Ansel Adams Collodion Workshop

I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching Wet Plate Collodion for the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite National Park. The workshop will be held April 10-12, 2009 and we will have three full days of the collodion experience. We will begin the workshop right in Ansel Adams' teaching darkroom where you will learn the basic procedures for mixing the chemicals and pouring, developing, fixing and varnishing plates in the comfort of a real darkroom. We will then venture into the field to make plates in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Additional details can be found here. There are already 3 people signed up and I think we're going to cut it off at 8 even though the website says 10.

I was in Yosemite recently for the opening reception for a (there was a url link here which no longer exists) at the Ansel Adams Gallery. I had a great day shooting plates around the valley out of my wet plate truck/camper. Here are a few from the day:

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Kerik, I just got back from Yosemite last night. I was shooting 8x10, 11x14 and 8x20 and saw only one other LF shooter the whole time.
All of the work you have hung at the gallery is stunning! The 14x17 wet plate work has such "presence". You are a true master of this process. I encourage anyone interested in this process to sign up. I may one day build my own 14x17 Walnut wet plate camera after seeing this work. I am learning carbon transfer at the moment and if I was not into this process I would check wet plate out.

Kerik, I noticed that some of your images seemed to be floating off of the mounting and this looked very impressive to my eye. How is this done and what is the process called? Thanks.

Jim

Thanks for the kind words, Jim. For my original plates (ie not the prints), I mount a piece of 2-ply matboard to the back of the plate a litte smaller than the plate itself. I then mount this to the backing matboard. I then overmat with 8-ply. It does give a pretty cool floaty effect, but I don't know if there is an official name for it.

Kerik, the plates look great mounted this way. This is the first time I've seen your work and I was blown away! Like I said if I wasn't learning carbon transfer I might just build an 14x17 wet plate camera after seeing your work. Good luck on the show and workshop.

Jim

Great work, Kerik! I do wish I could attend your workshop. It would be a great skill to know...and the idea of hand making all the materials from negatives to prints (carbon prints in my case) sounds very interesting.

Perhaps our paths will cross in the Valley, as I will be giving a workshop there starting the 14th. Between your collodion and my black jello, we'll make a bit of a mess of Ansel's old darkroom! Best of luck with your workshop!

Vaughn