Video Link: Soft Blackening Acrylic On Ambrotype

Here is a softer paint acrylic. It creates possibly a more flexible backing of the plate.

 https://vimeo.com/661456997

Screen capture of the 2 minute vid

Note To Luther

I exchanged a Luther G a 20 year veteran of wet plate and a man who has helped me many times in this journey to make 35x35 ambrotypes. Here is a note that I wrote to him on facebook today. We were discussing black glass versus clear glass as a substrate for Ambrotypes.

Clear glass left, black right

LT to GY

The two images should look identical and would look identical if the variables were not inconsistent. Exposure or and develop it. You can see more detail within the bark on one of them that had more development. It is hard to do proof of concept images with such extreme variables.

GY to LG

  will try to do exact copies on the two glasses giving the same exposure and development (at least as close as I can manage) in the spring. The problem I have with black glass is the flat feel to it (collodion on top instead of bottom) and the look of the varnish on the plate (probably poor technique on my part). I have seen some beauty black glass plates before first hand (Kurt M work). Will keep playing with it. I have quite a bit of black glass to use up in 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 sizes. At present I prefer clear glass reversed by quite a big margin. I find them magical, special, like nothing I have done before in photography. I was worried that I had put the cart too far in front of the horse. The buying all this stuff and having all these wild over the top dreams without actually making plates was a fool errands, a huge mistake on my part. What If I did not like what I was striving to make?. Now that I have seen the small finished clear glass ambrotypes, I feel much better, I feel I have not made a mistake and am on the right track. Seeing the magic ambrotypes, holding them in my hand, has calmed me down. Like with all the photography when you see a finished work it excites you and pushes you forward to make more. I have so much more to learn and do but I I can see the finished larger images in my mind now, AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!. I just need to chase thes photographs down, continue the pursuit, work harder. Everything will be OK in the end. Thanks as always for your help. Could not do this without you and others keeping me grounded and focused.

Reversed Ambrotype Technique

 Hi Everyone, Merry Xmas

I decided to write up a little note for my blog and Facebook about the system I will probably use to make ambrotypes. Writing things down helps me focus my thoughts, figure things more clearly.

First off, I wanted to thank all of you who have reached out with advice through the last 2 or 3 years. Without your help and suggestions, I would have never been able to move forward. My goal in all of this is to develop a working system that will allow me to make 35x35 inch plates. I need a practical working technique that can go that large. I will be working out of a darkroom trailer while traveling around Canada in an RV. If possible, I want to complete the entire plate in the field. The photo making trips could last up to 4 months each, having completed plates makes a certain amount of sense. Seeing the completed plates will inspire me (assuming they are good) to work harder to make more. That’s the hope anyway.

What type of substrate? Tin types were never my thing, Black glass while beautiful if done right I find a bit to 2 dimensional, I also do not like the reversed image. The glass is also hard to find. For me the answer is clear glass ambrotypes. Not only clear glass but reversed clear glass. I love the illusion of 3d this creates, I also love the idea, the feeling that the image is caught INSIDE THE GLASS. There is a certain innate beauty in having a subject IN the glass. A moment of time inside that is captured from a “another world” and preserved like Orwell’s coral paperweight from 1984. A nice bonus for me to doing these reversed ambrotypes is that everything is the right way around, no backwards writing, backward subjects. Another thing I prefer about “clear glass reversed ambrotypes” is that the front of the image is glass, not varnish. I like that you cannot see the varnish, only the sheen/shine of the glass. It all works out for me as the most beautiful type of ambrotype.

So, then the question becomes, how to make the reversed clear glass ambrotypes? Many have spoken against applying paint/Asphaltum or other substances to the collodion side of the plate. Many have said this is archivally unsound and it may well be. How long will it last? 100 years? I have Japanese Ambrotypes that are coated on the collodion that are in reasonable shape after 150 or so years. My thinking on this is simple, the reversed ambrotypes are the most beautiful in my eyes. So, I will work to create them as archivally as I can but being archival is not my main goal. The main goal is to create beautiful photographs, photographs that matter and photographs that inspire. If this type of Ambrotypes lasts only 100 years or 75 years, so be it. I would rather have the kind of imagery that inspires me that last a shorter period of time than create archivally longer lasting works that leave my heart cold. What is the use of creating technically more archival work that fails to excite?

