Archive for the 'inspired' Category
Wednesday, December 28th, 2022
Denis Krieg – Inspired Series
I’ve known Denis for a few years now and over time a nice friendship has developed. We met for the first time during the Camera Obscura Festival in Germany, but we were in contact several times before that.
From Denis I bought my current large format camera and some lenses. Also one of my more important lenses – the Dallmeyer 3b which I use a lot for this series is from Denis. Read more in this post https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2021/03/inspired/
His knowledge of historical equipment is fascinating. His craftsmanship and restoration skills are also second to none. Check out his website here www.wetplatedreams.com.
Denis keeps historic history alive with his work.
I also captured a portrait with Denis and his Wife Sybille that I like a lot.
Wednesday, November 30th, 2022
David Kriesel – Inspired Series
David Kriesel is a data scientist from Bonn – Germany. He was born in 1984 and is self-employed from 1998 on (at the time he was 14). Find more details here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kriesel
You might know him in connection with the Xerox bug he discovered in 2013. (German version here)
David also does a lot of talks. The combination of data science and talks may sound boring to some of you. But this is only because you never watched one of David’s extremely entertaining and very interesting talks. He will explain a specific topic to you, that you probably never thought will be of any interest for you. After he finished his talk, he for sure has convinced you otherwise.
There is a quote that I like to mention from one of his talks, that made me think and smile: “Mathematics know no mercy” and that reflects for me what his talks are about. There are no shortcuts, behind every of his projects is a lot of hard work. But with that comes a lot of fun stories.
I am very grateful that David took the time to fly over from Germany with his Dad to be my sitter in front of my wet plate camera for the inspired series. I also enjoyed talking to his dad a lot, he is a wonderful person and I can see now where David got his humour from. It was great meeting both of you and so much fun. Thanks again for your time!
We chose this pose to express a sceptical moment of his projects
This is an interesting one. I underexposed the portrait on purpose to overdevelop it.
Normally this brings out more grain, but in that case it brought out some interesting silver waves.
Collodion has sometimes its own ways to express things,
maybe this is the process showing all the things that go through the mind of David.
I like this one a lot. I think it reflects perfectly the great energy these guys have.
Wednesday, November 9th, 2022
Inspired Series – Jonathan Hetzendorfer
I eat mushrooms as a meat substitute more often these days and once I started to buy specialities like oyster mushrooms from Jonathan, it was like a game changer. I knew his shop long before his first TV appearance, but never met him in person before. When I talked with him for the first time it was inspiring to see how much passion Jonathan puts in his work. I also remember when I ordered a mushroom dish in a restaurant and saw the menu that said “Fresh oyster mushroom from Jonathan”.
You can tell he does something right, when gourmet chefs buy exclusively from him. Enjoy the video and if you are interested in a beautiful fine art print of that mushroom, just contact me here: https://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022
A Wet Plate Collodion Experience in Slovenia
I went to Slovenia to join Borut Peterlin’s Wet Plate Experience. It was great and I had finally some time to slow down and find myself again. There were so many nice people there. I am glad I met everyone of you. I hope to see you guys again next year. This video reflects how I felt there and how it slowed me down. In a second part I will show an analog portrait series and talk a bit more about my experience there. You will also find another Artist in the video who joined my inspired series – Let me introduce you to Lara Ješe – Lara Ješe is an artist who loves to express her inner worlds through animal shapes. Step into her menagerie anytime and bring some snacks for the horses..
Wednesday, June 29th, 2022
Great Exhibitions in Austria with my Portraits and more
I am very exited about these exhibitions! In the first exhibition, at the beautiful Ottenstein Castle are presented 5 pieces of my work. This place is amazing! The exhibition in Persenbeug shows 10 huge pieces of my work directly at the Danube – the exhibition is called Kopf Herz Hand (Head Heart Hand) and is about passionate artists. The Festival La Gacilly in Baden is also a must see. With 7km length and about 1500 images it is amazing. I had my Work there shown the last three years, but did not make it this year.
Thursday, February 3rd, 2022
Inspired Series – Hans Gerlach – Christian Jungwirth – Wolfgang Mlakar
Finally the inspired series goes on. Check the project page and register for news about the book here: inspired.mhaustria.com .
I met Hans by accident when I bought a part for my tripod on Ebay. After some calls we decided to do a project together. Check the outcome of it here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2021/09/a-170-year-old-process-and-high-end-food-photography/ When I worked with Hans Gerlach this project, his passion about cooking and setting up a scene on a plate inspired me. Every tiny little thing was placed carefully and at the end of every session I got to eat the most wonderful food you can imagine. In the first portrait he hold a pair of tweezers, a tool he used a lot during our work together.
