Dried Seedheads

Drawing inspiration from Josef Sudek, Karl Blosfledt, Edward Weston, Charles Jones, Albert Renger-Patzsch and Bernd & Hilla Becher this work celebrates the beauty of the mundane and imperfect.

This work is one of series in which, by selection, isolation and careful lighting, simple plant forms take on unexpected and sometimes ambiguous characteristics.

Josef Sudek inspires with his selection of the mundane and beautiful lighting. Karl Blosfeldt’s isolation of the subject. Edward Weston’s creation of abstraction. Charles Jones for his honest representation of his garden produce. Albert Renger-Patzsch with his work on “You before the Object” and Bernd & Hilla Becher by the impact of their typologies.

Each image is an “Ambrotype”; A photograph on glass, hand-made by pouring, draining, dunking, developing, washing and preserving with a variety of chemicals which is  the wet-plate collodion process. It was invented by an Englishman Frederick Scott-Archer in 1852 and as its name suggests the photographic plate is wet – and has to remain wet. Therefore the time frame for re-composing, shooting and processing is short, some 10-15 minutes.

A long exposure time is needed as the plates react slowly to light. I love the way the image changes as you walk past it and the light catches and interacts with the different layers and crystals of silver metal that make up the image. 

Its great to use the  photographic technology contemporary to the antique bellows cameras l have. I particularly like the way the process will generate marks and swirls that add to the uniqueness, depth and charm of the image.

With many stages in the process there is lots to go wrong – but that is the challenge! It also adds value to each successful picture. 

Buying these images you are getting so much more than a digital file – its a solid, precious metal, hand-crafted celebration of beauty to treasure.