So here is the system I am thinking of using to create clear glass reversed ambrotypes. I will of course continue to adapt as necessary and listen to suggestions of people with much more experience at the process.

- I will use readily available 3mm clear glass (possibly 4mm for the 20x24 to 35x35 plates) as a substrate.

- A double layer varnish of modern “Liquatex High Gloss Varnish” will be applied. Double seems better than single.

- A blackening coating of high-grade artist black acrylic paint by Liquatex (have experimented with many types of acrylic). The acrylic coating will be applied on top of the varnishes, the plate is taped off allowing for a thicker coating. I have also

tried to use Asphaltum in a mix of 1-part mineral spirits and 2 parts Asphaltum. This works fine

and creates a nice black. Not a fan of the smell and not sure I can get the Asphaltum in enough

quantities to coat possibly hundreds of large 20x24 and 35x35 plates. Not sure Asphaltum is

practical to use on the large plates. I have also tried black velvet but do not like the resulting look.

- Before flowing the plate with collodion I will first coat the entire glass plate with Albumen to get better adherence. Currently I am using a non-ether added collodion. Thanks, Borut P for that suggestion.

Any thoughts? Play nice

Here is a link to a video of a 4x5 clear glass reversed ambrotype made as indicated (except for the Albumen coating).

https://vimeo.com/660088315

Clear Glass Looks Nicer To Me Than Black Glass

Head to head. Clear Glass -Black Glass, same subject. The clear glass plate might be a tad underexposed but I like it better that way.

Clear Glass Versus Black

Video Link: Tree Near Dinosaur Provincial Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

Here is a video link to the TREE photo, Ambrotypes always look better in video

Tree Vid On Vimeo

Tree Or Person Ambrotype

Some of the tree Ambros seem to have almost human characteristics .

Tree In Campground Near Dinosaur Provincial Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada 2021

The images are improving. I feel anything is possible with the future Ambrotype work.

Tree Clear Glass Ambrotype

Like The Clear Glass Version Tree Better Than The Black Glass Version

 Like this clear glass tree version Ambrotype (viewing through the glass) better than the black glass version. Am excited about moving up in format size soonish.

Clear Glass version.

Black Glass version, made the same day

Tree Ambrotype Work, Before And After

Tree work...wet and dry. One is wet in the tray, the 2nd is dry with a warm light. It is reversed because now your looking through the glass at it.

Wet in the tray at the time of making

Dried and coated with 2 layers of varnish and black acrylic paint. The pic in its finished form, you look through the glass at it (the reason for the reversal/flip of the image).

MORE Clear Glass Ambrotypes, AMBROTOS KANATA

  More completed 4x5 clear glass Ambrotypes. AMBROTOS KANATA hopes.

Cleaned these up at work tonight.

Moving Up To 8x10, A Race Against Time

 A 4x5 beginning to the project. Still making plenty of mistakes but will move up to 8x10 next week off.. Want to, need to shoot 16x20 by next fall. Have to push things a bit or will be too old to use the 35x35. A race against time here, 57 and counting.

The 7 weeks in Thai will also slow the wet plate work but that work needs to get done as well.

9 mostly successful AMBROTOS KANATA 4X5 Ambrotypes

Video Link: Forest Logs, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

Forest Logs, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

A bit more from the beginnings of the AMBROTOS KANATA 15 year photography project. The impossible goal is to photograph Canada on wet plate. Starting out small at 4x5, hoping to grow to 35x35 inch plates.

 

Forest Logs, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021 

 

4 New 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotypes

Some more completed 4x5 ambrotypes from this year’s shooting. Things are coming along. Thank you my Facebook friends.

