Registration Deadline:  Friday, December 6th

Would you like to make wet plate tintypes, ambrotypes, and opalotypes from images you already have? Create tangible image objects of your digital work, slides, or any image from which you can create a positive or negative transparency?

This wet plate printing course will be an intensive introduction to the wet plate process that was the leading mode of photography in the 1850′s and 1860′s, combined with the ease and simplicity of working in a contemporary darkroom with enlargers.  The process must be completed while the plate is wet; the images are exposed, developed, fixed, and washed, and images are viewable within minutes.  Workshop participants will learn how to create ambrotypes (positives on glass), opalotypes (positives on white tin), and tintypes (positives on blackened tin) using an enlarger. We will discuss chemical mixing and safety. Students will learn the techniques of preparing the plate, cleaning glass, pouring collodion, exposing, developing, fixing, and varnishing. Workshop participants will be using cold head enlargers.  All materials including enlargers, chemicals, glass, and metal will be supplied.

Students should bring both positive transparencies as well as negatives to the class with which to print.
 If creating positive transparencies on an ink-jet printer, please print them at 4”x5” or smaller on transparency film.  Students should bring a few samples of each image at different densities to work with. Students may also use traditional slides or chromes, from 35mm to 4”x5”. Please bring about 5-10 different images to work with.

Instructor Biography

Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

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So you’re eager to start practicing in your own darkroom, but can’t quite wrap your head around all of that chemistry stuff. If you want to take that leap into readiness, this is the workshop for you! Post will lead a comprehensive workshop in chemical safety and mixing techniques for 19th century photography in the 21st Century.  Mastering these techniques will ensure that you will always be able to create photographic emulsions, regardless of what happens to major film suppliers during the digital revolution. Enter the world of advanced DIY and learn to make your own photographic emulsion!

This class will go over practical safety measures when mixing, storing and trying not to inhale or ignite various chemicals.  We will answer questions like: Can I mix this type of acid with this type of chemical?  Is it safe to store this in a hot darkroom?  How does humidity affect the longevity of this dry chemical?  Can I pour this down the drain?  This class will demonstrate how to mix Cyanotypes, Vandykes, Albumen, Salt Printing, Wet Plate Collodion, Kallitypes, Platinum and Palladium and its many developers. Every student will be able to purchase a “kit” of their choice at a special discounted rate, and leave with a safety plan for their own darkroom.

When registering for this course, please send an e-mail to info@capworkshops.org listing which kit you would like to purchase.

Kits available for purchase will be:

Cyanotype kit – $13.20

Vandyke kit – $30.80

Kallitype Kit with black or brown dev.  (other developers will be demonstrated) – $44.00

Platinium Kit, 25ml PT with ammonium cit or Pot Ox developer (other developers will be demonstrated) – $212.00

Palladium kit 50ml of PD with ammonium cit or pot ox developer – $181.50

PT/PD combo kit 25ml of PT and 50ml PD and a developer  (see above) – $320.00

Silver nitrate for matte albumen and or salt printing  – $16.50 for 125ml

Mixing for the Wet Plate Process – kit unavailable, demo only

Please note that these are special discounted prices only for this class.

Instructor Biography:

Morgan Post is a lover of all things alternative process. He has been a large format wet plate photographer and educator for the past five years. Post holds a MFA degree from Utah State University, a BFA degree from the School Of Visual Arts, and an Associates Degree from Maine Media Workshops. Morgan has worked extensively as a photographer and digital artist in both Los Angeles and New York. He has produced and managed wet lab workshops at Maine Media workshops and has a cooperative partnership with Artcraft Chemicals making alternative process kits. Morgan loves to expand traditional conventions of the photographic mediums. His current glass plate work uses the means and conventions of 19th Century technology to create a contrast and tension which highlights the social ethos of the rapidly evolving 21st. His work has appeared in several juried exhibitions, online exhibitions and numerous print publications.

http://www.morganpoststudio.com/

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Registration Deadline:  Friday, November 15th

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“During the entire period of its history,” states Sandy King in The Book of Carbon and Carbro, “carbon was considered the aristocrat of printing processes.” This class is a thorough introduction to the delightfully versatile carbon printing process, developed in 1855. The carbon process allows the printer to print in a variety of colors and tones on many different surfaces beyond paper. This process demands meticulousness, but rewards the photographer with the most stable, archival color prints out there. Students learn how to make carbon tissues from gelatin, glycerin, sugar, and watercolor pigment. The carbon tissue is sensitized and exposed under a U.V. light source, then transferred to a base. Unexposed areas are washed away in warm water to reveal the base, leaving a raised exposed image. The raised texture of the exposed image is a unique quality of the carbon print. Students should bring large format or digital negatives for contact printing.

Limited to 8 participants.

Instructor Biography:

Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Registration Deadline:  Wednesday, November 13th

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This is a 4 hour shooting night for the wet plate community to interact with other wet plate photographers, as well as an opportunity to practice shooting and troubleshooting the wet plate collodion process. We will provide the cameras, chemicals, tin, glass, and studio, and you provide the inspiration. This shooting night is for wet plate practitioners who have taken a wet plate workshop and would like more practice. Still life and portrait set ups are possible. There will be not instruction, but a wet plate practitioner is available for questioning and assistance. There will be four cameras, which will be shared, and each participant is allowed to invite only one model for portrait sitting. Note maximum size is 5×7.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, November 8th

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In this course, participants will learn to make photographs by direct contact printing in Platinum/Palladium using a coherent, unified approach from selecting a subject to making the final print. The platinum print boasts a wider, more delicate tonal range, and superior stability and longevity than most other processes, which remains true today. Platinum printing was a prevalent process during the pictorialist movement, and practiced by such notable photographers as Alvin Langdon Coburn, Clarence Hudson White, Edward Weston, and Irving Penn.  The rich tonal expression, consistency, and detail from highlight to shadow in the platinum print have made it an eduring process among art photographers from in 19^th & 20^th centuries to the present.

