The Penultimate
5x7 inch wet plate collodion negative, made with the Intrepid camera and 203mm Kodak Ektar lens, stopped down one stop (f11.0) Exposure was 75 seconds under partially cloudy conditions, late in the day.
Collodion and developer used: both were Quinn Jacobson's formulas for making negatives. (CdBr + NH4I)
At the start of the summer, when I first photographed the ladder in the river, in my mind it became a metaphor for climbing out of the disaster that is the COVID pandemic. I hadn't intended on leaving it there all summer, but that's what I did - it seemed like there was a story unfolding there, so I left it. Then I started to imagine it as a symbol of the ongoing state of the pandemic - a kind of litmus test: are we succeeding in escaping the gravity well of COVID, or not? Currently, I'd say not so much, and so the ladder stays. If in 4-8 weeks time I don't feel things have improved any, and the river fills for the winter, I will not remove the ladder and - becoming unmoored - it will be free to depart, perhaps landing elsewhere to continue telling its story, out of sight.
The Penultimate
5x7 inch wet plate collodion negative, made with the Intrepid camera and 203mm Kodak Ektar lens, stopped down one stop (f11.0) Exposure was 75 seconds under partially cloudy conditions, late in the day.
Collodion and developer used: both were Quinn Jacobson's formulas for making negatives. (CdBr + NH4I)
At the start of the summer, when I first photographed the ladder in the river, in my mind it became a metaphor for climbing out of the disaster that is the COVID pandemic. I hadn't intended on leaving it there all summer, but that's what I did - it seemed like there was a story unfolding there, so I left it. Then I started to imagine it as a symbol of the ongoing state of the pandemic - a kind of litmus test: are we succeeding in escaping the gravity well of COVID, or not? Currently, I'd say not so much, and so the ladder stays. If in 4-8 weeks time I don't feel things have improved any, and the river fills for the winter, I will not remove the ladder and - becoming unmoored - it will be free to depart, perhaps landing elsewhere to continue telling its story, out of sight.