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A collection of daguerreotype portrait photographs showcasing renowned Arctic explorers captured shortly before the tragic Franklin expedition will be auctioned in London next month.
The intriguing images feature Captain Francis Crozier and thirteen other esteemed senior officers before they embarked on their fateful voyage to explore the Arctic. The Beard Studio took the images on board the HMS Erebus in May of 1845 at the request of Lady Jane Franklin.
In today’s post, I’ll use photography to make memories of the cherry tree that I grew up with since I was a little boy.
Many years ago I renovated the house of my grandma and with that also came a big garden full of trees. Every year, I am lucky to harvest fresh raspberries, apples, pears, cherries and many other fruits. It’s so wonderful to wake up in the morning and get yourself some fresh breakfast from the garden.
At a glance, this image looks like an old photograph of five somewhat bored children posing for a family photo. And indeed, it is. However, it hides a certain macabre secret: the smallest child on the far left is actually dead and is propped up on a stand.
To our modern standards, this seems rather creepy, but in the Victorian era, these ‘death portraits,’ as they became known, were very common. It offers a fascinating glimpse into what life may have been like for the early jobbing photographer of the Victorian period.
Lomography’s Art Lens series has grown with the addition of the Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 lens in both Onyx Black and Silver Graphite finishes. The lens was first launched by Lomography back in 2016 via Kickstarter and now it’s a regular fixture in the lineup for a price of just $299. It’s their take on the historic lens that came at the creation of practical photography in 1938 with the combination of the Chevalier Achromat Lens attached to a Daguerreotype camera.
The lens is said to have a “series of beautiful aberrations” that “bathed images in an alluring veil of light” creating glazy, soft images at wide apertures. Lomography’s original release of this lens helped to revive the lost aesthetic. At a focal length of 64mm, the lens goes from silky soft-focus images wide open at f/2.9 to razor-sharp from f/5.6 onwards.
Corrine at Corrine West Photography booked a wet plate workshop with me before the pandemic started. Two years later we were finally able to do it. The main subject was to get comfortable with the wet collodion process and to create images similar to the ones of spirit photographer William H. Mumler. Mr. Mumler created images (probably double exposures) where his clients could take a picture with their deceased relatives.
The photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the “ghost” of her husband (Abraham Lincoln) was his most famous one. Corrine found my double exposure wet plates and that was the reason she contacted me in the first place. About two months before the workshop Corrine surprised me with a question: “Can we build a wet plate camera together?”. I talked with a friend and after a long visit to a DIY market, I was sure that we can do it. A DIY Camera and capturing ghosts. That sounds like a fun workshop to me!
Everybody knows that I work exclusively on collodion wet plate portraits. So what’s the reason for food photography now? Let me try to explain. Many of you guys will remember that I bought a Cambo studio stand some while ago. A little bit later I bought a used tray for it on eBay. The seller was very friendly and somehow we started to talk about photography
Long story short, a month later we decided to do a project together. After months of planning, Hans Gerlach (a well-known food photographer and columnist) drove over to my studio and brought his tools and some delicious food with him.
Wet plate photography’s one of those mythical analogue photography processes to most of us. All we know is that some liquid gets poured onto a piece of metal or glass, it goes into a camera, the shutter is fired, magic happens and we get a photo at the end of it. But one person who definitely understands the wet plate process is Markus Hofstätter.
Markus has made it not only his passion but he also shoots wet plate photography for a living. He knows all the ins and outs of it and has made some pretty remarkable images with it. But in this video, he takes some of that fantasy away and shares the reality of working with wet plate and how dangerous it can sometimes be, particularly when it comes to the chemicals used.
Did you know that you can make your own 35mm daguerreotypes without using dangerous substances (such as mercury)? Also, you can do it without expensive gear. In this video from George Eastman Museum, historic process specialist Nick Brandreth will teach you how. So if you’d like to experiment a bit, let’s see what you’ll need.
This is not about a technical perfect wet plate. This is about building connections from thousand miles away. Overcoming obstacles and being there for each other.
This 5-minute exposure captured more than just an image, it’s a short movie where the plate captured our thoughts and movements. Thanks to Shane Balkowitsch to be a part of it.
The task was clear – an original portrait of a Medieval Knight Sword Fighter (national champion).
So I planned to do a collodion wet plate of a knight with his armour and sword. My first thought was, that an original armor has no “color” so to say. You just see the reflections of the environment. That was the reason I wanted to shoot the first portrait in my garden. Unfortunately, the weather gods were against us and just after when we started a thunderstorm was on its way.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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