This introductory workshop will give an overview of the process beginning with the visualization of pictures for the platinum process, exposure and development to create a suitable negative and the procedures for hand coating, exposing and processing platinum prints. Participants will follow the entire process from subject selection to creation of their own final prints. Students will finish the weekend with a basic understanding and experience of the process, ready to improve their skills through practice on their own or in later workshops.

Instructor Biography:

Carl Weese was born in 1949 and grew up in New Jersey. From 1972 to the present, Weese has worked as a freelance photo-illustrator for editorial and corporate clients. His personal photographs have been widely exhibited in group and one-person shows and he is represented by galleries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington and Virginia. He is co-author of the 1998 book The New Platinum Print, an instruction manual on modern approaches to the classic platinum/palladium photographic printing process.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, November 8th

DAY 1 Normal registration  

DAY 2 Normal registration  

DAY 1 Member registration  

DAY 2 Member registration  

This is a demonstration class that will show you how to set up to do the wet plate collodion process at a minimal cost.  While many people get into the process at great expense, it is useful and encouraging to know that there is a way to be a wet plate photographer with a small financial outlay.

The class will cover:

DAY 1

1. How to purchase and convert  inexpensive Brownie, Graflex and other cameras for wet plate use.

2. How to alter and adapt lenses for wet plate application

3. How to build a ‘traveling salesman’ style kit including all darkbox items

DAY 2  (optional)

How to set up and use your kit for the wet plate process.

Instructor Biography:

Eric Taubman is the founder of the Penumbra Foundation and Center for Alternative Photography in NYC and teaches workshops in Wet Plate Collodion and lens history and design. Since graduating from the New School, he has owned and operated a group of photographic laboratories and imaging companies in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and London. He is an artist/photographer working in large format and alternative processes.

Registration Deadline:  Thursday, November 7th

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Choosing the right lens for a project is one of the most important decisions a photographer can make. This class will discuss how to determine the appropriate focal length and coverage for format and perspective. Lenses covered will be from hand ground 19th century to modern day computer designed objectives. Some of the 19th century lenses presented will be the Chevalier Verre Combine, Petzval portrait, Meniscus Landscape, Harrison Globe, and the Rapid Rectilinear. From the 20th century, soft focus lenses presented will be the Wollensak Verito, Pinkham and Smith Series, Struss Pictorial, Graf Variable, and the Nicola Perscheid as well as the modern, sharp focus Schneider Symmar-S, Super Angulon, and Tele-Xenars. Lenses will available for examination as well as sample images taken with these lenses. Students are welcome to bring in their own lenses for discussion.

Instructors: 

Geoffrey Berliner is the Executive Director of the Penumbra Foundation. He has been taking pictures and collecting antique photographic images and equipment for over 20 years. Eric Taubman is the founder of the Center for Alternative Photography in NYC and teaches workshops in wet plate collodion and lens history and design. Eric has owned and operated a group of photo labs and imaging companies in NY, LA, Miami, and London. He is an artist/photographer working in large format and alternative processes.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 25th

Offered through ICP/CAP Partnership

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The daguerreotype is an image unlike any other; each is unique and elusive. It was one of the first and arguably most beautiful forms of photography, and yet its technologies are largely forgotten. In this workshop we will learn, practice, and discuss different methods of daguerreotypy with the goal that every participant be able to produce several images, and quickly be on their way to making daguerreotypes on their own.

This workshop will include thorough lessons of both the traditional mercury development method, and the less toxic Becquerel development. We will concentrate on important and difficult skills: polishing, sensitizing, exposing, and problem solving. The course will also include a brief introduction to the history of 19th century photographic technology. All supplies and equipment will be provided by the Center.

Instructor Biography:

Jason Greenberg Motamedi is a daguerreotypist and anthropologist. He has a doctorate in cultural anthropology, and has taught at several universities and colleges. He lives in Portland, Oregon and works for a non-profit organization conducting educational research. His photography seeks to understand and adapt 19th century technologies to contemporary aesthetic, intellectual, and ideological concerns.

www.motamedi.info

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 25th

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This workshop will be an introduction to the classic and flexible gum bichromate process. During the early 19^th century, when photography was largely viewed as clinical, the pictorialist movement aimed to elevate photography to a fine art status.  Pictorialists, such as Heinrich Kuhn, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen, used processes like gum bichromate to create textured, artistic images that captured a mood, and advocated that photographers should guide the outcome of their image much the same way that painters do. By making artists watercolors light sensitive and coating these emulsions on elegant papers we’ll embark on a painterly application and make images that refer to the Photo Succession period. Large format or appropriate digital negatives are necessary for this course. All other materials will be provided.

