Collodion

2023–2026

A record of the three-year investigation behind Aqua Vitae, a collaboration between Espora Taller and Fósfora carried out by Norkys Saraí, Martin Velasco, Coni Maldonado Dávila, José Tomás Urrutia Goldsack, Hans von Marees Peede and Niles Atallah between 2023 and 2026.

We began with a discarded photographic copying camera from the 1960s. Recovering it, cleaning it and rebuilding it became part of learning to make photographs from scratch. We used 3D printing to create the plate holders and, through trial and error, prepared our own collodion from raw materials.

The investigation produced more than 50 wet plates. The glass and metal images were embedded in large adobe bricks, each more than a century old. The photographs here trace the work on the camera, the chemical tests and the adobe supports.

Aqua Vitae

Aqua Vitae is a series of wet-plate collodion portraits made in this laboratory. It is a collaborative work created by Niles Atallah, Espora Taller and Fósfora. It was exhibited at Casa Fósfora and at Tagua Tagua Galleries ↗.

Read about Aqua Vitae and see the prints at nilesatallah.cl ↗

Collodion Journal — process photograph 1

Collodion Journal — process photograph 5

Collodion Journal — process photograph 21

Aqua Vitae — Working on the recovered camera

Aqua Vitae — Recovering the photographic copying camera

Aqua Vitae — The recovered copying camera

Aqua Vitae — Cleaning and rebuilding the camera

Aqua Vitae — 3D-printed plate holders, photograph 1

Aqua Vitae — 3D-printed plate holders, photograph 2

Aqua Vitae — Adobe brick, more than 100 years old

Aqua Vitae — Adobe bricks, each more than 100 years old

Collodion Journal — adobe brick process 1

Collodion Journal — adobe brick process 2

Collodion Journal — adobe brick process 3

Collodion Journal — adobe brick process 4

Collodion Journal — process photograph 4

Collodion Journal — process photograph 8

Collodion Journal — process photograph 9

Collodion Journal — process photograph 10

Collodion Journal — process photograph 11

Collodion Journal — process photograph 12

Collodion Journal — process photograph 13

Collodion Journal — process photograph 14

Collodion Journal — process photograph 15

Collodion Journal — process photograph 16

Collodion Journal — process photograph 17

Collodion Journal — process photograph 18

Collodion Journal — process photograph 19

Collodion Journal — process photograph 20

Collodion Journal — process photograph 22

Collodion Journal — process photograph 23

Collodion Journal — process photograph 24

Aqua Vitae

Aqua Vitae — Wet-plate collodion photograph 01

Aqua Vitae — Wet-plate collodion photograph 04

Aqua Vitae — Wet-plate collodion photograph 05

Aqua Vitae — Wet-plate collodion photograph 06