Taster: Alternative photography processes Short Course

When

29th March
BOOK HERE

17th May
BOOK HERE

Where: Workshops take place in Magda Kuca’s studio in West London.

How much: Each workshop costs £95 per person. max 6 students. This includes all materials.

What: A taster of alternative photographic methods transforming photographs into 3d artworks with polaroid lift, Van Dyke & Cyanotype while pushing boundaries of photographic materiality by transferring images onto wood, fabric & glass.

You’ll learn how to create digital negatives from your own work and transform them into tangible prints using the Cyanotype or Van Dyke process. We’ll also experiment with Polaroid Lift, transferring images onto unusual surfaces such as wood, fabric, or glass. Over an immersive day, you’ll craft unique, personal works while gaining insight into these timeless photographic methods.

Make sure to bring comfortable working clothes that you don’t mind getting stained.

Level: This course is designed for beginners, no prior experience required. You’ll be guided every step of the way to ensure you’re comfortable and confident in the processes.

Kirlian Electrophotography

When

Drop us an email to request a workshop!

Where: Workshops take place in Magda Kuca’s studio in West London.

How much: Each workshop costs £95 per person. max 5 students. This includes all materials.

What: Kirlian Photography is a contact printing technique using high voltage to obtain images on photographic paper or film, capturing the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges.It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who in 1939 accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is subjected to a strong electric field, an image is created on the plate.

Kirlian made controversial claims that his method referred to supernatural auras-Kirlian promoted the idea that the resulting images of living objects were a physical proof of the life force or aura which allegedly surrounds all living beings. This claim was said to be supported by experiments by the Kirlians that involved cutting part of a leaf off - the Kirlian images of such leaves, it was said, still showed the leaves as whole, as though the cutting had never happened.

During this 3h session you are welcomed to bring a variety of objects to create multiple contact prints which will be scanned at the end of the session.

Make sure to bring comfortable working clothes that you don’t mind getting stained.

Mordancage workshop

When

Drop us an email to request a workshop!

Where: Workshops take place in Magda Kuca’s studio in central/west London

How much: Each workshop costs £180 per person. max 4 students. This includes all materials.

What: Mordancage is a historic process of bleach-etch, also known as gelatine relief, developed by Jean -Pierre Sudre producing 3D-like reverse relief, with visible gelatine veils layer.
This half day workshop will introduce you to the basics of the process, including bleaching, redevelopment and basic method of producing digital negative for contact printing with silver gelatine paper.

Schedule:

1. Health & Safety Information

2. Information on mordancage darkroom equipment & chemistry

3. Introduction to digital negatives- each participant will be able to create one negative from a digital file*

4. Developing BW prints from digital negatives

5. Processing photographs in mordancage bleach

6. Troubleshooting tips

* Tips on picking the best photograph for this process will be sent to participants ahead of time. Each participant can also bring one already printed silver gelatin print to use for the process alongside a digital file. 

Make sure to bring comfortable darkroom clothes as they may get stained!

Photograph by Bruna Martini created during one of Magda’s workshops

Wet plate collodion

When

NEW DATES:

12th April
Booking here

Where: Workshops take place in Magda Kuca’s studio in London.

How much: Each workshop costs £295 per person. max 4 students. This includes all materials.

What: Wet collodion is a Victorian craft-based process published by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. Photographs are made using silver and large format camera, resulting in a multidimensional image on a glass plate that appears as both positive and negative. You will be introduced to this historic process during a 6h session.

Schedule:

1. Health & Safety Information

2. Information on wet-plate darkroom equipment-studio work and field work

3. Preparation of chemistry-glass cleaning agent, cadmium-free salted collodion, silver bath, developer , standard fixer. Note on maturing and shelf-life of chemistry

4. Introduction to large format camera and collodion plate holders.

5. Collodion studio lighting set-up and notes on exposure measuring methods

6. Presentation of plate preparation and glass cleaning methods including commonly made mistakes

7. Creating wet plate portraits/still lifes ( it will be up to you, you are welcome to bring any objects you would like to use for shooting) for as long as time allows.

8. Varnishing and various varnish types

9. Troubleshooting tips

Make sure to bring comfortable working clothes.

Experiments with Lumen Printing with Rachelle Bussieres

Experiments with Lumen Printing, a 3 - part indepth workshop series with artist Rachelle Bussieres.

In this online course, participants will explore various techniques of the lumen print process.

Lumen prints are silver gelatin papers exposed to light and put directly into photographic fixer. Ethereal pastel tones are created by the time of exposure, the type of light, and the kind of paper used in the process. Participants will experiment with different techniques to better understand the factors that influence the colors of the silver gelatin paper, such as lumen print collages, cameraless prints, and digital negatives.

