Standing For Us All
October 12, 2019 5:54 AM Subscribe
"The call came in on the afternoon of Monday 7th October. Shane Balkowitsch would have little under 24 hours to plan a 15-minute wet plate photoshoot with Greta Thunberg at Standing Rock. Naturally, the first thing he did after getting off the phone was to start packing his studio up into the back of his truck — including his portable darkroom." (Shane Balkowitsch previously)
Yet the better shot was Thunberg's death-glare at Trump.
posted by pompomtom at 6:38 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by pompomtom at 6:38 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh dang, she has absolutely the correct facial expression for this style of photo. I'm having a bunch of hard-to-articulate feelings about autistic representation, seeing the way she looks in photos — a way she's sometimes mocked for looking, and not that different from how I used to look in photos when people made me open my eyes but gave up on making me smile — put in a context where it looks Fitting and Important and Timeless.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:42 AM on October 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:42 AM on October 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
A reminder that photography once required real commitment on the part of the photographer and the subject. In this case, totally appropriate.
posted by tommasz at 7:31 AM on October 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 7:31 AM on October 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
I love wet plate. I did not know about this man and now I do, so thanks!
posted by crush at 7:32 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by crush at 7:32 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm fascinated by how the colours are represented in this old technology. Looking just at the wet plate, I'd have guessed her jacket, for example, was a light tan or even tawny - but in the 'behind the scenes' photos, we can see that it's an intense blue.
posted by Mogur at 8:01 AM on October 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 8:01 AM on October 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
what i remember most about being exhorted to smile in pictures as a child is that, every time, i thought i already was.
posted by Clowder of bats at 8:55 AM on October 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Clowder of bats at 8:55 AM on October 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
I'm fascinated by how the colours are represented in this old technology. Looking just at the wet plate, I'd have guessed her jacket, for example, was a light tan or even tawny - but in the 'behind the scenes' photos, we can see that it's an intense blue.
Old emulsions weren't totally panchromatic which means that they weren't sensitive to all of the spectrum of visible light. I don't know what chemicals he specifically uses but the old orthochromatic films and plates would typically make reds much darker and blues lighter.
posted by octothorpe at 9:13 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Old emulsions weren't totally panchromatic which means that they weren't sensitive to all of the spectrum of visible light. I don't know what chemicals he specifically uses but the old orthochromatic films and plates would typically make reds much darker and blues lighter.
posted by octothorpe at 9:13 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Some pretty good portraits. I wonder if he would be as good a photographer without the stunt process? Probably, but I am sure initially at least it forced a deliberation and judgement that are foreign to 21st-century snapshotters (like me).
I am seriously considering getting his book, even though I don’t have a coffee table to put it on—and I mean that non-ironically, because it looks like something you’d really want to share with others.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:51 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am seriously considering getting his book, even though I don’t have a coffee table to put it on—and I mean that non-ironically, because it looks like something you’d really want to share with others.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:51 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm fascinated by how the colours are represented in this old technology. Looking just at the wet plate, I'd have guessed her jacket, for example, was a light tan or even tawny - but in the 'behind the scenes' photos, we can see that it's an intense blue.
Early processes are only sensitive to the high energy end (blue-indigo-violet) of the visual spectrum, so those colors come out brighter and other colors come out darker.
In the 1880s we got ortho film that captured more of the middle of spectrum, and then pan film in the early 20th century.
You can just shoot B/W through a blue filter and get the same effect, or shoot color and do it in post.
posted by w0mbat at 12:40 PM on October 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Early processes are only sensitive to the high energy end (blue-indigo-violet) of the visual spectrum, so those colors come out brighter and other colors come out darker.
In the 1880s we got ortho film that captured more of the middle of spectrum, and then pan film in the early 20th century.
You can just shoot B/W through a blue filter and get the same effect, or shoot color and do it in post.
posted by w0mbat at 12:40 PM on October 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
I guess, given the update he adds at bottom citing the name the Lakota have gifted her - "woman who came from the heavens" - this might be an appropriate place to point out the closing lines of a speech that Arundhati Roy would have been writing just a couple of months before Greta Thunberg's birth in Stockholm:
"The time has come, the Walrus said. Perhaps things will get worse and then better. Perhaps there's a small god up in heaven readying herself for us. Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing."
posted by progosk at 4:50 PM on October 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
"The time has come, the Walrus said. Perhaps things will get worse and then better. Perhaps there's a small god up in heaven readying herself for us. Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing."
posted by progosk at 4:50 PM on October 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
This article loads as a blank page for me in Chrome and Safari. Anyone else get that?
posted by limeonaire at 6:54 PM on October 12, 2019
posted by limeonaire at 6:54 PM on October 12, 2019
This article loads as a blank page for me in Chrome and Safari. Anyone else get that?
I had that happen too, but after a refresh the article appeared. Testing it again the same thing happened.
posted by Harpocrates at 7:22 PM on October 12, 2019
I had that happen too, but after a refresh the article appeared. Testing it again the same thing happened.
posted by Harpocrates at 7:22 PM on October 12, 2019
Oh dang, she has absolutely the correct facial expression for this style of photo.
There's really no other way with a wet plate photo, is there?
You have to present your resting face because you can't hold anything else for 15 seconds.
On a side note, I suspect a lot of people who have the mythical Cherokee ancestor came to think that because the source of the speculation was an ancestor who got a wet plate portrait. The technique is so firmly associated with Native Americans (note Miss Thunberg's portrait was taken while she was visiting Standing Rock), that an ancestor looking at you from a wet plate, and holding the same demeanor, is going to make you wonder.
posted by ocschwar at 7:33 PM on October 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
There's really no other way with a wet plate photo, is there?
You have to present your resting face because you can't hold anything else for 15 seconds.
On a side note, I suspect a lot of people who have the mythical Cherokee ancestor came to think that because the source of the speculation was an ancestor who got a wet plate portrait. The technique is so firmly associated with Native Americans (note Miss Thunberg's portrait was taken while she was visiting Standing Rock), that an ancestor looking at you from a wet plate, and holding the same demeanor, is going to make you wonder.
posted by ocschwar at 7:33 PM on October 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
This article loads as a blank page for me in Chrome and Safari. Anyone else get that?
It's being hammered by traffic; try again later.
posted by progosk at 3:03 AM on October 13, 2019
It's being hammered by traffic; try again later.
posted by progosk at 3:03 AM on October 13, 2019
Emulsive is a niche website about film photography and I assume that this is their biggest story ever.
posted by octothorpe at 8:18 AM on October 13, 2019
posted by octothorpe at 8:18 AM on October 13, 2019
I'm a little disappointed he's donating the plates to the Smithsonian and not the tribe.
posted by Makwa at 1:19 PM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Makwa at 1:19 PM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Mrs Potato at 6:15 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]