Been thinking tonight of a picture series I have wrote of before. It would be a major-major project, probably impossible to achieve because of its extremely large scope and ambition. How long would something like this take? 10 years? 20 years? Not sure. It would no doubt be a photography project of a lifetime, something extremely difficult to accomplish. Am I too old to do it now? Is it only some wacky dream? Do I have my fingers in too many pies now? Want to do too many large scale things before I die? Probably so, probably all true, but why not dream?, why not hope?, sometimes dreams can become a reality.
From the film "The Eagle Has Landed"
Colonel Max Radl (Robert Duvall): "A wink from a pretty girl at a party results rarely in climax, Karl. But a man is a fool not to push a suggestion as far as it will go."
Here again is the grand idea. To do a wet plate (tintype or even better yet ambrotypes on black glass) project documenting my country of Canada. To accomplish this large scape and extremely ambitious scheme, I would need to shoot by myself over 1000 large scale wet plate images. I would do extremly large 16x20, 20x20, 24x24 collodian on glass photographs. The subject matter would be a series of landscapes and portraits from across Canada, East to West, North to South in all its variety and complexity.
How do you do something like that? How can such a grand idea become more than an idea and result in something real, something concrete, creative and beautiful? How? Step by step that's how, you get off your ass, gather your equipment, learn your technique and make the first pictures. You see how that goes and follow the path you set for yourself. Brick by brick builds the Grand Cathedral.
Would you shoot for 6 months, 8 months a year avoiding the winters? No I think you would have to shoot the winters also, that is essential to what Canada is. How does wetplate react to the cold? Not good I think. How much would it cost? Who knows! Probably a fortune. Could you get grants? Public funding support? Maybe so. Could you sell work to help pay for it? Probably so. There is lots to think about, including the title "Oh! Canada!" Kind of like it, thought of it while on my rounds tonight, while standing at the urinal : )). You know you got a good photo idea when your even thinking of it while peeing! : )) "Ain't Photography Grand!!"
Here is what inspired me and started these ideas flowing once again. I saw this wetplate landscape photograph today online, it was made by the photographer Jody Acke.
A link to Jody's landscape work. I did a wetplate workshop with Jode a 4 years back in Victoria, a very nice fellow.
http://www.jodyake.com/landscapes.html
Update* Heck been thinking some more. After shooting the sex scene, dumps, slums and the like in the blistering heat all over South East Asia for the last 20 years, often while speaking other language. How difficult can making photographs in my home country of Canada really be? It can be done! It is just the simple matter of wanting it bad enough and then going out and doing it.
From the film "The Eagle Has Landed"
Colonel Max Radl (Robert Duvall): "A wink from a pretty girl at a party results rarely in climax, Karl. But a man is a fool not to push a suggestion as far as it will go."
Here again is the grand idea. To do a wet plate (tintype or even better yet ambrotypes on black glass) project documenting my country of Canada. To accomplish this large scape and extremely ambitious scheme, I would need to shoot by myself over 1000 large scale wet plate images. I would do extremly large 16x20, 20x20, 24x24 collodian on glass photographs. The subject matter would be a series of landscapes and portraits from across Canada, East to West, North to South in all its variety and complexity.
How do you do something like that? How can such a grand idea become more than an idea and result in something real, something concrete, creative and beautiful? How? Step by step that's how, you get off your ass, gather your equipment, learn your technique and make the first pictures. You see how that goes and follow the path you set for yourself. Brick by brick builds the Grand Cathedral.
Would you shoot for 6 months, 8 months a year avoiding the winters? No I think you would have to shoot the winters also, that is essential to what Canada is. How does wetplate react to the cold? Not good I think. How much would it cost? Who knows! Probably a fortune. Could you get grants? Public funding support? Maybe so. Could you sell work to help pay for it? Probably so. There is lots to think about, including the title "Oh! Canada!" Kind of like it, thought of it while on my rounds tonight, while standing at the urinal : )). You know you got a good photo idea when your even thinking of it while peeing! : )) "Ain't Photography Grand!!"
Here is what inspired me and started these ideas flowing once again. I saw this wetplate landscape photograph today online, it was made by the photographer Jody Acke.
 |
| A truly beautiful wetplate landscape by Jody Ake |
http://www.jodyake.com/landscapes.html
Update* Heck been thinking some more. After shooting the sex scene, dumps, slums and the like in the blistering heat all over South East Asia for the last 20 years, often while speaking other language. How difficult can making photographs in my home country of Canada really be? It can be done! It is just the simple matter of wanting it bad enough and then going out and doing it.
