ECW European Collodion Weekend

First European Collodion Weekend at Fotoacademie Eindhoven

(Holland) at april 14th-15th

During that weekend several national and international collodion photographers will give demonstrations of the wet plate process and also will show lot’s of their original plates and prints. FREE ENTRANCE !!

Photographers who will participate during that weekend are : 

Luther Gerlach from the USA

Alexey Alexeev from Russia

Fabrice Pejout from France

Mémé Bartels form Holland

Manon Navarro from Holland

Arjen Went from Holland

Peter van Hal from Holland

Alex Timmermans from Holland

Previous to that weekend the participating photographers will show their work during an exhibition which starts at march 15th at 17:00 hour. Free entrance ! 

Exclusive collodion masterclasses by Luther Gerlach (USA)

Luther Gerlach will do 2 exclusive master classes showing his skills and knowledge about the wet plate process. 

He's a true master on wet plate photography and his work is currently hanging in the White House as part of President and Mrs. Obama’s art collection.Gerlach’s work has appeared in Architectural Digest, American Photographer, People and View Camera Magazine, and exhibited at over two-hundred art festivals.He has won major awards at Cherry Creek, Coconut Grove, Tampa Bay and Salt Lake City. 
Celebrity clientele include also Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Nick Nolte, Bruce Willis, Michael Wilson, Oprah Winfrey.  

Places for these two master classes are limited. So if you are interested and want to make a reservation drop me an e-mail containing your name, address and phone number. We will send you a reply with the needed information. After receiving your payment you will receive a entrance card.

Entrance fee for the masterclasses is € 49,=.

For students and employees of the Fotoacademie, Fotogram and Fotoschool €39,==

http://luthergerlach.com/

MASTER CLASSES ARE FULLY BOOKED !!!

So if you are interested in the wet plate process, visit us during April 14-15^Th !!

Opening Exhibition

Thursday 15th of March at 17:00 hours    FREE ENTRANCE

Demonstrations

Saturday 14^th of April from 13:00 to 17:00 hours FREE ENTRANCE

Sunday   15^th of April from 11:00 to 17:00 hours FREE ENTRANCE

Master classes Luther Gerlach

Saturday 14^th of April starts at 10:30 hours  ENTRANCE ONLY BY RESERVATION
Sunday   15^th of April starts at 13:00 hours ENTRANCE ONLY BY RESERVATION
 

Address:  Fotogalerie Eindhoven
Torenallee 20 (Strijp S), 2nd Floor 5617 BC Eindhoven, Holland

For more information please contact :
Alex Timmermans
collodion-art@onsmail.nl
0031-402301470

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Universal iris clamp

I just wanted to share this very versatile camera part with you.
It is called universal iris clamp or lens chuck.
They are available in different sizes.
The problem with lenses is that many of them are missing the lens flange. That makes it almost impossible to mount on a lens plate.
These clamps have very stiff aperture blades which makes it able to hold different sizes of lenses without using a lens flange. Most of the time these clamps are made of aluminium.

This beautiful clamp, made of brass, can hold lenses with a diameter from 2,5 cm up to 9,5 cm and up to a weight of aprox 2 kilo without any problem!

(BTW, this one is not for sale !)

Opening ECW exhibition

Last Thursday we had the opening of the ECW exhibition. This exhibition contains work from Alexey Alexeev, Fabrice Pejout, Went & Navarro, Mémé Bartels and me.
The printscwill be shown untill the ECW weekend at 14/15th of April.

During that weekend  also some original plates will be shown by the makers !

Thanks to Arjen Went and Ben van Os for sharing these pictures.

Master classes with Luther Gerlach are fully booked !!

The masterclasses with Luther Gerlach during the first European Collodion weekend are fully booked !
That is just great as it was a real gamble we took organizing this weekend as it was based on non profit.
Thanks to all who believed in and supported this project from the beginning on.

Tomorrow, march 15th, is the opening of the exhibition.
Showing work of the 6 photographers who will do demonstrations also during the ECW.

Many Thanks and maybe see you  tomorrow or during the ECW,
Alex

Flyers for the European Collodion weekend

The flyers for the European collodion weekend have arrived!
Nice to see everybody's work on a flyer.
Almost all prints for the exhibition are made. Now the framing starts.....
Loads of work to do iduring the evenings this week.
Masterclasses from Luther are almost fully booked. Just a few places left !!