4 New Black Acrylic Backed Clear Glass Ambrotypes

Video Link: Dark Forrest Scene, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

This ambrotype is a bit dark, but in a way I like its mood. Like all ambrotypes it needs to be well lit. I have no idea how I will frame and light these for exhibition. Part of the 15 year AMBROTOS KANATA PROJECT. Am still learning how to coat the back of these wonderful 3D like, captured INSIDE the glass babies!! So much yet to learn, BUT BOY IS THIS FUN!

Dark Forrest Scene, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

 

 

Dark Forrest Scene, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

 

Forest Scene, Lake Louise Campground, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

Another vid, don't these things look nice in. motion :). Am falling in love!! This shot might be a tad underexposed, but not sure on that.

Forest Scene, Lake Louise Campground, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4x5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

Video Link: Forest scene, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4X5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021

Here is a Vimeo link to this early ambrotype. They always look better when they are in motion and your eye can roam around the ilusion of 3D.

Video Link: Forest scene, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, 4X5 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Alberta, Canada, 2021 

Screen Capture of Vid

Black Glass Versus Clear Glass

Here are 2 photos from the 2021 shooting season. Both are 4x5 images, the tree on black glass and the forest scene on clear glass with the acrylic paint blackening and 1 varnish. I like the black glass but find the clear glass superior because of the look through the glass 3D like glow you get in the image. There is also the illusion of the subject, that moment in time, being caught forever INSIDE the glass.

Note* Pics lit with a Florescent light source.

Dim Sum followed me downstairs and went right to work at my side

Black Glass left, Clear Glass right

Failures And Part Succeses With Paint Blackening The Back Of Clear Glass Ambrotypes

I am refining the acrylic paint I am using and trying mixes with varnish to make the consistency of the fluid a bit less solid. One of the paints is drying with small cracks so trying to figure out why. I am trying one higher end artist acrylic as well, to see if it is worth the extra money. Am also doing 2 varnishes of plates today, a double varnish should theoretically add more protection to the collodion. 

An online friend (Borut P) also suggested albuminizing (egg white/distilled water coating) all plates. I like that idea. It would make the collodion stick that much better to the glass. The only down side is the plates would be harder to clean and reuse in the field. It is sometimes hard to remove collodion that has been attached with albumen.

The washable paint idea did not work at all, it destroyed the ambrotype, even with a coat of varnish on it.

Destroyed Ambrotype, washable black paint

Experimenting With Many Paints To Blacken Clear Glass Ambrotypes

Tonight I am experimenting with different type paints for backing ambrotypes. Many acrylics, a tempera and a washable paint.

Thinking the best options at present will be to use a high end more expensive archival artist level black acrylic paint with a double varnish applied first. I am also eager to see how washable black paint works. Theoretically you could wash the paint off with the double layer of varnish protecting the collodion, at some later date. The goal is to find a working method for the larger clear glass ambros of the future, up to 35x35 inches.

Will also give asphaltum another try in the coming weeks. My initial work with that material was so so.

I prefer the looking throught the glass feel of the clear glass flipped plate images over tintypes, black glass etc.

 

Trying many types of paints, to back, clear glass ambrotypes

VIDEO LINK: First Completed Ambrotype For AMBROTOS KANATA

Here is my first Ambrotype for the 15 year AMBROTOS KANATA photography project.

2 Fallen Trees, Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, Alberta, Canada 2021

https://vimeo.com/656496186

Screen Capture of Vid

Ambrotypes Good And Bad, Self-Portraits?

Recent blackened Ambros I brought to work tonight, failures and successes alike, BUT ALL FUN! There is great joy in looking at them and then imagining what MIGHT BE. I like to dream of images, this sort of thing helps the process. 

 

Got to figure out wet plate portraits, people photography is what I prefer. That is where the magic could be. Hopefully can do some portraits in the studio. Might have to go self-portrait mode for a while.