Instructor Biography:

Brenton Hamilton holds his MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art & Design. He is the Certificate Program Director of photography at Maine Media College and for 18 years has lead summer workshops in Maine. Brenton’s own work is inspired by the 19th century and has become a principle area of research and inspiration both as a historian and a printmaker. Devoted to the cyanotype & gum bichromate, Brenton’s embellished images are exhibited nationally: East Coast; at Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland, Maine and West Coast; at TILT Gallery in Phoenix, AZ.

www.brentonhamiltonstudio.net

Registration Deadline:  Wednesday, October 30th

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This is a 4-hour opportunity to practice producing cyanotypes and meet others working with this printing process. This cyanotype open studio night is for cyanotype practitioners who have already taken a cyanotype workshop and would like more practice. We provide the chemicals, paper, UV light source, and studio – you provide negatives and inspiration. There will be no instruction, but a cyanotype practitioner is available for questioning and assistance. You will need to bring your own medium to large-format negatives (digital negatives are fine) or objects with which you would like to make a cyanogram (a cyanotype made by placing objects on the sensitized paper under a UV light source).

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 25th

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Members register here

The “poor man’s platinum print” of the late 1800’s, the Kallitype is a great photographic process for those who want comparable tonal quality of platinum prints on a budget. Kallitypes protect your wallet by using less expensive metals than those used in the Platinum process, while giving similar results. This workshop may appeal to those looking for a more precise brown-print process than Van Dyke. Lots of folks find that the cost-savings built into the Kallitype process allow for free experimentation and fun.

In this workshop, students will learn this “poor man’s platinum” from start to finish. Using a solution of silver nitrate and ferric oxalate, the Kallitype is a hand-coated contact printing process.  Many different colors can be achieved with the Kallitype according to the developer used: black, brown, blue, and maroon.  Please bring large format or digital negatives to class.

Instructor Biography:

Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 25th

For Normal registration click here

Members register here

Creating negatives in a digital darkroom has revolutionized the alternative photographic process world where instant edibility and correction can be done in minutes to achieve the perfect negative. During this introduction to digital negatives we will go over how to set up the digital darkroom, scanners, printers, input mediums, software and output media. Determining densities will be covered extensively and used with a singular process that can be applied to many. It is highly advantageous for students to have a working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. Some basics will be covered but many techniques require the student to be comfortable with the software. Students are to bring a laptop with Adobe photoshop installed, RAW color corrected digital files, and scanned Tiff files. At the end of this two day workshop you will leave with saved curves and prints that can be applied and adjusted for working with silver gelatin prints. This technique can be applied to Gum Bichromate, Kallitype, Cyanotype, Platinum, Palladium, VanDyke, Gravure and many other processes.

Instructor Biography

Morgan Post is a lover of all things alt pro. He has been a large format wet plate photographer and educator for the past five years. Post holds a MFA degree from Utah State University, a BFA degree from the School Of Visual Arts, and an Associates Degree from Maine Media Workshops. Morgan has worked extensively as a photographer and digital artist in both Los Angeles and New York. He has produced and managed wet lab workshops at Maine Media workshops and has a cooperative partnership with Artcraft Chemicals making alternative process kits. Morgan loves to expand traditional conventions of the photographic mediums. His current glass plate work uses the means and conventions of 19th Century technology to create a contrast and tension which highlights the social ethos of the rapidly evolving 21st. His work has appeared in several juried exhibitions, online exhibitions and numerous print publications.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 11th

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French paper-negative practitioners are often said to have improved upon Talbot’s original patented calotype procedure.  Here, we will use one of earliest and most influential of the French techniques, a paper-negative method pioneered by the husband-and-wife team of Amélie Saguez and Jacques-Michel Guillot in the mid-1840s, and later known as “the Roman Method.”  The Guillot-Saguez procedure, rather than Talbot’s or Blanquart-Evrard’s more celebrated accounts, actually served as the template for the two main negative processes that were to follow: the dry, waxed-paper negative and wet-collodion (or wet-plate).  Contemporary calotypists like Le Gray, Flachéron, and Humbert de Molard all borrowed from the Guillot-Saguez procedure.  Starting with uncoated paper, we will cover all of the steps employed: iodizing, sensitizing, exposure in the camera, development, and fixing–with special attention being given to flotation and the difference between bromide stabilization and fixing with hypo.

Instructor Biography

Alan Greene took up the calotype process in 1998 as a reaction to digital photography. This led to his writing a technical manual, Primitive Photography, published in 2001. In 2003-2004, his paper-negative photography was featured at the Palazzo Caffarelli and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, as part of their collaborative exhibit, Roma/Rome 1850. Since then, he has contributed to Etudes photographiques, the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, and the Vocabulaire technique de la photographie. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 11th

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The beginning of the modern spiritualist movement dates to 1848 at the farmhouse in upstate New York of John Fox, his wife and two young daughters.   The purported supernatural occurrences  at the house and the ensuing fame of the ‘Fox Sisters’ ushered in a movement to last over 75 years.  It was during this era that  ‘spirit photography’ thrived as a cultural phenomena.

The question of authenticity in photographs is one that we ponder and explore. From period images showing ‘dearly departed’ relatives and friends as ghostly apparitions to images created today and manipulated through digital technology.

This workshop is a ‘hands on’ attempt to recreate some of the methods used to create spirit photographs during it’s time as a cultural phenomena.  We will look at the history, social context, methodology and armchair psychology behind this compelling phenomena.  It is recommended that participants bring photographs and negatives of deceased family or friends.

