Photography banned in downtown Silver Spring, MD, US

A fellow named Jordan writes via Boing Boing:

Security guards in a Silver Springs business district are enforcing a "no photography" policy, under the false claim that the street in question is private property. The Peterson Company, which manages the buildings on this DC-area street, claims the right to protect their brand. Not to be dissuaded, photographers have contacted NowPublic contributor Bill Adler (he of sippy-cup fame) and formed a Flickr group to post photos of the area in defiance of the ban, and a protest is being scheduled by area photographers. this is the latest in the ongoing trend of private guards enforcing frivolous or nonexistent laws in the name of "security".

Read article at NowPublic

2008 f295 Symposium on Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes: dates & rough line-up

Tom Persinger of f295.org writes:

We are PLEASED to announce dates & some details for the 2008 f295 Symposium!

The event will take place in Pittsburgh, PA USA May 29 – June 1, 2008. The schedule is beginning to take shape with the following events already planned (though subject to change).

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DRAFT Schedule of Events
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Thursday May 29, 2008
5-10pm: Symposium reception with work sharing & ‘mini-trade show’ event!

The impromptu work sharing session that erupted at the end of the lectures/round-table discussion last year was such a hit that it’s been officially incorporated as part of the schedule of events. We have a large room in the University Center at Carnegie Mellon at which there will be tables for registered symposium attendees to spread out images, cameras, and other materials and equipment to share with other participants. We’ll also have our friends from B&H there with assorted goodies and symposium specials as well as a few other choice vendors! (this event is ONLY for registered symposium attendees)

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Friday May 30, 2008
9am – 6pm: Lectures and round-table discussion at McConomy Hall, University Center, Carnegie Mellon University (same location as this year)
So far we have confirmations from the following speakers (and are working on a few others!):

Martha Casanave
Jill Enfield
Jesseca Ferguson
Jerry Spagnoli

We’re excited to have our friends at the Center for the Arts in Society at CMU partner with us again this year to help bring together this day of lectures and discussion!

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Saturday May 31, 2008
8am-5pm Workshops TBA
7-11pm: f295 Exhibition opening at 707 Penn Gallery (next to where we had this year’s show) Watch for the Call for Entry that will be going out soon!

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Sunday June 1, 2008
8am-5pm Workshops TBA
9am-12pm: Lensless/alternative photography walk-about
3-6pm: Informal closing get-together/workshop sharing/etc…

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Estimated registration fee: $140 USD (this does NOT include workshop registration, and is subject to change as we nail down exact numbers…)
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We’re working with Visit Pittsburgh to secure a block of hotel rooms near the event at a special symposium rate. More information TBA.

Feel free to forward questions, comments or suggestions to tp@f295.org

All the best,
Tom

Field wet plate collodion shoot with Will Dunniway, CA, US

NEW Field Wet Plate Collodion Shoot coming this July 14–15, 2007
Large format camera

Instructor: Will Dunniway of Corona, California, 40 miles east of Los Angeles, has been a professional graphic artist and photographer for over 40 years. He now practices the 19th century art of wet plate collodion photography using original cameras and lens with nearly 20 years experience.

The basic course description $425: ($100 deposit required to hold space)

Saturday: At the Corona Studio – Students will learn (or relearn) the making of ambrotypes (glass direct positives) and tintypes. (Ferrotypes, tin plate direct positives) adn large format glass collodion. Students are guided through the process step-by-step from the mixing, pouring, exposing and development of plates poured with wet collodion. The newest 4 color edition of the manual, Making the Wet Collodion Plate in 16 Steps manual by Will Dunniway is included along with all materials in the course fee. Students will use a period 1860 field camera with 1860-70 lenses. This will be for the beginner and experienced collodion practitioner. A two day course crammed into one day.

Sunday: Private land (with facilities) above Murrietta, California – We will drive the 30 minutes from Corona, Ca. to the oak /boulder wilderness location on the land of a friend. Very private. There I will set up one or two portable darkrooms and tutor you in a hands on field environment doing field wet plate work in the tradition of the old wet plate collodion masters. Lunch will be packed for you.

The workshop is not about the historical use of the process. It is about the use of wet plate collodion in a contemporary setting. It just so happens that I am an historical tin-typist with 19 years in the field doing this wet plate process.

I do not require anything remotely historical. I will also help you adapt newer ‘view’ type cameras with wet plate backs. Given this, my equipment is all original by default. This is the only equipment I use. My students have really enjoyed working with this rare camera equipment . The look these old lens give is incredible. In the end you will go away with a working knowledge of the process, not it’s historical interpretation.

I hope this information is useful. If you need to ask any questions, call. If you give me a thumbs up – Email: silverandsun@mac.com to attend the July 14–15, 2007 – The NEW Summer Wet Plate Collodion Field Shoot Workshop. Hope you can come

Will Dunniway
951-817-5113

Email ~ silverandsun@mac.com
Web sites ~ www.dunniway.com and www.collodion-artist.com

Project Basho’s summer workshop/class schedule announced, PA, US

Philadephia’s Project Basho has announced their Summer 2007 class and workshop schedule.

Project Basho provides not only the production space and the resources for photographers, it is our mission to provide opportunities for those interested in learning this rich and intricate medium.

Classes are intended for a wide range audiences: from complete beginners, to those who have some knowledge but without sufficient practice in recent years, to those who want to further develop their craft and their sense of vision. These classes are small and practice-oriented, so that each student can get enough attention and the appropriate advice from instructors.

Since the approach of the classes is holistic, the emphasis will be placed on gaining the practical knowledge as well as understanding of the aesthetics and history of photography. There will be a series of critiques where students are expected to show their work for various assignments. Also, students will be exposed to a wide range of photographic expressions through slide lectures on historical and contemporary works as well as through visiting museums and galleries of photography shows.

Heaps of good-looking stuff here, check out the lineup at ProjectBasho.org

Laura Blacklow joins the f295 Symposium

Late last week Barbara Ess, citing personal reasons, let us know that she would be unable to fulfill her commitment to attend the symposium. A few phone calls later and we’re extremely proud to announce that Laura Blacklow is joining us!

Here’s some preliminary information on the talk she’ll be giving on Friday April 27 [2007].

Laura Blacklow
Convergence: PhotoGraphics
9:45-10:15am

With the relative accessibility of digital production and manipulation, questions about realism, as well as the issues of multiples or editions, compel both printmaking and photography to reexamine their traditional divisions as dissimilar methodologies. Historically, both techniques were used, not as art forms, but as ways of disseminating information and commercial depictions to viewers who could not see the actualities firsthand. Although we still tend to unconsciously believe that a photograph is an accurate representation, not an abstracted illusion, what happens when the camera and lens, the optical devices that provide such seeming precision, are removed from the process? or when scanners are used to create prints?

and her short bio:
Laura Blacklow is the author of "New Dimensions in Photo Processes, A Step by Step Manual for Alternative Techniques" (Focal Press, an imprint of Elsevier: 4th ed., 2007). Ms. Blacklow was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship for Works on Paper, the St. Botolph Cub’s Morton C. Bradley Award in Color for her pastelled digital photos, Polaroid Corporation’s Artist Support Program, and the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation Fellowship for her hand-colored black-and-white photographs. She is on the faculty of the Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Visit her website at www.lblacklow.com.

Complete Symposium information: www.f295.org/wordpress