Passion for "historical photography"

The reconstruction of a darkroom wagon from around 1870 will be used for the first time at Photo Münsingen 2016 as part of the wet plate workshops.

Peter Michels and Nadine Reding share a passion for historical photography. The two got to know each other during a discussion on a social media portal. After an intensive exchange, they began to intensify their cooperation.

Peter Michel's artistic passion lies in taking photographs using historical techniques. He has written a textbook on wet plate technology; 'The Collodium' has now become the standard work in German. Michels moves passionately on every photographic stage, whether digital or analog, as an artist as well as a curator. Peter Michels founded the in 2005 Fotokultur GmbH in Wald (ZH), in 2015 the publishing house Fotokultur Medien in Tuttlingen (DE) was added. He works for institutional clients such as museums as well as private companies.

Nadine Reding was the last photo retoucher to complete her apprenticeship in Switzerland and studied the restoration and conservation of photographs. She continued her education at the George Eastman House in Rochester and in Vienna. She has been working in her studio for over 10 years focus for photo restoration in Bern. She works for the Musée de l'Elysée, various state archives, the ETH image archive in Zurich and many more.

At the Photo Münsingen, the two share a tent on the Schlossplatz. Of course, you can learn the wet plate technique in Peter Michels' workshops or have your own portrait taken. Nadine Reding shows historical photographs from her collection and is happy to give tips on how to keep her valuable family photos so that later generations can enjoy them as well.

Another special attraction are Washi films: a few years ago a young Frenchman came up with the idea of ​​making a paper film. After a few experiments, he made his breakthrough on Japanese Washi paper, and a new kind of creative product was born. If you have a medium format camera, you can pick up a Washi paper film in the tent, try it out and then develop it yourself under supervision in the evening.