VoxPhotographs Weblog

Brenton Hamilton teaches an exhausting nine months in Rockport at the Maine Media Workshops and then spends three summer months in his studio making cyanotypes. He actually exposes these by putting them in his studio window in the sun. He must pray for sunny summers. This is labor-intensive stuff in its truest form and I admire passionate pracitioners of the alternative or historic photographic processes. Consider that most of them are working in Maine in solitude without the camaraderie of others doing the same or similar things. They are really committed.

For instance, Brenton works at night in his studio, re-enacting this 1840′s process and then is dependent on the vagaries of the next several days’ weather to see the outcome of his inspirations. Sun, clouds, the water’s reflection? It all plays a part in the end result. So, you really need to know what you’re doing and that takes years of concentrated effort, trial and error and commitment. See two large Hamilton cyanotypes at the current New Natural History exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art through to May 11. Gorgeous.

Merging © Brenton Hamilton, 2007

David Puntel is an ambrotypist who lives in Casco, Maine. He is featured in the current issue of Black and White Magazine. He is, I think, the only actively exhibiting ambrotypist in the state. It takes David all day to produce an image, and it’s taken him years of work to get to the point where he has more successes than failures. It’s a highly instinctive skill to make an ambrotype, with myriad steps and chemicals involved. David even makes outdoor ambrotypes which is right up there on the Richter scale of insanity. Humidity, temperature, atmosphere, light and even transportation play huge roles in this process and Puntel is an expert at gaging the degree of importance of all of these factors on any given day There are only approximately 200 ambrotypists worldwide, many of whom are Civil War re-enactors, and not fine artists like David Puntel. He is represented by my gallery, VoxPhotographs.

Rhubarb © David Puntel, 2007

And then there is David Wolfe – featured in the upcoming May issue of Maine Home & Design. David Wolfe has spent a lifetime learning how to work with paper – his letterpress studio in Portland is worth a visit just so you can stand at the doorway and gape at the variety of ancient machinery he works on. Wolfe trained as a photographer and making palladium prints is a process he loves. Using a big old large format camera, he gets out into the streets of Portland and makes poetry, no kidding. The first image of his I saw was exhibited at Greenhut Gallery in Portland in 2006 and was a palladium print of Starbucks on Congress St. The tension of the 1880′s process and the iconic symbol of modern American culture is simply delicious to see and there’s no other way to say it if you’re into photography and understand its history. With palladiums, it’s all about midtones and a depth and clarity that often looks 3-dimensional. David Wolfe is represented by my gallery, VoxPhotographs.

Checkmate © David Wolfe, 2007

Street time © David Wolfe, 2007

I can tell you all three of these experts have earned their laurels. These historic processes are painstaking and finicky. Take a course sometime. You’ll find it’s 75% process and 25% photography and if you don’t like that ratio, stick to digital. Plus, it takes from 1-3 days to make these things, so you need patience, commitment and passion to be successful.

Did I mention vision? You need that too.