Ambrotypes

 

The collodion wet plate process was a photographic process practiced in the mid eighteen hundreds.  An Ambrotype is an image on a glass plate made with the collodion wet plate process.  It is both a negative and a positive.  The process requires a great involvement on the part of the sitter and photographer.  The chemistry is all hand mixed, and poured, and the subject needs to sit still in daylight from anywhere between thirty seconds and two or more minutes.  This process is contrary to the ease of digital technology.  What is most attractive about these Ambrotypes is the level of presence and commitment both photographer and subject share during the making of the photograph.  The intimacy and near immediacy of the process creates a dynamic relationship with time, photographer, and subject.  These are all portraits of friends and acquaintances during my stay at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.