Enci Maastricht on Collodion
Yesterday finally was a day where I had the time to go out with my collodion stuff again! Had to wait til after three as the weather was a bit unstable. “Buienradar” is a wonderful site to keep track of these nasty rainy moments. Gave a green light after 3 and came out right!
Brought too little water with me, just 5 liters, normally at least 10, but it had to do. Shot 4×10″ plates and used up quite a bit to pinpoint exposure. There was a lot of UV, times when stopped down to at least f22, where 1 a 2 seconds which is very little. Today I fiddled a bit around with them, removing a little veil with a cotton ball and varnished them old-shool to give them that little extra weight. They came out just fine! Looking forward to the next shoot, hopefully this Sunday!
Anyway, I’m one happy goose so good night y’all! 
-Indra
KunstTour 2011 – Impressions
So , here they are at last! In short; it was a fantastic weekend. In long; please read on 
Friday we set everything up. I was able to use pretty much all the space I wanted which was great. No room for hanging the work which was great too; saved a lot of work and hassle. We laid everything out on tables and saved one table in the middle to display the camera, a book with guiding information, prices and a guest book. At first we covered the tables with a green cloth which later that day got removed by Franz Rothenburg, one of the organizers, as you can see on first photos. Luckily he decided to remove them and spread the layout a little although I was a bit afraid when he mentioned having done so the night before opening.
The way things were with the green cloth
Close up of the presentation. This image actually sold that weekend!
The way things became - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
The boat was situated at the wharf of the Landbouwbelang which, unfortunately, wasn’t clear enough for everybody as some ended up missing the boat. Great location though, not many people know this place but it’s a beautiful spot in Maastricht. Calm but raw, showing the industrial part of Maastricht in its “gone-by” glory.
The weather proved to be an excellent companion this weekend. The sky remained blue and the sun hot and burning most of the time. Also good companions were on the boat as in the other artists. Katrien Haemers showed her paintings which were quite fascinating! The work of Astrid Verkoijen also appealed to me. Her colorful work used in her furniture looked really great. Jimmy Dee played guitar on board and sang as well. He also performed on a didgeridoo which was cool!
He also gathered quite the bit of attention.
Another musical artist who performed on Sunday with Coen van Dam was Nico Zwackhalen with his bluesy voice. I met Coen before while there were still those famous jazz-monday-evenings at the Tramhalte in Maastricht. He rocked the piano there and I loved his playing from the start. Great to have met him on the boat listening to his music again. Downstairs at the boat “Viola di Gamba” gave a performance too.
Nico Zwackhalen - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Coen swinging the hell out of his piano, the rest enjoying the hell out of it
Coretta Dekker treated us with a comical performance which was really funny. Unfortunately she found it to be not good enough so she canceled her performance for Sunday. Too bad; would have loved to see it again
Coretta as 'Angelle"
Let’s not forget the wonderful poet of the house “Krokus” with his sharp words. A true addition to the boat with a remarkable feel for expression.
Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Youri Penders showed us the wonderful process of the printing press late 1800′s. Really cool as my camera is from somewhere around that very same time! He explained the process with quite the bit of passion and engagement which made it all the more fun.
Youri and his printing press
And me...enjoying the sun and stuff
Of course, let us not forget about the people who made this all worthwhile: the guests!
Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
The crowd out on the deck - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Some unexpected performers - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Also, let us thank the weather for being so incredibly kind!!
Of course, a special thanks goes to the Basta family, Suzanne Stohr and Resi Claessens, the owner of this boat (which is available for rent).
As you can see a totally different KunstTour than last year and that made it all the more fun! Hope to see you (again) next year.
Indra
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
Bastaboot vaart uit tijdens de KunstTour
BASTABOOT VAART UIT TIJDENS KUNSTTOUR 2011
Het culturele anker BASTA Maastricht beziet alles van de zonnige kant.
Het blikveld wordt tijdens de Kunsttour 2011 wederom verlegd naar de
Maas. We zien graag het culturele licht schijnen in alleman water.
Vandaar dat we op Zaterdag 28 en Zondag 29 Mei om 12.00 en 15.00 uur
gaan cruisen en de opvarenden een verrassend programma bieden tussen
de veilige havens ‘Het Landbouwbelang en AINSI’.
Omdat we ons nooit laten insnoeren en voorschrijven waar we aan moeten
voldoen, kiezen we voor een eigenzinnig programma dat nog lang van zich
zal doen laten spreken, ook als de kruitdampen reeds lang zijn opgetrokken.
