Patrick Richardson Wright- Daclotype Video
Patrick Wright makes still photographs and video. He shot a video a couple of years ago featuring the wet plate process that I have been working with since late 2009. My life has changed drastically in the past few years since the original video. I have become a citizen of these United States of America, now call myself a photographer, became father to a beautiful baby boy, and recently purchased a house that turned into an almost complete remodel. Eesh….
I have slowly been trying to transition from shooting portraits with collodion to shooting mostly daguerreotypes. I prefer the shiny, jewel-like, almost holographic quality that can be achieved. Over about a year, my persistence with the process has led to to decent results. Early on, results were less than satisfactory and light years behind the 19th century daguerreotypes to keep me humble.
Last month, Patrick approached me to make another video so he set up Miranda Lilley to sit for the photograph and Naomi Rincon to do hair and Makeup. It took about 6 hours to get the footage and another evening of Patrick asking me questions and getting the audio. I am always more comfortable just working and keeping my mouth shut but the questions Patrick asked me really made stop and think about why I make daguerreotypes. The easy answer is the simple challenge of it all but as it turns out, I like the idea of my art outliving and thriving long after I am gone.
Thanks Patrick for all your hard work and the many hours you invested in the making of this awesome video and for making me stop and think about what I am doing!
Dan Carrillo: Daclotype from Patrick Richardson Wright on Vimeo.
One commentPatrick Wright makes still photographs and video. He shot a video early featuring the wet plate process that I have been working with since late 2009. My life has changed drastically in the past few years since the original video. I have become a citizen of these United States of America, I now call myself a photographer, I became father to a beautiful baby boy, and recently purchased a house that turned into an almost complete remodel. Eesh….
I have slowly been trying to transition from shooting portraits with collodion to shooting mostly daguerreotypes. I prefer the shiny, jewel-like, almost holographic quality that can be achieved. Over a year, my persistence with the process has led to to decent results. Early on, results were less than satisfactory and light years behind the 19th century daguerreotypes to keep me humble.
Last month, Patrick approached me to make another video so he set up Miranda Lilley to sit for the photograph and Naomi Rincon to do hair and Makeup. It took about 6 hours to get the footage and another evening of Patrick asking me questions and getting the audio. I am always more comfortable just working and keeping my mouth shut but the questions Patrick asked me really made stop and think about why I make daguerreotypes. The easy answer is the simple challenge of it all but as it turns out, I like the idea of my art outliving and thriving long after I am gone.
Thanks Patrick for all your hard work and the many hours you invested in the making of this awesome video and for making me stop and think about what I am doing!
No CommentsWhole Plate
It has been some time since the last posting. Things have been very busy and very good. This year will go down as my best year so far. My son was born, I became a citizen, had my first really big solo show, and will be closing on a new house by mid december. Progress with the daguerreotypes has been steady but a bit slow for me. The process does not like to be rushed and requires a very strict and meticulous ritual to get the plates to cooperate.
Since deciding to galvanize ALL plates from now on, there has been another treacherous step to the final product and it has been very frustrating. After much trial and error and fussing, I think I see a bit of light at the end the tunnel. To date I have only done immersion galvanization with a concentrated hypo solution with silver chloride dissolved into it. The cyanide solution requires a rectifier but for now and so far the hypo solution seems to be giving me stronger more defined images. Issues in the beginning were tiny flecks of crap that smeared with buffing and the trial and error with the amount and thickness of the additional silver.
For the shot of the Deardorff looking at dags, there were a few attempts on different days. The last attempt revealed the amount of galvanization and the amount of buffing to get good results with no smeared flecks. The one issue last night was small black spots but those are usually attributed to the lamp black or unfiltered gold chloride. I think I got a pretty damn good plate and I hope it gets into the 2013 Image Object exhibit at the Center for Alternative Photography, NYC.
I scanned the plate with the cover glass on it so it has some strange banding on the right side and I didn’t bother to remove the dust digitally. There is no way a scan will ever come close seeing a daguerreotype in person
whole plate daguerreotype
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Greg Kucera Show
I will be exhibiting at the Greg Kucera Gallery with my studiomate Dan Webb who makes masterful wood sculptures. The show will feature many of the artist series ambrotypes, some daguerreotypes and even my 11 x 14 Camera will be on display. The show opens on first Thursday September 6th from 6-8pm. I will also have an artist talk the Saturday after the opening on the 8th of September at noon. Dan Webb will be speaking first so I will probably start around 1pm.
