Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Posted on May 30, 2013 - by Kate
Wetplate Photography Event at Lancaster
21st June 2013 12:30 pm 5:00 pm
Lecture Theatre 3, Furness College, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YG
- 12.30 pm onwards, Furness: Tea, coffee and soft drinks served.
- 1pm – 1:30 pm, Furness LT3: Introductory talks about spirit photographs, post-mortem photography and cartes de visite by Dr Catherine Spooner, who specialises in Gothic literature and culture and Victorian literature and portraiture specialist, Dr Kamilla Elliot. Alternative Photography expert and artist John Brewer will discuss the wetplate collodion process.
- 1:30 pm – 5 pm, Furness LT3: John Brewer and Dr Kate Horsley (writer and wetplate artist) will take portraits for the rest of the afternoon.
Posted on February 10, 2013 - by Kate
Review of Vanitas Exhibition
Many thanks to Melissa Tricoire for this lovely review of John Brewer’s and my exhibition at the Double Negative Darkroom, Hackney!
Here’s an extract -
“Magic emanates from Brewer’s still lifes, creating a theatre of curiosities with human skulls, candles, medical instruments, tarot cards and other memento mori. The photographer’s series of acrylotype plates entitled Fragmented Dolls is remarkable for its artistry and kookiness. In these fascinating portraits, we see star dolls pre-dating the seventies made of porcelain or cheap plastic. But their rosebud cheeks, smiling faces and blinking eyes have long been lost – the toys of old now only present a decaying form covered with cracks and chips, bathing in spookiness and grotesqueness.
Vanitas also showcases pieces by writer and artist Kate Horsley, whose multi-media art mixes literature and photography. Her tintypes merge with altered books and her wooden peep boxes create a series of uncanny literary tableaux where the viewer is captivated by such fantastical creatures as a baby-headed spider, flying dolls and stuffed animals.” Read more…
Posted on December 8, 2012 - by Kate
Vanitas Exhibition
An exhibition of unique photographic plates by John Brewer & Kate Horsley
8th December 2012 – 12th January 2013 at the Double Negative Darkroom
78a Glyn Road, Hackney, London E5 0JE; Launch event 8th December 2012
Growing out of the memento mori tradition of Renaissance Europe, vanitas is a genre of art that contemplates the transient nature of life. Common symbols include skulls, rotten fruit, bubbles, smoke, watches, and hourglasses, all symbolizing the brevity of life and suddenness of death. In a series of unique photographic plates, historical photographic artist John Brewer juxtaposes the traditional still life compositions of the Dutch masters with haunting contemporary interpretations, challenging our perceptions of ancient and modern, the living and the dead. Writer and artist Kate Horsley merges tinted plates with the altered book and wooden peep-box, creating a series of secret tableaux, each one an intimate, private viewing.
Posted on August 11, 2012 - by Kate
Wet Plate Collodion
Today, Sam and I completed the first day of John‘s excellent course in wet plate collodion at his studio. His studio is filled with a cornucopia of curious objects, large format cameras and Victorian lenses. During the course, we made images on tin, glass and plastic. Wet plate collodion is fantastic fun as well as being a beautiful artistic medium. I can really recommend the course to anyone interested in photography.
Here’s a video of John at work from fab alternative photography site, Film’s Not Dead.
Posted on June 8, 2012 - by Kate
The Bièvres Camera Fair 2012
The 2012 Bièvres Camera Fair was an illuminating experience (as well as a great excuse to spend a week in Paris!). Here’s an extract from my article about the fair from alternative photography site, Film’s Not Dead:
Jean-Claude © John Brewer
The 49th Bièvres International Photo Fair took place this year on Saturday June 2nd and Sunday June 3rd in Place de la Mairie, Bièvres, France. Created in 1964 by Jean and André Fage, the fair quickly became a major attraction. Each year, thousands of visitors from all over the world travel 12km south of Paris to what has been nicknamed a mecca for camera collectors and fans of vintage photography.
On a sunny morning in the beginning of June, we arrived by train to the town of Bièvres near Versailles and climbed the hill to the mairie, a large green space divided into avenues and surrounded by trees, where the Fair had been organized by the Photo Club de Paris Val-de-Bièvre. Stall-holders were still constructing the frames for makeshift blue and white awnings which would shelter their merchandise from the sun. This included an assortment of rare lenses, vintage cameras, light meters, plate holders, plate racks, printing frames, old books and photographs, vintage cameras, lens and accessories, old books and pictures. Other vendors laid onto rugs thrown down on the grass and a few people walked around with cardboard signs taped to their rucksacks, advertising individual cameras they wanted to sell.
As midday approached, the fair filled with collectors and photographers hunting for new acquisitions, haggling for the right price and trading rare equipment. The varied treasures of the stalls ranged from large format wooden cameras and Petzval lenses dating from the 19th century to the latest digital cameras and everything in between; magic lanterns and boxes of hand-painted slides, a range of images printed on paper, tin and glass, Daguerreotypes, orotypes, family albums (some in tiny leather-bound books with their miniature portraits cut into ovals and pasted between leaves of card), postcards, Victorian erotica and beautiful gum bichromate prints, cyanotypes and Van Dyke Browns. Stereo photography has always been popular in France (from antique wooden stereo cameras to digital stereo camera rigs) and so there was a striking range of stereo viewers, cards and cameras for sale as well.
Magic Lanterns © John Brewer
The fair is an inclusive event and you don’t have to be a photographer to enjoy it – graphic designers, illustrators, writers, collectors, second-hand dealers, antique-hunters and photo-fans come here, swelling the numbers to 15000 visitors from Britain, Germany, the USA, Russia, Japan. Although by all accounts, this year both numbers and sales were down. Stall-holder Jean-Claude de Guyenro from the Parisian suburb of Antony has been coming to Bièvres for forty years “since the beginning”. When asked about his sales at this year’s fair, he replied that they were très moyen compared to other years, for a number of reasons: too much for sale; too old a clientèle; too many amateurs and not enough connoisseurs buying. Wetplate artist and tutor John Brewer commented that there were “a lot fewer quality brass lenses than in previous years, because the number of people who are now interested in wetplate and using early lenses because of the beautiful signature they give.”
About Me
I'm a writer and artist living in Manchester and I've had poems and stories published in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Storyglossia, Erbacce, Seventh Quarry, Ravenglass, Bliss and the Mammoth Books of Best British Crime. My debut novel is coming out in paperback and eBook in June 2014.