En zoals de traditie voorschrijft is onze huisdichter Krokus de rode draad in
het programma. Ook de Duitse klankarchitect ‘Der Nitszche‘ zal de Maas
vervoeren met zijn magisch gitaarspel.
Verder zijn er exposities van kunstenaars, muziek en theater die het programma
compleet maken.
Astrid Verkoijen, met Vormgeving
Coen van Dam, met piano
Coretta Dekker, met theater
GambaConsort Maastricht: Anneke Pasman – diskantgamba, Hildegard Moonen – altgamba, Bert Pasman – basgamba
Indra Moonen, fototentoonstelling (foto’s zijn gemaakt met een techniek van ±160 jaar geleden)
Jimmy Dee, met zang, gitaar en veel meer
Katrien Haemers, met haar schilderijen
Nico Zwackhalen, met zang
Ronald van Laar, met beelden
Youri Penders, met boekdruk kunst
Kortom, laat u verrassen en overrompelen. En ook niet onbelangrijk te vermelden:
De toegang is gratis. Er kunnen weliswaar 100 mensen mee op de boot maar
vanwege de enorme belangstelling is het aan te raden tijdig te reserveren.
Opstapplaats: Biesenwal/Wilhelminakade 28 en 29 Mei om 12.00 en 15.00 uur.
p.s. De boot heet “the Dream”
Reserveren bij:
Suzanne Stohr
suzannestohr@suzannestohr.nl
+31 6 290 55 232
Workshop with Jacques
Yesterday I gave a Collodion workshop to Jacques who had contacted me a couple of weeks ago. It was a great day with an enthusiastic participant. He worked very clean and ended up with very beautiful plates of himself! The weather allowed us to work outside which was great. There’s nothing wrong with sniffing a bit of sun in between the ether
Everything set up, ready for action!
Putting the plate in the silver bath
Jacques varnishing his plate
First plate; over-exposed
Thank you Jacques for a wonderful day and for sharing the photos with me. The plates were photographed outside hence the reflections you see in them. Not that many photos were made, we were just too busy working the collodion process which is more fun anyway
-Indra
KunstTour 2011 – May 27 – 29
Ladies and gentlemen…it’s almost time for the KunstTour again! This year it will be held from the 27th til the 29th of May all throughout Maastricht. For more information visit their website, join their Facebook or follow them on Twitter
The site says I’ll be located at the Frankenstraat 148 but that has changed. Me and my work will be on board of the Bastaboot where at the same time the interview with me for Basta will be presented. So…join us there. I think it’s gonna be fun! The boat is situated behind Landbouwbelang. Visit their website for more on that.
Till then!
“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
Alexander Simays Project – Part 2
Last Sunday I finally had the time to actually start with photographing Alexanders locations. I decided to start at the “Markt” in Maastricht. There were three spots there I had to be so I’d be able to hit multiple flies at once. It took about two hours to pack everything and load the bike (it’s been awhile and my new camera is bigger than the former one so had to relocate some things) but finally we were ready to get it off
Bike with the "Big Boy" and all the stuff
We arrived at the square and started building up the darkroom tent and someone who we knew came up as she knew we were planning this and she wanted to see it. I made test plate, decided I had to double the exposure and went for a “real” version on 18×24 black glass. While working people gathered around the tent as they got curious (who wouldn’t) and by the time the successful plate was made I had people from “Handhaving” which means something like never-got-around-to-be-a-real-Cop-kind-of-people and they asked me if I had a license to do this. I go like what? A licence to make photos? But since I was using “public space” (mind the word public) I needed a license to put up a tent on the square.
The All-Evil-In-Public-Space-Darkroom-Tent
Bart asked their names and we complied to packing up our stuff and leave (damnnn). Luckily I had already made one good shot so I wasn’t all that upset but for a 2-hour preparation I had hoped for a little more. Unfortunately these guys were very hard set and unfriendly on top of that so we figured it’d be better not to be too stubborn as I have to be there more than once. So we started packing. They left and 5 minutes later their boss came around to check. He was much nicer and if we’d met him first good chance we could’ve continued working. Oh well…He advised us to contact the municipality to get a license for doing what I wanted. So I did today, unfortunately the person we needed wasn’t around. To be continued….