Instructor Biography

Eric Taubman is the founder of the Penumbra Foundation and Center for Alternative Photography in NYC and teaches workshops in Wet Plate Collodion and lens history and design. Since graduating from the New School, he has owned and operated a group of photographic laboratories and imaging companies in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and London. He is an artist/photographer working in large format and alternative processes.

Registration Deadline:  Friday, October 4th

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Beyond the Mousetrap: Building a Calotype-Era Camera with Alan Green-10.19-20.13-Member

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Price: $455.50

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Since calotype paper negatives are often exposed in a dampened state, it becomes difficult to load them in modern film-holders and cameras without contamination.  Taking inspiration from Talbot’s early “mouse-trap” cameras and other calotype-era designs, we will use contemporary materials like foam-core and PVC tubing to arrive at whole-plate format box-cameras equipped with an easy-to-make lens, the cameras here being loaded with dampened paper without harm.  Subjects to be considered in the course of building our cameras and lenses will be the state of photographic optics in Niépce, Talbot, Daguerre, and Bayard’s time (ca. 1827-40); photographic optics by 1847; essential lens forms and how they work in combination; the visual effects of lens aberrations like curvature of field and distortions as introduced by lens focal length and placement of the stop; image format relative to lens focal-length; hyper-focal distance; and composition without a ground-glass.

 Instructor Biography

Alan Greene took up the calotype process in 1998 as a reaction to digital photography. This led to his writing a technical manual, Primitive Photography, published in 2001. In 2003-2004, his paper-negative photography was featured at the Palazzo Caffarelli and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, as part of their collaborative exhibit, Roma/Rome 1850. Since then, he has contributed to Etudes photographiques, the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, and the Vocabulaire technique de la photographie. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Registration Deadline: Friday, October 11th

Offered through ICP/CAP Partnership

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Members register here

This workshop is an investigation into the expressive possibilities of the Van Dyke. The Van Dyke Process  is based on the argentotype, the first iron-silver process which was invented by the astronomer, chemist and photographer Sir John Herschel (who also discovered the Cyanotype Process).  The Van Dyke process gets its name from its similarity in color to the deep brown pigment used by the Flemish painter Van Dyke.

In this workshop, you will learn the process from start to finish. The Van Dyke Process involves an iron-based chemical formula that creates a light sensitive emulsion. This emulsion is then coated onto art paper and exposed by placing a negative on the emulsion and making a contact print with a UV light source. This workshop will cover and demonstrate the techniques and procedures for making these aptly named Van Dyke brown prints. Different chemistry formulas, emulsions, coating methods and paper choices will be discussed. The ability of combining the Cyanotype Process with the Van Dyke Process will be discussed.  Students should be prepared to bring in several of their own images in negative form. Medium and large format B&W negatives, paper and acetate negatives and digital negatives are all appropriate for this workshop.  All students will be provided with a digital negative specifically made for van dyke printing by the Center for Alternative Photography.  It will be used to make the first print in order to acquaint the student with the process without any concern about the quality of the negative.

This workshop may be taken in tandem with the Cyanotype workshop, to create prints incorporating both processes with beautiful results. Please register for each course separately.

Instructor Biography

Robert A. Schaefer, Jr. began his photography career while studying and getting his MA Degree (Diplom Ingenieur) at the Technische Universität of Munich, Germany. With exhibitions in Munich, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Paris and Graz, he moved to New York in 1981 where he began working with alternative printing processes from the 19th Century including the Van Dyke Process. This summer, he will spend the entire month of June at the Can Serrat Artist Colony outside Barcelona, Spain to produce a new body of Van Dykes and Cyanotypes from the region.  Schaefer currently teaches various photography courses at New York University (School of Continuing and Professional Studies), and his work is handled by the Domeischel Gallery in New York City.

www.schaeferphoto.com

For normal registration through CAP, please register here:

Penumbra Foundation Members, please register here:

This workshop is an investigation into the expressive possibilities of the Cyanotype. Prior to its popularity with the pictorialists, the cyanotype process was used for more scientific endeavors. For example, Anna Atkins’s became famous for her use of cyanograms to document plant life in her book “Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions,” which is considered to be the first book illustrated with photographic images. Blue prints used in architecture also derived from the cyanotype process, which was widely used in architecture before modern means of printing were available, but is still used occasionally today.

In this workshop, you will learn the process from start to finish. The cyanotype involves an iron-based chemical formula that creates a light sensitive emulsion. This emulsion is then painted onto art paper and exposed by placing a negative on the emulsion and making a contact print with a UV light source. This workshop will cover and demonstrate the techniques and procedures for making these aptly named blue-toned prints. Different chemistry formulas, emulsions, coating methods and paper choices will be discussed. Students should be prepared to bring in several of their own images in negative form. Medium and large format B&W negatives, paper and acetate negatives and digital negatives are all appropriate for this workshop.

Limited to 8 participants.

