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Whole Plate Show Schedule

Here is the schedule for the remainder of the Whole Plate show. Art Reactor will be open August 27th from 7-9 PM, with light refreshment available. We will also have regular open hours Saturday the 28th from 10am to 4pm. We will also be open September 4 and 5 from 10-4. Any other times you would like to come see the exhibit, please call for an appointment, available weekdays after 7pm or any time on weekends.

Whole Plate show catalog

The Whole Plate Project – Art Reactor Gallery August 6- September 10, 2010

The Whole Plate Project is a community of photographers working in the Whole Plate format (6.5 x 8.5 inches). Whole Plate was the original photographic size, derived from book printing requirements. It is an extremely well-balanced proportion, and offers a comfortable middle ground between the portability of 5×7 and the grand scale of 8×10. With standardization around 4×5, 5×7 and 8×10, whole plate fell out of favor and into obscurity. Along with the revival of historical processes such as wet plate collodion, platinum, and gum bichromate, the whole plate format has been undergoing a contemporary renaissance as more and more photographers are re-discovering their photographic roots.
The purpose of this exhibition is to showcase the work of photographers working in whole plate format. This exhibition is a contemplation of historical themes, genres, effects, or a historical meditation on modern and contemporary movements, events and ideas.

The Artists:  Read the rest of this entry »

Whole Plate Project show is up on the wall!

Whole Plate Project exhibition – August 6 to September 9

I am pleased to announce the opening of the Whole Plate Project exhibition. The show features work by Quinn Jacobson, Diane Maher, Chris Rini, Denise Ross, David White, Heather Wetzel, and Scott Davis. Works featured include cyanotypes, wet plate, silver gelatin and platinum/palladium prints. The opening reception will be Friday, August 6, from 7-9 PM, and a closing reception will also be held on August 27. The exhibit space will be open weekends, otherwise by appointment.

Art Reactor is a new gallery/workshop/studio space in the Hyattsville arts corridor, located at 5614 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, Maryland. For more information about the space, go to http://artreactor.org

Hyattsville Arts Fair a success!

Wow- huge thanks to all who came out to Art Reactor on Saturday as part of the Hyattsville Arts Fair. We had several hundred visitors over the course of the day. We talked a lot about our work, our classes, and our mission to any and all who came through (and even made a sale or two!). It was great to see folks we hadn’t seen in quite a while, meet new faces, and just hang out for art.

Saturday morning was insane – I stopped by Utrecht the evening before to get some last minute matting supplies. They also had a really nice print display stand (The Stand) which I snagged to have a place to keep the loose matted prints.

I think it’s a sign of the digipocalypse that 11×14 print preserver bags have been displaced from store shelves by 11×17 bags. I only got one pack of bags because I was worried they wouldn’t stretch to accommodate anything more than a 4-ply mat. Turns out to be needless worry- I was able to fit a print with a 4-ply back and an 8-ply mat in the bag without difficulty. So I’ll be ordering more bags soon.

Anyway, getting back on track, I was up at 5:00 in the morning on Saturday to finish cutting mats and mounting prints for the show. By 8:30 I had 25 prints in a mix of 5×7, 6.5 x 8.5 and 8×10 mounted, matted and bagged. I arrived at the studio at 9:30, and even though the fair hadn’t started yet, it was already crowded and I had to park the other side of Route 1. Got in, set up, and even got the windows cleaned by the 10:00 opening. By 11, we had our nifty new Art Reactor sign in the window, and traffic was flowing in. Barry had his ca. 1910 Century 8A studio camera with his Dallmeyer 3A lens on it set up in the window, and it was a major attention-getter. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur, other than taking a quick break to grab a pulled-pork sandwich from Franklyns Cafe (YUM!). The weather was beautiful, so we had great foot traffic all day (it helped a little that the hair salon next door had a big balloon bouquet and some disco music pumping to draw crowds down the street from the main row of arts and crafts displays (note to self- get sandwich board and balloon bouquet to put outside next year!).

Just a reminder- Barry has a cyanotype workshop coming up June 5 and a Wet Plate Collodion workshop (REALLY COOL!!!!) coming June 18 and 19. I have a mini-workshop, “So You’re Going to be in an Art Show, Now What?” this Thursday, May 27 from 8-10 pm, the Platinum/Palladium workshop (also very cool!!) June 26-27, and the Photographing the Male Nude in the Studio class has been rescheduled to August 7. June 15 is the deadline for submissions to the Whole Plate Project juried competition, so get your entry fees and CDs of images sent in ASAP, as this is just around the corner!!!