Markt Maastricht @ Wet Plate Collodion BGA 18x24 cm
Anyway, this story will continue and hopefully with more prosper than up until now…I have my hopes up
-Indra
Alexander Simays Part 1
Some time ago a friend of mine, Angelina Valleau, pointed me towards photos of Alexander Simays. He documented Maastricht a long time ago, between 1912 and 1940. Lots of the places he photographed no longer exist the way they do now. Angelina mentioned the photos having been made using the wet plate collodion process. That of course raised my interest. However, after having seen his images I wasn’t convinced they were made using collodion but rather on dry plates as that was the way to go from around the 1880′s. Much less of a hassle.
Alexander Simays - Self Portrait August 1933
Having said that I went on with my life and came up with the idea, after having totally forgotten about Mr. Simays work, to photograph Maastricht in Collodion. Not so much because of the now but with the idea of it becoming really interesting in 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years from now. Maastricht is still changing pretty rapidly and I think it’s awesome to look back in a few years to be remembered of what has changed exactly. Memories tend to let down when aging. When I told a friend my idea and that there was a photographer from approx. 100 years ago who did the same he was like..why don’t you photograph the exact same locations he did? Still can’t believe I didn’t come up with that myself
So, I bought the book “Maastrichtse Monumentenzorg in ZwartWit” written by Ingrid M.H. Evers and published by Stichting Historische Reeks Maastricht. This book documents the changes in the policy of Maastricht regarding monumental care between the 1850′s and 1900′s. guided by the commissioned work of Alexander Simays, photographs of Maastricht (monuments) between 1912 and 1940.
Maastrichtse Monumentenzorg in ZwartWit - ISBN: 90 5842 007 8
Today I received the book and was so excited to see that all the information on date and locations was carefully logged by Alexander Simays. This will most obviously come in handy when trying to nail those exact spots.
Needless to say I’m extremely looking forward to starting with this project although “finishing” will take up quite a bit of time. I mentioned wanting to make this series on 4×10″ but after having seen his photographs 8×10″ will be the size to go as it will resemble the original proportions better. 4×10″ will be used for “my own” images.
-Indra
P.S. permission asked and granted to use the self portrait of Alexander Simays.
Moody Nature
We didn’t celebrate Carnaval this year. Didn’t feel like standing between drunk people, listening to crappy music and drinking lame beer. Instead we took each other out for a walk. The weather was beautiful and when I saw a color 120 film laying in my fridge I decided to play funky. I think my Hasselblad saw his first color film. Unfortunately I forgot I loaned my light meter to my dad so the Canon S95 had to do the job. It worked.
One photo of the roll of film stood out and found it handsome enough to post it here. The film was a Kodak 160VC. I still have to develop the black-and-whites.
And now off to my basement…have to make some varnish (yummy yummy) and see if my 18x24cm plates fit my freshly made inlay as one didn’t last time..and I need them tomorrow…
Have a great night!
-Indra
First 4×10″ Plate
Yesterday I had someone coming over for a wet plate collodion demo and that forced me to test my two batches of Collodion, old and new, with the lighting setup from FalconEyes I bought not too long ago. With my old collodion (approx. 1 year old) I couldn’t get an image to form on the plate with 1 minute of exposure. I bought the lights to shorten my exposure time. With the new batch I had an image within 30 seconds. Still have to try it with human skin to see if it’s even shorter (I used a glass head this time) but didn’t have the time yesterday.
The girl came over and I used her for some plates which I made outside because the weather was terrific. With the new batch I had a lot of stripes and stains. When trying the old batch the stains were gone but had trouble pinpointing the exposure as it’s a lot less light sensitive than the new one. The stripes could be caused because the batch came fresh out of the fridge and hadn’t had much time to reach room temperature. I’ll have to look into that because I will need it to work soon (demo SASK St. Niklaas). You can see the stripes in the 4×10″ plate but I like it anyway. Since it’s my first 4×10″ I’m going to keep it!
4x10" Black Glass Ambrotype
I look forward to the series I’ll start making of Maastricht soon on this size. It’s a fun size to work with and to look at. These series will moreover be awesome in 10 to 20 years from now as Maastricht is changing so rapidly.
Have a great day y’all!
-Indra
P.s. my “new” camera works like a charm
Emotional Film Part 2: Selenium Toned
It took me a while but I now that the holidays, birthdays and the likes (or dislikes) are over I finally have time to spend in my lovely darkroom. This part I spent toning already printed images. I’ll post the results of the first series here (see former post for more details on them).
