Bought 2 more of these 50lb pails of Sodium Thiosulfate. I tested my previous pail of the the stuff and it worked fine. The only problem is I had to filter it after mixing a 40% 2000ml solution (2000 ml hot water and 400grams POOL CHLORINE REDUCER SODIUM THIOSULFATE. An extra step but if it saves money to use this stuff, then I am all for it. I am not sure why there are white particles after mixing. A lower grade of chemical? Other reasons? Cost $380 CAD including shipping to my front door!
Note* 150lbs of fix should carry me for a while. Next year? 2 Years? When I start doing the 35x35 plates, I will require a ton of fixer.
Before and after, part of the learn. I find today's 8x10 easier after yesterdays attempts at 16x20. You can see how the UV light b/w differs from the color image.
Boy does 8x10 Ambrotypes seem easy after doing 16x20s! Maybe some day
16x20s will seem easy after doing 35x35. Those super big plates are a
long way away thou.
Here
is some of today's doll stuff, think I am getting the exposure down a
bit, closed the brass lens way down to its smallest aperture, with the
same amount of flash. One of the easier parts of working in a studio is
that you can control the light. In the field light is constantly
evolving.
Note* Need to find creepier looking dolls.
2 on the right overexposed, will not keep, the one on the left better exposure.
One of the advantages of glass Ambrotypes is you can clean off the collodion emulsion and reuse it, if the plate sucks. When I have added an albumen coating to the glass this part of the process (cleaning and reusing plates), gets way more difficult. I find that the G Collodion with no added ether is tender and susceptible to damage but it is also easy to clean when you screw up (which I do a lot of). When you add the albumen glass cover to a G Collodion plate it is much firmer. When I use a ether added collodion like QQC and albumen it is SUPER DUPER STICKY. that is great but the problem is cleaning the plate becomes more difficult.
Anyway, its all part of the learning process. I am trying to figure what will work best for the eventual 35x35 inch stuff. My guess is a ether added collodion, but will see, love the G stuff. Going to stick with G until I cannot.
The video is of a 8x10 plate with G Collodion with no Albumen coating on the glass.
Got a bag of dolls from Value Village, $40. Maybe can donate them to the children at the dump after I finish photographing them. They would b hard to carry all the way to Mae Sot but I think the kids would love them.
Here is a 20x24 set up but hope to do 8x10 Ambrotypes today. Will save the next large ULF pics for my next week off work. This is a good way to practise. I can do it on my own, take my time, no pressure from making people wait and their expectations. I can screw up, think why, learn, do it better next time. Great stuff!
Plus dolls are sort of creepy and fun to photograph.
With my first 16x20 Ambrotype done yesterday I had adhesion issues. The non ether added G Collodion was very soppy and easily came off the glass. Today I immersed the whole plate in Albumen(3 egg whites mixed with 2100ml distilled water., There were no issues with collodion not sticking. The G Collodion worked fine as did the Quinn Quick Clear.
Note* I have a bunch of QQC Collodion as well as a large mix of QQC Iodizer. Need to use it up. So far my fav Collodion is the no added ether G stuff, I threw together on my own.
Note* Loads of firsts today. A great learning day, enjoyable as well!
Doll head under safelight.
QQC Collodioni, think the line of nothing is the silver tank, low at the end of the day. The clear spots are from a sloppy developer pour I think.
G Collodion, kind of evil looking on the floor.
Early 16x20 made with G Collodion on Albuen plate, did not keep it.
Buying a water distiller machine. It will make me distilled water for my wet plate work. It should pay itself off in 6 months or so, and will save on lugging this stuff from supermarkets. On the road I might still need to occasionally buy some.
You use distilled water through the process. Having one of these babies is an important bit of kit.
Bought a all stainless model, hope it lasts a while!
Thinking of doing a series on OLD DOLLS. They have unique histories
and a creepy factor I quite like. Every dolll has stories to tell, "Toy
Story" like.
This
is also a good way to practice my 16x20 glass ambros. Here is first
try, I lost it when it would not stick to plate well. Trying a 100%
albumen covered glass next, this will help with adhesion. I think I need
to wash the glass better as well.
Might
have to change to an ether added collodion from the G Collodion, with
the larger plates of the future, just so everything is tougher and
stickier. We will see, so far up to a 8x10 size, love the way the G
works.
Will go to all the used shops in search of old dolls today. It would be great if I could do a series of 10 or 20 of these.
Here is today's first subject. A one armed doll found in the Mae Sot Garbage dump in 2013 or 2015. Will try to photograph it today on to an 8x10 plate. Here is the set up (rather spooky).
