Foire à la photo de Bièvres 2011 – Impressions
Friday
Last Friday we left for Bièvres. Geer-Jan, Paula and Jeroen were already at the hotel in Igny so we would meet later that day to have some dinner together. The latter actually being the main reason we went to Bièvres 
The drive went fine, we arrived at our hotel, unpacked some stuff and took off for Bièvres to look around but mostly to grab a glass of wine and enjoy the weather.
The famous square in Bièvres
After that we went back to the hotel, caught up with our friends and searched via the Michelin app on the iPhone which restaurant we would pick for the evening. St. Pierre in Longjumeau it would be. Since we all loved duck, on a plate, the choice was not hard and we had a great evening. After that we got “home” and prepared ourselves for Saturday, the first day of the fair, by going to bed fairly early.
Saturday
We got up early, mostly because the bed was crap, so left early for the fair. Of course, a good day starts with a good cup-a-joe!
Then the time came to check out the fair. I wasn’t really looking for anything special. If I’d find a pretty looking daguerreotype for not too much money I would’ve bought it (as you can tell from this I didn’t). I did buy a Polaroid SX-70. I already have a 600 camera but it sucks. It uses its flash all the time so I upgraded. Now just have to get some film to see if it really works…
Not looking for any lenses or cameras or whatever, I have what I want maybe for just a bigger wide angle but that seems not the place to look for one. Quite a bit of lenses were bought up by a small group of people so you’ll probably soon see them somewhere on the net for double or triple the price they were on the fair. And on the fair the prices genuinely were already through the roof. Hasselblads 500CM with an old silver 100mm for €1300,- just to give you an exorbitant example. Oh well…lucikly I didn’t feel like spending lots a money except on food so on to the good part
Oh..I said on to the good stuff…right…
Back at the hotel we stashed some drinks for later on that night. A wise person is prepared...for more!
And then…we left for the restaurant, the same we went last year as it was THAT good. Luckily Paula came along this time and we had the night of our, well, weekend!
The owner recognized us from last year so we were headed off to a great night! We chose from the “Menu Tradition” just like last year which also seemed quite like last year:
Petites Pièces de Canard (cou farci, magret seché, friton et grattons)*
Velouté Froid aux Asperges, Raviolis au Chèvre Frais
Terrine de Tomates au Basilic, Tartine au Beurre d’Anchois
*
Gigot de Canard mijoté aux Bolets et aux Girolles*
Confit de Canard aux deux Pommes
Magret de Canard aux Groseilles
Cassoulet aux Soissons Géants
Poisson suivant le Marché
*
Craquant Glacé Banane et Chocolat, Nougatine aux Amandes
Soupe de Melon, Fruits Rafraîchis, Siphon Cassis
Sorbets, Turbinés au moment*
Pruneaux à l’Armagnac
The dished with the little star behind them is what I ate. This year I did feel like duck
Same dish like last year (I could tell from my former post about Bièvres) but wonderful!
Again, the cheese in between the main and desert was simply fantastic! The magnificent Creme de Roquefort she had last year she didn’t have this time but if we were to come again she said we should call in advance to “order” it. Nice!
Again, all things came to an end and in the middle of a rising thunderstorm we headed back to the hotel. We installed ourselves downstairs with some wine and ended the night with a(nother) drink and a laugh.
Sunday
Yes, this day started a little slower than the others but it started alright. Again with the crappy breakfast at the hotel but Jeroen was kind enough to get up early to score some lovely chocolate goodies from the local bakery. Unfortunately Jeroen headed back home shortly after that because he had to go to work again Monday morning. Geert-Jan and Paula would leave later that day but first we went to the fair again. Today the collodion booth would be set up by Vincent, Basile and Fabrice.
Fabrice was on one end of the three booths, Vincent on the other and in the middle there was Jacques Cousin with some of his work (?). Across the booth the wonderful pieces of Matthias Olmeta were displayed.
Bart and I were asked to model and we ended up with cool plates of ourselves
John Brewer again made me this wonderful silver box, this time to fit plates of 10x10"
At around 4:30 we got tired and headed back to the hotel. We took a little nap after having made reservations at a Moroccan restaurant. This was really nice food! Different than the kitchens we are used to and that makes eating all the more fun. Thank god for our multi-cultural society: if all we had to eat was Dutch food we’d be utterly doomed!
We still had a bottle of wine left at the hotel so enjoyed us a quite lonely evening. Well quite..that was until the weather changed…
Knock knock..here we come...
Boom boom here we are!!
Truly awesome, I love thunder and lightning! It was like a light bulb in heaven had gone bad and was constantly flickering, remarkable and a beautiful end to a wonderful weekend.
I had actually in mind visiting Paris on Monday as there was an exhibition at the MEP I would’ve loved to see but it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays..darn..Collodion plates of Mark and Scully Osterman and Joni Sternbach were there as well as a large panoramic daguerreotype which is quite rare. Unfortunately that little plan didn’t happen we so we headed back home today. You can’t have it all
-The end-
Interview “de Limburger”
Last monday “de Limburger” called me after they received a press piece on the exhibition at the Bastaboot during the Kunsttour. They saw me mentioned exhibiting photos made with a process dating back from 1851 and got interested. The lady on the phone asked me if we could meet for an interview. I said..sure!