Toner used is Kodak Selenium dilution 1+4 for about 2 minutes. With this Rollei 131 paper the toning happens very rapidly and the color was even more evident while wet. The images also became a lot more powerful, not only because the blacks became a tad blacker but it also seemed to affect the highlights as if these parts got a bit lighter. I’m not completely happy with these images qua color (a tad too warm for my taste), but also when looking at the images themselves. I think this will be the last time I’ve printed them anyway.
I toned Ilfords MGW.1K paper before and there it was very easy producing split toned images by diluting very moderately and leaving them relatively short in the bath. With this Rollei paper I have yet to find a proper manner to get them split toned without having Selenium followed by another toner such as Gold for example (which I have also ordered). They just seem to absorb the color like mad!
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
Anyway, I like them a whole lot better than the untoned versions but the color is a but too warm with this subject.
Vleugels & Teugels Maastricht
Around April I got contacted by Marij Vullinghs via an email asking me if I was interested in something, some form of collaboration, which would be explained some time later on. This very much amused me and when I got a second response giving some more clarity I knew this was gonna be great. She said she contacted 2 other photographers in Maastricht, Bert Janssen & Branco Rooijakkers, and wanted to meet so she could explain in words what their plans and intentions were. And so we did.
The 21st of April we met at her house with her partner René Huigen. She runs a consulting group in Maastricht where the goal in rough lines is to act as a catalyst or better: midwife towards “sustainable development” of people and organisations realising durable change. Bringing potential, experience and wisdom of people to work in working together. Starting up Vleugels & Teugels at the Rechtstraat 90 in Maastricht is meant to create an actual physical space where people can meet, see, feel, share green, sustainable, earth loving things.
The reason we came into play was that on the basis of their story we were asked to make photos and present them at the opening of that physical space in the Rechtstraat. To all of us that sounded like a great idea and off we went with our ideas to make them into something tangible.
When thinking about their concept (sorry for that word, Marij ) the thing that kept popping into my mind was trees. It’s green but with a foundation, it stands for growth and the natural sequence of events, it lives and gives life. I think you catch my drift. So trees it came to be.
I also thought of a poem inspired by music and words of Max Richter which I presented alongside my photos:
Here’s the promo film of Vleugels & Teugels made by Ted Daamen (it’s only in Dutch..sorry :
Vleugels & Teugels at the Rechtstraat is a place where items are sold that are made of recycled materials, books about recycling or about anything sustainable for that matter, it’s a place where you can have a cup of coffee, talk about whatever feels connected with their concept, find inspiring things, see and buy art and lot’s more. It’s very inspiring and I hope they will pull this of in a world in need of these initiatives.
Read their interview with the Limburger here.
And feel free to visit this place; it’s quite wonderful. Here’s the address:
Vleugels & Teugels
Rechtstraat 90
6221 EL Maastricht
P.s. there will be a “finissage” for the photographic works showed there. To be announced shortly.
Wet Plate Exhibition & Demo KunstTour Maastricht
May is filled with good things and here’s the thing I’m currently working on: a Wet Plate Collodion exhibition at the Timmerfabriek Maastricht during the KunstTour / Art Tour 2010 starting at the 22nd til the 24th of May.
On top of that I will be giving my first demonstration in public of the wet plate process on Sunday the 23th starting at 1 o’clock. I’m thrilled to be able to do so (keep fingers crossed for the weather ) and looking forward to it immensely! I hope to see you there!!
First Collodion Shoot Outside
The portable darkroom is not finished yet but I wanted to try and make some plates outside anyway. So, not too far away from home, a street further somewhat, I set up the camera leaving my boyfriend to keep an eye on it while I poured the plate in the darkroom at home etc etc. Figuring out exposure time..hmm..more tricky than I anticipated. I thought winter, less UV, let’s start out with 25 seconds, remembering that the first plate I made of my little brother outside got 15 seconds and was way underexposed. So, after the exposure ran back home, poured the developer, within 3 seconds I got an image and woefff, gone it was again. Shoit, that must be way overexposed.
So, again. 15 seconds next exposure time. Got back home, poured developer, 7 seconds got an image and gone it was again…arrgg. Overexposed again.
So, again, 8 seconds exposure time. Got back home, poured developer, 9 seconds got an image and gone it was again….aaarrrggghhhh, (this would have been the third session in a row filled with failure, I mean, learning issues of course and I felt a bit down). Okay, another one.