Woke up at 230am, read for an hour then was inspired by a Leonardo DaVinci Madonna sketch to get of my lazy butt. Now almost ready to go.
View from Eddy (8x10 Deardorff) ground plastic
Camera set up with freaky hanking doll
hanging on a black shoelace. How visible will it be?
Today is Thursday a bit late in the week to start on the wet plate imagery but was busy preparing, finding the dump items, storing chemicals, cleaning etc. Plus all of life's little chores.
When I was cleaning the failed 8x10 plates from lat time round, the emulsion on this one peeled away rather dramatically. Might try to save it. Probably not, but its fun to play with such stuff.
First look of the plate, some of the collodion has come off
Still using the old hospital drying cabinet I bought years ago.
This this is current look of the plate
Added my 20x24 washer from darkroom #1 today (emptying that space). It should work well for Ambrotypes.
Found some artifacts from the dump. I originally took them from the garbage dump in Mae Sot Thailand (dirty, smelly stuff) and brought them back to Canada with the hope of including them in a show of the photos but that never happened. I dug these out of a bag I had tucked away in the garage. Think these items are from the second 2013 trip or possibly 2015 (did not go in 2014, I needed to stay with my father).
I have more items (artifacts) in the found bag that I have not opened yet, no idea what's there. Everything is still dirty but the foul smell of the garbage dump has worn off. That smell is what I hate most about the dump. The smell eats into you, haunts you. Every time you arrive at the dump it is a new slap in the face.
I will try photographing these things on wet plate. The photos will have more meaning, at least to me. They should be interesting and fun to photograph. Maybe the Ambrotypes can be included in a THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP exhibition at some point. If not, I will just look at them in memory of what that place is like, symbols of the lives there.
Submitted to a bunch of new places, and some older places. Need to get more than the 2 shows I have coming up at the UNB. \
I need to make up more PDF file submission packages for some of the other work so I can submit them as well. Possibly the Japan Lonely Series (Kodoku), Sex Workers on white, Dads last days. Klong Toey Portraits/Muay Thai maybe even a PDF series on the Bargirl Portraits. I can start to work towards AMBROTOS KANATA as well.
So did the chemical part of things for a week of wet plate (might have to mix more).
- Sunned and filters 2 bottoles of Silver Nitrate Solution
- Mixed and filtered 2000ml of standard wet plate developer. I have started to filter the developer to clean up the pieces of debris in it. I use a cheaper type of Iron that is not as clean as the pentahydrate type.
A good week of wet plate ahead! Today I got some raw collodion
(thanks Dale) and a huge 50lb pail of cheaper sodium thiosulfate, fixer,
(sold for swimming pools). Will give the stuff a test. Going to go in
search of the “dump artifacts“ to photograph! Hope I can find them. Will
do 8x10s this week and try some 16x20s.
The
goal is to do a strong, effective triptych in 16x20 from the Dinosaur
Provincial Park viewpoint by the fall of 2022 . This weeks work is part
of the training for that goal. Trip and diptychs will be an important
part of the AMBROTOS KANATA project.
The cost of the fixer with shipping to my front door about $182 CAD.
Note* The sodium thiosulfate seems to be in the pentahydrate form.
Here is last weeks 8x10 self portrait attempt. Think I over developed it a bit. There are comets and other artifacts as well. Still an ok first attempt at 8x10 ambrotype. The blackening was done with asphaltum (dislike the smell).
Doing more wet plate work this week off. Am filtering my sunned (26 hours) silver now.
A
video of the earlier self portrait plate. Ambrotypes look better when
you can move around them. Subjects seem caught INSIDE THE GLASS, science
fiction like. A VICTORIAN POLAROID, tech from 1851.
Sunning
the silver! I have enough silver to almost fill 2 - 16x20 tanks. Great
to have and use this daylight exposure unit, especially this time of
year in Edmonton when the weather is cold with no sun.
Note* You sun the silver (expose it to UV light) to draw out the impurities in the bath. The excess chemicals in the bath when exposed to UV light turn black, fall to the bottom of the bottle, and are filtered out.
My artificial UV light (daylight) darkroom set up. Great to have in the wintertime!
Here is online link to LOOK CLOSER, a wonderful series of photography articles. Some of the dump story is told in the article on ethics. Please check it out if you have time.
Did I post this already? Well here it is again if I did, could not hurt.
