Salt Print Photograms

image - Henry Fox Talbot

Salt Print Photograms

Instructor Name: Luther Gerlach

Date: July 16, 2022

Time: 10:00 – 4:00

Location: Five Points Art Center Photo Lab

Ages: 18+

Cost: $200

Class Cap: 10

Workshop Description

Invented by Henry Fox Talbot in the early 1830s, salt prints are the earliest photographs on paper. For contemporary students, this is a fun, relatively easy process to make images in. You’ll come away with an intimate understanding of the origins of photography, the building blocks of photographic print making and non-camera image making. With the pure interaction of light and chemistry we’ll create images you might find in a Talbot book: feathers, lace and botanicals.

Required Materials

Wear clothes and shoes you don’t mind getting stained! The cost of all materials are included in the workshop fee.

Instructor Bio

Luther Gerlach has been working in historical photographic processes for the past 40 years, highlighting the role of constraints in creative production and the hand-made, tactile connection between the artist and his work. Known for nude portraits and urban scenes of downtown LA in his early career, more recently Gerlach has pioneered the re-emergence of plein air wet plate collodion landscapes. His work distills detailed images of the natural world, particularly trees, seaweeds, and grasses, to emphasize pure light and line, endowing his images with a subtly abstract quality.

Gerlach apprenticed with Brett Weston in Carmel and Hawaii in the 1980’s, before learning the wet plate process which he still works in today. He led lectures and demonstrations at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for nearly twenty years. He has exhibited at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Ventura Museum of Art, the Schaknow Museum of Fine Art, Miami, the Denver Art Museum, and The Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe. Selected permanent collections include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Michael G. Wilson Centre for Photography, among others.

The artist lives and works in historic Hampton, Connecticut where he offers workshops, master printing services, and darkroom rentals from his English style barn, Little River Studio.

Instructor Website: www.luthergerlach.net