BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

A portrait of Aljaž Vindiš ex-editor in chief of Tribuna student magazine. The concept is obvious for this portrait. He is ex-editor in chief so I portrayed him as a homeless person

Technically I had many problems, since my collodion is very young and I don’t know where my head is, so contrast was super low, but after I scanned it, I sort it out digitally for this publication. Actually it was meant to be published in Mladina weekly but editors hate it, so it will probably not be published :-/

I’ve shot it with Kodak Folding Brownie. It’s fun camera. It has a shallow depth of field since it is a format 10×15 cm tinplate, but it does not have a focusing ground glass. You just set up 3 meters and then set your camera on this distance. This two images were shot with f/16, exposure 1 min. Learning everyday in everyway

PS: I think I know why do I have low-contrast. Preprepared collodion is a fast-food photography, how ever strange that sounds in digital era. I need to mix my own collodion from scratch by Mišo’s receipt. Only problem is that some substances are the same as in gun-powder (if I remember correctly).

This week I was at Academy of Fine Arts Novi Sad in Serbia, where they had Startfest festival, a workshop of pioneer photography techniques. Mentors Miša Keksenović and Uglješa Dapčević were teaching us Wet Plate Collodion technique and also demonstrated other techniques like Salt print, Albumen printing, ambrotype, cyanotype and digital negative. This Wet Plate Collodion is really complex process. Not only that chemicals are flammable, poisonous, cancerogenous, acid,… also characteristics of solutions are constantly changing. For example, young prepared collodion that is up to a week old demands much less exposure, but it’s much less contrasty and a collodion that is old about a month produce bests results, but it demands longer exposures. Of course you can add a chemical that I don’t know what’s an English word for it and you speed up the process of aging, but again loosing quality. We learn so much, but as I’ve warned Mišo and Uglješa, it is very possible that in a week or so I’ll ring to their doors, asking for help

Above I’m publishing my Wet Collodion Process – Tintype photographs taken with 100y old Kodak Folding Brownie. HERE is a post where I got it. Below are images of students that were exhibited on a final show at the Academy. Mišo even created a lens from a single lens just to demonstrate how simple photography can be. Check an image on the slideshow bellow that have a lens taped on a wall. Fascinating indeed! Thank you Mišo, Uglješa, Ivana Tomanović & the Academy staff and students. It was epic as Lucija would say!

PS: Hoover over an image to read a caption. If you want to see larger image, right click and “open image in new tab”. I’ll organize their workshop also in Slovenia but don’t know when, probably in the beginning of next year. If you want to organize their workshop in your country, I’ll pass them your contact. You have mine on my site www.borutpeterlin.com

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Ciao guys,
I’m at workshop at Academy of Fine Arts Novi Sad in Serbia learning how to do Wet Collodion Plate photography. I brought my Kodak Brownie with me and I’m surprised how good it works although it’s about 100 years old. HERE is a post that I’ve wrote when I got it, but then I never took time to figure out how it works. Rightly so, because on the workshop I’ve learned that that some silver nitrate is so dangerous that a drop in your eye will blind you forever. That’s why we work with safety goggles. Above I’m publishing my second Tintype photograph and the slideshow is from the workshop of Uglješa Dapćević and Mišo Keskenović. If you’re interested in this kind of workshop in Slovenia, rate this post and comment. It would be great to have a feedback.

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Tomorrow the theater Anton Podbevšek Teater is having a premier theater performance OD-LOČITEV V MUKDENU / Bertolt Brecht: Dajevec. Nejevec in Ukrep. This is a theater performance by Bertolt Brecht and few days before his death he was asked which of his works present a theater of the future and he without hesitation answered Die Maßnahme. Theater director Matjaž Berger was intrigued by this statement and made this performance. The central theme of all three parts is dealing with a sacrifice of an individual in relation to a collective. The most touching moment is a statement of Peter Čeferin, the famous lawyer that defended Albanian miner workers from Stari trg in year 1989. This was the most notorious trial in former Yugoslavia, a huge violation of human rights and obvious political trial. Theater director Matjaž Berger draw a correlation of Bertolt’s abstract idea into real life event that happened in our former country in relative recent times.

