KEN MINER
Big Lonely Doug, 2021, Print on watercolour paper from scan of wet collodion glass negative, 20”x24”.
STATEMENT
Hearing about the blockades and the imminent threat of logging in the Fairy Creek watershed in February of 2021, I felt compelled to record the forest in the wet plate photographic method while the giants still stood. In late March I drove to Eden Grove with my mobile darkroom and 119 year old camera to create several glass plates among the big trees. In late March, with weather closing in, and with chemistry being temperamental, the glass plate of the iconic ‘Big Lonely Doug’ was created. To document the ancient forest with one of the first forms of photography is to experience the forest in a profound way. It’s the stillness and the silence experienced during the long exposure. It’s the connection to place as you stand in the presence of the giant trees as light enters the lens and exposes the plate. It’s in the slowness of the process that you feel the life of the forest around you. It’s this experience that I wish more people could have, and to realize that the forest IS worth more standing.
Hearing about the blockades and the imminent threat of logging in the Fairy Creek watershed in February of 2021, I felt compelled to record the forest in the wet plate photographic method while the giants still stood. In late March I drove to Eden Grove with my mobile darkroom and 119 year old camera to create several glass plates among the big trees. In late March, with weather closing in, and with chemistry being temperamental, the glass plate of the iconic ‘Big Lonely Doug’ was created. To document the ancient forest with one of the first forms of photography is to experience the forest in a profound way. It’s the stillness and the silence experienced during the long exposure. It’s the connection to place as you stand in the presence of the giant trees as light enters the lens and exposes the plate. It’s in the slowness of the process that you feel the life of the forest around you. It’s this experience that I wish more people could have, and to realize that the forest IS worth more standing.
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BIOGRAPHY
Victoria based photographer Ken Miner, has been working with the wet collodion photographic method since 2012. Originally, Ken worked as a commercial photographer in Winnipeg in the mid 90s - the days of film and darkroom processing, and through the digital revolution in the early 2000s. Ken longed to return to his photographic roots and the tactile process of handmade photography. After taking a wet plate photography workshop with Jody Ake, Ken immersed himself in this historic process, finding what, for him, had been missing in digital photography. Ken’s wet plate work has been displayed in the Sooke Fine Art Show on three occasions, winning best photography in 2013. Ken also produced the book Of Land & Sea - Portraits of Coastal British Columbia Farmers, Fishers, and Harvesters, along with two solo gallery shows of the original glass plates supporting the book. Through his work in the wet collodion process, Ken aims to create compelling images that provide the unique narrative of this antique method. |
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