Opening exhibition coming Thursday at 17:00 hours

Collodion weekend April  15th/16th

My first solo exhibition

Some time ago Rob ten Tusscher from Fotogalerie Objektief contacted me if i might be interested in a solo exhibition for my wet plate work.
That oppertunity i took with both hands !

I was a he.. of a job framing everything but for me it was worth every minute.
Yesterday early in the morning, my friend Ferry and me drove to Enschede to be sure everything was ready in time.
At 4 o'clock we opened te exhibition which will last untill March 31.

It also was the first time i showed my 20 x 20" plates. I can tell you, they look just great hanging on a wall.
Many, many thanks to all who made this possible. But most of all i want to thank the visitors from who some had a long drive just to visit my exhibition !

Ready for the exhibition

(almost) everything is framed for my exhibition in Enschede.
Varnished my last 20x20" plate yesterday and is ready to mount this afternoon.
Thats what they call "just in time".......

This last one is also my all time favourite. Had a shoot before this one , and nothing but troubles. I even had a small flood in my darkroom. Bit of panic at that time.

Took a drink (limonade....), cleaned a plate, poured, et Voila.....
A plate of my "little" girl

This one is incredibly sharp. Unbilievable that such an old handmade lens can produce such details wide open.

20 x 20"black glass ambrotype
7 secs exposure time
Voigtlander 24"4.5 ( incredible lens !!)
Rapid fixer

Exhibition at foto-galerie Objektief Enschede

Loads of work to do (and already done a lot)
Coming Sunday the opening of my exhibtion at Galerie Objektief.

 http://www.fotogalerie-objektief.nl/

 It's a small photo gallery in the centre of Enschede. 

Walstraat 33

7511 GE Enschede
Opening will be coming March 4th 16:00 hours.

I will exhibit some original 18 x 24 plates, 18 x 24 fine art prints and some original 20 x 20" plates. So if you are interested seeing them, just come along!

Marc Lagrange

Today i had an appointment with Marc Lagrange and his very friendly assistant Kim.
A few weeks ago we got in contact with each other and Marc asked me if i was willing to show him the wet plate process.
Being a huge fan of his work saying yes is a bit of a understatement.....
So for me also it was an extremely interesting day. It's always nice to see and learn how other photographers use the light in a studio.

We made some new appointments so lets see what future may bring....

You really should visit his website : http://www.lagrange.be/
Also watch this movie of his recent exhibition which will be continued at beginning of March in Antwerp, Belgium !!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1q0gRm4vDY
really a MUST see.

Gathering with Sweden and Italy.....

Yesterday i made some plates together with Maja Nylander from Sweden and Maria Pia Pagliaro from Italy.
Both very talented photographers with a totally different view on Photography which lead to interesting discussions.
It's just funn every time again sharing this proces with other passionated photographers.

A brief impression of yesterday.

"Maja" made by Maria

"Maria" made by Maja

20 x 20" portraits

Yesterday i finally had some spare time to make some 20x20" portraits.
It's all more, bigger, heavier. But, this is really great.
Making plates 1:1 is so much fun and looking at the plates it just looks like the sitters are still in my studio.
BTW, this time have been using Amaloco rapid fixer. As told before, the difference between KCN and rapidfixer is really marginal. The tone of these plates are fantastic.
Just have a look at the last picture. That tone is how it actually looks like.
Now i have to find a way taking good pictures if this plate to be able to print it.

A brief impression :
( thanks to my friend Ben who made the pictures)

They got married.....

I just couldn't wait any longer.
Made a lens plate today and "married" my new Large Vogtlander lens with my 20x20" Donchev camera.
(I have two original lens plates which came with the camera, but i hate to cut a hole in them........)The difference in age between he and she is huge.
The voigtlander was made in 1862 and the Donchev is made in 2011.
Lets call it a "modern" marriage
It looks just great on the ground glass and i definately want to make some work with this camera starting in 2012. So keep posted.

If you need any more info about the Donchev camera's, just have a look at Andy's weblog : http://donchev-cameras.blogspot.com/