Instructor Biography:

Robert A. Schaefer, Jr. began his photography career while studying and getting his MA Degree (Diplom Ingenieur) at the Technische Universität of Munich, Germany. With exhibitions in Munich, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Paris and Graz, he moved to New York in 1981 where he began working with alternative printing processes from the 19th Century. His particular favorite became the cyanotype which was used to print the images for his exhibitions “Blue Berlin,” Berlin, Germany in 1997, “Nothin But The Blues” at the Barbara Levy Gallery, New York City in 1999 and his 25-Year Retrospective at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Alabama (his home state) in 1999 to 2000. Lyle Rexer writes about Schaefer’s use of cyanotype printing of architectural images in Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-garde (published by Abrams in 2002). The Goethe Institute of Delhi supported an exhibition of Schaefer’s cyanotypes in November 2010 at their facility and another at the Government Museum in Chandigarh with a catalogue, which offers images of both exhibitions. The Goethe Institute flew Schaefer there to speak at both openings as well as offer a cyanotype workshop at their individual institutes. Schaefer currently teaches various photography courses at New York University, and his work is handled by the Domeischel Gallery in New York City.

www.schaeferphoto.com

Registration Deadline:   Friday, October 4th

For Normal registration click here

Members register here

This workshop is an intensive introduction to the silver-based process that was the leading mode of photography in the 1850′s and 1860′s.  The wet plate process was practiced by Julia Margaret Cameron to create collodion negatives, by Matthew Brady to photograph the American Civil War, and continues to be used by Civil War reenactors for historical accuracy.  Wet Plate is currently experiencing a resurgence among amateur and professional photographers, artists, and documentarians while cultural trends lean toward handmade, unique, and sustainable goods. The process must be completed while the plate is wet; the images are exposed, developed, fixed and viewable within minutes.

Workshop participants will learn how to create glass negatives, tintypes, and ambrotypes in camera. We will discuss chemical mixing and safety. Students will learn the techniques of preparing the plate, pouring collodion, exposing, developing, fixing, and varnishing. Experimentation is strongly encouraged.  Workshop participants will be using 35mm SLR cameras and medium format Holgas to make small-format glass negatives and tintypes.  All materials including cameras, chemicals, glass, and metal will be supplied.

Instructor Biography

Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Offered through ICP/CAP Partnership

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register below:

Albumen was perfected in 1850, about 25 years after the discovery of light sensitive materials by Niepce and Daguerre. For the first time in photographic history there was a means of inexpensively producing multiple paper based images from a single negative. It became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the 20th century when it was eventually replaced with silver gelatin. Prints on albumen produce a wonderful tonal range, with a unique sheen of a pearl essence that no other medium can achieve.

In this workshop, the history of salt prints, as well as the history and process of albumen will be discussed. The students will make albumen prints in accordance with how this artist makes her prints. Students will learn how to make albumen, and coat paper with albumen, then sensitize paper with silver nitrate, print and then learn toning options (actual toning lesson will be with selenium). Troubleshooting will be discussed in regards to paper, negatives, and chemical issues and students will walk away with a print, and an understanding of achieving the best albumen results in order to practice this medium independently.

Students should bring digital negatives with density curves for albumen as well as botanicals and objects for photogram experimentation. This workshop is intended for students of all levels, as it is introductory to albumen.

Instructor Biography:

Jennifer Schlesinger Hanson is an artist and curator based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 1998 with a B.A. in Photography and Journalism and was an adjunct Professor there from 2005-2006. Schlesinger-Hanson has exhibited widely at Southwest regional institutions such as the Marion Center for Photographic Arts (SFUAD) and the Santa Fe Art Institute, as well as national institutions such as the Southeast Museum of Photography and the Chelsea Art Museum. Her work has been published online and in print with international publications such as Black and White Magazine U.S and UK, Diffusion Magazine and Fotoritim. Schlesinger Hanson is represented in many public collections, including the Southeast Museum of Photography, FL; The New Mexico Museum of Art and the New Mexico History Museum / Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. She has received several honors in recognition of her work including a Golden Light Award in Landscape Photography from the Maine Photographic Workshops and the Center for Contemporary Arts Photography Auction Award in Santa Fe, New Mexico, both in 2005. She has been awarded many distinctive nominations such as the Santa Fe Prize for Photography by the Center and the Eliot Porter Fellowship by the New Mexico Council for Photography. She was the Assistant Director of Santa Fe Art Institute from 2003-2005 and has been the Director of VERVE Gallery of Photography since 2005.

www.jenniferschlesinger.com

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The wet plate collodion process doesn’t begin with coating the plate- it begins with mixing the chemistry! Preparing the various chemical solutions used in wet plate collodion photography is an essential step, but is only covered briefly in our workshops to allow for more time practicing shooting and handling plates. Learning the proper mixing techniques will allow you maintain consistency in your chemistry, and control over your craft.

This is a demonstration-style workshop that will cover how to mix all of the chemistry used in the wet plate collodion process (collodion, developer, fixers, silver nitrate solution, and sandarac varnish), proper handling of the necessary chemicals, where to purchase chemicals and materials, and recommended recipes.

Students should wear clothing they do not mind getting stained, and bring a notebook and something to write with if they would like to take notes.

This workshop may be taken independently, or as a supplement to an Intro to Wet Plate workshop.

Instructor Biography:

Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Photo Credit:  Sam Dole 

For normal registration please click here

Penumbra Members please register below

Course Description:
This workshop is an intensive introduction to the silver-based process that was the leading mode of photography in the 1850′s and 1860′s.  The process must be completed while the plate is wet; the images are exposed, developed, fixed and viewable within minutes.  Workshop participants will learn how to create glass negatives, tintypes, and ambrotypes in camera. We will discuss chemical mixing and safety. Students will learn the techniques of preparing the plate, pouring collodion, exposing, developing, fixing, and varnishing. Experimentation is strongly encouraged.  Workshop participants will be using 4″x 5″ wooden reproduction wet plate cameras with antique brass lenses.  All materials including cameras, chemicals, glass, and metal will be supplied.

