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Images of Alan's wetplate collodion photography and experimental equipment including portable dark-box prototype and bespoke laser cut lens panels. [click on image to view larger version]

It has been five months since the last posting, sorry for the pause in the School of Arts photography blog but we are back this summer. There have been many developments over this period and more to come which will be published on this blog.

The School of the Arts and the Department of Chemistry are working together on a joint research project looking into the sustainable use of noble metals in producing archival photographic prints. The project is funded by EPSRC Shaping Capability Funds that supports Bridging the Gaps projects that in turn foster joint projects between different academic schools in Loughborough University. The current team working on the project are Professor Terence Kavanagh [joint project leader], Alan Duncan and Ben Dolman from the School of the Arts, Dr Paul Kelly [joint project leader] from Chemistry, and finally John Brewer our external consultant for the project. The project has been looking at new Platinum and Palladium print out and develop out workflows and chemistry. Future work will look at other noble metals, sustainable practice and consistent and controllable print output.

Alan has been working with wetplate collodion photography busily acquiring cameras, lenses as well as working with colleagues to produce plate inserts, waterhouse stops and lens panels. The plates produced so far are �practice� plates in an attempt to understand the complexities of the process (although it is becoming clear this may take many years) with the next step being to work outside the comforts of the studio environment taking advantage of the ultraviolet light the summer season offers. A portable darkroom [known as a darkbox] is currently under construction as well as the casting of a head brace. Long term the aim is to produce prints from the plates using a traditional contact printing method as well as to explore the possibilities of making prints using more contemporary methods and materials. The use of the ultra large format camera to produce wetplate images will also be considered.

Ben has started a two year part time MA in Photography by registered project at Trent Nottingham University, you can follow his progress via his online Photography Reflective Journal at; http://bendolman-photography-journal.blogspot.co.uk.

Besides being distracted by his MA studies Ben will be continuing his work on the ultra large format camera which he built over the past couple of years. Over the summer work will begin using 20" x 24" black and white Ilford film to produce a series of contact prints, the work will be recorded to produce a high quality video documentary covering all aspects of using the ultra large format camera, processing large format film, to producing the final contact print. The long term hope is to take the camera off campus to different locations and do different type of photography from the urban to the landscape subject to logistics and weather conditions.

There will be further work on the departments new HP Z3200 large format printer looking at different media and developing our digital darkroom workflow. Besides developing our alternative photographic processes at the School of the Arts we are also developing our digital workflow in tandem mindful of the interesting cross overs between analogue and digital processes to produce photographic images.