Christian Jungwirth @atelierjungwieth
I met Christian the first time during a Menschenbilder exhibition. He invited us to visit his atelier in Graz. It was a great experience to get a private tour through all these famous artworks of well known photographers. He organises lots of other exhibitions, one of them was the amazing Steve McCurry in Graz. Backlit portraits in an enormous size. Steve McCurry inspired me a lot and standing in front of these huge portraits made my eyes wet. You can find more about this exhibition here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2021/08/news-amazing-steve-mccurry-exhibition-and-a-waterhouse-stop-database/
Christian is also an internationally popular commercial and magazine photographer. His work is stunning. Lots of people here in Austria know his famous chocolate covered portrait of Mr. Zotter of Zotter Chocolate
Wolfgang Mlakar
This Storie starts a little bit different. I met Wolfgang during a wet plate portrait session in Graz. He came up to me ans asked if I could do a portrait of him in his lighthouse keeper outfit. Austria is not famous for lighthouses, so I was interested what is behind all of this. He die a lot in his life, he was a forma photographer, he has a Diploma in Education for people with special needs, he worked as a photographer for the army and much more. He then had a rough time and needed to step back. He still needs help with some tasks, but at some point he decided for himself, that this can not be everything and started to help people who are in the need of help. With that he brings light into their lives.
It was a busy shooting day, but I figured If I let him sit down by the window with his little lighthouse, it makes the most of sense.
Tuesday, October 26th, 2021
Wet Plate Talk and on location shooting at Fomo Graz
Fomo Graz stands for Fotomonat Graz and translates to month of photography in Graz. The Fomo team invited me to do a talk and also shoot collodion wet plate portraits on location there. Thanks a lot for the invite it was such a great event and also thanks a lot to https://www.atelierjungwirth.com for letting me use your location to work on my portraits there. We had a blast, so many interested people during my talk. I really enjoyed explaining my favourite process to you guys. Also the wet plate portrait shoot was great, so many people wanted their portrait done. I think I shot 22 portraits on that day. Check out the video underneath for more impressions from this event. You an enjoy the video on a 4K screen with HDR support!
Check out these instagram pages from the people in the video: Fomo Graz , Ana, Luke, Julia
Wednesday, August 11th, 2021
Inspired – Borut Peterlin – photographer and wet plate artist
Borut’s work is very inspiring, he works with so much passion on his beautiful artworks. His documentations on his Youtube Channel are artworks by themselves. No wonder he was on my list for the inspired project. And most people don’t know, he has Ninja reflexes too – he bought my 3B lens mid air when it was on its way down to the ground. Thanks a lot for that Borut! His blog: https://borutpeterlin.wordpress.com and YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCjjZ-Qc43dF7xHBC92MAuA
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Wednesday, March 24th, 2021
Inspired – Jennifer
I know Jennifer now for many years. She was the legal guardian of her brothers since a very young age. As long as I know her, she always was a a very happy and positive person. 12 years later, they are all successful in their jobs and grew to wonderful human beings. That’s why she is so inspiring to me. When I remember myself in her age, I was just a jung man who wanted to have fun and not much responsibilities. But she even enjoyed it to be there for her younger brothers from the beginning.
I wanted to capture her happiness in one portrait. With the wet collodion process, that is not an easy task, so I had to be a bit sneaky during the shoot. I pre focused and put the plate holder into the camera. Turned the strobe power up to prepare myself for a short exposure and had a normal conversation with her to “prepare” her for the portrait, but I didn’t tell her that I will do a quick exposure by hand as soon as she smiled. So we had our conversation and as always Jennifer was in a great mood and so I rushed the lens cap off and fired the strobe without telling her whats going on. And with that I go the expression everybody sees so often on her.
This is just the beginning of the project. You can find already much more amazing people on inspired.mhaustria.com
get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com
For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2021
Inspired
Today I want to inspire you with amazing people in front and behind my camera with my new collodion wet plate portrait project “inspired”. This project will be published in a book, register here to get the latest news about it inspired.mhaustria.com.
It all started with a Dallmeyer 3B Petzval lens, my dream lens that finally found the way to me. Denis of wetplatedreams.com found it for me. The condition is amazing. So is also the date from when it was made – it’s from 1876.
Denis is such a passionate person with a lot of knowledge when it comes to historic lenses and cameras.
And then there is Andreas – his passion is the building process of lens caps. It’s like he is meditating during the process of making one of his beauties. Unthinkable these days that somebody works 5+ hour on a lens cap, but he does. You can see in the video how beautiful one of his outcomes is.
There were also lots of other people involved who made my inspired portrait project possible. Like Mr. Dallmeyer or Mr. Petzval. More about these gentlemen in my video.
Now I want to talk about the people that were in front of my camera.
One of them is Michael White – a former Producer/Director/Author.
His historical documentary – Azorian The Raising of the K-129 has received international praise and has been shown by Networks in the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia.
Also his Book over the same story – Project Azorian the CIA and the Raising of the K-129 received positive critics in the US and worldwide.
He worked as special effects technician in his earlier career on many well known movies, like Superman the Movie, Flash Gordon, The Pink Panther, The Never Ending Story Enemy Mine, for name a few.
For more information on Michael White visit www.white.at.
Another person that inspires me with his work is the tattoo artist Manuel Soultan. His tattoos look like vivid three dimensional photographs. He designs every artwork by himself to create a one of a kind tattoo. You can check out his work on his website http://www.msctattoos.at or on his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelsoultantattoos/
This is just the beginning of the project. You can find already much more amazing people on inspired.mhaustria.com
If you want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art
For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/