Fine Art and Photography
Wet-plate collodion tintypes
Read about my ongoing “Artists” project in the March 2022 issue of INK Publications magazine. Click the link below to view THE ENTIRE ISSUE online. ARTICLE BEGINS ON PAGE 48.
https://issuu.com/inkpublications/docs/ink_magazine_-_march_2022
A little ABOUT THE PROCESS
The tintype photographs on display in this gallery were created using the historic “wet plate collodion” process, developed in 1851 by English sculptor and inventor Frederick Scott Archer.
A specially formulated liquid collodion is carefully poured onto a black lacquered metal plate. The coated plate is quickly taken into a darkroom to be submerged into a solution of silver nitrate. This solution makes the plate photo sensitive (able to create an image when exposed to light). The photographer is then free to exit the darkroom, to compose the intended shot with the model, object, or view, making any necessary adjustments to the camera while the plate sensitizes.
After several minutes have elapsed, the plate is removed from the silver nitrate, drained and inserted into a specially designed plate holder. The light-safe holder is brought out of the darkroom to be inserted into the camera, once final focusing has taken place. The camera lens is capped, then the dark slide is removed from the plate holder. An exposure is made by uncapping then recapping the lens, or triggering a shutter, allowing light to enter the camera, thus exposing the plate. Exposures can vary from a fraction of a second, to several seconds or minutes, depending on the amount of available light. The dark slide is replaced into the holder, before it can be removed from the camera and taken back into the darkroom. The plate inside can now be developed. This all needs to be done while the plate is still wet from the silver bath, hence the term “wet plate collodion”.
In the darkroom, the plate is removed from its holder, then developed with a combination on chemicals. Development is stopped after fifteen seconds by rinsing the plate with fresh water. Following this rinse, the plate is safe to be brought out into the light. The resulting image on the plate appears as a negative until it is put into a bath of fixing solution, which converts the image from a negative to a positive within a minute or so. After the image has been fully “fixed” it must be rinsed in running water for thirty minutes, before being set aside to air dry. Finally, the plate must be very carefully coated with a special varnish, to preserve and protect the fragile layer of silver which has been deposited, creating the image.
Each tintype photograph is completely hand-made, and unique. Properly taken care of, these special photographs will last hundreds of years. There are no negatives or prints made from the tintype process. A similar process can be used to make images on glass, called ambrotypes, which can be used as negatives for making prints, or made to appear as positive images when made on colored glass, or viewed against a dark surface.