Dreams In Silver

Dreams in Silver originally grew out of my interest in Alfred Cheney Johnston’s work with the women from the Ziegfeld Follies; I was interested in showing the beauty of the human form, yet retaining some of the romanticism associated with Johnston’s work. As I started the project, however, I realized that I was using 1860’s era processes for a 1920’s style of photography with 21 st century women as subjects, including modern anachronisms (some purposeful, some unavoidable). I have strived to create an atmosphere to the work that is abstracted from any point in time, hopefully giving a timeless, more ethereal, feel to the work. The models for this work are all experienced figure models, and have contributed heavily to the project through pose and expression; subjects for the wet-plates range from pensive contemplation to brazenly engaging the viewer as participant.

Dreams in Silver was photographed on tintypes, specifically using wet-plate collodion on enameled aluminum. This process requires coating the aluminum plate with collodion, making it light sensitive in a bath of silver nitrate, putting the plate in my camera and making the exposure, and developing and fixing the plate. This whole process from start to finish needs to be done in about 30 minutes (before the wet-plate dries), and produces a positive image; in many ways this process is the 19 th century version of instant film.