While pouring the Collodion I realized I forgot to take of the cap of the drain bottle, made a strange movement and flipped over the bottle with Collodion which was opened…arrgghghhh! So, my mood was going down drastically. Anyway, tried that plate right outside our house, made a portrait of Bart to see if my next time would be more close to perfect. 4 seconds completely stopped down the lens to f14. Great! That worked! A little on the bright side but that got my hopes up again.
So, set up the system again at that special corner of the street, exposed the plate for 2 seconds f14, ran home to develop and…Voilà! A wonderful plate came up to the surface!
What did I learn:
Not to give up easily, not to loose my temper too early (that’ll take a lifetime for me to figure out how to do that exactly ), keep in mind the bellows extension of which there was hardly any due to the subject being much further away than in my studio and being outside in the snow with lots of sun and a bit of clouds which reflects the UV pretty good = shorter times. My Collodion is probably pretty sensitive as well as I really did not expect it to be this fast.
All in all, a great day with some nice lessons to learn! Here is the result:
First Outside Plate 18x24 cm BGA 2 seconds f14
One more cool thing: Old lenses are not coated, I had the sun shining in my lens a bit and you can see that in the upper house part, the flare.
P.s. The sidewalk in the lower right corner contains much more detail when looking at the plate. Scanning and keeping that detail was pretty much impossible.
Taking Collodion Out in the Wild: Part 2
A little sooner than I anticipated at first but the first part of the equipment has been arranged, or at least ordered. At first the bike. Really necessary as my, now former one, was too rusty and flaky to be trusted. Now I have 21 gears, front and back suspension and whatever else I’ve never ever had on a bike before like guards and proper light and stuff haha! Here it is:
Koga Roadrunner Lady-C
Also, I have ordered the bicycle trailer I need to transport my stuff to where I need it to be. The store where I bought the bike turned out to be the importer of the brand Roland. I decided to go for that too since we were already there. It can carry up to 90 kilo! This is what it’ll look like.
Roland Big Boy
And I have also ordered the fixer box. I wanted a closed one for the KCN and BlackArt Woodcraft makes some really gorgeous ones. It should be ready and delivered in March..can’t wait for that!!
BlackArt Woodcraft Walnut Fixer Box for 8x10 plates
All I still need are the tent, a table and I guess that’s about it then!
Taking Collodion Out in the Wild: Part 1
This summer, maybe even sooner depending on how fast I’m able to fix this, I wish to take the process outside. I’d love to make landscapes with this. Not only will I have to take my camera outside but also the entire darkroom and that’s the fun part. So, currently I’m slowly going through all the options of a portable darkroom/camera/working solution that I can actually carry and set up on my own.
A van would be the most convenient. Also the most expensive per month here with the taxes etc etc. So, no go. I want to attach it to my bike so I can go places. There are blue prints of wooden darkboxes but they’re kind of heavy and lug for the size of plates I’m working with. Of all options one that seems suitable to me is a tent. It’s actually a portable “grow tent” for weed. Here’s one advantage to living in the Netherlands It’s perfect light tight, has ventilation holes, is very sturdy made (depending on brand of course) and is easy to set up and take apart. I think even I can do that. And you can get in and out very easily via a sort of zipped door. Oh, and the price is very reasonable too! They’re around 120 – 150 euros per tent and their size will be around 120 x 120 x 200 cm.
Secret Jardin DarkRoom
So, I hope in a not too long a period I will have gotten myself such a tent, a table and some common sense to start manufacturing what I need from it. I’ll need to make some holes in it which I then cover with a red plastic to let in the non-harmful light. I’ll have to find a perfect sized table and a way to keep the tent stable when wind wooshes around it. That happens in these lands. If the tent is too big, i.e. catches too much wind, I’ll simply use half of it which I’ll stick to the table in a way. I’ll make it work!
Next issue is the fixer. I now use Sodium Thiosulfate. Nice fixer, works very well but the plates need a whole lot of water; half an hour of running water. Well, nature just doesn’t have that everywhere. And keeping the plates wet for hours is not such a smart idea and letting them dry to rinse them properly at home isn’t either. So, that kind of forces me to use a different fixer; Potassium Cyanide. That needs hardly any washing time, the fixing process is very fast, it’s just that it’s very poisonous. I can make it work, just have to take extra precautions etc etc like ordering a special fixing box as I now use for my silver bath.
Anyway, that’s how it stands now and I hope the process will work out just fine!
