Monday, July 11, 2016

"Oh! Canada!" Thoughts And Luo Dan Photographer

Even after this weekends failure to purchase the 24x24 Chamonix I have been thinking a lot about the "Oh! Canada!" wet plate project. Today I am studying the photos of a wonderful photographer named Luo Chan. He did a project called "Simple Song" which used wet plate negs to tell a visually beautifully and eloquent story. There is a wonderful old time feel to his imagery, it looks so timeless and graceful. Sally Mann also does wet plate negs that she then enlarges. There is something to this process that works for me, seems so integral to what photography is.

I am now thinking that my project idea "Oh Canada" might be a multiple level enterprise. I could do film based work for silver gelatin and platinum prints and also wet plate stuff. The wet plate angle might be divided into 2 sections ULF tintype/ambrotype images done with Mae Lee my 16x20 Chamonix and similar super large ULF work done with a wet plate camera possibly measuring as big as 22x30. The second part of wet plate would be 8x10  glass negs shot with dads gift 8x10 Deardorf. I could then enlarge those photos to sizes 11x14, 16x20, 20x24 or larger in my 8x10 Durst enlarger.

There might be too many options here, probably have to narrow things down a bit but I like the idea at least in theory of doing everything. Thought processes are still happening here, thinking things out, will see what happens.

Here is Mr Luo Dan's work and a YouTube video he did. A artist well worth celebrating and studying.

http://www.luodanphoto.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mavW3f1F8So