wet plate collodion workshop
Over the past few years I’ve given a few guest lectures at Lomond secondary school in Helensburgh. The topic has tended to be on documentary photography and multimedia, however on seeing the big green wet plate wagon the art teacher Barbara Croft asked me in to do a workshop with her and a few of her sixth year students, and also her niece Morven who is about to study at Glasgow School of Art.
It was such a riot! I set the UV lights up in the art department and parked the van at one of the double doors to the school. We then piled in and out of the van – to and from the art department – as stunned pupils and teachers alike wondered what the hell we were up to. I won’t tell if you don’t Barbara : – ))
It was so cool to see others amazement at the wet plate process – and share the magic of watching the plate come to life in the fix. I think it’s safe to say we all had a good day!! 
Here are a few of the demo plates I made: -
And then some of the photos and plates that the students and Barbara made. Everyone made really good plates!!
Barbara – it’d be great if you could send me scans of all your plates so that I could post them properly………………………..
Thanks a million for a great day!
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Tags: tintype, wet plate collodion workshop
news – hansel mieth award
In early 2009 I was given an incredible opportunity by GEO magazine in Germany to collaborate with them on a GEO Special which would focus on Scotland. The Special issue was planned for publication in July 2010.
One of the proposals I made was a project I had been dipping in and out of for several years documenting the life of a family living in one of the remaining Hutchesontown tower blocks on Sandiefield Road in the Gorbals. I first met Paul and Marie I think in 2006 whilst working on a feature for the Sunday Herald on child poverty. I was really drawn into their lives and have returned over and over again to stay for a few days here and there, to take pictures of their daily struggles.
Both Paul and Marie are long term, third generation, unemployed who are completely dependent on the state , not just for financial support but for help in caring for their five children. It has been very courageous of them to open up their lives to me and to a global audience.
GEO sent a writer, Susanne Krieg, over for 10 days and I introduced her to Paul and Marie who welcomed Susanne into their lives. The resulting story, combined with my photography, was published in the GEO Special, but has also just been awarded the Hansel Mieth Award for photojournalism.
Here are some links to the background of Hansel Mieth, a German born photojournalist who became the second woman to work on staff with Life magazine in 1937, and to the award itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_Mieth
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/hanselmieth/
And if you can speak German: -
http://zeitenspiegel.de/de/aktuell/hansel-mieth-preis-2011-vergeben/
Here are the images I entered: -
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Tags: david gillanders, hansel mieth award, photojournalism, scotland, susanne krieg, the gorbals
the neglected – channel 4
I’ve recently been given an amazing opportunity, by Channel 4, to direct a short film using my still images on street children in Ukraine. It’s been an immense undertaking to go back through almost 10 years work and construct a suitable narrative which does justice to the children I’ve met and photographed, most of whom are sadly now dead. It’s been an all consuming process which has sidelined me from updating the blog or responding to the any video requests – sorry.
I’m hoping to be back in wet plate wonderland in a few months and have some cool summer trips planned to the Western Isles with my sons who will be shooting video. It’s going to be interesting!
Once the film is made I’ll hopefully be able to post it here, or direct you to it.
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Tags: alpha fund, channel 4, david gillanders, film, street children of ukraine, the neglected
varnishing a plate
As mentioned in a previous post varnishing a plate and narrating at the same time didn’t quite work for me so I’ve cut together a wee video with text to explain the steps involved with varnishing a plate. I hope it makes sense!
The varnish is made by grinding down gum sandarac, a resin from avar or sandarac trees, and mixing this with 190 proof alcohol. It becomes really thick and gloopy so it needs to be thoroughly mixed and filtered until it’s clear and free from any particles or bits of tree which tend to be in the gum. After that you add pure lavender oil, mix and filter again and you’re good to go. It smells really good.
Whilst making this clip I made a fresh batch of varnish and have just tested it and it completely stripped the collodion from the plate. Thankfully one of my many rejects but I’ve now got varnish fear.
A good friend, John Brewer, reckons that the collodion on the plates might have been too old, or that the plate wasn’t hot enough to evaporate the alcohol on contact. I think it must have been the collodion as the plate was really hot. So how old is too old for collodion……..HELP!!
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Tags: gum sandarac, tintype, varnishing, wet plate collodion
the ARGO
The ARGO used to be a community centre in Drumchapel where all sorts of great things happened. Pottery classes, youth clubs, tea dances and boxing to name a few. Sadly after years of existence it was closed by the Council in a crazy cost cutting exercise and within days had been vandalised and set on fire.
