Masterclass: Wet Plate Collodion with Craig Tuffin

Gold Street Studios, Trentham East, Victoria 24 & 25 October 2018

The Wet Plate Collodion Masterclass is designed for those with some experience in creating wet plate collodion positives (ambrotypes and/or tintypes). It is a course focused on three core principals:

1. Understanding the chemistry and how to modify formulas to suit specific conditions.

2. The application of course theory to practically improve technique.

3. Looking ‘outside the box’ and explore what the medium has to offer.

During the two days you will:

· Discuss safe practices and MSDS.

· Scrutinize each individual component of the process and how they might be used/modified to help create better images.

· Investigate methods for troubleshooting issues. The ‘why’ and ‘how’ things go wrong and methods to eliminate them.

· Create tintypes and ambrotypes in ambient and artificial lighting conditions.

· Explore developer, fix and varnish variations.

· Consider storage and care of finished work.

Each day will conclude with a review of the work produced. Craig has written an in-depth masterclass booklet that will be used throughout the two days and taken home at the end of the workshop. Participants should have darkroom experience and a working knowledge of large format cameras.

Craig Tuffin

Craig has been working with this method since 2007 and has work hanging in the National Gallery of Australia and many private/public collections around the world. He is a qualified teacher and lecturer, instructing in darkroom photographic processes for over 11 years. Craig has intensely studied and experimented with this process and is enthusiastic about sharing his wealth of knowledge.

Craig Tuffin with 20 x 24 camera.