Tintypes & 'The Hand'

The Hand is a new publication, spotlighting analog photography and their auteurs.

Issue #3, released January 2014, features a photographer near and dear to my heart:

our own Mr. Victor Vague!

{ click above photo to open link in a new tab }

He has spent the better part of a year learning, practicing and perfecting the art of 
Wet Plate Collodion photography, 
using the original method, chemistry and equipment!

{ above:  Mr. Vague's published work, found in the pages of The Hand:  a close-up detail of a life-size anatomy model from the 1940s. }

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{ below:  further examples of Mr. Vague's still life photography using the original method. }

Wet plate photography "enjoyed [its] widest use during the 1860s and 1870s" 

and was "most commonly made by photographers working in booths or the open air at fairs and carnivals." 

Portrait subjects enjoyed knowing that their photos "could be developed and fixed and handed to the customer only a few minutes after the picture had been taken. " [ via wikipedia ]

The term tintype (also called ferrotype) refers to collodion photos developed on actual pieces of metal; ambrotypes are positive images developed on clear glass, which is then coated on the back side with a dark material such as tar or paint, so that the image can be seen.

It's a highly involved and complicated process with many different aspects and variables, but, when done properly, the end result is just gorgeous. 

And truly, it's such a treat to know this is the same method photographers used to create photographs over 100 years ago --  

The mother of invention made visible!

So, that little camera phone in your pocket?  

This is it's great-great grandmother.

{ Prints of these and other wet plate collodion photos are available!  To request yours, leave a comment below, on our facebook page, or via email at:  vagueinternational@gmail.com.  Thanks! }

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{ all photos ©Vague International }