Final Project /  by Nicholas Valledor

For my final project in ART 568, I decided that I wanted to continue using the wet Collodion process. As for the content of my project, I decided to expand a single image that I had taken of a friend of mine and print it on 12 separate plates, then arrange them into a single piece. I chose this image in particular because I loved the way it came out. I was using a Toyo 4X5 field camera, and by manipulating the front element on the camera, I was able to mimic the shallow depth of field that early lenses are able to achieve. This allowed me to intentionally keep only the strip around my model's eyes in focus while the rest of the image is blurred.

The final mock-up of my project is posted below with a digital version to show the image before I split it up for printing.

Project 3: Wet Collodion Tintype Printing /  by Nicholas Valledor

For my third project in ART 568, I was asked to make three prints using the wet Collodion process. This process entails using multiple liquid chemicals on a 4"X5" sheet of aluminum to produce a print. For my project, I wanted to allude to the history of the process (which was most popular during the mid 1800s), so I enlisted the help of one of my reenactor friends who does Civil War era reenactments. 

As a way to take the images into modern times, I had my friend pose in the stereotypical Civil War pose, but rather than holding a period correct weapon, I had him pose with a modern FN SCAR assault rifle. The images are posted below as photographs taken of the print along with a digital version to show the image before printing. 

Project 2: Salt Printing /  by Nicholas Valledor

For the second project in my ART 568 class, I was tasked with creating silver nitrate salt prints. While learning the process and looking at examples, I became interested in the work of a late 19th century German photographer, Hermann Schnauss. Schnauss is known for having performed experiments with using electricity to produce what he called "electrographs," creating stunning salt prints as a result.

I decided that I wanted to recreate the work that Schnauss was doing, so I asked for help from the KSU physics department. Using a Wimshurst Machine and sheets of film, I was able to create the images below, presented with a scan of the salt print as well as a scan of the original film.

Project 1: Cyanotype Printing /  by Nicholas Valledor

For my first project in ART 568 (Alternative processes in photography) I was tasked with creating cyanotype prints. I chose to focus my project on photographing abandoned houses and using the brush strokes when applying the cyanotype to help frame the images. After developing, I chose to coffee stain the prints as a way of giving them a more "vintage" look. The scanned prints are posted below along with the pre-printing digital images. The scans of the prints don't adequately show the coffee staining, but you can still see the blue tones of the cyanotype.