Vernacular ambrotype

Came across this great ambrotype at the Science and Society Picture Library. It looks like they are having a picnic, perhaps.

JL

And a warm round of applause, please, for Tammie!

We would like to welcome Tammie Malarich, fellow collodiac and friend, to our ranks. As you may recall from Jenn's post on our brief history, Tammie has really been around since the beginning. We are pleased as punch to have her officially join us here and we think you will be too! We are positive her talent, wisdom, and sense of humour are sure to delight and you will look forward to all she posts. Welcome Tammie!

Warmly,
hf & JL

Tammie at Penland, Session 5, Summer 2008
Ruby Ambrotype, 3" x 4"

Defunct

Cover Image: Wet-plate Collodion Photogram on black glass
  Quarter Plate (4¼“ x 3¼“)

I thought I would take just a few moments to share a little about something I have been up to these past few weeks. I don't know how many of you know about Defunct Magazine, but it is a pretty cool online publication. In their own words:

Our far-flung contributors have interpreted “defunctness” in their own often idiosyncratic ways and have brought back the dead, salvaged the past, revealed their obsessions as writers do.  We hope you’ll enjoy their fine review/essays on defunctness, as we have, and that you’ll pass along the word of this new and unique literary journal to your friends. 

I first heard of Defunct Magazine back in January after Talk of Iowa, the local NPR station, had a story about it back on January 23rd. A friend of mine from the Center for the Book, who is also an extremely talented writer and is also on the editorial board at Defunct, encouraged me to contact the Art Director (who as it turns out, I also had a class with at the Center...) to inquire about submitting images to the magazine. To make what I could easily turn into a long story maybe just a little bit shorter, after some correspondence, I was oh-so-pleased to be invited to be their first featured artist. 


I have had a great time completing this "assignment", if you will, and am very honored to have had the opportunity to contribute to a publication that is all about "defunctness" - a way of life for me! I encourage you all to read the amazing essays (and check out my images while your at it!), not just in this issue, but in back issues as well as future ones. In fact, I think it's best if you just subscribe!


Defunctly,
hf

A Brief History

Once upon a time in Rochester, NY, two lives intersected at the Visual Studies Workshop. Jenn Libby and Heather Wetzel met as grad students and came to realize they were kindred spirits who shared a love for things old and well-crafted. Both artists preferred making things with their hands, in ways that some people thought were inefficient (why not use a filter in Photoshop to make it look old), aesthetically displeasing (why would you want a photograph with imperfections), or impractical (why use wet-plate when it is so labor intensive and messy). Despite the naysayers, they pursued antiquated processes in their artmaking endeavors and continue to do so.

In 2005, they created the laboratorium to promote these processes. They rented studio space at VSW, spruced it up, and started promoting ambrotype portraits. Their first customers were a group of students from the Photographic Preservation and Collection Management program at Ryerson University and George Eastman House. These were people who knew what an ambrotype was and recognized a rare opportunity to be immortalized on glass.

Heather built ingenious portable darkrooms and the labortorium became mobile. One of their initial traveling portrait endeavors was the first Artist Row at the Rochester Public Market. In 2007 they traveled to Whitesburg, Kentucky to participate in the annual Seedtime on the Cumberland festival. Ambrotypes proved to be a hit with the bluegrass crowd and they worked non-stop making portraits that day.

the laboratorium's biggest accomplishment during it's brief existence was Past is Present – an exhibition of work by 43 artists who employed historic photographic processes. It was on view in the Aaron Siskind Gallery at the Visual Studies Workshop in the fall of 2006. Friend and fellow collodiac, Tammie Malarich, designed a fabulous, hand-bound catalog for the exhibition which sold out.

So there you have it. A history in a nutshell of the laboratorium. Now let's move on.

-JL

Heather and Jenn at the 1st Annual Artist Row at the Rochester Public Market.

Postcard for the Past is Present Exhibit