Kickstarter

Passage d'Argent (aka: Silver Passage) is a collaborative photography project that will make art works to give to the people of the playa.  We will make one of a kind wet plate photographs of burning man participants using a mobile darkroom and give the plates to the subjects immediately after shooting, developing, and lacquering them on the playa…  All this within about 10 minutes of shooting the image.

With your support, this Kickstarter is aimed to raise the necessary funds to cover the project build and photographic supplies.  The cost of the project is expected to be over $4000 which will allow us to decorate the ATV that will pull the darkroom around the playa, build the set we will shoot the subjects in, and purchase the photographic materials (emulsions, plates, and chemicals) to develop and lacquer with.  If we receive more than $4000 in donations, the rest of the money will go towards making more plates on the playa to give away.

Want some more details about the process we are using?  Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrotype

http://www.unblinkingeye.com/Articles/WPC/wpc.html

Wet plate collodion photography is all but unknown to most people.  Many are familiar with the aesthetic feel of Civil War photographs but are unaware of the time intensive and temperamental process required to create wet plate images. This process is old and elemental.  Developed in the 1850’s, it was only used as the predominant photographic process for about a quarter of a century before easier, faster methods were created and advancements were made in stabilizing silver in dry formats.  Still, it lingers in both our hearts and imaginations.  Mostly because it lasts.  Early wet plate collodion photographs still exist to this day.  Images of the great and the mundane on glass and on metal.  You would easily recognize them.  The qualities they exhibit are warm and accessible.  Basic silver exposed to light and fixed to a durable substrate of stature. They last. They linger.

Making an image with wet plate collodion is difficult and cumbersome.  It takes exposures that are usually in the seconds as opposed to fractions thereof and each piece of film is made especially for one photograph.  Add to that the fact that the silver on the plate is only light sensitive while wet and you get a persnickety process that requires taking the wet plate out of a bath of silver nitrate, putting it into a film holder in a darkroom, taking it to the camera, exposing your image, and then returning it to the darkroom and processing it while it remains wet to make a final plate,. Given the extreme nature of the playa, one can imagine how heat and dust will make the process even more difficult.  To account for this, we have devised a system where the plate will never have to leave the actual darkroom, reducing its exposure to the elements and heat.  To do this, we will build a camera into the wall of our mobile darkroom, allowing us to shoot from inside the camera, wherever it is.  We will also build a 4x8' diorama set that will be a fixed distance from the camera and allow us to shoot the participants of Burning Man 2011 with a unique circus-like frame surrounding the subject, while still allowing the playa to be seen.

The people of Passage d'Argent have developed a profound respect for the simple fact that things that are hard to make, that are tangible and long lived, are incredibly valuable.  In both heart and in hand.  This, along with the desire to share a unique form of photography with playa goers, has fueled the flame of this project.

We need your help to make this project a reality.  Thanks for reading!