The "Ethics" story from on the FRAMES website (I do not think it made it into the paper mag). 3 Dump photos are shown. THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP project is mentioned, not sure I did not read the story, I hate rereading about myself. I am sure Rob Wilson, the writer did a good job. Nice fellow. Am glad the "Families Story" is reaching a larger audience.
LOOK CLOSER: Do we need a photographic code of ethics? – by RobWilson
Gerry Yaum - "Families Working the Garbage", from "The Families of the Dump, Mae Sot, Thailand, 2013".
There is a photograph that I took some years ago that troubles me. I am not sure if it is because I feel like I should not have taken it or because what it shows outrages me like no other picture I have ever taken. It raises questions in me about my approach to photography and what images I should and should not share.
The picture, taken on the streets of India’s capital Delhi, shows a homeless man sitting curled up with his head on his knees facing away from the camera below a large poster advertising sporting goods. It shows Lionel Messi’s portrait and has the words “Never Follow” emblazoned below him. I took the picture because the scene before me made me angry. I found the disparity between the poor soul on the ground and the implied affluence of the poster disgusting. The idea that millions can be spent on advertising a pair of football boots whilst others have nothing is morally reprehensible. Perhaps I am being naïve or overly idealistic here, but it is the way I feel.
I do not consider the picture good enough to include here, but I have shown the image publicly once. This was at a talk I gave some years ago to a group of students at the university where I was then working. The purpose of the talk was to encourage them to think about the possibilities of photography beyond snapshots, selfies, and Instagram lifestyle pictures. The students were overwhelmingly from extraordinarily affluent backgrounds. One colleagues at the university used to joke that he had never seen so many young people driving such expensive cars and that the average student car was far more valuable than all the ones owned by the faculty. I am uncertain whether photography had any impact on them, but I believe it was an appropriate forum to share the image.
I still ask myself whether I was ethical in making that image. I consider myself a documentary photographer, but I am not a photojournalist nor was I making the image as part of a commission or project. At the time, I just saw the scene and made the picture for no purpose beyond the fact that I thought I should. I do not have an answer for my own question but constantly challenging and reviewing my own behaviour as a photographer is always a useful exercise.
I was brought to the topic of ethics for this article not by my story above, but by a recent series of incidents that occurred in the parklands of the Guild Park and Gardens, a place of historic interest and natural beauty located along the Scarborough Bluffs in eastern Toronto, Ontario. The eighty-eight-acre area provides a habitat for many rare flora and fauna. Recently, a rare Eastern Screech Owl took up winter residence in one of the trees in the park. This arrival prompted an influx of what volunteer group Friends of Guild Park described on its Facebook page as “bird paparazzi” who proceed to harass the owl and break park rules. According to the group, these individuals,
• Crowded through off-trail areas into wooded areas – habitats for native plants, many of them so rare that they are protected by legislation.
• Surrounded the owl roost for hours, upsetting the bird’s normal routine of rest and feeding
• Began shouting at the owl, even shaking trees and branches to make the owl more visible as they tried to get a “trophy” photo of the bird in action.
Vickie Bowie, Photographers at the Guild Inn, 2021
Vickie Bowie’s image above illustrates this absurd behaviour perfectly. As the statement from the Friends of Guild Park says, these people are disturbing protected habitats. Frankly, this idiotic behaviour makes me embarrassed to own a camera. This is photography as nothing more than trophy hunting. This unethical behaviour has led to ‘corrective’ action. Guild Park has not banned bird photographers entirely, but it has installed protective barriers. Thankfully, Bowie and most of her fellow bird photographers who enjoy Guild Park’s opportunities are conscientious and committed to conserving the species that live there.
Obviously photographing bird life and people enduring homelessness could not be more different in terms of application and technique. However, they are closely related in terms of how we behave as photographers. There is a difficult question here though. What exactly is ethical behaviour in photography? What makes something unethical and unacceptable?
Our ethical codes are our own. Our parents, education, politics, beliefs – religious or otherwise, and a whole laundry list of elements that I cannot even begin to list enable us to arrive at our own code. Clearly, it is not for me to tell you what to do. For myself, I tend to take a “I know it when I see it” approach. Obviously, I do not approve of the behaviour of these idiots misbehaving at the Guild Park, but that is a clear-cut situation. Others require more nuance. For example, while I have no issues about documenting poverty and homelessness as they are a very real part of life, I do not consider creating stylised photographs of those in straightened circumstances which beautify their condition and make them look somehow angelic as ethical. This is not to say that photographs of those homeless cannot be beautiful. Don McCullin made some images of London’s homeless that are beguiling. The question for me is intention. Why are you making the image? What is its purpose? If the answer is “art”, I suggest you think again.
