From: Robert W. Schramm (schrammrus@hotmail.com)
Date: 04/10/00-07:20:18 PM Z
I think the gentleman was confused. The plates have to be developed
and fixed before the emulsion hardens. Collodian is basicly nitrocelluose
i.e. a plastic and impervious to water when hardened.
I suppose it would eventually deteriorate like old time movie film
but certainly not for a while.
The plate was coated with yhe collodian mix, dunked in silver nitrate
solution, put in the camera while wet, exposed, developed and fixed right
away. Hence the term "wet plate process."
The prints were made later after the plate was dry.
The process is described in "Keepers of Light."
Bob Schramm
>From: Suzanne Izzo <izzos@gusun.georgetown.edu>
>Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>To: list <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
>Subject: Carlton Watkins: collodion, albumen
>Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 13:22:30 -0400 (EDT)
>
>A wonderful exhibit of albumen prints by Carleton Watkins is on view at
>the National Gallery of Art through May 7. I've been down to see it
>twice now and have a couple questions:
>
>1. I've been wanting to do some albumen printing for some time mostly
>because of how beautiful I find the early work like that of Watkins.
>It occurred to me, however, that perhaps the look that I like so much is
>not due solely to the albumen process but rather to the combination of the
>collodion plate and the albumen paper. Is it possible to get the same
>look with a silver negative?
>
>2. Yesterday I went to the gallery talk on the Watkins exhibit. The
>tour leader admitted at the beginning that he was an art historian not
>a photographer and so wouldn't be able to answer technical questions.
>(I had assumed as much, so I wasn't surprised.) He did, however, give
>a brief description of collodion plates and albumen paper. He mentioned
>that the plates had to be used before they dried, and went on to say
>that as a result only 4 or 5 prints could be made there in the field
>(the small number of prints contributing to the scarcity of the prints).
>Then the photographer would scrape off the emulsion and reuse the glass.
>I interjected that while the plate had to be exposed before drying the
>prints could be made later. He said no, that that was what he had read
>and that the "negative" deteriorated on drying and produced inferior
>prints.
>No point in arguing since although I have seen the excellent demonstration
>by Scully and Osterman, I have never used collodion plates myself.
>Looking in books back home, I find nothing to suggest that the plates
>must be printed before drying although they do need to be processed
>immediately. Perhaps I was reading between the lines, but I always
>understood that the photographers lugging around the huge mammoth plates
>in the American west took them back to the studio to print.
>Could someone who knows the process comment?
>
>Thanks, Suzanne
>
Check out my web page at:
http://www.geocities.com/schrammr1/schramm_studioa.htm
also look at:
http://www.wlsc.wvnet.edu/www/pubrel/photo.html
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