Out of the ashes, literally, The ARGO boxing club has risen to go on to bigger and better things. Paul McCann and Davey Savage Snr who run the club along with the help of many others have taken over a wee shed behind St Marks on Kinfauns Drive and turned it into a purpose built boxing club. It has been no easy task and the premises they now operate from are testimony to the amazing dedication and commitment of all those involved.
I pitched up and took a few foties when all the hard work was done
First up was my mate Colin Barnes, who single handed has painted the entire building. In fact I think he had to do it twice after my sons kicked a dirty ball against the walls……….
Colin’s also really into taking pictures and took the black and whites of me at the end of the post. He’s got some cool stuff here http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinbarnes/
Next were two of the ARGO’s amateur prospects:-
Alastair
Wee Tony
Then Michael – who’s just turned pro and was here to do a bit of sparring with Davey Savage Jnr
Charlie King – another pro who was there for some sparring
And then the last plate of the day with one of the other coaches, Jake Glenny.
The last plate is just on the right side of being underexposed, and the exposure time was only 8 seconds with a development time of 15 seconds. That works for me, I like my lights
Here are a couple of Colins pictures. He was using this modern new fancy stuff called film. I think it was tri-x? It’ll never catch on – wet plate’s the way forward!
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Tags: argo, boxing, david gillanders, scotland, tintype, wet plate collodion
lights, camera…sit still please!
I’ve now had the chance to properly test the UV lights for making portraits indoors. I absolutely love the results and the feeling that I can work indoors with wet plate over the winter is disturbingly satisfying
I’ve so far set up in three places to make portraits – and have not cooked or even par boiled any of my subjects under the UV lights. Result!!
My first victim was my step dad Ian – and I need to say a big thanks to Alan at Calumet in Glasgow for letting me set up in their back warehouse area. It was ideal – I could reverse the van right up to the roller shutter door and work away without any distractions. AND without constantly looking up at the sky to judge when the sun was going to disappear – or re-appear. Actually working outdoors it’s the wind which has caused me the most difficulty. It might be fair enough to ask someone to sit still for 10-15 seconds but if the wind is moving the camera it’s pointless.
I used one big softbox with 8 UV lamps as my main light source and the smaller with 6 lamps as a fill.
With this set up my exposure times were still pretty long – between 15 & 20 seconds depending on the bellows draw but I’m sure I’ll be able to bring them down by extending the development time a bit. I’m also still looking for a faster lens but they keep going for crazy money on ebay.
Here are some of the results: -
There’s movement in the second one which I don’t really like – and I scratched the first one removing it from the drying rack, so despite loving the lights I’m not very happy with the end results.
The next day I set up in my tiny living room with the smaller softbox and a reflector and asked my father in law Peter round. I moved the lights in a bit closer and made a much cleaner plate without scratches or movement. At 15 seconds exposure and slightly longer development time it looks overexposed.
This is good news – I think I’ve been overexposing and under-developing the plates. Next time round I’m going to cut back on the exposure times and see what happens.
Now, in response to the post “losing Colin” I’ve had a few messages about varnishing. I set about trying to make a short video of me varnishing these plates to answer the queries – BUT it’s clear that I’m not quite at the talking whilst I varnish stage yet : – ) I set up the video camera and got to work and before I realised it I had finished varnishing about eight plates and when standing back to admire my handy work, whilst scratching my backside, remembered about the camera. I’ll try and do a voice over and cut out the scratching scene next week.
Since making these plates I’ve had another day’s experimenting with the lights at the ARGO boxing club. It went really well with good results experimenting with shorter exposures and longer development times. Once they’re dry I’ll scan them and post them up.
Cheers
David
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Tags: portrait, scotland, tintype, wet plate collodion
yana
I first met Yana in 2004. I had been travelling and taking photos a lot in Russia and during a visit to Moscow met a woman called Anja Teltschik who was visiting from Ukraine.
In Moscow I had managed to blag a few weeks crashing in a guest house owned by an NGO. At the time I was developing work I had been making with heroin addicts in Scotland and was making my way to Siberia to see if I could find out more about detention centres for drug addicts which I had read about in the UK. Anyway – that’ll be for another story.
Anja became a good friend and she invited me to come to Ukraine and stay on her sofa if I ever wanted to. A few months later I was there in Kyiv exploiting Anja’s hospitality but after a few weeks I headed south to the black sea port of Odessa. As this was my first trip to Ukraine I didn’t really have fixed plans, I just made contact with people, said hello and they introduced me to other people and so it went on.
