Does this photography printing technique sound familiar to anyone?
i went to a creative arts festival today and i saw a style of photography ive never seen before (im not an expert on photography or humanities). the artist imposed the picture on a sheet of glass so that you had to see through the glass to see the image. the front of the sheet was cut with grooves that refracted the light and made the image appear to shimmer and flicker in a beautiful way.
does this sound familiar to anyone and if so, can you give me more information on this technique? for the sake of a humanities paper. thanks!
There is a antiquated photo technique known as wet plate collodion which was used back in the mid 19th century all the way up until the first part of the 20th century. A photo sensitive emulsion was poured onto a sheet of glass and then exposed and developed while still moist. Now you mentioned that there was a front sheet, meaning that more than one sheet of glass was used which makes sense. When you do wet plate collodions it is really important that the glass is as free from defects as possible, grooves or scratches would make the pouring process a living nightmare(trust me I have tried collodion, and it is by far one of the hardest techniques I have tried. Dagguereotypes especially using the Bequerrel process is much easier) Anyhow it sounds like the person sandwhiched over the top of the photo a sheet of etched glass, which is not standard practice in wet plate collodion, but the artists own touch of creativity. The only other process I could imagine this to be is a new type of Woodbury process using glass instead of porcelain, but without seeing the image, I couldnt tell you which process was used.
Posted in photography lighting techniques
December 28th, 2009 at 10:09 am
You had your chance to ask about it right there at the festival! Was the artist there? You could have asked them what it’s called and any other questions you have about it.
I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds interesting, and if I ever see someone display it, I will definately ask them about it.
References :
December 28th, 2009 at 10:37 am
There is a antiquated photo technique known as wet plate collodion which was used back in the mid 19th century all the way up until the first part of the 20th century. A photo sensitive emulsion was poured onto a sheet of glass and then exposed and developed while still moist. Now you mentioned that there was a front sheet, meaning that more than one sheet of glass was used which makes sense. When you do wet plate collodions it is really important that the glass is as free from defects as possible, grooves or scratches would make the pouring process a living nightmare(trust me I have tried collodion, and it is by far one of the hardest techniques I have tried. Dagguereotypes especially using the Bequerrel process is much easier) Anyhow it sounds like the person sandwhiched over the top of the photo a sheet of etched glass, which is not standard practice in wet plate collodion, but the artists own touch of creativity. The only other process I could imagine this to be is a new type of Woodbury process using glass instead of porcelain, but without seeing the image, I couldnt tell you which process was used.
References :