Limited to 8 participants

Instructor Biography:
Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Registration Deadline:  Friday, September 27th

For normal registration, please register below:

Penumbra Foundation Members, please register below:

If you are an ICP-referred student, please call 917-288-0343 to register for this workshop.

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register here:

The calotype paper negative, the predecessor to traditional film-based photography, was the first viable way to make multiple prints of the same image. At the time of its invention in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, the only other process was the daguerreotype, which produced unique image objects. For those interested in conservation and understanding the evolution of modern photography, the calotype process

is essential. In this course, students learn the calotype process for making paper negatives using Talbot’s original formula. We also review other advancements, such as the various French methods, as well as practical consid- erations like paper choice, coating techniques, waxing for transparency and printing. Limited to 8 participants.

Instructor Biography:

For almost twenty years Dan Estabrook has been making contemporary art using a variety of 19th-century photographic techniques. Lately he has focused on the earliest processes on paper – calotype negatives and salted paper prints – as sources for hand manipulation with paint and pencil. He balances his interests in photography and design with forays into sculpture, painting, drawing and other works. Dan has exhibited widely and has received several awards, including an Artist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1994. He is also the subject of a recent documentary by Anthropy Arts. He is represented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York and Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta.

www.danestabrook.com

For normal registration, please register  below:

Penumbra Foundation Members, please register below:

This workshop is a comprehensive look at the collodion process and its effective practice by the modern-day photographer. The predominate mode of photography from its invention in the early 1850′s to its fall from prominence at the turn of the century, the collodion process was a relatively fast and inexpensive means of getting a direct to positive photograph on demand (thus the image was a mirror image, reversed horizontally). Its practitioners effectively make their own film through the coating of a glass sheet or metal plate with the collodion substrate, sensitizing it in a solution of silver nitrate and exposing this plate in-camera while still wet, hence its common moniker “wet plate”.

Thus, the collodion process represents a highly sustainable form of emulsion-based photographic expression in the 21st century as the future of silver gelatin-based film risks fading into obscurity with more and more companies discontinuing their popular emulsions on a routine basis. Students will learn how to coat, sensitize, expose, develop and varnish their own plates over the course of the weekend, gaining valuable hands-on experience while learning the theory and fundamentals necessary to apply the process to their own work.

Instructor Bio:

Workshop Instructor and wet plate photographer Sam Dole earned his BFA in photography from School of Visual Arts where he received the Rhodes Award for Outstanding Achievement. Sam has been an intern and workshop assistant at CAP, studied 19th C photography with noted photo historian Matthew Isenburg and has attended workshops conducted by John Coffer at Camp Tintype in Dundee, NY where he was honed his technique with wet plate legends Will Dunniway and Claude Levet. Sam’s work has appeared in Shutterbug Magazine and the SVA Visual Arts Journal and exhibited in the 2012 SVA Mentors Show as well as first prize winner at the 2012 Soho Photo Gallery Alternative Process Show.

 Registration Deadline: July 26th, 2013

For normal registration, please register below:

Penumbra Foundation Members, please register below:

The versatile and painterly Bromoil process is a printing method that combines the arts of photography, printmaking, and painting, and was very popular in the early 1900s. Bromoil was favored by pictorial photographers who used it to add a more artistic rendering to their work. For Pictorialists, creating a unique print was held in high esteem, and with the bromoil process they were able to create prints with such an affected appearance, they were occasionally mistaken for paintings.   The bromoil process begins by bleaching a black and white silver gelatin print to remove the silver. Lithographic ink is then applied with a brush or roller to replace the silver in the print. Any color or combination of colors can be used. Each piece is individually inked by hand; therefore no two prints are identical. In this workshop, students will learn to create prints ideal for the bromoil process, and techniques for applying lithographic inks to their prints.

Instructor Biography:

Joy Goldkind currently resides in St. James, NY. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC in 1963. She has exhibited in numerous locations across the country. She had a solo show at the Museo Nationale Della Fotographia in Italy, where a permanent collection of her work is now housed. In 2007 she won the cover contest of Eyemazing Magazine and in 2008 her photos where selected in the top 50 photographers at Photolucida. Her photography is also included in corporate collections in NYC, as well as in private collections across the globe. Goldkind’s photographs have graced the covers of international publications and magazines such as SilverShotz and Eyemazing. Her work has also been featured in the New York Times, B&W Magazine, Zoom Magazine, Photolife, View Camera and Color magazine.  Joy’s work won photographer of the year 2010 at the WPGA competition and will be showing work in Buenos Aries, Argentina in 2011.  She is represented by Verve Fine Arts. NM, Tilt Gallery, Phoenix AZ and Divergence Fine Art in Baltimore MD.

Joy Goldkind was 50 years old before she took her first photography class, though her background was always based in the fine arts. Despite an unusually late start, Goldkinds career as a fine arts photographer has progressed rather rapidly. Her photographs of nude dancers, geishas, drag queens, ballerinas, circus performers, etc. have not gone unnoticed. Her subjects are soft in contrast yet strong in spirit. Sometimes inspired from a fantasy world. The use of double exposures and slow shutter speeds help Joy to change what is true and expected into a more surrealistic scene. The old world beauty and quality they possess is in no doubt influenced by a deep interest in art history. With the use of the historic Bromoil process as a tool to express her fine art portraits, Joy adds a layer of mystery to her photographs.

