Tuesday 28 June 2011

This is who I see when I look in the mirror...

...this words I've heard during my Sunday's spontaneous portrait session from one of my sitters...'this is real me, this is how I see myself'.

I found this complement very fulfilling, as this is something I'd be looking for, when portraying people. I'd like to catch the essence of their personality, so when somebody finds himself in my portrait and it goes along with my (collodion:) vision as well, I think I can be satisfied with the result.

I don't know really what makes the collodion portraits more 'soulful'. Is it the stillness, due to the exposure time, which reveal the real person or is it a historical visual association, which we refer to, warmly, as to something more 'real' in the digital era, or maybe just liquidity and grainlessness of collodion?
Whatever it is I think this technique is the one that do justice.
Before I started to use it I hardly took portraits, and when I did I was never happy with the results. There was something missing in them, or I was missing the right tool, to find it.


8x10 black glass ambrotype, Industar 300, f4.5, 5s.

8x10 black glass ambrotype, Industar 300, f4.5, 4s.


8x10 black glass ambrotype, Industar 300, f4.5, 4s.


8x10 clear glass ambrotype, Industar 300, f4.5, 4s.

5 comments:

  1. youve jumped up to 8x10 with no probs!!!
    is pouring and processing a little trickier?

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  2. Beautiful portraits Monika. Funny but I was just thinking about portraits and the "essence" of them yesterday. We must discuss :-) and I would still love to see your process in operation. J

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  3. thanks guys, @david, yes it is a bit more difficult and takes hectolitres of chemicals:), @Jeanette,you're welcome to visit me, or I can be seen at Killuddery gardens (also I'm working at some other options of showing the process to the public,hopefully comming soon)

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  4. "This is who I see when I look in the mirror" - to była także moja myśl, gdy zobaczyłam ambrotyp, który zrobił mi Tomek w Kopańcu. Potem pomyślałam (oczywiście nie umniejszając fotografowi) że może to trochę też zasługa tego, że w lustrze również widzimy siebie odwróconych lewa-prawa? Kolejną myślą było to, że może TO właśnie jest Prawdziwa Fotografia? hmm..

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