Started up on Facebook again, mostly as a promotional thingy. I can also speak to and update things with old friends.
Here is a post from Facebook I wrote about the HF3535 lens buy.
Here is a post from Facebook I wrote about the HF3535 lens buy.
Decided to go all in today on my major wet plate project "Oh! Canada!!". I bought a VERY expensive 95 year old brass lens for the project. A Carl Zeiss Jena Apochromat Tessar 15/180cm (1800mm 70 inches). This thing is a beast.
The good news? I will probably be using only one lens on this 10 year cross Canada project. I can also probably resell it and get my money back (or close to it). The lens is extremely rare, the only one the auction house in Germany has ever seen. The think probably survived the bombing of Germany during the second world war, and was made shortly after the first world war ended. By the time I use it for my project it will be 100 years old. There is something very beautiful about that.
The bad news, am in debt now till I can pay it off. This thing cost 3 times more than any lens I have previously bought. With the trip to Thai coming, money is VERY thin right now. Oh well sometimes in life it is important to chase down dreams. This is one of those times.
I hope to have the work exhibited on a national level at the best galleries country wide, maybe MAYBE even the National Gallery of Canada (hope, hope, a life long dream there). Canadian art folk go nutso for Canadian art subjects and this project is different than anything ever done in Canadian art history. 35x35 ambrotypes, pictures on glass. Photographs of the Canadian landscape, the Canadian seascape and the Canadian people (all the people of this great land). It might with luck attract attention. I want the people and complexity of Canada to be understood, both the good and the bad. Still refining the themes in my mind, but see it as a grand major series.
Starting this thing in about 5 years time.It will be the last major photographic project of my life. Plan on working on it over 10 or more spring/summer/falls. Or until I am physically unable to do it any longer.
Nothing quite as beautiful as ambrotypes. Imagine what a room of 35x35 framed and properly lit ambrotypes will look like! Takes my breath away just thinking about it.
This is going to be fun!
