Thank you to all who joined us this past weekend during the Tintype Workshop with David Emitt Adams! Participants went through this process from start to finish, including preparing chemistry, coating and sensitizing your plate, creating successful exposures, and finishing and varnishing your plate. The results were incredible and displayed why the process of wet plate collodion tintypes has been cherished since the 1850s.
Join us during this open studio for participants of past Wet Plate Collodion Tintype Workshops at Art Intersection wanting dedicated time to practice tintypes under the assistance of David Emitt Adams. David will be available to answer questions and help you create your own tintypes.
Tintype plates (aluminum) for this open lab day must be purchased at Art Intersection, 4″x 5″ plates for $10 each or 8″ x 10″ plates for $25 each. These plates fit the carrier for the Art Intersection 4×5 and 8×10 cameras. Wet plate chemistry is included in the price of the metal plates.
The lab includes the use of soft box continuous lighting in the studio.
Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, our ninth-annual, international juried exhibition of images created using traditional darkroom and historical and alternative photographic processes and methods. In the current trend of imagery presented on computer screens and the overwhelming volume of digitally printed pictures, Light Sensitive reaffirms and promotes the art of handcrafted prints that uniquely belong to the tradition of light sensitive creative processes.
As our juror this year we are honored to have Christopher James, University Professor and Director of the MFA program in Photography and Integrated Media at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Awards for Light Sensitive
First place $350
Second palce $250
Third place $150
Three honorable mentions
Art Intersection will pay return postage for individuals receiving one of the above awards and honorable mentions.
Acceptable Processes
Process include, but are not limited, to the following: silver gelatin prints, albumen, anthotype, argyrotype, athenatype, Bayard direct positive, calotype, carbon, casein, chrysotype, cyanotype, dusting-on process, gum bichromate, gumoil, Herschel’s breath printing, photopolymer gravure, Ivorytype, kallitype, mordançage, platinum/palladium, printing-out-paper, solarplate intaglio, van dyke brown, wet plate collodion, whey process, Ziatype, combinations of any of these processes, and all photographically based image-making techniques that incorporate traditional studio-based mediums such as printmaking, ceramics, or painting.
Both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work may be submitted.
Conventional, unmodified digital inkjet prints are not acceptable for entry; however, the use of digital negatives, created for printing any of the above processes is acceptable.
Important 2019 Dates
January 23 – Submit online with JPEG files and paid fee by midnight MT (GMT-7)
January30 – You will receive an email notification of selected Work
February 27 – Due Date for selected Work to be received and ready to install at Art Intersection
March 9 – Light Sensitive seven-week exhibition opens for viewing
March 16 – Light Sensitive Reception from 5 – 7pm, please join us!
April 27 – Light Sensitive closes at 6pm
April 25 – Local Work pick-up
May 2 – Return shipping of Work will begin
May 23 – Last Date to pick up or arrange shipment, after this date Work is considered abandoned
About the Juror
Christopher James is an internationally known artist and photographer whose photographs, paintings, and alternative process printmaking have been exhibited in galleries and museums in this country and abroad. His work has been published and shown extensively, including exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston. Represented by the Lee Witkin Gallery in New York City for over two decades he has also shown at Pace-McGill (NYC), Contrasts Gallery (London), Michelle Chomette (Paris), Hartje Gallery (Berlin), and Photokina (Germany). He has published extensively including Aperture, Camera (Switzerland), American Photographer, Solstice (for short fiction), and Interview magazine and in books such as The Antiquarian Avant Garde, á Prova de Aguà: Waterproof, Human Documents, and Handcrafted: The Art and Practice of the Handmade Print (China).
All three editions of his book, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, have received international critical acclaim and are universally recognized by artists, curators, historians, and educators as the definitive text in the genre of alternative process photography and photographically integrated media. A significantly expanded 900 page / 700 image, 3rd edition was published in 2015.
Christopher, after 13 years at Harvard University, is presently University Professor and Director of the MFA in Photography and Integrated Media program at Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. He received his undergraduate degree from Massachusetts College of Art and his masters from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is also a painter, graphic designer, author, and a professional scuba diver. Christopher offers individually customized alternative process workshops and portfolio consultations in his Dublin, NH studio. Christopher’s web site is www.christopherjames-studio.com
You can view images from Light Sensitive 2018 by clicking here.