I really liked Odessa, in parts it’s like Paris with beautiful tree lined avenues with cafe’s in the sunshine. Down towards the port at the famous Potemkin Steps there’s a boulevard with young couples cuddling, enjoying a beer or shopping at some market stalls. Everyone seems oblivious to the kids that are skulking about in the shadows. At first sight I thought the kids had been mutilated to remove an arm – maybe to make it easier to beg- but on closer examination I could see that the missing arm was in fact tucked up under their jumpers holding a bag of glue or solvent close to the mouth. I sat for a very long time watching as these kids hardened and street wise hussled each other, and looked for anything they could steal or use to earn a crust that day. Some of them looked as young as six and all of them were wasted on glue. I followed them a while and saw them grab a ride on the back of a trolley bus.
A day or so later my curiosity about these kids led me to meet a woman named Raisa, and her friend Dima. They both struck me as amazing people who devote their lives and their very tiny home to caring for kids living on the streets. They offered to take me to the kids at the Potemkin Steps, who they knew to be living at the nearby Pioneer Park.
Yana and the main group of kids were living almost on top of each other in a tiny dilapidated shed type building, directly underneath the boulevard where courting couples are enjoying a beer in the sunshine. It was utterly hideous. The children I saw at the steps had shocked me deeply, but they were the able bodied ones that could manage to venture out of this hell hole that existed in Pioneer Park. The younger kids aged from 6-10 buzz glue and watch on as their peers inject a lethal homemade concoction of Trifed or Ephedrine nasal decongestants and water. The cheap tablets are bought over the counter and ground down to a powder before being mixed with water to make a thick brown paste. From this paste is drawn a yellow liquid, via a cigarette filter, which contains the adrenalin from the tablet.
The yellow liquid is injected causing an immediate rush of adrenalin which lasts no longer than a minute before the child begins to feel very low and vulnerable. The depression and abrupt return to the reality of life leaves them craving another injection.
The injections lead to brain aneurysms and a speedy deterioration of the central nervous system. This results in the children very quickly losing the ability to speak and for their feet and hands to turn inwards making balance and mobility almost impossible.
During this first of many visits to Ukraine I spent weeks documenting this group of children. In all this time Yana never once spoke to anyone and it was a struggle even to get her to smile. She cried a lot in between the drug induced stupors and I watched on as she slowly faded away. She was covered in abscesses which made the injection process torturous. At times her friends held her down to give her the injection she craved.
My time, on this occasion, came to an end and I said goodbye to the group who had welcomed me to stay with them. I knew I would be back but sadly Yana didn’t live long enough for me to see her again. About eight weeks after these pictures were taken Yana’s mobility had become a big problem. One very cold morning she dragged herself out of the bunker she called home and was found later that day frozen to death in a doorway. It had been 25 degrees below freezing.
From what I know of Yana she came to Odessa from Moldova at the age of 11 after her mother had been imprisoned for theft. Her father had died of TB and left alone in the world she made for the city of Odessa to look for help. She died two years later aged 13.
UNICEF Photo of the Year 2005
Yana’s story is heartbreaking, but not unique. There are thousands of young children living on the streets and in the sewers underground in Ukraine, and most other parts of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The numbers of street kids have swollen so much in recent years that the word “Besprizorniki” has been brought back into circulation. Meaning “the neglected ones” Besprizorniki was a word used to describe the orphans of war following WW I and the Russian Revolution.
In addition to the obvious threats of injecting Trifed or Ephedrine the sharing of needles amongst street kids has resulted in an explosion of HIV in Ukraine. A local NGO called the Way Home has found infection rates to be as high as 75% amongst groups of street children they have been able to test.
You can reach the Way Home in Odessa here: – office@wayhome.org.ua
Filed under: stories | 4 Comments
Tags: alpha fund, channel 4, photojournalism, street children of ukraine, yana
when it all goes wrong!
I’ve not really been happy with the plates I’ve been making lately – and not really been sure what’s been wrong.
I think all of my chemistry was becoming tired, and most importantly my approach had become a little bit sloppy. Maybe not sloppy – I think I had started to rush the individual steps you need to take.
Pouring the collodion too quick resulting in spills which contaminate the back of the plate. Loading the plate into the silver bath before the collodion sets, resulting in strange patterns and swirls on the surface of the plate.
My developer pour had also become slightly unpredictable resulting in what looks like a strange claw coming from the left hand side to grab the subject of the portrait.
It can be really frustrating when you’re getting such bad results – especially when you’ve got people waiting patiently to see the amazing plates you’re going to produce. Or not.
