Work in Progress

24hours of manual shutter time lapse, hands freezing, Mr. de Vere and I, take shifts working the Standard 8 camera on the Dungeoness coast in cold December.

Pointing the giant camera at the sky, waiting for clouds, to make a collodion negative.

Brighton Photo Fringe

Mr. de Vere and I took the Darkvan to Brighton sea front for part of the Brighton photo-fringe, we had a good but very chilly weekend, making a number of plates. and screening super8 movies to confused passers by from the van!

The fringe was an interesting experience, demonstrating and meeting a multitude of interesting characters, including Shamas Ryan, a polaroid 20x24" photographer.

Max Anderson, a local photographer made a small documentary series of pictures of the Darkvan.

End of the Road Music Festival

Mr. de Vere and myself put together a proposal for going to the End of the Road music festival. the Festival has a wide selection of music, and the sort of music i enjoy, with good bands and Artists. I made 15 plates that weekend with a process i still did not fully understand or appreciate its little nuances, each plate was floored, at first i was dis-heartened, but their reaction to the process and the idea of their image captured seemed to strike a chord within them. Each plate was not floored, it was filled, thanks be to Mr. de Vere.

I made an image of the helpers and organizers of the festival, but most memorable will be Justin Bon Iver, the last image as the sun went down.

Thank you Luke Hopper for the pictures.

and Gareth Jasper for all his help.

The First Success

The First Plate to hold an image, was quite unreal, a very strange feeling, a little like a polaroid sense of elation combined with the feeling of you first darkroom print.

Had just got back from the Royal photographic Society to hear a talk from a blind large format photographer. The Van decided to break down, and boiling water was released from the radiator, a little disappointing on the maiden voyage, but none the less decided to set camp in the van attempt the first plate, which as you can see from earlier, was interesting!

After the Failure occurred, Decided to travel directly to Sean Mackenna's  home in north London. After just having repaired a broken water pump and three days of concerned looking campsite dwellers! 

A slight alteration in the collodion and a new batch of salts and the camera reared its weary head from the dark. thank you Sean

The First Attempts

 The first attempt at Wet Collodion wasn't so great, yet produced, when photographed something quite ethereal and with presence, it offers only the surface of the plate, and not the photograph, but with all the intention of an image, why should it after all, if the photograph, in its true form is a very poor form of evidence.

The First

I have a little bit of catching up to do as i seem to have spent a number of years in a workshop or a darkroom, potentially and mostly all of the time for the past seven years.

This last year has been eventful, I have managed fit out an old transit van capable of sleeping two, with a fully working darkroom in the back for using a camera built during one of my workshop black outs.

The camera was built as a performance piece, to consider the way people engage with an object outside of the conformity of what is considered a camera.

The camera took a twist and is now using Wet Collodion, an old process invented and finalised by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851.

this is the beginning of something new i hope. I shall be adding more to this soon