Video: Cottonwood trees, Dinosaur Provincial Park

Cottonwood trees, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta 2023

Part of the long term wet plate project of Canada, AMBROTOS KANATA.

Video: Trees, Preachers Point, Alberta 2023

Trees, Preachers Point, Alberta 2023

The work is part of a long time photography project of Canada titled AMBROTOS KANATA

Another Silver Tank

Got a near mint condition second hand silver nitrate tank and plate rack delivered today. I can now do 11x14 plates more easily. The idea is to use this gear withe the e-bike and trailer next shooting season. 

I now have a multitude of silver tanks in different sizes. 4x5, 8x10-2, 11x14, 16x20, 20x24 and 35x35 inches. I also have a supposedly leak proof acrylic 8x10 tank on order.

Video: Graveyard Crucifix

Graveyard Crucifix , Mundare, Alberta, 2022

The work is part of a long time photography project of Canada titled AMBROTOS KANATA

Video: Cottonwood Tree #1

This 8x10 plate was sold to the “ Alberta Foundation for theArts” for $1000 CAD. It along with a second plate became part of their permanent collection.

The work is part of a long time photography project of Canada titled AMBROTOS KANATA

A Haunting Daguerreotype Portrait

This stunning Portrait has from 1850 has been haunting my thoughts. The man was most likely a slave. The picture is a daguerreotype. You can feel his life, his experiences, his suffering, through his all too expressive eyes.

I would love to see the real mirror daguerreotype image someday. The wonder and beauty  of DAGS need to be held in your own hands to be truly understood and experienced.

Quote: Ruth Orkin (Photographer)

 

Bought Me Two Recommended Books on Daguerreotypes

I am on the trail of learning how to make Daguerreotypes, the oldest and probably the most dangerous photographic process. Workshops are the way to go, but I am unsure if I can afford them. One on one Daguerreotype making workshops run about $1000 USD a day, plus I would need to fly to Ontario and stay there for a week. The cost would probably be upwards of $7000 CAD.  

I might have to learn the old-fashioned way, books and hard work. I should be able to figure this out, 44 years of photographic and darkroom experience comes into play now and again! I have always learned on my own, first because I could not get into a school, second because I found I liked to it best that way, and that it worked for me.

As part of my DAG learning curve, I bought these 2 books today. Both titles were recommended by the king of modern Daguerreotypes Dr. Mike Robinson. The cost was $98 CAD. Here's hoping they can teach me a few things.

Little is known about the fifth and last western expedition of the celebrated explorer John Charles Fremont. The great effort to survey a transcontinental railway route across the 38th parallel ended short of success in the snows of Utah in 1854 but involved a meticulous photographic documentation-in daguerreotypes-of the route from the Mississippi westward. It was believed that a central railroad across the country would favor abolitionists in the great debate then raging in the country over slavery. Solomon Nunes Carvalho was hired by Frmont to photograph the expedition-the first time a western expeditionary survey had been systematically documented in photographs. Tragically, the daguerreotypes were destroyed by fire, and Frmont's fifth expedition was lost to history. Author and daguerreotypist Robert Shlaer remarkably has reconstructed the expedition in 120 original daguerreotypes. Using Frmont's maps, expedition documents, and Carvalho's diary accounts, Shlaer recreates the lost expedition across America's most breathtaking landscape using photography's first and most venerable method of daguerreotypy.

Daguerreotype : Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science. William B. White, M. Susan Barger.

Quote: John Madden (Football Coach, TV Color Man and General Good, Funny, Guy)

 “I think, if you come back in another life, I’d like to be either a blimp or a seagull.”

Daguerreotype Study

With the coming possibilities of creating daguerreotypes, I thought some study of its creative history was in order. To that aim I purchased a $15.62 CAD ex library copy of “The Spirit of fact” The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawkes 1843-1862..

Quote: Joni Mitchell

“I believe a total unwillingness to cooperate is what is necessary to be an artist - not for perverse reasons, but to protect your vision.”

Cleaning For Winter!

Believe it or not this is the cleaned up state of my varnish/UV exposure room. Getting this room and the adjoining darkroom cleaned up for a winter of printing and wet plate work!! Need to also find room for the new/used daguerreotype gear.

                            Varnish/UV Exposure Room

AGO Artist Residency?

I applied for a 2024 Artist Residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The AGO allows 3 artists a year into their Artist-in-Residence program.

Getting a residency would be a great opportunity to make ULF Ambrotypes in Ontario. A AMBROTOS KANATA Ontario!!  I hope AGO folks think the Ambrotypes are worth creating. Getting this opportunity  would be a dream come true for me. Imagine the imagery, the beautiful and challenging art that could be made!

Secondhand 11x14 Gear

Picked up a secondhand 11x14 silver nitrate tank (lightly used) and a 11x14 drying rack for $$296 CAD including shipping.

I now have 3 - 8x10 (1 on order), a 11x14, a 16x20, a 20x24 and a 35x35 silver tanks.

"Photograpic CANADIANA"??????

Found this story from January 2021 today. I did not know it existed, at least in this form. Not sure what “Photographic CANADIANA” is. I did submit work to a differently titled Canadian magazine. I they were called “The Photographic Historical Society of Canada”.  These CANADIANA guys must have reused the story, or maybe thetas a name change. Anyway, a nice story with a nice selection of images.

1 Year After the UNB Shows

It’s been a year since THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, was exhibited at the UNB, the University of New Brunswick.

This is the story about my friend who live under a freeway in Bangkok’s Klong Toey Slum.

They did a wonderful job!!! Thank you Marie!!