Joy Goldkind’s work

 Registration Deadline: August 1, 2013

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register below:

So you’re ready to delve into the world of alternative photography, but not sure which process is for you.  You’ve read articles and how-to’s, watched videos, and visited galleries, but you’re still not sure you’re ready to jump into a new process. We get it! There’s nothing like seeing something in person to help you feel out if it is a good fit.

Our weeknight demonstrations give you the chance to experience an alternative photographic process in person before committing to a workshop or tutorial. Come see a practicing artist demonstrate key steps in the wet plate process, ask questions, and meet other interested community members.  One lucky attendee (chosen by lottery) will get to bring home a tintype portrait!

Our demonstrations are open to all, regardless of photographic background. Come join our expanding community, and take the first step toward bringing your photographic work to a new (and old!) realm.

Please register in advance; space is limited to 20 people.

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register here:

This is a six hour shooting day for the wet plate community to interact with other wet plate photographers, as well as an opportunity to practice shooting and troubleshooting the wet plate collodion process. We will provide the cameras, chemicals, tin, glass, and studio, and you provide the inspiration!

This shooting night is for wet plate experienced practitioners who have taken a wet plate workshop and would like more practice. Still life and portrait setups are possible. There will be no instruction, but a wet plate practitioner is available for questioning and assistance. There will be four cameras, which will be shared, and each participant is allowed to invite only one model for portrait sitting.

 Photo Credit:  Sam Dole

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register below:

The Uranium printing process has a significant history behind it.  Its use and invention within photography was made in 1858, by Charles Burnett in Scotland.  He was able to make prints by using uranium salts teamed up with an Iron developer.  In addition to photography, the uranium salt was also used in stained glass window’s, textiles and ceramics.  This very precious metal was a heavily guarded secret and invoked mystery behind it in the 19th century.  Not just how it worked but where the metal came from. As it became used more extensively, manufacturers produced paper with this salt up to the end of the 19th century.  Its tonal range and specific reddish/ orange color are quite unique among all alternative printing processes.   Aside from printing with this salt, uranium is quite flexible in its use in toners, sensitizers and developers for many other processes..  Don’t let uranium fool you, its usage stretches throughout history and precedes the nuclear era ideology of radioactivity.  We will explore the possibility of this salt and in combination with other precious metals.

Instructor Biography:

Morgan Post is a lover of all things alt pro. He has been a large format wet plate photographer and educator for the past five years. Post holds a MFA degree from Utah State University, a BFA degree from the School Of Visual Arts, and an Associates Degree from Maine Media Workshops. Morgan has worked extensively as a photographer and digital artist in both Los Angeles and New York. He has produced and managed wet lab workshops at Maine Media workshops and has a cooperative partnership with Artcraft Chemicals making alternative process kits. Morgan loves to expand traditional conventions of the photographic mediums. His current glass plate work uses the means and conventions of 19th Century technology to create a contrast and tension which highlights the social ethos of the rapidly evolving 21st. His work has appeared in several juried exhibitions, online exhibitions and numerous print publications.

Photo by Sam Dole

For normal registration please click here

Penumbra Members please register below

Course Description:
This workshop is an intensive introduction to the silver-based process that was the leading mode of photography in the 1850′s and 1860′s.  The process must be completed while the plate is wet; the images are exposed, developed, fixed and viewable within minutes.  Workshop participants will learn how to create glass negatives, tintypes, and ambrotypes in camera. We will discuss chemical mixing and safety. Students will learn the techniques of preparing the plate, pouring collodion, exposing, developing, fixing, and varnishing. Experimentation is strongly encouraged.  Workshop participants will be using 4″x 5″ wooden reproduction wet plate cameras with antique brass lenses.  All materials including cameras, chemicals, glass, and metal will be supplied.

Limited to 8 participants

Instructor Biography:
Lisa Elmaleh is a large format photographer whose current work is an exploration of the landscape of the Everglades. As a native of South Florida, the Everglades were an essential part of her personal history. Using a portable darkroom in the trunk of her car, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet collodion process. Elmaleh received the Silas Rhodes scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts, and obtained a BFA with honors. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, the Everglades Artist Residency, the Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency, and the Goldwell Artist Residency. She has been included in various group shows such as the 2008 New York Photofest (Powerhouse) and Landscape: Voyage (KMR Arts).

www.lisaelmaleh.com

Registration deadline extended to:   Friday, June 21

For normal registration, please click here:

Penumbra Members, please register here:

In this course, participants will learn to make photographs by direct contact printing in Platinum/Palladium using a coherent, unified approach from selecting a subject to making the final print. The platinum print boasts a wide, delicate tonal range, and superior stability and longevity than most other processes, which remains true today. Platinum printing was a prevalent process during the pictorialist movement, and practiced by such notable photographers as Alvin Langdon Coburn, Clarence Hudson White, Edward Weston, and Irving Penn.  The rich tonal expression, consistency, and detail from highlight to shadow in the platinum print have made it an eduring process among art photographers from in 19^th & 20^th centuries to the present.

This introductory workshop will give an overview of the process beginning with the visualization of pictures for the platinum process, exposure and development to create a suitable negative and the procedures for hand coating, exposing and processing platinum prints. Participants will follow the entire process from subject selection to creation of their own final prints. Students will finish the weekend with a basic understanding and experience of the process, ready to improve their skills through practice on their own or in later workshops.

