Celsius and I had no blisters whatsoever. I remembered that the other day I had this problems only at the beginning of the shoot when it was raining just a little bit. I’m sure a drop of rain fell on my plate when it was already coated with collodion and when I dipped it in silvernitrate bath, rock&roll started.
Second mission was a total success as well. I’ve made four plates and I can’t wait to print them. I’ve learned many small, but important details of a workflow so now I’m thinking to do a project in Bosnia in this manner! It’ll be 20th anniversary from the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that was established byDayton Peace Accord in 1995 and I already did a cycling tour on the ethnic border between Republic Srbska (Serbs) and Federation Republic (Muslims+Croats), photographing how landscape changed politically. The ethnic border was founded in Dayton and it’s known as Dayton border. My cycling Tour de Dayton you can see on THIS link, but this year I’ll do it again with my luxurious car and do a wetplate project and prepare an exhibition for 2015.
Anyhow, that’s me always thinking few steps ahead and now I’m thinking that I need to go to bed. I hope you like the images and good night Internet where ever you are.
