Life is full of choices, each leading to unknown outcomes sometimes bringing joy and positivity, other times disappointment. Yet, to achieve something meaningful, risk is necessary. Standing before the white rabbit, as in Alice in Wonderland, we have to decide whether to follow curiosity into the unknown.
Creating this wet plate collodion (tintype) portrait took five months from concept to completion. The process challenged me to find the ideal mask and balance exposure to preserve its subtle whites while keeping the model well lit. And select a spiked tree as a symbol of danger. Achieving all this demanded technical precision and lots of creativity.
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Getting inspired
Choices in life were always a thing that really made me think a lot. What could have happened and what not. I love the scene in the Matrix when Neo has to choose if he takes the pill or not.
There is also the scene where Neo has to follow the white rabbit.
It all started when I bought a wonderful painting of Sophia Kirst – it was a longer decision between two of her paintings, but at the end I went with this one:
White Rabbit III by Sophia Kirst
In my video I mentioned a choice I made in my life to go to china, just because of a short mail and a FB message. Sometimes you need to do what you need to do and have the time of your life. The end result were great memories, many images in magazines and a title page of a well known magazine.
From concept to completion
Of course it started with finding the right mask. I was sure to use a mask and I was also sure for me that I need a female model who is also behind the story.
Finding a mask was quite the challenge. For a long time I was thinking of a low polygon paper mask. But at the end I was lucky and found this one:
After I had the Mask I needed to find a place and like I showed in the Video, I was happy to be able to shoot it in my own garden with that spiky tree in front of the rabbit, that suggests a bit of danger in the choices we make.
After I had the mask and the place I needed to work on a test exposure. Because it’s very difficult to combine a white mask with green leaves and the skin tones of a young model.
Just to geek out a bit, the wet plate collodion process is orthochromatic, so it only sees blue light (from about 350 to 420 nm). That made my concept a lot more complicated. I needed to shoot it on the right time of the day and I needed a strobe to lighten up the skin of Melissa.
Here is a first test plate I made to see how the exposure goes.
A full bhts of the shooting is available as footage in my video that I liked above.
A quick fun fact. The pill you see in the video was 3d printed by myself.
The Result
I was really pleased with the result. All the long planing and fictions in my head turned to reality and shows exactly what I wanted to express. Make a choice
This time I also chose to shoot a small digital series, that is also available as a limited fine art print series.
But there is more. I will also do hand made salt prints from a hand made collodion negative. But that is something for another day.
Thanks!
As with the most projects there is always somebody who helps me while I am creating.
A big thanks to Melissa for Modeling and Piotr for assisting and partly filming.
Thanks a lot guys, it was a pleasure to work with you!!!
