Collodion plate photography is one of the very earliest forms of photography. It involves coating a glass, mirror or metal plate in a rather nasty chemical mixture, loading the plate into the back of a camera, focussing the subject under a cape and then making a guesstimate exposure of a few seconds. If this sounds like the kind of thing you may have seen in western movies and Victorian period dramas on a Sunday night, then you've got the picture exactly.
After a little chat about the history of the process and some stunningly beautiful plates, both antique and from Alastair's own portfolio, we were let loose in the darkroom. It was fantastic. It took me right back to when I had a darkroom in my bedroom aged 17. We took turns posing for each other holding our heads steady for the exposures by jamming a cup against a wall with our heads! Then we removed the back plate from the camera, took it back into the darkroom and washed the plates in the develop mixture.
That's when the silvery fog started to lift and experienced the total thrill (that is now long gone in our digital age) of watching an image ghost into life.
As someone who now goes to a wedding and shoots 1000 images in the space of 2 hours it was such a revelation to go back to the very beginning of photography and slow things way, way down. Alastair pointed out that all these pictures are taken while the sitter has thoughts going through their head and their hearts are beating. A real slice of time rather than today's photography - shot at a 1000th of a second and instantly uploaded onto facebook.
There is a gravity and sincerity inherent in these pictures which is totally captivating.
I loved my experience at the workshop and would urge you all to get along to Alastair's exhibition currently running at Dunbar Town Hall. Its a work of great joy, depth and beautiful images.
Alastairs Exhibition in Dunbar runs till 20th December