Instructor Biography:

Carl Weese was born in 1949 and grew up in New Jersey. From 1972 to the present, Weese has worked as a freelance photo-illustrator for editorial and corporate clients. His personal photographs have been widely exhibited in group and one-person shows and he is represented by galleries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington and Virginia. He is co-author of the 1998 book The New Platinum Print, an instruction manual on modern approaches to the classic platinum/palladium photographic printing process.

The Penumbra Foundation and Center for Alternative Photography are so pleased to be hosting two exceptional photography exhibitions “Timeless” and “Transcend” celebrating Holga Cameras’ 30th anniversary curated and presented by Holga.

About the exhibitions:

Amid all the developments of the digital age, Holga has withstood the trials of time and for more than three decades, Holga has proven that its simple design and minimalist quality remains timeless.

Holga’s celebratory exhibition Timeless will carry you on a poetic journey while Transcend will open the doors to the visually contemporary cutting edge world of Holga.

In the Timeless exhibition, Holga invites you to discover legendary Holga masters who endow their artworks with the timeless quality of the classics and their aesthetic choices of using the Holga cameras.

Holga’s world famous medium format camera has been used by serious artists around the world and Holga is honored to feature Michael Kenna, Harvey Stein, Michelle Bates, Thomas Michael Alleman and Susan Bowen. Their ethereal photographs will evoke and inspire you knowing that their extraordinary works of art were accomplished with the bare essentials of mechanical photography equipment.

You are invited also to discover Holga’s featured emerging artists in the Transcend exhibition. Matt Cetta, Chow Kar Hoo, Noel Jones, Kowkin and Eason Page. Their aesthetic universe and artwork is emblematic of how the Holga camera can liberate an artists’ imagination and seize their own artistic potential. With a Holga in your hands you are the true source and master of your creations.

Photoville – June 22 to July 1, 2012

Photoville is FREE and Open to the Public.  Click here for directions.

The Center for Alternative Photography and Penumbra Foundation are excited to be partnering with United Photo Industries for Photoville in Brooklyn June 22 to July 1, 2012. The festival celebrating photography in all its forms is comprised of exhibitions, lectures, hands-on workshops, and nighttime projections (and a few other things). Come visit us at our Tintype Photo Booth for your own personal portrait, sign up for the Wet Plate Tintype Workshop, or stop by our information booth to learn more about the Penumbra Foundation and Center for Alternative Photography’s initiatives.

We look forward to seeing you there!

SATURDAY JUNE 23 - Panel Discussion: The Center for Alternative Photography and The Penumbra Foundation

6:00pm – 7:30pm
This lecture will feature five of our teaching artists. Each artist will give a brief presentation and discussion of their work. This lecture will serve as an introduction to the history and initiatives of the Penumbra Foundation and the Center for Alternative Photography. Geoffrey Berliner, Executive Director of the Penumbra Foundation, will be giving a brief presentation about the exciting facilities, programs, and offerings at the Penumbra Foundation and the Center for Alternative Photography. There will be a question and answer session following the lecture. 
Panelists: Dan Estabrook, NW Gibbons, Robert Schaefer, Morgan Post, and Lisa Elmaleh.

SUNDAY JUNE 24 - Tintype Photo Booth
11:00am – 1:30 pm / 2:30pm – 5:00pm
If you are looking for a portrait photograph that captures the passion of your unique, individual personality, step into our portable tintype photo booth and experience the magic of this 19th century photographic process! Popular during the mid-to-late 1800’s, the tintype portrait is made by coating a sheet of blackened metal with collodion. The tintype is then sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate, and exposed and processed immediately.

Each portrait session will last about 15 minutes. The tintypes will be prepared, exposed and developed on site and you will be able to view the portrait immediately. The tintypes will then be varnished, and you will walk away with a one-of-a-kind 4×5 portrait. 
Cost: $35, or $30 for Penumbra Foundation members.

SATURDAY JUNE 30 - One Day Tintype Workshop
10:00am – 5:00pm
This will be an intensive one-day introduction to the tintype process that was the leading mode of photography in the 1850′s and 1860′s. The process must be completed while the plate is wet; the images are exposed, developed, fixed and the beauty and uniqueness of the process is viewable within minutes. Workshop participants will learn how to create tintypes in camera. We will discuss chemical mixing and safety. Students will learn the techniques of preparing the plate, pouring collodion, exposing, developing, fixing, and varnishing. Workshop participants will be using 4″x 5″ wooden reproduction wet plate cameras with antique brass lenses. All materials including cameras, chemicals, and metal will be supplied. 
Cost: $250 + $50 materials fee. Register here.

SUNDAY JULY 1 - Tintype Photo Booth
11:00am – 1:30 pm / 2:30pm – 5:00pm
If you are looking for a portrait photograph that captures the passion of your unique, individual personality, step into our portable tintype photo booth and experience the magic of this 19th century photographic process! Popular during the mid-to-late 1800’s, the tintype portrait is made by coating a sheet of blackened metal with collodion. The tintype is then sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate, and exposed and processed immediately.

Each portrait session will last about 15 minutes. The tintypes will be prepared, exposed and developed on site and you will be able to view the portrait immediately. The tintypes will then be varnished, and you will walk away with a one-of-a-kind portrait. 
Cost:$35, or $30 for Penumbra Foundation members.

Information Booth Schedule:
Saturday, June 30 – 11:00am to 10:00pm
Sunday, June 24 – 11:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday, June 30 – 11:00am to 10:00pm
Sunday, July 1 – 11:00am to 7:00pm

To find out more information about Photoville visit here.