More Wet-plate

Tammie Malarich has been kind enough to send a scan of an ambrotype portrait taken at a recent fund-raising session at Community Darkroom in Rochester, NY. The original is on black lacquered aluminium and measures 3×4 inch.

Photography FAQs: Black-and-white

My new book on black-and-white photography in the ava essentials series was launched in the UK on Monday 17 November.

I am very pleased with the content and look of this book which is structured around the common questions asked about black-and-white photography on web forums, in magazines and on courses and workshops. The questions are based around 50 key topics and fall into eight sections covering everything from metering for black-and-white to presentation issues through printing conversion of colour images to black-and-white and filtration.

The UK price is £14.95 – the book goes on sale in America in January 2009 at $24.95. It is aimed at interested amateur photographers and all teachers of photography.

Wet-plate

I was delighted to be asked to sit for a wet-plate (collodion) portrait during my recent trip to America. Tammie Malarich – a friend and past-colleague from Rochester’s Community Darkroom – was offering to produce some 4×3 inch ambrotypes. She is currently teaching the technique at Community Darkroom in their alternative space, having recently finished her MFA. 

Bringing home a set of ambrotypes on aluminium plates – some mounted behind glass – caused a lot of interest at the security check-ins at every major airport we flew through. The finished items are lacquered with gum sandarac and lavender oil and still smell sweetly weeks after being varnished.

I’ll look into the possibilities of persuading Tammie to give a wet-plate workshop in the UK through my own PhotoWorkshops Partnership – anyone interested get in touch through the blog or my website.

Visual Dictionary of Photography

So many books to write! I’m currently having fun working on a new title in ava’s academia Visual Dictionary series. These handsome case-bound pocket dictionaries provide over 250 key definitions with images on every page and a separate timeline. Publication will be at the back end of 2009.

Black-and-white in German

The German co-editions of my recent books on black-and-white photography are already announced. Addison Wesley’s translation of Working in Black-and-white has appeared with the German edition’s classy cover design. Photography FAQs: Black-and-white has appeared for pre-ordering in Austria and Germany in the Markt + Technik series – the UK edition is published later this month.