Introduction to Wet-Plate Photography
Judit German-Heins
Saturday, August 26 – Sunday, August 27, 2023
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Calling all artists and lovers of alternative photographic processes! Explore the enchantments of wet-plate collodion photography with artist Judit German-Heins at a private estate in Kingston, NY.
Participants will spend two days working with 4×5 large-format cameras to make portraits and landscapes using nineteenth-century technologies in naturally lit scenes. Students will learn step-by-step how to make tintypes, with an emphasis on both chemical safety and how to continue utilizing this process long after the ether from the workshop evaporates.
No prior experience in large format or alternative process photography is needed.
What to bring:
Your 4 x 5 camera, tripod, dark cloth, sunblock. We will have cameras and tripods for those who don’t have their own. We encourage participants to bring props if they’d like.
Judit German-Heins has been using the wet-plate collodion process for her art and activism since 2017. She studied photography at the Photography Institute in London, and at workshops conducted by the Houston Center for Photography, the International Center of Photography, the Penumbra Foundation, and the Eastman Museum. She received her MFA In Photography and Integrated Media in 2023 under the direction of Christopher James at Lesley University College of Arts + Design. In 2019, German-Heins won first place at the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for her tintype series “Women of Faith.” Her article “Tintype Portraits: A 19th Century Process Documents 21st Century Society,” published in The Big Photo Zine in 2018, describes how she used tintypes in two projects to document refugees and women who wear head covering for religious purposes.
Class limit: 10
Tuition: $650 / CPW Members $550
Scholarships are available for tuition assistance. Please email education@cpw.org for details.