“FUZION is an online  and in print magazine a based in the UK. Our publications promotes photographic practice from around the globe. We provide artists a platform to have a  dialogue with a global community!”

The issue has been published and already looks great on screen. I have also ordered a printed version (which you should too as there are some cool photographers in there) and I’m looking forward to it! You can find it here:
Fuzion Magazine Printed Version 

Here’s a preview from my work in the magazine:

Thank you Gabriel!!

My exposure times were around one and a half minute with some older collodion and one light. Now, using a fresh batch and 2 lights I’m at around 25 to 30 seconds which makes me very happy. Lights were at about 1 meter and a bit of the subject. I used to have them closer before.

Anyway, I’m happy! Now all I have to do is filter the varnish and test it as it ate up my plate last time I used it, gather and clean some plates for the big workshop this Saturday and I’ll be good to go!

Have a great day

“Enter the Photo Palace Bus!

Anton Orlov and Ryan Kalem, both graduates from San Jose State University B.F.A. in Photography would like to spread the love of silver based photography by organizing workshops and exhibitions across the US as well as to document America and Americans using film.

What is remarkable is that they plan to tour via a converted vintage school bus. Upon completion the converted bus will hold a darkroom, a small exhibit area, a lounge and a foldable northern light portrait studio.

Conversion has already begun but in order to complete it, additional funds are required. Their goal is to raise $16,000 by the end of January 2012.

If you would like to see film based photography to kick up some dust in a town near you, assuming you are a continental US citizen, during the summer of 2012 then help them out. Spread the word. Blog about it. Or preferably, donate.”

For more information about this project follow this link.
For more information about the Disposable Crisis project follow this link. 

The media’s most used words in the past year has to be “the economical crisis”. I am very fortunate to live in the Netherlands where people really are pretty rich with roofs over their heads, food and a social security system, albeit having been degraded over the last years. This makes me sincerely wondering about how this crisis has affected people all over the world. That’s why I have set up this project.

In short the goal is to collect photographs from people everywhere depicting what the crisis means to them or how it has affected their lives. This does not necessarily have to be negative things. The result will be published in a book and spread via Blurb. The money gathered by selling the book will go to a charity, yet to be chosen.

I’m going to send disposable cameras to people all over the world. You can contact me when interested in participating via email disposablecrisis [at] gmail [dot] com.  First thing you have to do once you receive the camera is write a little note with your name and something else you might want to share. This will be used in the book. If you don’t want your name to be published, still write the note and mention this.

After you have written the note photograph it so that I know when I develop the film that the next photos on the film are yours. This is very important. I can not be held accountable for false information in the book if this step is forgotten.

When you have made the photos you want, try to keep it to a max. of 4 photosincluding the note, you can pass or send the camera to someone else you think is interested in participating in this project.

You’ll have to pay for the shipping cost yourself as I won’t have the means to do that for you. If this really is a problem please contact me, maybe we can work something out.

The film will reach an end and when it does please ship it back to me. The address will be included with the camera and the other information. If it got damaged or otherwise is no longer included please contact me. I’ll provide you with the information. I’ll take care of the developing, scanning and creating of the book.

Should it happen that you don’t know anyone to send or give the camera to and it’s not full, please ship the camera back to me. I can then give the camera another swirl.

On the other hand, if you wish to add more cameras to the mix because you might know a lot more people wanting to participate, feel free to do so! Also, if you give away cameras yourself, recollect them and ship them to me that is allowed too. As long as the note-part is being implemented.

Obviously this project will cost  money so I’m going to set up a donation system where everyone who feels like supporting this project is free to donate some of his or hers precious money. I’ll keep a list with the names and donators so that everything will be traceable and open for everyone to check on. If you wish to remain an anonymous well-doer please mention this. The excess money donated will be going towards the, yet to be chosen, charity as well.

Please be sincere when wanting to participate in this project. In order for the project to succeed I need the cameras back to process them and create that book. This is also what will make this a great project: by people for people!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me, preferably via email disposablecrisis [at] gmail [dot] com.

You can find more of this over here: The Disposable Crisis Project

We decided to take my gear with us to do the demo and Jeroen prepared his “speech”, brought some lenses and examples of old original ambrotypes and ferrotypes. Bart wanted to drive so when Jeroen arrived we started packing everything into our car. Time to leave…NOT. The car refused to start (while it did half an hour ago..). So, loaded everything out of the car in to Jeroen’s car, not enough place for Bart so we left him behind, and finally took off to what turned out to be my worst demo ever

All photos are the courtesy of Stefan de Pauw.

Oehhh lovely goodies!!!

Wet Plate Collodion Ambrotype looks to be a negative...

Ohh no, it's a positive!!

Once arrived I started setting up the darkroom tent with help of others, filled up the silver tank etc. etc. The theoretical part went well but took quite a bit of time since everything had to be translated to French (Belgium). Not that that was a problem but the light diminished quite rapidly and by the time we were ready for the practical part of the demo it turned out to be quite a challenge.

