Thursday, October 22, 2009

collodions and an orange grove dress

My friend Kristen Hatgi asked me to come pose for a one-day wet plate (collodion) class she was teaching at AIB. I love her photography and was so excited to do so! Above is one of the collodion photos she took of me. Wet plate/collodion is an amazing process. If I had the time, I'd learn it myself. It reminds me of when I made a pinhole camera in high school - the light develops the image instantly onto a surface. In the case of collodion, a sheet of tin metal. Ok, maybe it's not as instant as a pinhole (with wet plate you do have to place it in developing chemicals as with regular photography!), but it still went much faster than my 11th grade darkroom days.
This is (my favorite part of) a collodion by Liz Affa, one of the students in the class (she had awesome ideas and I loved posing for her!).
My friend Molly was also in the class, and here is a collodion of us! Kate said this reminded her of The Grapes of Wrath (I love that book, so I loved hearing that - Rosasharn is one of my favorite heroines of all time! My high school friend and I wanted to start a band and name it Rosasharn), and I agree - we look dirty like we were in a dust bowl.
Liz drying the globe collodion on a heater.
drying
For the occasion, I wore this beautiful orange dress I got from the lovely Veronica of Decades of Baltimore
I hope you're all having an excellent week! I like the weather lately.
xoxo Amanda

5 comments:

rachel_jackson said...

gosh you are the perfect muse! those pictures look amazing.

Amanda Laurel Atkins said...

awww, thank you rachel :)!

madeleine said...

That photo reminded me of East of Eden when I looked at it! Theres something really magic about that style of photography.
And your dress! It's like summer afternoons, totally lovely.

Thank you very much for the book recommendations. The only one I've read is Holy Skirts, which I love to pieces. I used to work with a woman whose wardrobe reminded me of Baroness Elsa (coke can dresses, pants made of chocolate wrappers). They're all going on my list, and I'm excited to read Henry & June - I've only read Spy in the House of Love by her. There's a great biography of Anais Nin by Deirdre Bair if you haven't read it yet. And that Egon Schiele book is great - tough at times because its a bit sparse, but I think it captures him beautifully.

(sorry for terribly long comment)
xoxMadeleine

madeleine said...

um, I may have gotten my Steinbecks confused. Thats what happens when I don't have my morning cup of tea, I guess. I was terribly embarrassed when I realised (literary faux pas?)

Amanda Laurel Atkins said...

haha, don't be embarrassed!
I haven't read spy in the house of love yet! i am now going to! I figured you read Holy Skirts because your blog title is reminiscent of the book (even though they probably have nothing to do with each other, but in essence!)! Have we talked about it before even? I feel like we have!