Dear visitor

Welcome to my small BLOG about one of my big passions beside of my work as a Steampunk artist:

The Alternative & Historical Photography!

Some years ago I got my first old wooden large format camera. It looked so beautiful in the vitrina - and I had at this time no idea about photography and the processes. So I started to read all kind of antique books about Sir John Herschel and William Henry Fox Talbot.

My idea was to create a photography based on their antique techniques, from the scratch, doing everything by myself.

My main interest is the chemistry with iron salts and the experiments to speed up this formulas. I'm actually experimenting with new, very fast recipes which allow me to use this coated paper in my large format cameras and exposure it within minutes, and not hours like in the past. My actual formula I work with I call "Cyanotypia Cita".

Also I'm experimenting with formulas based on the techniques of Alphonse Louis Poitevin from 1861. His Ferro-Gallic Process results in a positive image and was used to copy plans and drawings. If it would be possible to improve this formula, it would be possible to create positive photogenic drawings! That would be awesome! My results are fantastic so far and I hope to reach this goal soon.

Beside I try to create all kind of Silver Gelatine Photographs, from Pinhole to the Reversal Process, photograms, lumenprints.

May one time I will even try the "Big Thing": The Collodion Photography. But that may has to wait till I'm retired and old...

I send you greetings from a small laboratory in a hidden Swiss valley

Dan Aetherman

STEAMPUNK ARTWORKS  -  www.aetherman.com