Jeroen showing the plate holder

The darkroom tent

The darkroom tent was inside with the temperature around 24 degrees (thanks Jacques, really ). I blew the dust of the plate, poured collodion on and placed it in the silver tank. So far so good. We anticipated to making the photo outside, it was pretty decent weather so that would work great. Once outside it was pretty damn cold, around 6 degrees. Positioned the attendees and got ready for the photo….guesstimated the exposure time around 15 seconds f4.

Went inside, got into the darkroom, pulled the plate out and developed…oops, that did not look very good…developed plate showing stains but no image… Oh well, let’s put it in the fixer bath. Black…and ow..I didn’t place the plate correctly on the holder so it fell into the tank.. Luckily Kal was handy enough to get it out for me (thanks), broke the plate (thought that was supposed to bring luck but I guess I should’ve shattered it into a million pieces) and I set up for a new one.

When we got outside the light was even less (of course) so we finally decided on an exposure time of 2 minutes. Not as many people gathered for the photo this time

Two minutes were pretty long in the cold so everybody was glad to be able to go inside again, looking forward to seeing the result of trembling for two whole minutes.  I got back into the darkroom, developed the plate and…not much on the plate again besides some very obvious peeling. Darn…got outside, placed it in the fixer (good this time) and wow, some faces turned up from the dark. But for the most part it remained just dark.

The show must go on so I dried the plate and prepared to varnish. Heated the plate, heated the varnish, poured it on the plate and… gone it was. This only happened to me once with the plate Quinn made from me. I blamed it on the difference in alcohol being used back then but this was all my chemistry, working fine just 2 weeks ago. And now it decided to eat up my plate. Oh well, showed everyone just how cumbersome this process can be, including me

So..that was the end of that. I blame the peeling on the huge difference in temperature, about 18 degrees, the low UV light outside combined with the older collodion resulting in a lower-sensitivity which does not help in this case and resulted in too dark images. As far as the varnish is concerned..not sure. Will have to check it later to make sure it works again.

Last but not least: the self-made darkroom box by Rene Smet. Really pretty although it seems a bit tight for as a working space so have to keep the plates small I suppose but pretty nonetheless!

Enjoy my post about this failed demo and see you next time

I’ll post the process as we went through it below. I hope I remember everything correctly. If someone notices any flaws or whatever please contact me so I can adjust it. I don’t want no misinformation on here! Oh, and beware…LOTS of photos!

P.s. For a short explanation of the process click here.

The start of the process: take a whole lot of perseverance and a copper plate and polish it for about 6 hours on end.

Luckily for us Marinus and Charlotte already prepared the plates we were gonna use so this was merely to let us feel what an incredible job it is to polish these plates for so many hours on end. Getting them spotless is an absolute must to be able to make good plates. I was already looking for shortcuts with the glass plates for collodion (dishwasher) but this takes true patience and perseverance. My utmost respect!

The polishing is being done with a bit of oil and some grounded pumi stone. The finer polishing is being achieved by using kaput mortuum which is a red powder consisting essentially of ferric oxide, also used as a dye for painting.

After the plate has been polished until the surface is impeccable the plate is being galvanized in order to create a thin silver layer unto the plate. After that the plate is being buffed using three different ones, going from fine to finest buffing. The first buff also uses a bit of kaput mortuum, but then treated to get it even in a finer state, the second one is of untreated leather but finer than the first and the last one uses a flannel cloth as the finest way of buffing the plate. Now it’s ALMOST ready to be fumed!

Daguerreotypes need a different setup in the darkroom so I'll try to explain. On the left you see a fume cupboard, suction drainage is very important for the fumes (!). You see two wooden boxes on the right in the cupboard. The one on the left contains the Bromine, the one on the right contains the Iodine. They are used to fume the plate with in order to sensitize it. On the table on the right is the "fixer", the rinsing bath, the toner etc. for finishing of the plate. Developing happens elsewhere but we'll get to that soon.

Here you can see the table on the right better where the plate is being finished.

Here you can see the boxes inside the cupboard closer. If you look closely you can see the actual lid of the box is made from plexiglass. You can pull it out when the plate is placed on the top upside down to let the fumes hit the surface of the plate. This way the fumes are kept in the box as much as possible. The fumes that do escape are being sucked out via the drainage system. It's a very clever system and very cheap as well. The boxes come from Xenos and just need a little modification to make it work. In front of the boxes you see the sectorial disk used to carry and hold the plate so that you won't pollute it with your hands.

A cleaned and totally prepared plate waiting to be fumed. The plate is sitting on a buff covered with flannel for the last and final buffing.

The group looking at a daguerreotype presented in passe-partout.

The final buffing of the plate starts with heating up the buff a little using a hair dryer.

And the final buffing of the plate, done to heaten up the plate a little before it goes onto the fuming boxes. This has to be done evenly so that the fuming layer will be even as well.

The plate goes unto the first fuming box containing the Iodine. The plate goes through different stages of colors here, going from yellow to pink to green, back to yellow etc. and all shades in between. The color that the plate needs to have is dependent on what type of weather you're in, which contrast your subject has, the desired result you have in mind etc. Typically the plate has to be somewhere between yellow and pink which, in this case, took about 60 seconds. Then it's being placed in the Bromine box for about half a minute. Then back onto the Iodine for another 6 seconds and then it's ready to be placed in the back of the camera. This has to be done in subdued light as the plate has reached its sensitivity to light. From now you have about half an hour to make and develop the photo. Noticeably longer than the 5 minutes in Collodion!

