Fantastic shoot in Belgium

 

Last year I met Johan Verhulst.
Johan is a talented Belgium photographer, specialized in large format nude photography.

He was interested in wet plate photography so he visited my small studio and we had some interesting discussions about photography and of course we made some very nice plates together.

At the end of the day he invited me to visit his home and do some nude wet plate.

It took some time before we could settle an appointment as we needed some good weather.

And we all know how long the winter season lasted this year.....

 

Last Tuesday we (Ferry and me) drove to Belgium and after 11/2 hours
driving we arrived at Johan's place.

 

Well, "a house and a garden" is an understatement.
Johan and his family live in a more than 200 years old beautiful house
pre owned by a famous brewer family.

And the garden is actually a park.
Filled with trees of more than 200 years old, a lake with white swans,
a small antique bridge and much much more.

You can imagine we had a fantastic day als also beautiful weather! 

 

Also many thanks to the Model, Ivory Flame, for being so patience with us!
http://www.ivoryflame.co.uk/

 

 

26x26cm ambrotype
Dallmeyer 5d at f6
exposure time 8 seconds

 

 

 

 

 

26x26cm ambrotype
Hermagis 360mm  at 4.5
exposure time 6 seconds

 

Holly, Johan and me.

Johan owns 9 dogs. Two of them somehow liked my car.........
They slept in the back of my car during the whole afternoon.

In the evening Ferry almost had to drag them out.

"Diamonds and Pearls"

More than a year ago Marc Lagrange contacted me and he asked me
if I was willing to tell him more about the wet plate collodion process.
Some weeks after our first contact Marc and his assistant Kim visited my
small studio and we had a very nice day.

As an admirer of his work it was a great day for me also.
During that gathering I made the enclosed portrait of him which
now is in back of  the book as his profile photo.
Since than some time passed as Marc was working on his new book, “Diamonds and pearls”
but last Saturday we ( Ferry vd Vliet and me) visited Marc’s beautiful studio
to make them start with wet plate. 

Tomorrow they will start making their own wet plates and I really hope
he will be able to make some great plates for his next book.

If you are interested in his work, just visit his website or buy his new book:
“Diamonds and Pearls”.

I can assure you, you won’t regret it!

 

 

 

 Marc Lagrange, holding his new book "Diamonds and Peals"
26x26 black glass ambrotype
Hermagis petzval 360mm 4.5
exposure time 2 seconds

 

Some pictures, made by Ferry, during last Saturday's shoot:

 

 

 

My "BIG" friend.

 

 

Already a few weeks ago we all were together at the European Collodion Weekend.

Loads of fun and fantastic weather. But to all nice things comes an end.

So I was already packing as Jacqueline Roberts son Emrys came to me and asked me

if I wanted to make a picture of him....

 

How could I resist, such a nice little guy and also famous model.

So I unpacked most of my stuff again and made him this plate.

Still struggling with the exposure but somehow this was my favourite of the ECW.

 

So this one is for you, Emrys.

Thank you for posing.

 

Alex

 

 

 

 

Digital picture made by Melanie Tenhagen

The making of the ECW 2013 group photo

As you might know I recently organized the second edition of the European Collodion Weekend.

More than 40 wet plate artists from all over the world gathered in Veldhoven
to share their knowledge and skills about this beautiful process.

 

On Sunday morning we had some time to make a group photo.
As far as we know its a world record as never before so many
wet platers have been photographed on a single plate.

 

In the coming weeks I will post some more pictures about this great event, so stay tuned.

30x40 cm black glass ambrotype
Exposure time 6 seconds

Rodenstock anastigmat imagonal 480 mm at f22

 

click here for

The making of video

 

 

Redmond O'Hanlon

Today a long cherished wish is fulfilled.

I had the honor to take some wet plates of Redmond O'Hanlon.

Redmond is a Britisch writer and scholar.

More info about Redmond O'Hanlon can be found at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redmond_O'Hanlon

A few weeks ago I met Erik Hijweege and his partner Shyrien in my studio.
Erik is a talented Dutch photographer and turned out to be a personal friend of Redmond.

I told him about my "wish list" and he promised me to arrange a shooting with Redmond.

Last week I got a phonecall from Erik and we arranged a meeting

So today we went to Erik's studio with a fully loaded station wagon.
Sometimes a really think I must be crazy to do all this work for just a few plates.
But meeting Redmond really made day. What an extremely friendly and gently man he is!

We spend a few hours together and made some nice plates. Redmond just loves photography.

So Erik, thank you again! and Shyrien, thank you for the wonderful lunch we all had together.

The digital pictures were made by my friend Ferry v/d Vliet

26x26cm black glass ambrotype
exposure time 2 seconds
Hermagis 300mm 4.5 Petzval

26x26cm black glass ambrotype
exposure time 6 seconds
Hermagis 300mm 4.5 Petzval