Submissions for Light Sensitive 2018 are now closed. For more exhibition opportunities, please visit our Calls for Work page.
Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, an annual juried exhibition of images created using traditional and alternative photographic processes. Past work has included analog c-prints, platinum/palladium, cyanotype, gelatin silver, gum bichromate, wet plate collodion tintypes and ambrotypes, chemigrams, and other printing processes. Both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work may be submitted.
Art Intersection staff will select up to three artists from Light Sensitive to show additional work during the (re)View exhibition in 2018.
Important 2018 Dates
January 16 – Application with JPEG files and paid fee must be completed by midnight
January23 – You will receive an email notification of selected Work
February 20 – Due Date for selected Work to be received and ready to install at Art Intersection
March 10 – Light Sensitive Reception from 5 – 7pm, please join us!
April 21 – Light Sensitive closes at 6pm
April 26 – Local Work pick-up
May 3 – Return shipping of Work will begin
May 24 – Last Date to pick up or arrange shipment, after this date Work is considered abandoned
About the Juror
scott b. davis is an artist and founder of the Medium Festival of Photography. His photographs are created with wooden view cameras ranging in size from 8” x 10” to 16” x 20”. His photographs explore the Sonoran desert and ordinary urban spaces in the American landscape. davis’s photographic prints are made by hand using the exquisite 19th century process of platinum printing.
His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, the Village Voice, the New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and other print media. davis’s photographs have been collected by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Pier 24 in San Francisco, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museum of Photographic Arts, and others.
Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, an annual juried exhibition of images created using traditional and alternative photographic processes. Past work has included analog c-prints, platinum/palladium, cyanotype, gelatin silver, gum bichromate, wet plate collodion tintypes and ambrotypes, chemigrams, and other printing processes. Both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work may be submitted.
The Art Intersection curatorial staff will select three artists from Light Sensitive to show additional work during the (re)View exhibition in November 2017.
Click here: Light Sensitive 2017 to view the PDF Light Sensitive 2017 Submission Guidelines
Important 2017 Dates
January 23 (deadline extended): Application and JPEG submissions due
January 31: Notification of selected work
February 25: Selected work due at Art Intersection
March 4: Opening reception Saturday 6 – 8pm
April 15: Exhibition closes Saturday at 6pm
About the Juror
Ann M. Jastrab is currently the gallery director at RayKo Photo Center located in the SOMA arts district in San Francisco near SFMOMA and the Yerba Buena Arts Center. RayKo is a comprehensive photographic facility with rental darkrooms, digital labs, studio and galleries that has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years. RayKo Gallery serves to advance public appreciation of photography and create opportunities for regional, national and international artists to create and present their work. RayKo Gallery offers over 1600 square feet of exhibition space and presents eight to ten exhibitions yearly with many nationally recognized artists; there is also a section of the gallery called The Marketplace that is reserved for Bay Area artists and displays a wide variety of photographic work. RayKo also has a thriving artist-in-residence program.
Besides being a curator, Ann Jastrab, with an MFA degree, is a fine art photographer, master printer, and teacher as well. Ann has curated many exhibitions for RayKo as well as juried exhibitions for the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Artspan, SFAI, the Center for Fine Art Photography, and other national and international venues outside of San Francisco. She has reviewed portfolios at the Seoul International Photography Festival in Korea, FotoFest, Photolucida, GuatePhoto, Review Santa Fe, Review LA, PhotoAlliance (Our World), SPE, Medium, Palm Springs Photo Festival, Filter, Lishui International Photography Festival in China, and Click646 as well as being a juror for Critical Mass. She has also been teaching courses at the Maine Media Workshops (formerly the Maine Photographic Workshops) in Rockport, Maine since 1994.
Ann is always looking for new artists for the gallery, both for solo shows and group shows. She is most interested in seeing documentary projects, fine art photography, alternative processes/historical process work, and also work made with traditional film cameras as well as plastic and pinhole cameras. Ann is not interested in seeing work that is obviously digitally manipulated. Ann can offer exhibition opportunities as well as resident artist possibilities.