Student Discounts Available

Great news! A limited number of student discounts/scholarships are available. Not every class will be eligible, so please contact the individual instructor(s) for specific information. Proof of student status will be required, and students must be enrolled at least half-time (9 credits or more in a post-secondary educational program) or full-time high school students to qualify. Registration is still first-come, first-served, so to make sure you get a space, sign up early!

Introduction to Wet Plate Collodion Photography Workshop -June 18-19

Tintype plate taken at Art Reactor Studio

Introduction to Wet Plate Collodion Photography Workshop

$125 plus $75 materials fee

REGISTER at http://dcwetplate.eventbrite.com/

This is an intensive hands-on workshop for learning the wet plate collodion process. We’ll cover everything from mixing your own chemicals to creating beautiful tintypes and ambrotypes. This historic photographic process was developed in 1850 and popularized photography around the world. Today, wet plate is undergoing a renaissance in the fine art world.

We’ll be using the largest camera in Washington, an 11×14 Century Studio Camera to shoot our plates. Students will gain an understanding and appreciation of the process and a solid basis for doing wet plate on their own. All students will create tintypes or ambrotypes to bring home.

Note: Completion of this class will allow students to enroll in regular Wet Plate Studio Sessions where they’ll be able to use the Art Reactor Studio, Century Studio Camera, and wet plate chemicals to create their own portraits or still life work.

Day 1 – Friday June 18, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

History, Materials, Safety, Choosing Cameras and Lenses, Suppliers, Literature and Online Resources, Demonstration, Studio and Field Practice of Wet Plate Photography

Day 2 – Saturday June 19 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Intensive hands-on session, all students will perform the complete wet plate process and learn camera and lens operation for wet plate, coating, sensitizing, exposing, developing, fixing, washing, and varnishing of plates. We’ll have a one hour break for lunch from 12-1. Students will learn about and create portraits and still life plates.

Free Parking: There is ample free street parking close to the Art Reactor Studio.

Instructor: Barry Schmetter is a Washington DC based photographer and artist using historic photographic processes as a means to explore memory, forgetting, and other human cognitive processes. His work is in private and public collections and can also be seen in the upcoming ABC Television series, Happy Town.

So you’re going to be in an (Art) Show! What next???

So you’re going to be in a show! What next???
 
This class is targeted toward emerging artists who have never exhibited before or who have limited exhibition experience and are looking to imrove their presentation. The goal of this class is to help students have as successful as possible showing, whether the venue is a cafe, bookstore, gallery or group show like Artomatic. Topics to cover will include:
Planning your show – understand the scope of what you want to show, what you have space to show, and how to select the work that will end up on the wall.
Presentation – how you show your work is often as important if not more important than the work itself in having a good exhibit. We will discuss matting and framing choices, and how to do this on a budget without looking low-rent. Creating labels and dealing with lighting issues (something that may often be beyond your control) will also be addressed.
Hanging the show – now that you’re in the space you’re going to have your show in, what do you do? We discuss and demonstrate techniques for spacing your work on the wall, arranging it for visual “flow”, tips and tricks for aligning the work horizontally and vertically.
Promoting the show – unless you are going in to a high-end commercial gallery, you are going to have to do your own promotion of the show. We discuss tips and tricks for how to get noticed, and sources for printed materials.
Pricing the show – always the hardest question to answer about showing your work. We discuss general pricing strategies, determining your target audience and understanding your costs.
Have FUN! Of course all the above is a lot of work, but if you invest the time, it will pay off in personal pride of achievement, and quite possibly greater sales!
Tuition:  $30
 
Session duration: 2 hours, 8pm to 10 pm

This class is offered monthly at the Art Reactor studio in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Instructors: Art Reactor staff

Dates offered:

May 27, June 24, July 22, August 26, September 23.

To register: http://soartshow.eventbrite.com

Call for Entries – The Whole Plate Project

Monarch Novelties Store, 14th Street, Washington DC

Art Reactor is hosting its first juried photo exhibition – The Whole Plate Project.

The Whole Plate Project is a community of photographers working in the Whole Plate format (6.5 x 8.5 inches). Whole Plate was the original photographic size, derived from book printing requirements. It is an extremely well-balanced proportion, and offers a comfortable middle ground between the portability of 5×7 and the grand scale of 8×10. With standardization around 4×5, 5×7 and 8×10, whole plate fell out of favor and into obscurity. Along with the revival of historical processes such as wet plate collodion, platinum, and gum bichromate, the whole plate format has been undergoing a contemporary renaissance as more and more photographers are re-discovering their photographic roots.