For the second part of this article, I would like to focus on a body of work that gives an excellent illustration of how to be ethical and humane when dealing with an emotive subject. The photographer is Gerry Yaum and the project is called The Families of the Dump. Whilst the images are finely crafted, I must admit that when I first saw the project, I was sceptical about the content and intent. I always am with work that covers this kind of subject matter. However, after reading Yaum’s account of the project, spending more time with the images, and conversing with Yaum himself, I am sold on the value of this outstanding work. Like much of the work of Sabastiao Salgado, the dignity of the subjects is preserved throughout.
I am not going to review the images as such here as that is not really the focus of this article. However, I will say that they are very fine indeed and fully deserve their publication on photographic merit alone. In fact, the work, along with his other project The People under the Freeway, is scheduled to be exhibited at the University of New Brunswick Arts Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada from October 28th, 2022, to December 15th.
Yaum has spent many years working as a night-time security guard and chose the Thai word for security guard – yaum – as his artist’s pseudonym. He is conversant in Thai and spent four months creating the project. His own words describe his experiences perfectly.
The garbage trucks would arrive at around 8pm and 11 pm in complete darkness. The family groups of over 50 people would wait in the dark for the trucks then work the new garbage after it arrived. Often young children would accompany their parents as they worked, waiting near-by, they would play in the garbage or sleep, sometimes work.
My process was to arrive via motorbike at around 7pm or a bit later and stay until around 1230 or 1 am photographing that night’s events. I did that probably 5 out of every 7 days for the 4 months, it was exhausting and filthy. The strength of the families is amazing. At the beginning of the night on first arriving I would hand out headlamps, boots, medicines, foods etc along with mama noodles and lollipops for the children. The lollipops would be handed out throughout the night, usually 30 plus per evening. When I ran out of goods, I would take orders for the next day. I got good at saying things like, HEADLAMP, BOOTS and TOMORROW in Burmese. The goods were bought with donations made after people saw the photographs, or from exhibition artist fees and talk fees I received. When I did not have enough money, I used my security guard money to buy things (YAUM means “Security Guard” in Thai).
Yaum’s commitment to the story and the people he photographed over an extended period along with the sensitive and thoughtful images that he has produced provides an excellent example of how to be ethical and humane when dealing with a challenging and difficult subject. The project is infinitely stronger because of this approach. He could have made images which descend into ‘poverty porn’, but it is to his immense credit that he has not. They tell an important and unflinching story.
Documentary and wildlife photography are very different parts of our wonderful craft. Yet, ethics connects them. This article has looked at when photographers have failed to be ethical in their approach but has also focused on what can be achieved when you approach a project with decency and sensitivity. I genuinely believe that most of the readers of this column already consider the ethics of photography when they work, but if not, I hope that what you have read here encourages you to make it a critical part of your practice. Ethical behaviour was very much at the centre of Gerry Yaum’s excellent project and for me, this serves as a far better exemplar of how to behave with your camera than a bunch of fools who thought it acceptable to disturb an owl.
I would like to extend additional thanks to Ann Brokelman and John Mason at Friends of Guild Park for their kind assistance in the completion of this article.
FRAMES Magazine Every year we release four quarterly printed editions of FRAMES Magazine. Each issue contains 112 pages printed on the highest quality 140g uncoated paper. You receive the magazine delivered straight to your doorstep. We feature both established and emerging photographers of different genres. We pay very close attention to new, visually striking, thought-provoking imagery, while respecting the long-lasting tradition of photography in its purest incarnation. Learn more >>>
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow— even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive.
I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.
I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.
My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion.
My main goal for next years shooting of the AMBROTOS KANATA project, is to do ambrotypes at the Dinosaur Provincial Park viewpoint. I want to do 3 interconnected Ambrotyes (a triptych) from the view point in 16x20, possibly 20x24. I will attempt to create the images from start to finish in the field. The photo making, the washing, the varnishing and the blackening (with Asphaltum). If I can complete this ULF Tritych task, it would be a major step forward for the project. A positive omen of many good things to come. After accomplishing this, anything is possible.
11 Photos, an Interview and the Cover. THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY. The cover image is of Khun Oye, 72, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2018
AMBROTOS KANATA STORIES BLOG
The 15 Year Ambrotype Project, Telling The Story of Canada
Me, W. Eugene Smith, Sebastiao Salgado, Lewis Hine and Walker Evans! :) NOT!!!
