Calotypes
with Eben Ostby
June 17-19, 2025
Photostock Workshop –
Cross Village, Michigan
I always try to offer interesting and unique workshops as part of the annual Photostock Festival, and this year is no different. We’re going to do Calotypes! A process from the 1840’s that was part of the first process that allowed the making of multiple prints.
Please join me as we welcome the uber talented, Eben Ostby to teach us this process. Now, Eben sent me a very humble bio, so I hope he doesn’t mind my elaborating. In addition to being a wonderfully innate Photographer with an uncanny ability to make the ordinary seem spectacular, he has become a very talented practitioner of a process that does not always come easy. Having seen his photographs up close and personal, they are quite beautiful, not only in practice, but in the way the process compliments what he sees. As for other aspects of Eben’s work, I’m fairly certain you have seen some impact of that from his history as a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios where he was instrumental in pioneering, designing and implementing many of the techniques used in modern animation. Eben is a pretty interesting guy to say the least and I am very much looking forward to having him here for this workshop.
In this workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of making, exposing, and developing Calotypes. The Calotype was the first technique to produce a negative on paper and was the technique that introduced the making of multiple prints. and as such was the predecessor of all film-based photography. Having been developed by William Henry Fox Talbot in the early 1940’s, it was the technique used mainly in conjunction with salted-paper printing process until the late 1850’s, when it was supplanted by wet-plate and later dry-plate techniques.
In this 3-day class, you’ll focus on a particular variant of the process developed by the French amateur photographer, Arsène Pélegry and published in 1879. You’ll also learn a little history of other variants as well. The calotype is a fickle process and each exposure can be an adventure. The resulting paper negatives may be brilliant and contrasty, muddy and brown, clean or smudgy. We’ll learn about papers that can be used for making them, the multiple-step process for preparing the paper, how to expose, and develop the paper.
We request that, if you have a large-format camera, bring it along with your tripod and film holders (up to 8×10), or we’ll have some here.
This workshop will cover 3 days, ending the day before the official start of the Photostock Festival and your workshop fee will include your registration fee for the event that will run from June 19-22. The class will be limited to 6 students, so there will be plenty of one-on-one instruction available.
Getting Here and Lodging
When visiting, your closest airport option is Pellston, Michigan (PLN). Next is Traverse City (TVC) which is about 80 miles to our south. We are located north of Harbor Springs, Michigan near the tiny lakeside, Cross Village.
There are many options in our area for both food and lodging including in nearby Cross Village at the new Spirit Lake Lodge. There are also many VRBO options available. Please use Harbor Springs/Good Hart and Cross Village in your search.
Class Fee: 950.00 (includes materials , chemistry, paper and Photostock 2025 registration)
REGISTER
Questions can be addressed via the Contact Page.When registered, you will receive a letter explaining the how, where, when and why of it all. Lodging/food suggestions as well. We are located in a beautiful part of northern Michigan and will do what we can to make your stay more than just a workshop. ***Class size is limited to 6.
For all Alternative Process workshops, Bill Schwab
uses the fine papers made by Hahnemühle.
