Created in the Fall of 2018, as a junior at the University of Kansas.
These photographs were taken using a large format, 4x5 camera (those old-fashioned looking cameras with a cloth draped over one's head) with a process called wet-plate collodion. After exposing and developing the plates, I then made prints from the negatives using 4 different dark room processes (described below.) Lastly, I scanned the prints digitally. These photographs have not been edited except for the original dodging and burning in the dark room.
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Silver Gelatin
"Gelatin silver printing has been the primary black-and-white process since its development in the late 1880s and consists of three layers—paper, baryta, and gelatin (consisting of light-sensitive silver compounds)—on which an image is produced. A distinguishing feature is the smooth, even image surface."
Tintypes
"A tintype is a photograph produced by applying a collodion-nitrocellulose solution to a thin, black-enameled metal plate immediately before exposure, creating a positive emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but have been revived as a novelty and fine art form in the 21st century."
Liquid Light
"Liquid emulsion is the gelatin silver light-sensitive liquid/photographic emulsion that is used in alternative photography printing processes. It is virtually the same emulsion found on ordinary photographic paper, but in liquid form and can allow the emulsion to be coated on a wide range of surfaces (ie: wood, metal, glass, paper.) The surface is then exposed by an enlarger and processed in conventional chemistry in darkroom. When freshly-made, liquid light lacks full contrast."
Salt Prints
"Salt printing is one of the earliest photographic processes in history. It was invented by an Englishman named William Henry Fox Talbot in the early 1830s and was once the go-to method for printing negatives. Talbot knew that silver-chloride could be used for photographic printing but it couldn’t be coated onto paper. In a stroke of genius, he first applied ordinary salt-water and in a second step sensitized the paper with silver-nitrate. The two chemicals combine to form silver-chloride in the paper."
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These prints were created in the Fall of 2017 with the 4x5, large-format camera - film!
