Trevor Foon Photographer
"Sold" 2023
An Image installed in the 2023 Ballarat Foto "Real Thing" exibition
The flamingo is a discarded garden ornament, rusty and beyond its useful life. I have developed a fascination for Bric a Brac stores and vintage market stalls in which the items for sale are outdated, broken or worn out. But it appears that every item has a buyer lurking out there somewhere. The transition between the state of "desired" or "junk", hinges on this simple 4 letter word .... Sold !
Photography isn't about Pixels or the quality of your ink
Trevor Foon Has been a photographer all of his life. Born into a photographic family business in the 1960's he was surrounded by all things photographic since birth. His Father Morris Foon was a rural generalist shooting many different assignments on many different formats of camera equipment.
Backed up by a commercial darkroom and photo lab, Trevor saw many developments in photography over the last 50 years. So today, as many modern 'hipster' photographers are rediscovering the charm of analogue film photography, the reality is that Trevor has not stopped using this medium in the last 40 years.
In the 1990's when the digital revolution swept the photographic industry most professionals sold up all their film cameras to buy the latest digital equipment. Trevor saw this as a decline of an era and his response was to beef up his analogue arsenal of cameras and darkroom gear.
The thought was that as long as you could make a light sensitive material, then any film camera would still be useful. Yes, digital photography is important to run a successful commercial business, but it has no soul, no magic, no fun.
Darkrooms, film, pinhole cameras, alternative and historic processes, chemicals and magic are the roots of photography and Trevor will keep these alive as long as he is able. Buying off-the-shelf supplies seemed too easy so Trevor prepares many solutions, developers, key chemicals and basic equipment himself. At one point he needed a bigger camera to shoot larger negatives so he created the components and built his own. A short video portraying the story behind this project may be viewed here. This video was an amazing concept by Sue Bryce and I thank her dearly for what she created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-H_DloZieI&feature=youtu.be
His desire to experience a time long before any of us were aware has led him to the Wet Plate Photography process.
Now let us go back to the 1800's
Imagine in the 1840's, photography didn't exist. If you wanted a likeness of yourself it had to be made by an artist and you would be recorded in a painting, a sketch or some other hand created method. And the expense meant only the rich or gentry were able to record their family for future generations, more often the likenesses were just the artists interpretation and differed somewhat from reality.
Then a one day wagon pulls up in town and a magician creates images of pure silver on a sheet of metal or glass. A likeness like nothing that has been seen before. It was a time of amazement and awe. These first images were among the most treasured possession a person could own. Presented in gorgeous little cases embossed with pattern, and adorned by rich velvet and gold they were objects of beauty. This must have been an amazing time to experience the magic of photography, where the image could only be created with the care and craft of a skilled technician.
How were these images made ?
The Wet Plate Process begins with nothing more than a sheet of glass to blackened metal. A coating of collodion (a solution the consistency of warm honey) is poured on by hand and allowed to spread evenly over the surface. At this point it is not light sensitive. The plate is then placed in a bath containing silver salts at which point it becomes active. Now the plate is loaded into a light proof holder so it can get to the camera still dripping with chemicals.
The plate holder is then inserted into a camera and the exposure made. Then straight back to the darkroom where the image is placed into a developer solution for just 15 seconds. The image is now there, but hidden by the veil of unused emulsion. The magic happens as the plate is immersed into a fixer bath where the fog clears and a sensational image appears out of nowhere.
These images are one off, what you prepare and shoot in the camera is the only one. Exclusive , rich in tones and exhibiting a deep dynamic range, they are precious.
More than the excitement of seeing this process happen before your eyes, this method of making images has many important undertones for a dedicated photographer. It is a system that requires some discipline and control. Each image that is made is considered in the head long before it appears before the camera. You don't have the ability to shoot a million digital captures to select from. Because you are focussed on one successful image, you slow down and the thought process guides you to a final result. There is no doubt that the images look different, they exhibit an aura all of their own, the image becomes art.
Trevor is so enthusiastic about sharing the lure of alternative processes, he has travelled Australia wide running workshops and demonstrations. The reactions are always amazing and positive. It is empowering to see the interest these historic processes generate in the photographic community.
Another attraction of this process is the way that it distorts the spectral response of the subject. This medium is only sensitive to Blue light and some UV rays. The Blue spectral response is somewhat predictable but you can't measure what amount of UV is affecting the exposure, and this makes exposures and spectral results unpredictable. The outcome is usually an image that exhibits an amazing point of difference to any other imaginable, an image that has its own personality. Another interesting fact is that these images possess a distinct clarity and depth because there is no grain. Grain occurs in film as the microscopic particles of suspended silver clump together in a supporting layer of gelatine. As no gelatine is used, the silver particles stay just where they were sensitised creating visible difference to any silver gelatine print. And the image is actually metallic silver reflecting the light back at you giving a virtual 3 dimensional feel as you view the images from slightly different angles. You have to see this in person, as no image displayed on a computer screen can live up to viewing an original.
If you would like to follow my TinType Facebook page follow this link below and be sure to hit the LIKE button, I would love to take you along with me on my explorations with this exciting process.
I look forward to seeing you there.
email: trevor@foons.com.au
You can find some more material to look at on these links
Gallery Of Tintypes and Ambrotypes
The "60 second" home made portable darkroom