So, Wednesday we did. I talked about the process and my thoughts behind it and set everything up to actually show it to her as that would tell more than me just explaining everything. So she modelled for me and ended up that morning with a beautiful photo of hers.
And today the interview got published in the news paper! I’m very proud! There are a couple of things missing and incorrectly stated in the interview which I would like to rectify here. First of all; it’s not printed in Silver Sulphate and lavender. Silver Nitrate is used to sensitize the plate and the lavender is only used in the varnish. Secondly; the project of Alexander Simays has nothing to do with my fight against superficiality. It’s just a side step; you have to do something light sometimes.. Thirdly; the place where I exhibit during the Kunsttour is not mentioned. This is at the Bastaboot as can be seen in the post below. Anyway, that was it and I’m very happy with the interview. Now I am a BM-er
To be able to read the article better you can download it here: InterviewLimburger-1
Have a good read!
-Indra
“Mother” – World Wet Plate Day 2011
So, finally I came around to scanning my photo made on World Wet Plate Day last May the 1st. Considering all things that went wrong that day (working on assignment, lost screw of tripod which made it rather unstable so lots of unsharp stuff, wet plate slide didn’t slide properly, screwed up developing as it was too dark in my tent, forgot to put on lens cap before removing slide and so on and so on..) I’m quite pleased with the result.
"Mother"
If you’d like to see all entries for Wet Plate Day check out this site.
-Indra
Presentation of the Collodion Plates: Part 4
So, today I picked up the framed plate from the frame maker…wow…it is really beautiful!!! I’m not going to say much about it, just post some photos where I hope you can see what happened and how marvelous it looks! Forgive me, again I was too lazy to use a pola-filter..
Front View
Here you can hopefully see the layeredness in the presentation
The layerdness as well
And the last detailed shot
Let me know what you think of it but I hope you’ll like it!
Tomorrow I’ll hopefully finish the Barth-presentation and will post that as well. Looking forward to see the two presentations next to each other but this one rocks already for sure!
-Indra
Presentation of the Collodion Plates: Part 3
So, I did manage to find some time to and make the photos and publish them on here. This presentation is totally different than anything I’ve thought of before, only that my exam work has been finished this way too though with a different backing color.
I had a company cut 4 plates of black plexi-glass (perspex?) size 28 x 34 cm (the plates are 18 x 24 cm). I used u-shaped aluminum strips to attach the glass plate to the plexi-glass plate and used those same strips again on the back to attach it the wall. I placed the glass plates exactly in the middle of the perspex plate. Here are some images (don’t pay attention to the filth; didn’t have space to clean the plates today):
Overview; the plate on the right is not a Collodion plate but a poem printed on photo paper and glued onto a glass plate, mounted the same way as the real plates
Here you can see the aluminum strips that hold the two together
And here a bit of a close-up
I actually like this quite a lot AND it was not that expensive either Anyway, off to start packing for France!!
Be good!
-Indra
Update 8 June 2010:
As requested a photo of the front, how the viewer will see them:
Front of the presentation
Side note: the photo has been taken outside with the plate flat on the ground. The kind of stains you see are the reflections of clouds in the plate etc. I was too lazy to use a pola-filter so forgive me
-Indra
Presentation of the Collodion Plates: Part 2
So, considering recent events I decided to put money where my mouth is and went to a professional frame maker. What I had in mind was the following: The glass plate mounted with double-adhesive tape unto a backing board which is of the same material and color as the mat used on top. The mat used will be 1 centimeter bigger on all sides along the plate and the color is antique white or off-white. The outer size of the frame will be 40×50 cm. The frame I’d like to have in black and made of wood. On top of that I would like the plate to be deeper than the glass plate covering the image to create a sort of depth.
The person at the framing shop came up with a different idea namely: also a deeper frame so that you create a distance between the image and the glass plate protecting the work but working with a black mat. He felt the white mat would draw the attention away from the photo. He could be right about that. I decided it to be best if he chose the matching frame and mats for my photo as he has a better and different view on it than I have. It should be ready by the end of the week and I’m looking forward!!
Secondly I bought a wooden 40×50 frame from Barth and have off-white mats being made by the frame shop so I can make what I had in mind when I started this journey a couple of days ago. The possibilities are endless and this way I get to see 2 options which might help me further.
Wooden Frame Profile Barth No. 820
For the presentation of my exhibition with Vleugels & Teugels opening this Friday I created a different presentation as I was seriously lacking time. It looks good though and if I get the chance I’ll post some photos tomorrow….Bièvres is getting closer, also Friday, and I’m running out of time
-Indra
Contrastique’s New Website in the Air!!
I just have to show it off I’ve worked pretty long on the design and am very proud with the result. For the design I was inspired by wet plates as you will probably notice. Luckily I could find a person willing to turn the design into a proper functioning web page since I know nothing about website building. I might pick up a coarse on it but photography is already taking up so much time I’m not sure it would be a wise decision, at least not for now. Here’s the link to my new site:
Here’s a sneak preview:
Website FrontPage
If you have any comments or remarks on the working and functionality of the site please let me know! Publications is not working perfectly for everyone so far but it will be fixed soon.
-Indra