Here you can see that the silver plate has turned yellow.

This photo shows the plate unto the fuming box with the sort of doorknob on top to handle it. You can also see the plexiglass lid having been pulled out of the box to let the fumes hit the plate.

As a side note..the plate can be prepared with Iodine only. It’s not necessarily needed to use Bromine. BUT (yes, there’s always one of those) the Bromine makes for a better contrast and detail in the plate. More mid tones can be achieved than when just working with the Iodine.

Marinus is preparing the shot while Charlotte and Philip are immortalizing the scene the digital style

The plate has been exposed, now on to the developing stage which happens inside the van. The developing process is done using mercury fumes. For safety reasons this did not take place in the darkroom to keep the mercury as far away as possible from the Bromine and Iodine. The developing is being done in a sealed off box, again with an air drainage attached to it. The mercury is being heated up to about 65 degrees which is monitored outside the van using a digital thermometer.

The mercury is being heated using an alcohol lamp. The white cable you can see popping out is the cable to the thermometer which leads to the read-of-screen attached on the outside of the van. After the mercury has been heated to the desired temperature the lamp is being "turned" off and mercury is being cooled down until it reaches about 30 degrees. The fumes forming in that time should normally be enough to develop the plate completely. If, after carefully checking the plate, the desired result is not met, the mercury is being heated up again and the process repeats itself.

Here you can see the thermometer on the left with the plate in the wooden box on the right, developing.

Development approved and back to the darkroom where the unexposed silver can be washed off using thiosulphate for about 4 minutes.

Then rinsing with a about a liter of distilled water.

You can then blow of the drops of water with an air blower and leave it to dry.

Next step: preparing the gold toner. This mixture contains two dillutions: gold toner (2%) and thiosulphate (0,8%). When first brought together the mixture turns very dark. You have to let it sit until it clears again completely and then the mixture has to be heaten up until 45 degrees celcius. Time for coffee!

A Durst Coterm is being used for the heating.

After the coffee the plate was being put to the top of the tray, the gold toner poured in the lower part. When enough the mixture got flown in one move over the plate to get evenly done. This took about 4 minutes and the plate got his goldish shine meaning it's good for a whole lot a years to come.

Again the plate is being rinsed with water and the water drops blown off with an air blower. Now the plate is ready to dry out and prepare for matting and framing. A proper dry takes about 2 days to complete.

Voila...the result!!! A better photo will be send to me so hang on tight for that! This digital copy does this type of image no good. The original is fascinating beyond words!

The matting has been finished. It only needs a proper backing and... Done!

Here a great day came to an end. Lot's to talk about as we sat around the table discussing the experience and listening to the many stories Marinus and Charlotte were eager to share.

What a great day!! I wonder what’ll come next…?

Thank you once again Marinus and Charlotte. You did a great job and you’re fascinating people! Also a big thanks to the Pieter Brueghel Center who are cool enough to organize these sort of things!

See here for yourself: trios cent soixante-cinq

I hope you like it!! It’s still to be completely finished but it’s around for sure!

• When: November 20th 2011
• Time: 14:00 hr
• Duration: 2-3 hours
• Location: Jongerencentrum Camion, Hoenderstraat 2b, Margraten
• There’s a large parking lot at the scene

Anyway, enough of that mumbo jumbo talk. I promised I’d get back on that dark box that was in the making. Well, it’s ready and in use. Awesome thing about it: I can use it without the help of someone else. Downside: it’s a tad too small for the big plates (but it works so for now I’m good) and I’ll have to heighten the table somewhat more to get it on a more relaxed working height. But other than that….brilliant! Now, apart from the dragging part, I can do it all on my own. The dragging I’m also able to do on my own but an extra set of hands are always welcome!

On to the photos…

Darkbox Front - Closed

Darkbox Side - Closed

Darkbox Side - Half opened

Darkbox Side - Here you can see how the lid is being kept open by a chain which is attached to a small nail at the back of the box

Darkbox Front - Fully opened - Here you can see how the dark cloth is attached to the wooden pillars on the box to keep it open during working. You can see where the three pillars are placed on the photo above.

Darkbox - Outside in full working mode (beware lame photo qual of iPhone 3GS)

Darkbox - In full working mode. You can see the silver box etc standing inside (beware lame photo qual of iPhone 3GS)

I have put duct tape on the bottom inside the box to keep the wood protected from the spillage of fluids in there (which is bound to happen). The silver box is not sunken into the dark box, which I will adjust in the future as to create a bit more working space. I also forgot to make a hangup-system for the LED lights and I’m surely going to change that too. Leaving them on the bottom results in an unnecessary loss of light.

For more info on the dark cloth click here.

Anyway, love the box as I can work on my own now ❤

Ow, and for those wondering what the hell this bunny looks like..here is one photo of him. And then you will fully understand why he is so bloody distracting 🐰

Dino, the French Lop