Mark Osterman and France Scully Osterman made negatives of landscapes while traveling
through Ireland, Northern Spain, Japan and the U.S. They used vintage equipment pouring ether rich collodion onto glass plates
on the side of the road and processing negatives in a portable darkroom to make wet – plate negatives on glass plates. These
are images that invite the viewer in, to walk around and spend some time. They seem evocative of another era, but unlike pure
documentation, they are more like the way one remembers a place. Images like these evoke a sense of memory….but without a
sense of time.
Mark Osterman began research in historic photographic processes while attending the Kansas City Art Institute in the 1970’s. Now as the
Process Historian for the Advanced Residency Program for the Photographic Conservation at the George Eastman House International Museum of
Photography, Osterman teaches the technical evolution of photography from Niepce heliographs to silver gelatin emulsions.
France Scully Osterman is guest scholar at the George Eastman House and gives lectures, demonstrations and workshops throughout the
United States, Japan and Europe. She runs the “Scully & Osterman” skylight studio in Rochester, NY, as well as teaches workshops and
gives private tutorials.
| 