DANIEL CARRILLO
Ambrotypes
August 23 – September 29, 2012
Opening reception: Thursday, September 6, 6-8pm
“Saturday after” artist talk: September 8 at noon
No CommentsClaude Zervas Dag
Whole plates are tricky to sensitize so it will take some more work to get the fuming right and the exposures faster- Shot with the dallmeyer 3A 16 inch at f4 for 1 minute!
This plate was almost depleted of silver and the copper was starting to show through. This would be the last image on this plate ever so I went ahead and gilded it and as expected, it didn’t go well.
No CommentsSalvador Maxwell Carrillo Whole plate
Finally got around to making my first whole plate daguerreotype and I thought it would be amazing to have a image of my 7 week old son. It took about 4 hours to get this shot and I had to shoot during one of his naps. I have yet to nail down the perfect iodine/bromine mix yet but I managed to get the exposure down to one minute. I am also still developing my buffing technique but on this occasion only the random orbital was used.
This was shot using the Dallmeyer 3A , 1minute exposure using 1 450watt cfl with a softbox and a mole richardson solar spot.
Iodine at 7 minutes to sepia/rose color, bromine at 2 minutes and then back over the iodine for 4 minutes. My boxes do not fume a whole plate very well and there was a definite hotspot over the first iodine but is not that obvious in the final image. This was scanned using the insert for the mercury pot to leave an airspace on the scanner bed. Looks like the glass was not very clean
One commentFirst Iodine and Bromine Daguerreotype
With bromine in the mix now, I couldn’t wait to make daguerreotype. I buffed out a test 1/4 plate and proceeded to fume over iodine to just beyond the first yellow and into a sepia/rose- it took about 2 minutes in a 63 degree ambient temperature. The was put over the bromine masked off into quadrants and fumed for 40seconds each. After the bromine the plate was again fumed over the iodine for 2/3 the time of the first iodine- about 90 seconds. The first exposure was for one minute at f3.5 using a 150mm lens and metered for ASA 100 and reduced it by 8 stops. The plate was developed for 168 degrees for 5 minutes. what I got was a faint image at the quadrant that received the least amount of bromine at 40 seconds——–shit!——–There is a fine line for bromine, too little or too much will decrease sensitivity. It seems the silica in the fume box is a bit strong.
Another plate was buffed. Right as I was almost done hand buffing the plate fell of the stand and landed face down onto the concrete——-shit again!——I dusted it off and hand buffed it a bit more. At 35-40 bucks per 1/4 plate there was no way that I was going to let a few scratches and dents keep me from using that plate. The plate was iodized same as the first and then I guessed how much bromine to give considering the results from the first plate. I gave it 20 seconds of bromine and then the plate got the second iodine.
The exposure was a little different for the second plate. I went ahead and gave the plate 11 stops instead of the 8 to compensate for the dark reddish color of the subject. 90 seconds was the exposure and after a 5 minute development the plate looked about 1.5-2 stops over exposed. It was not too bad a guess with the bromine and I got some really nice details in the shadow areas and in the wood grain. The highlight areas were a bit blown out but not too shabby for the first decent image ever using bromine, I went ahead with the gilding. I need some practice gilding as I think I got the plate too hot and it resulted in a weird brown spot and uneven marks on the plate. Aside for the dents and scratches, the bad gilding, and dust, I was very happy and took the plate home as a kind of milestone. The image is of my big baby 11 x 14 Deardorff “Daisy” on a century master studio stand with a Dallmeyer 3A.
One commentCharging silica with bromine
I tried to give the bromine as much respect as possible and had two ways of dealing with an accidental spill. I had a 500ml beaker filled with ammonia to neutralize as much of the bromine vapor as possible and I also had a 16 ounce container full of calcium hydroxide ready for any spills inside and outside the inside the fume hood. The operation was all done inside a stainless steel fume hood and the charging was done inside a gallon glass jar with a lid. Since bromine vapor is heavier than air minimal amounts of vapor were lost. First, about 5mls was poured into a small erlenmeyer flask and then transfered into a very shallow pyrex dish to allow the vapor charge the silica gel with the bromine vapor.
The fully charged silica resembles salmon eggs
About 1/4 cup is was mixed with about 500grams of silica to make a working strength silica inside the fuming box. As you can see in the picture the working strength silica is very yellow/orange in color
