From reenactment tintypes, to still life ambrotypes, to studio portraits, photographers have embraced the ethereal look, handmade process, and arcane yet simple materials of wetplate. Wetplate photographers can be artists, engineers, wilderness travelers, studio operators or backyard hobbyists. But they all have been deeply impacted by this beautiful technique.
-
Recent News
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events at this time.-
RSS feeds
Garrett Allen
09. May, 2010
Wet plate attracted me because of its challenging learning curve and esoteric, historic processes, which gave me a purpose during a time of rebuilding.
Matt Magruder
09. May, 2010
Wet plate, like all of us, is filled with beautiful and unique flaws.
Henning Sjogren
09. May, 2010
To me, wet plate collodion photography is about flow: the flow of the collodion over the plate, flow of the developer, the flow of time and light that exposes the plate. And of course that unique flow I’m “in” when I can shoot plate after plate and everything just works.
Quinn Jacobson
09. May, 2010
Wet plate is the perfect syntax for my work. I use it as a metaphor as it relates to abandonment. The process was abandoned and forgotten, just as most marginalized people are by the mainstream. I also embrace it for its imperfections; echoing our human imperfections.
Harry Taylor
09. May, 2010
Wet Plate allows me to stare rather than glance; the time change lets in a high level of romance.
Cor Breukel
09. May, 2010
WPC is for me about connection to the past and directness, the shortest route to the essence of photography in the practical sense: mix your own relative simple chemistry, pour and expose in a basic camera, marvel at the almost instant image, connect directly back to the subject.. The resulting image is still relevant today.
Katie Cooke
09. May, 2010
For me, every wet plate image is made of time, dissolved in silver. Each picture is an act of faith, chemistry, and magic.
Ray Morgenweck
09. May, 2010
For me, it lets me build beautiful things that my Dad would be proud of.
John Brewer
09. May, 2010
I’m drawn to the ethereal and mercurial nature of collodion, the contemplative nature of using the view camera, the long exposure and the fact every image is individual with its own artefacts; the complete antithesis of digital imagery where the perfect image can be printed an unlimited number of times, the first print identical to the last…
Jo Gane
09. May, 2010
Wet plate for me is about creating a skin, a surface that reflects the man-made surface of the world and suggests what lies below it.
Tim Telkamp
09. May, 2010
Wet plate photography is an escape from our fast paced, high tech, pre-packaged and branded world… it’s mad scientist chemistry that’s magic because it is none of those things. America came of age on the ground glass of wet plate cameras. I was drawn to the process with an interest in applying the historic process to my contemporary world, hoping to find perspective on how much we’ve grown… or perhaps how little.
Rene Rondeau
09. May, 2010
Wet plate photography is time travel. It’s a hands-on journey back to an era when taking a picture required a combination of patience, chemistry, and craftsmanship, ultimately creating art.
Paul Kinney
09. May, 2010
Ether, glass and cyanide. What could be cooler than that!
Joe Smigiel
09. May, 2010
The similar appearance of a contemporary wetplate portrait to those of the mid-19th century always makes me feel as though I’m observing a phantom. The wetplate process is quite literally ethereal and seems ritualistic to me, a consecration of sorts.
Indra
15. Jun, 2010
Besides this obvious special aesthetic feel to the plates the cumbersome nature of the process has drawn me towards it. In a world of digital hastiness this feels like the perfect kick in the butt it needs. I can use it to emphasize my horror towards today’s superficialness as it’s so the opposite with showing all the flaws. It’s the flaws that make for perfect.
Zach Risso
19. Jun, 2010
Having grown tired of the practically hands-off approach when it came to shooting digital photographs, I turned to film. Still not sated, I rebelled against this digital age and found, arguably, the most hands-on photographic process available.
Andrew Richmond
27. Aug, 2010
Wet-Plate is the only way I have found to succeed at making the images I visualize in my head. I don’t need special software, expensive gear, or technical knowledge of modern film and lighting. The process sounds complicated, but it is photography performed in one of its simplest forms. For me, it just works.
Derek Ralston
27. Apr, 2011
Wet plate is a return to both my roots in photography, and to the art itself. My love of photography began with my love of history, as a young boy. The Civil War exhibited a pull upon my life, because of the history of my family that fought in that war, and for the beauty of the images that I discovered of that time. From the moment that I laid eyes upon those first collodion images, I knew that photography was to be my expression of art. Decades later, as a working professional photographer, I still feel the pull of those images. They have drawn me back. Back to a different place and time, yet forward in my own artistic journey.
Denis Roussel
01. May, 2011
Before working with wet-plate collodion, I had been experimenting with the physical and chemical manipulations of negative and positive film. I was interested in finding processes where the element of chance was inherent and which had a direct impact on the aesthetic of the images created. Wet-plate collodion has been the logical continuation of these experimentations. I enjoy the hands-on approach to photography. I love the fact that although I am, everyday, gaining greater control over the technique, I am always surprised by the final photograph. And I am of course enthralled with the aesthetic of images.
LiRong
04. May, 2011
Wet plate photography is a milestone in the history of photography I recall history of photography
Roman Kravchenko
06. Jun, 2011
Wet Plate collodion process, for me at all living substance which acts as energy storage Wilhelm Reich – this glass battery movements of thought photographed may transfer to the operator as positive thoughts as the dark side of man, therein lies the main problem that we are trying to solve.