Universal iris clamp

I just wanted to share this very versatile camera part with you.
It is called universal iris clamp or lens chuck.
They are available in different sizes.
The problem with lenses is that many of them are missing the lens flange. That makes it almost impossible to mount on a lens plate.
These clamps have very stiff aperture blades which makes it able to hold different sizes of lenses without using a lens flange. Most of the time these clamps are made of aluminium.

This beautiful clamp, made of brass, can hold lenses with a diameter from 2,5 cm up to 9,5 cm and up to a weight of aprox 2 kilo without any problem!

(BTW, this one is not for sale !)

Opening ECW exhibition

Last Thursday we had the opening of the ECW exhibition. This exhibition contains work from Alexey Alexeev, Fabrice Pejout, Went & Navarro, Mémé Bartels and me.
The printscwill be shown untill the ECW weekend at 14/15th of April.

During that weekend  also some original plates will be shown by the makers !

Thanks to Arjen Went and Ben van Os for sharing these pictures.

Master classes with Luther Gerlach are fully booked !!

The masterclasses with Luther Gerlach during the first European Collodion weekend are fully booked !
That is just great as it was a real gamble we took organizing this weekend as it was based on non profit.
Thanks to all who believed in and supported this project from the beginning on.

Tomorrow, march 15th, is the opening of the exhibition.
Showing work of the 6 photographers who will do demonstrations also during the ECW.

Many Thanks and maybe see you  tomorrow or during the ECW,
Alex

Flyers for the European Collodion weekend

The flyers for the European collodion weekend have arrived!
Nice to see everybody's work on a flyer.
Almost all prints for the exhibition are made. Now the framing starts.....
Loads of work to do iduring the evenings this week.
Masterclasses from Luther are almost fully booked. Just a few places left !!

Opening exhibition coming Thursday at 17:00 hours

Collodion weekend April  15th/16th

My first solo exhibition

Some time ago Rob ten Tusscher from Fotogalerie Objektief contacted me if i might be interested in a solo exhibition for my wet plate work.
That oppertunity i took with both hands !

I was a he.. of a job framing everything but for me it was worth every minute.
Yesterday early in the morning, my friend Ferry and me drove to Enschede to be sure everything was ready in time.
At 4 o'clock we opened te exhibition which will last untill March 31.

It also was the first time i showed my 20 x 20" plates. I can tell you, they look just great hanging on a wall.
Many, many thanks to all who made this possible. But most of all i want to thank the visitors from who some had a long drive just to visit my exhibition !

Ready for the exhibition

(almost) everything is framed for my exhibition in Enschede.
Varnished my last 20x20" plate yesterday and is ready to mount this afternoon.
Thats what they call "just in time".......

This last one is also my all time favourite. Had a shoot before this one , and nothing but troubles. I even had a small flood in my darkroom. Bit of panic at that time.

Took a drink (limonade....), cleaned a plate, poured, et Voila.....
A plate of my "little" girl

This one is incredibly sharp. Unbilievable that such an old handmade lens can produce such details wide open.

20 x 20"black glass ambrotype
7 secs exposure time
Voigtlander 24"4.5 ( incredible lens !!)
Rapid fixer