From: Suzanne Izzo (izzos@gusun.georgetown.edu)
Date: 04/14/00-08:41:42 AM Z
Yesterday I received a message from David Applegate, a photographer at
the National Gallery of Art, asking me to contact him about the Watkins
exhibit and my questions regarding collodion and albumen. I met him in
the afternoon, and he took me to the office of Connie McCabe, who is
Senior Photograph Conservator at the Gallery. Connie spent the next
hour sharing her vast knowledge of the old processes and early
photographers and showing us examples of collodion plates (varnished
and unvarnished) and albumen paper and prints. It was a priviledge to
be taken behind the scenes and to receive so much valuable information.
While I was at the Gallery, I gave a compilation of the messages I had
received from the list to the Watkins tour leader, who was glad to have
the extra information on the subject. As I hope I made clear in my
original post, the tour leader explicitly stated that he was not a
photographer and could not answer technical photographic questions.
His discussion of the aesthetics of Watkins' prints sharpened my own
appreciation of the work.
The National Gallery of Art is a wonderful resource. Obviously, those of
us who live here are better able to take advantage of the special exhibits
(which are always beautifully mounted), the library, the many lectures,
movies, gallery talks, programs for families and school children, etc.,
but art lovers around the world can benefit from their extensive research
and their excellent publications. To keep this more on topic, I might
mention that the Gallery has presented an increasing number of photography
exhibits in the past years with the Carlton Watkins show being only the
most recent.
Suzanne
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