A VISIT WITH MAXIMILIAN ZEITLER
How did you get into photography?
When I was a kid, my grandma gave me an Olympus Mju film camera. That piqued my curiosity at the time. Later on I got a digital camera, which was a nice tool to explore the world until I got into analog photography in my early 20s.
The technique you use is not a common one. Can you briefly tell us how you take pictures?
I'm currently working on processes from the early days of photography, more specifically the wet plate collodion process, which was established around 1850. In this process, the collodion solution, a mixture of ether, alcohol, gun cotton, and salts, is poured onto a black aluminum or glass plate and made light-sensitive in a silver bath. After a few minutes, while the plate is wet, it can be exposed using a large format camera. The image is then developed in the darkroom and fixed and rinsed in water. Once the plate is dry, the last step is to seal it with a varnish, and then you have a photograph made of pure silver.
Photo: Fabian Fischer
How much technical effort is required for a picture?
As you can imagine, the process is very prone to error on the one hand, and involves considerable material costs on the other. Especially when you are shooting outside of the studio, you need a darkroom tent and a lot of water has to be transported, so you can quickly reach a total weight of 50 kg or more. In the past, photographers brought several donkeys with them – today I use a cart.
Photo: Fabian Fischer
Despite all the effort, the beauty of the process is that I can determine and control every step in the creation process of the wet plates. So far, I have not found any other medium with a visual language that corresponds so closely to my inner eye.
Photography is more accessible than ever through digital technology. What made you choose the collodion wet plate process considering this development?
When I was a kid, my grandma gave me an Olympus Mju film camera. That piqued my curiosity at the time. Later on I got a digital camera, which was a nice tool to explore the world until I got into analog photography in my early 20s.
Photo: Fabian Fischer
The so-called "tintypes", pictures on black aluminum, are unique. Do you have a process to duplicate the images as well?
The wet plate collodion process has become more popular over the last 30 years because of direct positive images – especially in portrait photography. Originally, the process became so successful precisely because it replaced expensive direct positives like the daguerrotypes. Photographs could be reproduced for the first time using glass negatives and the contact copy on silver salt paper.
Photo: Fabian Fischer
For the photo project "Holocene" I am currently working on, I use handmade albumen and salt paper to find symbioses between places of my youth and landscapes that are important to me today.
What genre does your photography encompass?
Currently I'm working intensively in the genre of landscape photography. Previous projects have led me into macro and portrait photography. I'm always very curious to see how certain topics can be achieved through the collodion process.
Decelerating is a major factor in your way of working. Does this have an impact on other areas of your life?
Exposure times of minutes on glass and aluminum plates with self-mixed photographic solutions – that is, after all, virtually the definition of deceleration as slowing down time. I think that decelerating is more of a focus on the various steps in the process, starting with the decision of whether to set up the camera here and now.
In recent years I've put more time and emphasis in my photographic and artistic activities, which I find very fulfilling – this is probably not only due to the ether.