In addition to studio time, participants will receive weekly readings that will be discussed at the beginning of each class. All reading are provided as PDFs. The readings will be sent prior to each session. Participants are asked to present work at the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd session. Therefore, a scanner or any other from of sharing work is recommended.

£150 ticket cost covers all 3 sessions. (£50 per session, plus eventbrite fees)

Session 1 = 03 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM GMT

Session 2 = 10 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM GMT

Session 3 = 17 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM GMT

Tickets Available Here

Materials

- Two trays: a pre-mixed solution of photo fixer (Rachelle recommends Ilford Rapid Fixer) and a tray of plain water for washing.

- Black and white fiber-based photography paper (Rachelle recommends 11x14 inches Ilford ​multigrade fiber​ paper (+ optional warm tones photo paper))

- Natural and artificial light

- Contact printing frames (Could easily be built with a plexi-glass board and clippers)

- Drying rack

- Hot press (*optional)

- Photogram materials: cut-outs, your own fingers/hands/feet, organic materials such as flowers and plants, cut-outs, etc.

- Digital negatives - should be ready and printed on pictorico prior to the workshop

Safety

- Gloves

- Apron

Rachelle Bussières (Quebec City, Canada) received her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2015. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. ​Addressing the impact of light on our psyche, environment and social structure, Rachelle Bussières’ work is at the intersection of photography and sculpture, moving through a collision of materials and documents through the lumen photographic process. Bussières is the recipient of the Penumbra Workspace Award from Penumbra Foundation and the Award for Excellence from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Penumbra Foundation (NYC, USA), Johansson Projects (Oakland, USA) and Robert Koch Gallery (San Francisco, USA). Some recent group shows include Seattle Pacific University (Seattle, WA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn), Soil Gallery (Seattle, WA), the General French Consulate (San Francisco, CA), the Wing (San Francisco, CA), the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco, CA), Galerie l’Inlassable (Paris, FR), Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, CA) and Present Company (Brooklyn, NY). She was awarded residencies at Penumbra Foundation, Banff Centre, Minnesota Street Project and Headlands Center for the Arts. Her work is present in various public, corporate and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, SFMOMA Library and Archives, Facebook (commission mural) in Sunnyvale, Instagram Inc. in San Francisco and Penumbra Foundation in New York City. She is part of the first cohort in the new residency program at the World Trade Center, the Silver Art Projects and preparing a solo exhibition at Melanie Flood Projects (Portland, OR) in the Spring 2021.

SCHEDULE

03 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM UK BST

Session 1: ABSTRACTION IN PHOTOGRAPHY. THE LEGACY FOR LUMEN PRINT ARTISTS

Artists: Rachelle Bussières, John Steck Jr., Robert Canali, Amanda March and Laurie Kang

Studio: Demonstration. Steps-by-steps; how to achieve colors.

Readings (sent prior to each session): Eliasson, Olafur: “Some Ideas about Colour.” In ​​Olafur Eliasson: Your Colour Memory​.​ Edited by Ismail Soyugenc and Richard Torchia. Exhibition catalogue. Glenside: Arcadia University Art Gallery, 2006: 75-83.

10 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM UK BST

Session 2: FIGURATION WITH LUMENS; THE DIGITAL NEGATIVE

Artists: Chris McCaw, James Welling, Marco Breuer, Michael Flomen, Penelope Umbrico, Roge Newton, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Uta Barth

Studio : Figuration. Contact printing with a digital negative.

Readings (sent prior to each session): Rexer, Lyle. “Chapter 4” in T​ he Edge of Vision. The Rise of Abstraction in Photography. Aperture Foundation. 2013. New York.

17 September 2023 1.30PM - 4.30PM UK BST

Session 3: LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Artists: Anna Atkins, Aspen Mays, Klea McKenna, Meghann Riepenhoff, John Opera and Mariah Robertson

Studio: Compositions with light and shadows; the 3D object.

Readings (sent prior to each session): Chapter 4 in​ Argyronomicon​ by Mike Ware

Leeds Photographic Garden workshop week with The Sustainable Darkroom

Workshop Week coming up this September in Leeds! 



We are excited to announce that our partners, The Sustainable Darkroom are hosting an intensive 4-day series of workshops taking place from the 20th-23rd September in Leeds City Centre, in collaboration with Take It Easy Lab. 

Everything from creating images with seaweed, to making miniature pinholes using tea, and DIY developers made from household food waste.



These workshops celebrate the end of The Sustainble Darkoom photographic garden residency; a year-long research residency, supporting 12 artists to realise research that links the garden to the darkroom. 

Workshops are being delivered by thier resident artists as well as the Sustainable Darkroom team, and are supported by Leeds Inspired, part of Leeds City Council.