Article From Issue 160 "Black&White" Magazine, on Concerned Photography
LUNCHBOX Radio Interview FOR UNB EXHIBITIONS
Interview for the 2 University of New Brunswick Art Centre Exhitions
MONEY EARNED TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES
Money that will be used to directly help the people in our two photography projects, THE FAMILIES OF THE DUM and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY $6334.67 ($6000 earned when 6 prints were added to the UNB permanent collection).
GOFUNDME, FAMILES/FREEWAY
Trying to raise $2000 to help the people under the freeway, and the families of the dump. TOTAL RAISED SO FAR = $325 —->$314.67 (after GOFUNDME fees).
UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK EXHIBITIONS VIDEO
Opening Night Video For THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY and THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP Exhibitions
Analog Forever Magazine
THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photos, Online Version of the Published Magazine Story
Asia Photo Review
THE FAMILES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photographs
Flash Photographic Festival 2022
FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Story and Photographs
Slate- THE SEX WORKERS OF THAILAND
Photographs and Interview
The Focal Collective
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY: Photographs and Interview
Vernon Morning Star Newspaper Story
Penticton Art Gallery explores life on the margins of society - Interview And Story
Aquinion Newspaper Interview.
Visualizing Families of the Dump - Photographs and Interview
FRAMES MAGAZINE STORY
LOOK CLOSER: Do we need a photographic code of ethics?
2022 "Families of the Dump"/The People Who Live Under The Freeway Donation Buys
Total donation money spent for the 2022 trip to the Mae Sot dump (THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP), Bangkok's Klong Toey Slum (THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY). Money spent on "The Families of the Dump" = $571.17 CAD (14982 Thai Baht) Money spent on "The People Who Live Under The Freeway = $144 CAD (3849 Thai Baht) General cases where money was spent to help others in need $15 CAD (401baht)
(Thai Currency) or
CAD
"Families of the Dump" Donation Total
$4420.02CAD
GERRY YAUM'S Documentary Film Making Blog
GERRY YAUM: YouTube Video PHOTOGRAPHY CHANNEL
Shows, photo stories, darkroom work, shooting in the field and fun videos.
GERRY YAUM'S VIMEO Video Page
Gerry Yaum On Facebook
GERRY YAUM FACEBOOK
THE GOAL
To create photographs that speak to the universality, the commonality and the shared humanity of all peoples, regardless of country, race, culture or language.
TRANSLATE YAUM'S PHOTO DIARY INTO YOUR LANGUAGE
Quote: Robert F. Kennedy
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
Quote: Nelson Mandela
"As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest."
Quote: Weegee (Authur Fellig)
"Be original and develop your own style, but don't forget above anything and everything else...be human...think...feel. When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know your on the right track....Good luck."
I have been thinking of why I love photography, it comes down to something I have labeled "The Three Joys" 1) Creativity The first joy is simply creating the work. Everything about the making of photographs I love. The initial ideas, the writing on the blog, the preparation of equipment, the research into my subjects, figuring out what I want to communicate. The camera tech stuff like composition, lens selection, cameras, figuring exposure, taking the shot etc. The post darkroom work where you swim with your prints bringing them slowly to life, creating something powerful and beautiful. I love it all.
It is so powerful a thing, you have a idea in your mind, there is nothing else, then YOU make it, you create it, it's fricking awesome stuff.
2) The People The second joy is that photography has allowed me a way into so many peoples lives, so many different worlds. I get to meet people of all types, speak to them, eat with them, cry and laugh with them. For a while I get to live their existence to be them if you will.
I get to be a child in a slum in Bangkok or a drug addict in a ghetto in Oakland. I get to be a ladyboy sex worker in Pattaya or a man dying of cancer in Canada. Of course I am not really those people but I get a true flavor for those worlds, those experiences, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the joy and the sadness.
With photography I get a chance to live outside of the same same everyday meat and potato lives many of my friends and family live. Because I use a camera and make pictures all the doors to a wonderful life experience are open to me, photography is a window into everything! 3) The Photograph The third joy is about the feeling you get when you accomplish your goals, when you see your final print in the developer, fix or hanging in a gallery. There is a special emotion there, a true satisfied happiness, something so uniquely rewarding. In the darkroom sometimes when I see the finished photo for the first time as it lays in the fixer tray I will let out hoops of joy. I will scream and shout. It is quite a spectacle! It's just the sheer high of that moment bursting out, the YES moment. When the photo is right and you see it for the first time it's the best feeling in the world, better than anything I have ever felt, the high of highs!!