 

Like the brown tones best in this pic!

Dodging Ambrotypes In The Field?

Another simple (sort of boring) Ambrotype scene that I completed over the last few days. This one has been varnished and a black acrylic rubber type paint applied to the back (not a smooth application). Good image to practise and learn with.

The 3D effect is more pronounced in this photo. Subject and composition can add that illusion of depth especially in these clear glass reversed (seeing through the glass) Ambrotypes.

 

Kind of like the exposure on this one, thou it is a tad over on the left, you can see detail in the shadow area at the back right. I wonder if I can dodge the image during the exposure (in front of the lens enlarger like). Would that work? Dodging mask of some kind? Hands? Then I could lesson the tone of the highlights while maintaining the detail in the shadows. Seems rather difficult to do, but might be an option in the field. Or I guess I could just lose the shadow to black and expose properly for the majority of the scene.

 

Newly Completed 4x5 Fallen Trees Ambrotype

Over the last few days I have been completing some Ambrotypes by adding the blackening layer. One of the better Ambros made is a shot of a fallen tree in Banff National Park. The black acrylic rubber area on the back of the plate is not smooth and beautiful like last time, not sure why. Maybe I poured the layer too thick, maybe the mix was a bit different or maybe it is because I added a varnish layer to the plate this time. With experience I will work this problem out. The tree shot is lovely, a moment caught INSIDE the glass 3D, got to love that! Am loving wet plate more and more.

Fallen Trees Banff National Park, AMBROTOS KANATA, Alberta, 2021

Nice But Frustrating

I got a nice note from Rob W, the writer of the article in FRAMES photography magazine on "Ethics" that included 3 of THE FAMILIES OF DUMP PHOTOGRAPHS.

Here is the comment.

Here are the photographs in the story.

What I find frustrating is that every now and again I get a comment like this about the work from some higher up person in the world, educated, in power some where etc. But when I make submissions of the same work to others in power, at the various top end Canadian Galleries and Museums I often do not even get an acknowledgement that they received or viewed the work. They do not have the time to view, or maybe they just don't give a f-ck. Places like the Art Gallery Of Alberta or the Art Gallery of Ontario completely ignore the dump story. Places like the Winnipeg Art Gallery do write back, are encouraging but then say they have only an Indigenous Art mandate, and cannot show the photographs. Others like the Art Gallery of Vancouver or the National Gallery in Ottawa, do communicate but things do not really move foreword. At least they do write back, not like the snobby AGA and AGO.

My goal has since I started photography 40+ years ago has always been to have the work shown in Major Canadian galleries, to have the photo stories told to large Canadian audiences, to have the photographs collected for future generations of Canadians to view. The frustration I feel, is that the photographs always seem to be impressing the wrong people. The people in the galleries could care less. I always feel that I have failed my subjects after these rejections, like I let them down.

Maybe someday a major show at a major museum will happen, heck I should have 20 years of life left. We are running out of time thou!!

The Story Of Canada

Reading this "Value Village special tonight". A bit simplistic with lots of big colorful pics but am learning stuff.

My simple little book on Canada, part of the AMBROTOS KANATA research.

Embers That Burn Well

Damn I cannot stop looking at my little 4x5 inch glass Ambrotype, my first completed. Feel so excited about the possibilities. Whenever I have a new work that I like, it is an ember that starts a new photographic fire. I love thinking, doing, and looking at pictures, my reason for everything.

What might be created with the larger camera's? What wonders await? On seeing this little so so image, I am re-inspired to work that much harder. Cannot wait to get on the road again and making Ambrotypes!! Need to learn more about Canada history (good and bad) this winter and continue the wet plate work in studio for now.

Ain't Photography Grand!!! (plan on putting this quote on the old tombstone, a good way to go out!)

Side view of the 3mm glass plate.

At work, feeling good about the Ambrotype possibilities.

Coating on the back.

The image, a nice little 3D effect with the trees