Booking here

20th-23rd September

Workshop at Tate Modern

Venue: TATE Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
Date: 29 September 2018 at 11.00 - 16.00. 

​Taking inspiration from the Shape of Light exhibition at TATE Modern, join artists Melanie King and Diego Valente for a practical workshop exploring alternative photographic processes. Within the day you can expect live demonstrations of different processes, a visit to the chemigrams in the show, and time to plan, play, and create your own experiments. Back in the studio you will explore a variety of application methods and techniques to develop your own chemigrams from stencils, hand prints and spray bottles to using honey, toothpaste, flour and suncream!

Taught by LAPC Director Melanie King.

18 September 2016 at Photofusion, Brixton, London.
£150 - Book Here  

Invented in the 1950s, chemigrams are photographic images made by painting on light sensitive paper. The process, which uses simple household ingredients and darkroom chemistry, is easy to do. The resulting images have a watercolour like appearance, and the opportunities to experiment are limitless. Whether you want to incorporate chemigrams into you regular photographic practice or just want to have some fun, the experience of working freely and experimentally is sure to enhance your primary body of work whatever it is.

Space & Light at By Other Means Gallery

Venue: By Other Means, 38-40 Upper Clapton Road, #11, London, E5 8BQ

Dates:  Mon, 27 Mar 2017, 18:30 to Thu, 30 Mar 2017, 20:00

Facebook Event
Eventbrite Booking

‘Thus we cover the universe with drawings we have lived. These drawings need not be exact. They need only to be tonalised on the mode of our inner space.’ (Gaston Bachelard, 1957)

Take part in this unique opportunity to work with talented artists on a multimedia art project. Collaborate with artists over four exclusive workshops to create, display, and celebrate an original art piece on space and memory.

Learn to take photographic images without a camera

Construct an immersive installation art piece

Take part in your own art exhibition!

Make your own art work, yours to take home at the end of the week.

Join the London Alternative Photography Collective at BoM to help create “photographic building materials” using liquid light/cyanotype on surfaces such as stone, glass, wood and metal. These “photographic building materials” will be incorporated into a larger structural installation.

Then work with our resident artists and create your own abstract art pieces. Experiment with inks, acrylics, installation and line to develop your own style of abstract art and turn it into an exhibition like no other.

By the end of the week you will have learnt a variety of creative skills, taken part in an interdisciplinary group show and also have art-work of your own making to take home. You will also have access to our April Sunday events series for lectures, drinks, exhibitions and workshops.

Monday - Photogram Workshop with the London Alternative Photography Collective

Tuesday - Exploring abstraction our resident artists

Wednesday - Cyanotype Workshop with the London Alternative Photography Collective

Thursday - Installation, curate and create an immersive installation as a standing exhibition.

ARTISTS INVOLVED

Artists Melanie King, Diego Valente, Tina Rowe and Molly Behagg will be leading the workshops, helping you to understand how to use photographic emulsions on three dimensional objects.

Anysia Nefissi works on destruction, abstraction, psyche and form. She interrogates the self and the subject. From drawing to painting, music to writing; her practice is kaleidoscopic.

on Delgado uses organic dyes and inks made from oak. With these he creates intricate and ethereal landscapes whose subject is deeply informed by these materials.

E Zhang works predominantly with interactive installation, videos and performances. Zhang’s interests lie in volition / equilibrium / power relationships / physical theory were the main subject is rendered through her works.

Sergei Zinchuk is driven by his interests in perception, spatial relationships, and feelings of self. His practice strives for transcending embodied experiences through disrupting the expected and mundane interactions and challenging concept of reality.

Classes will be 18:30-20:00 Monday-Thursday
Group exhibition private view, Sunday 2nd April.

Salt Printing Workshop at Lumen: School of Light

Exhibition at Ugly Duck, 47-49 Tanner St, Sunday 05 Feb 12:30-4:00pm. Tickets £32.45
Taught by Molly Behagg
Book Here

Learn how to make salt print photographs using digital negatives and small objects. This workshop will introduce you to one of the earliest photographic processes, and will take you step-by-step through the process of coating papers, making an exposure, and fixing an image. The workshop is part of the Lumen: School of Light exhibition curated by Lumen Studio.

Led by artist Molly Behagg, this hands-on workshop is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about using alternative and historical photographic processes. No prior experience is necessary and all materials are provided. Booking is essential as places are limited.

We will be using digital negatives and small objects to make prints with, and participants are welcome to bring along their own objects to experiment with or small digital negatives printed onto transparencies. Please wear warm clothes as the workshop space is likely to be chilly.

Pinhole Camera Workshop

THE CASTLE MUSEUM, LEWES, BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNALE
26 - 27 October 2014 organised by Melanie King and Yaz Norris, in association with Stories Seen Through A Glass Plate curated by Brigitte Lardinois.