Application to Light Sensitive 2017 is now closed.
You can view images from Light Sensitive 2016 by clicking here.
Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, an annual juried exhibition of images created using traditional and alternative photographic processes. Past work has included analog c-prints, platinum, cyanotype, gelatin silver, gum bichromate, wet plate collodion tintypes, chemigrams, and other printing processes. We are honored this year to have Susan Burnstine as the juror for Light Sensitive.
The Art Intersection curatorial staff will select three artists from Light Sensitive to show additional work during the (re)View exhibition in December 2016.
Click here: Light Sensitive 2016 to view the PDF document Light Sensitive 2016 Submission Guidelines
Important 2016 Dates
January 11: Application and JPEG submissions due
January 23: Notification of selected work
February 20: Selected work due at Art Intersection
March 5: Opening reception from 6 – 8pm
April 16: Exhibition closes at 6pm
About the Juror
Susan Burnstine is an award winning fine art and commercial photographer originally from Chicago now based in Los Angeles. Susan is represented in galleries across the world, widely published throughout the globe, teaches workshops internationally and has also written for several photography magazines, including a monthly column for Black and White Photography Magazine (UK).
A couple of weeks ago, Art Intersection hosted a Wet Plate Collodion Tintype Workshop and Open Studio! Students were led by David Emitt Adams and assisted by Claire A. Warden, both experts in this captivating 19th century process. Wet plate collodion was among the first widely-used photographic processes, used predominantly during the Civil War era. The nature of the process requires that collodion be hand-poured on a blackened metal plate, sensitized with silver nitrate, and exposed, then back into developing and fixing baths before the coating dries – hence the process’s name. During the workshop, students got individualized help with their coating, exposure, and processing. The following day, artists attended the open studio for a chance to try the process on their own; David and Claire were on hand to help as needed.
For a proper exposure, wet plate collodion requires either very bright light or a long exposure. David has rigged a special chair designed to help portrait sitters keep very still during the exposure time of 6-8 seconds, much like the chairs and props 19th century photographers used.
The following weekend, David and Claire returned to take wet plate collodion studio portraits! Couples, families, and individuals made appointments to have their picture taken, 19th-century-style.
Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, an annual juried exhibition of images created using traditional and alternative photographic processes. Past work has included analog c-prints, platinum, cyanotype, gelatin silver, gum bichromate, wet plate collodion tintypes, chemigrams, and other printing processes. We are honored this year to have Susan Burnstine as the juror for Light Sensitive.
The Art Intersection curatorial staff will select three artists from Light Sensitive to show additional work during the (re)View exhibition in December 2016.
Click here: Light Sensitive 2016 to view the PDF document Light Sensitive 2016 Submission Guidelines
Important 2016 Dates
January 11: Application and JPEG submissions due
January 23: Notification of selected work
February 20: Selected work due at Art Intersection
March 5: Opening reception from 6 – 8pm
April 16: Exhibition closes at 6pm
About the Juror
Susan Burnstine is an award winning fine art and commercial photographer originally from Chicago now based in Los Angeles. Susan is represented in galleries across the world, widely published throughout the globe, teaches workshops internationally and has also written for several photography magazines, including a monthly column for Black and White Photography Magazine (UK).
Mid-ninteenth century tintype photography is experiencing a resurgence as photographers look for a unique aesthetic for portraiture and still life images.
David Emitt Adams led the weekend of tintype creativity starting with a free lecture on Friday evening, the all-day workshop on Saturday, and an open studio on Sunday.
Two stations with 4×5 cameras were setup, one for still life props and the other for portraits.
After the developer.
In the final wash before varnishing.
Warming up the plate before applying the varnish.
Exposures of 15 to 20 seconds require sitting very still – the head brace helps!
Pouring off the excess varnish of a portrait tintype.
Making sure everything is properly focused.
Here is a Graflex 4×5 with an aerial lens.
The next setup was a modified Holga and the tissue paper was used like a ground glass plate to check focus.