19th Century Photographic Techniques: Collodion, Albumen, Oil Print

About

'Dorota Dawidowicz - lives and works in Warsaw. The subjects of her photographs are people – their beauty, emotions and surroundings they live in. Large format cameras are her usual choice ….  The collection of photographs included in this exhibition were created in 2011-2012 and titled "Wonder years". This collection was presented at the first edition of the photographic competition “Projekt Przetwórnia” in 2013. The competition organised in Krakow by Tomasz Gudzowaty, internationally recognised photographer. It was awarded first place. To achieve the “memory like” images, Dorota mastered the nineteenth century silver wet collodion technique. A technique that requires: understanding the process, chemistry and light, patience and most of all love for people and photography. The exposure time ranges from seconds to several minutes. The process (pouring, allergy, exposure, calling) must be completed within 15-20 minutes - the covering plate, collodion layer, has to be wet during the process; once it dries further chemical treatment is not possible.

Please find links to the exhibitions that were organised for this work in Poland in 2013/2014:

https://www.szerokikadr.pl/inspiracje/dorota-dawidowicz

http://www.projektprzetwornia.com/dokumentacja-wystawy-projektu-przetwornia/

In her own words:   "My journey through life has to slow down especially when I make yet another attempt to preserve more beautiful images and hopefully materialise my emotions in a form that some  can understand without words. During these journeys my beloved cameras and equipment is my companion. Their weight equals my own … it really is slow at times … nonetheless effort is worth every drop of my sweat …always."

Janusz Witkowski – lives and works in Poznan, Poland.  The photographs included in this exhibition are developed in albumen technique.  Janusz dedicated years of experiments to mastering the albumen technique; now he can be proud of the high standards of his photographs. His works can be appreciated not only for their artistic beauty but also the technical skills used to overcome challenges when developing albumen images in larger formats. The size of the photographs is 40x50cm.

He also works with other 19th century techniques such as calotype, Van Dyke Brown, collodion and recently carbon print, with  very interesting results. His works were exhibited in number of galleries in Poland.

In his own words:

"I have always photographed … possibly I would dedicate my life to this passion entirely if I wasn’t brought up in Poland decades ago. On one hand it is rather regrettable and on the other a blessing. It was only me who decided what to photograph and which technique to use ... that makes me smile. I chose albumen as favourite technique, I hope, I can say I mastered it to a high standard. I find the type of images that it produces very romantic, absorbing imagination and beautiful; touching my nostalgic Slavic soul I guess. They somehow make me wonder …."

Janusz Sochacki –lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. His passion for photography began when his father helped him build a pinhole camera out of a carton box …it was truly magical…; ever since photography played a big part in his life. Over many years Janusz mastered the late XIX century oil print technique. This process was fully established in the early XX century and it gave the photographer the power of control over the result. For the first time any part of the image could be strengthened, subdued or even eliminated. No other printing process before had offered this level of control over the results of a skilful and artistic photographer ...Janusz believes this is still the case. Janusz reconstructs the images from  XX century glass plates negatives, in a quest to re-tell the story and beauty locked in the photographs. Over the years his works have been presented at many exhibitions and galleries. Works included in this exhibition were first presented as part of the series “Whom do you belong to you my child?”  These were presented in galleries in Poland last year.

In his own words:

"A challenge to reproduce old images of people and places that were and had gone long time ago intrigues me. The process of „resurrecting” the images will never cease to fascinate me. I can only hope that this passion will bring others the same joy”