Queanbeyan

Garema Place

Heroes

Heroes never reveal themselves.

Skin Holes

Wet Plate Process

Invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, the wet plate process was a collodion-on-glass negative method. It was basically and emulsion of silver halides suspended in gelatin, involving exposing and processing the collodion before it dried.

It was the first practical way of obtaining permanant images on glass, which were of good quality and effectively grainless. Wet plate process proved to be quite inconvenient, as a whole darkroom set up would have to be taken everywhere. Also dirt and dust would be caught on the plate's sticky, adhesive surface. However, the process became an immediate success due to its low cost and high quality images produced, superseding daguerreotype and calotype.

The method used the following steps:

1. A solution of iodised collodion is poured onto a thoroughly cleaned glass plate. The liquid is spread evenly across the plate by gently tilting it backwards and forwards, allowing it to set enough for it to hold.The excess solution is poured back into a bottle.
2. A chemical reaction occurs when the plate is then immersed in a silver nitrate solution, forming both silver iodide and silver bromide crystals.
3. The plate is then exposed for about 15 seconds (depending on subject and lighting conditions) in the camera using a darkslide.
4. The plate is then transferred to a solution of water, iron sulfate, acetic acid and alcohol, therefore allowing it to develop.
5. After this, the plate is fixed in hypo, washed and finally dried.
   

Albumen paper was used to contact print a finished negative, creating a lantern slide. In normal temperature conditions, the photographer would have had approximately 20 minutes to coat, expose and process a plate. In cold conditions time was shorter, and the collodion had to be warmed to be able o be poured out of the bottle. In hot conditions, the solution would often take longer to set sufficiently on the plate.

Theodore Roosevelt on broken glass, taken between 1890-1910

References:

- (No author) 1984, ICP encyclopaedia of photography, Pound Press, New York

- Wikipedia, Collodion process, viewed 9 August 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion_process

Ending Start

Ending Start

All this that is more than a wish is a memory

All this that is ceases to be

All is revealed

The obvious door opens nothing

Nothing, nothing, nothing left

Nothing left to chance

When you try to see, we'll watch you

When you try to leave, we'll keep you

When you should be dreaming, we'll wake you

But don't scream, we'll make you swallow your words

Gave them our reactions, our explosions all that was ours

For graphs of passion and charts of stars

Gave them our reactions, our explosions all that we are

For graphs of passion and charts of stars

How ending starts

Ending starts with answers

(Lyrics by Metric)

Jabberwocky