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Paul Chambers

@paulwchambers1970.bsky.social

630 followers 120 following 660 posts

Time, memory, loss and love are my artistic concerns, but time, among them becomes the determinant - Sally Mann. Wetplate analog fella doing his best in a digital world. www.paulwchambers.com

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 1d

And so, a story that will take a year to complete begins...

#chemicalphotography
#wetplatecollodionphotography

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 18h

Bless your big heart brother. May alchemy magic and the angel of chance (as Sally Mann implores) be kind...

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 18h

It will be my pleasure to be able to share more from time to time brother. Thought always with ye x

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 1d

You do more than see my friend... you know how to look and so therefore see more than most. Not getting carried away as I know how fucking quickly things turn dark, but I'm thrilled to have 3 wonderful stories to be telling using this process. May Sunday be kind to you my friend!

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 1d

And so, a story that will take a year to complete begins...

#chemicalphotography
#wetplatecollodionphotography

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 2d

Collodion sketches.

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
- Thomas A. Edison

1851 Wet Plate

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 5d

“I intended to cover the situation from the standpoint of the underdog, the downtrodden…was not neutral and was not interested in capturing it so.”
- Chris Steele-Perkins

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Chris Steele-Perkins obituary

Magnum photographer whose most striking work captured the challenges of life in Britain’s inner cities in the 1970s

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 8d

Sunday Morning Musings: Still-Life and its Pleasures

Through all my still-life plates this year I realise it isn’t life or how apparent it might be that is the focus of still-life, it’s the pleasures it contains. This, I’m beginning to think, is still-life’s point.

1851 Wet Plate
8x10 Tintype

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 9d

Saturday Still-Life

Managed a wee plate yesterday of the Lillie’s in the studio. Those magical collodion marks always stir some thing deep in me.

1851 Wet Plate
1871 Dallmeyer 3b
1942 Vageeswari 10x12
4x5 Tintype

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you Jersey...

My favourite Man Ray quote?

“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information”.

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 9d

Your work is a constant soul source🖤

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 10d

One of the most instinctive and tender alchemists there is.

The beautiful @deborahparkin.bsky.social

Deborah Parkin @deborahparkin.bsky.social · 10d

Delighted to have my work & words featured in @obscuracraft.bsky.social October issue. If you are interested or work with historical processes they are open for submissions. You can hear more about their work on @llfpodcast.bsky.social too.

A wet plate collodion portrait of a girl with peonies - the girl has her eyes closed and is behind the flowers emerging from the dark.

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 11d

Good to be back with old friends today…

ArtHouse Jersey

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

Was thinking about Cezanne’s oil still life paintings when I took this.

Reminded me of my A level paper on the life of Cezanne and his contribution to Cubism. He would have been a teenager and in his early 20’s when wet plate was at its zenith.

Funny old world

1851 Wet Plate

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

noted!🙃

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

Ah, thank you Nancy - so kind as always. Hope your world is kind. Still remember so fondly connecting over that sumptuous work of yours.

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

🫶 much appreciated that guy over there...

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks Alfie. Interesting that this was the first plate we made and Ash didn't feel it had caught some of her layers... we took two more and on the final one her heart sang (see and hear Sundays post 😜).

Funny old thing photography!

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

Absofuckinlutely mate!

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 12d

I believe it was Edward Steichen who suggested that, "A portrait is not made in the camera, but on either side of it".

I have to say that the older I get the more this rings true, especially after last Saturday's magic with Ash Dawn Clarke.

8x10 Tintypes

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 13d

Beautifully beguiling work by @dianamatisz.bsky.social 🖤

Diana Matisz @dianamatisz.bsky.social · 13d

Notus. The south wind. Bringer of storms.
#photography #Canon #monochrome #photographersofbluesky #EastCoastKin

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Reposted by Paul Chambers

Monroe Gallery of Photography @monroegallery.bsky.social · 13d

What a 19th-Century Photograph Reveals About Power, Privilege and Violence in the American West
lithub.com/what-a-19th-...

What a 19th-Century Photograph Reveals About Power, Privilege and Violence in the American West

The girl in the middle demands our attention. She looks straight at the camera, wrapped tight in a trade blanket that conceals her body. Six white men in military and civilian garb crowd her space,…

lithub.com

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 14d

“And the Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight In a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom.”
- Anaïs Nin

More alchemy experiments with Anaïs and Lillies

1851 Wet Plate
1871 Dallmeyer 3b
5x7 Tintype

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 14d

Ah, you got me there, made my eyes water a little. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement mate!

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Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 14d

And to you brother. Always.

Paul Chambers @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social · 15d

‘It was as if they’d dipped themselves in magic waters’

How it felt when the most wonderful of happenings happened yesterday and I got to make collodion magic with the beautiful Ash

Down the rabbit hole we went into the Wonderland of Alchemy.

Level 5 stuff.

Thank you Ash

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