I decided to call a halt to making plates and spent a full day filtering my chemistry and maintaining the silver bath. I double filtered all my developer and potassium cyanide fixer. I also filtered the silver bath into a glass jar and sat it in front of 2 powerful UV lights for a day. With a paper filter over the top of the jar the silver bath can breath and all organic material in it turns black and drops to the bottom, or is found embedded in the filter. After another couple of filters I was set to try another few plates to see if I was cured.
Before I did this I also tidied out the van and hoovered it – and this proved to be a really bad idea. My wife caught me and now knows that I do understand how the hoover works! : – )
Anyway, I decided on a couple of non moving subjects to test the chemistry and managed to make a couple of very clean plates. The maintenance has worked – but the most important lesson I learned was never to rush the process.
I also managed to test the UV light’s I’ve finished making – and absolutely loved them. Indoors under window light my exposure times have been 8-10 minutes but with one converted softbox housing 6 UV lamps my exposure time was 25 seconds.
The next step is to try the converted softboxes for use indoors on a portrait. Calumet in Glasgow have kindly agreed to let me into their back warehouse area to try them. I’ll post the results as soon as I can.
Cheers
David
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Tags: portrait, tintype, wet plate collodion
losing colin
My mate Colin came round on his Triumph the other week and I managed to twist his arm into a portrait.
It all went really well and I made three plates that I really liked :-
I really loved the last one – the tight portrait, and I left the plates sitting in my darkroom to dry before varnishing them.
Now I really love varnishing plates – but it is one of the stages in the process where things can go horribly, and irreversibly, wrong. It is a very technique driven process – that I haven’t mastered yet 
There are lots of different methods but I’m trying to do it as it would have been done in the 1800′s. This involves heating the back of the plate over a spirit lamp until it becomes just about too hot to hold. You then pour a lavender oil varnish into the middle of the plate, and flow it to the edges, lifting to drain it at the last corner.
The varnish is made from oil of lavender, gum sandarac and 190 proof alcohol. So it smells great but is highly flammable which can be a bit of a problem as after you have drained the plate you need to bring it back to the horizontal and re-heat it over the flame until the varnish just starts to smoke. This sets it and protects the collodion – for hundreds of years – OR if you get it wrong and set it on fire it destroys it on the spot, so no pressure then!!
I’ve actually been really happy with my varnishing up to this point. At first I was getting lots of ridges and streaks due to re-heating and setting too soon, but seem to be getting better. I’ve only set two on fire!
On this occasion I had left the plates sitting for a day or so before working up the courage to heat them for varnish and when I picked up my favourite plate of Colin it had an outbreak of loft dust. No problem I’ll give it a wee blow with canned air. This didn’t shift the dust so I took a soft carbon fibre cleaner, for vinyl records, and gave it a light brush. I was almost crying as I watched what I presume to be silver turning to dust and be removed from the image. Actually I removed the image!!
I carried on and varnished anyway – just for the practice, but under the gloss coating Colin has been lost forever. Sorry mate!!
I didn’t even make a high res scan before I ruined it – at least I can re-shoot it.
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Tags: biker, portrait, scotland, tintype, wet plate collodion
carrying the sun
Now we don’t exactly get a lot of blinding UV sunshine in Scotland – which is what collodion needs. And, on the rare days we do it tends to be accompanied by wind. Not great for exposure times of between 10 and 30 seconds on a 10×8 plate camera. I now realise why a lot of people practicing the dark arts of wet plate live in California! Maybe we should move?
Now when I was buying my weed tent for conversion into a mobile darkroom – it occurred to me that these eco-lites that are used for growing plants are blue 6400k. After a bit of digging I discovered from some other crazy people that indeed these can be used to make portable UV light sources. How cool!!
After much deliberation – and frustration at wasted days due to bad weather – I’ve decided to convert a couple of huge softboxes to hold UV lamps.
I’ve had the softboxes for years – since the good old days when I actually got commissioned to make portraits and shoot fashion – and if it works I’ll be able to work indoors anytime. Actually the thought of being able to make plates anytime, and on demand, is really amazing!
I decided to modify the metal ring which used to attach the softboxes to bowens strobes: -
I laminated sheets of ply to make a packing piece which I bolted to this ring.
The ply packer projects into the softbox to enable me to fit ply grid for securing the lamp holders and cabling.
I’m not really sure how many lamps to put into each softbox. I think I’ll start with 6 in one and 4 in the other and see what exposure times are indoors. If I need more then I can add them – I’m just a bit worried about the possibility of cooking someone.
Colin – when you coming round for a portrait : – )
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Tags: scotland, tintype, uv lamps, wet plate collodion