I’ve made this photo-movie with photographs, an interview with the theater director, sound from the show and a theme song. It is a sort of teaser before the premier of the show and I think this kind of Photo-movies are having a great potential in the future. I hope you’ll enjoy it even if you don’t speak my language.

Long time no blogging and as you know, if I don’t blog, I’m working my ass off. A lot of stuff happened and I hope I can slowly describe everything. The biggest change that happened was that I got a dog Majk (Mike). He is two years old German Shepherd and it’s quite an interesting how I got it. I grew up with German Shepherds in a quite literal way I was 6 years old when I got my first REX, then Rex no:2 lived for 13 years and then Rex no:3. Rex3 was really an exceptional dog. He wasn’t a pure breed, but he was so, smart, so, so smart… When I was 22 years old, he was about five, an accident happened and he drowned in a river. I was on a dam, he was under the dam in the water. River was too strong. Very traumatic experience and after him I didn’t want another German Shepherd, since I knew no dog can top Rex no:3, so I decided to buy a totally different kind of breed, a Siberian Husky. I named him Sker which is Reks written backwards. Nevertheless I called him Skar (Scar). When he got euthanized because of age decease (link to the post) I didn’t want another dog.

We build a new house, we moved in, but I still I didn’t want a dog. I knew I’ll strongly attach to a dog and my life is too busy already. But then my parents gave our old house for rent and new residents brought a dog. I remember very clearly, repeating a question to my mother, they brought a dog? Yes, he is in the old cage, go and take a look. I didn’t ask what breed he is, but certainly I didn’t thought on a German Shepherd. When I saw Majk in Rex’s old cage I couldn’t believe my eyes! Rex is back! Rex is back! Love on first sight, I took him for a walk immediately. After that day when I had some spare time I went to my parent’s place and took Majk for a walk.

Last week a burglar broke in our house between in the afternoon but obviously he was disturbed by our returning home and he flew without stealing anything. That night I decided we need the best anti-burglar system and that is a German Shepherd. I borrowed Majk and offered their owners a decent price to sell it. After few days they sold Majk to me. He is two years old, very smart and with a character that I need. He loves children and children loves him although he can be a bit rough while playing. And not to mention his notorious quality to defend his territory, so we have a warm welcome for our burglar if he/she comes back.

An official description of my talk:
I was a student at Fabrica in year 2000/01, full of unrest, unsure of the path life was taking me, always questioning correct answers, a rebel pleading for a cause. Once I asked myself is there a life after Fabrica and after ten years of meditation in a cave called Slovenia, I’m coming back. This time it’s personal.

It was great to come back to Fabrica and give a talk on how my perspective on life and my work changed in past ten years. I shaped up the talk in a form that I, myself is listening at age of 26. I think it was a success and I look forward when the video of the talk would be published on Fabrica’s site.

My poster will be on the wall of fame, together with other lectures that gave a talk at Fabrica, from Paul Graham, Richard Billingham, Stephen Gill, William Klein, Martin Parr, Duane Michals, Sebastio Salgado,… if I highlight only photographers

After the talk I visited former colleagues from Fabrica Mr.PP, Renzo and Federico. They established their own agency Heads Collective that in four years grew to about 40 employees! They are huge. Perhaps we’ll do some work together.

Fabrica reunion

Today’s first of November, a holiday of All Saints or as we in Slovenia call it, a day for all deceased. Yes, you are right, the inspiration for a hard-core punker’s portrait is just to good. Štef Grmek is a driving force of Punk Kura association that is organizing alternative culture events. Recently I published a post about a concert in Kewdr underground club and in friday’s Mladina weekly issue this portrait will be published.

Portrait commisioned by Mladina weekly and you can see more of my creative portraits on my site.