The purpose of this exhibition is to showcase the work of photographers working in whole plate format. This exhibition is a contemplation of historical themes, genres, effects, or a historical meditation on modern and contemporary movements, events and ideas. Work submitted should interrogate the intersection between historical and modern through the aperture of the whole-plate window.

The Whole Plate Project show will be held at the Art Reactor Gallery in Hyattsville, Maryland. The show will be curated by Scott Davis, an internationally recognized fine art photographer. A catalog will be prepared from the show and made available for sale. Artists accepted into the exhibition will be given two copies of the catalog. Artists accepted into the show will also be considered for inclusion in the Whole Plate Book Project, a publishing effort underway to catalog and demonstrate the breadth and depth of work being done in the format.

• Submissions will be accepted of work shot in the whole plate format, and the final images must demonstrate whole plate size. Any images determined not to have been made by an in-camera whole plate medium will be disqualified, and no refund of the application fee will be made.
• All genres of work are welcome
• All non-digital media will be considered.
• The submission fee is $25 for three images, or $50 for six. Please submit a coherent body of work that demonstrates a consistent theme.
• Collections of “greatest hits” will be rejected.
• Images must be submitted on CD, mailed to Art Reactor Gallery, attention Scott Davis.
• The CD must be labeled with your name, email address, and phone number.
• Images must be in JPEG format, 1000 pixels on the long side. Images must be labeled with the photographers’ initials, “WPP”, and sequence number , separated by underscores (SD_WPP_001).
• A separate document in Word format should have an index of image titles, media used, and date produced. The document should also include a no more than 250 word artists statement that directly relates to the work submitted.
• Entries must be received no later than June 15, 2010.
• Accepted entrants will be notified via email on July 1, 2010. PLEASE make sure the email address you provide is valid. If you do not get an email, you have not been accepted.
• Accepted entries must be delivered, matted and ready to hang no later than July 15, 2010.  If it is not at Art Reactor by close of business July 15, it is not going up on the wall. Please include a return shipping label with postage paid, and ship in a re-useable shipping container.
• If the work delivered differs substantially from the JPEGs submitted, it will be disqualified and returned.
• There will be an opening reception on July 17 from 6-9pm, and prizes will be awarded for best in show. Grand prize will be $100, and 2nd and 3rd prizes will be $50 gift certificates for classes at Art Reactor Workshops. In the event that the second or third place prize cannot be redeemed locally, an alternate prize will be arranged. The show will be taken down on August 21, and works will be shipped back no later than August 28.

To register, go to http://wholeplateproject.eventbrite.com

Introduction to Platinum/Palladium Printing – June 26-27, 2010

Iguazu Falls, Argentina - platinum print. Scott Davis, 2007

This class is an intensive, two-day immersion. Students will be able to walk away from the class with a solid foundation for doing their own pt/pd printing. On day one, I will cover

History of the technique

Historic/contemporary practitioners

Technical basics – chemistry, equipment, paper

Major controls – negatives, exposure, processing

Fine controls – contrast control, process variations

in the classroom. The discussion will be supported by extensive hands-on learning opportunities. Students will learn to choose subject matter, expose and process film to produce negatives suited for platinum/palladium printing. We will produce negatives for use the following day in the printing session.

On day two, we will walk through the entire process: we will set up the work area, choose materials, prepare chemical solutions, coat paper, expose and process prints, and discuss basic troubleshooting.  Advanced topics to include variations on the standard platinum/palladium process will be touched on. We will also discuss the future of this beautiful process, and how it can be combined with new media, with some examples provided. Students will have several finished prints each to take home. Information will be provided on inexpensive options for making a home UV exposure unit.

A substantial discount can be arranged for buying materials at Bostick & Sullivan for students following the class if they wish to continue working in the process.

Instructor bio:

Scott Davis is an internationally recognized platinum printer and published author on the subject of platinum/palladium printing. He has been practicing the craft of fine art photography for over 16 years, with extensive experience in silver based and alternative photographic processes. He received formal training at Maryland Institute College of Art and the Center for Alternative Photography in New York. His work has been exhibited nationally and locally, and published in magazines including Metropolitan Home and the online journal Creative Image Maker (www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk).

Register for Introduction to Platinum/Palladium Printing