Photoset

Mastering Tintype in the 21st Century with Giles Clement

To see more of Giles’s work, follow @gilesclement on Instagram.

“It’s my creative outlet, my means of communication and, thankfully, a way of paying rent,” says 34-year-old photographer Giles Clement (@gilesclement). “Even after shooting full time for 16 years, I still get a little kick of adrenaline each time I make a good image.” The Nashville, Tennessee, native specializes in tintype photography — one of the earliest (and most complicated) photo processes made popular in the 1860s. “Each image takes 10 minutes to make, a bunch of equipment and a huge amount of light,” Giles says. The limitations of tintype — and its sister process ambrotype — might deter some, but Giles embraces its challenges: “All of my gear is old and well used, my lenses have scratches and my cameras are missing a screw or two, but all of this makes for images that are slightly imperfect — just the way I like them.” #CameraDay

photography, tintype, ambrotype, cameraday, nashville, Giles Clement, instagram,

Photoset

Capturing the Creative Energy of Sundance with @victoriawill

To see more of her Victoria’s diverse portrait photography, follow @victoriawill on Instagram.

For the last three Sundance Film Festivals, Victoria Will (@victoriawill) created old-time tintype prints to capture celebrities in their element, but this year at the Esquire (@esquire) portrait studio, she jumped centuries ahead with moving portraits. “This takes a still image and adds a little bit of a narrative to it,” the photographer from Brooklyn, New York, says. “It asks more questions than it answers.” Victoria is drawn to the infectious creative energy inherent in Sundance’s culture, and occasionally, she gets star struck — she has esteemed entertainers like Nick Jonas posing for her, after all. But the butterflies dissipate once the stars say hello. “Every 15 minutes, someone new walks in the door,” she explains. “I say, ‘This is great. It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Victoria. Come on in. Let’s do this.’”

photography, tintype, sundance, esquire, moving portraits, victoria will, instagram,

Photoset

Catching Waves with @jstersurf’s Tintype Photos

To see more of Joni’s unique tintype surfer shots, follow @jstersurf on Instagram.

Photographer Joni Sternbach (@jstersurf) gets a lot of attention when she takes her wet-plate collodion equipment, used for the intricate photo process made famous during the U.S. Civil War, to beaches around the world. Besides the large cameras, pre-mixed chemicals and jugs of water, a dark box is required to create her tintype photos. “Once you go to a small beach with a big outfit you are very noticeable,” the native New Yorker says. Sunbathers, surfers and swimmers all wonder what’s inside, often asking her whether it’s a puppet show or cappuccino maker. “The size of the camera and the immediacy of the wet-plate collodion is what really draws people into this project,” Joni says. “That is why the process is so important to me.”

photography, surfing, beach, tintype, civil war, wet plate collodion, joni sternbach, instagram,

Photoset

Rediscovering Inspiration in Hungary and France with @balintporneczi

To see more of Bálint’s portraits from Hungary and France, follow @balintporneczi on Instagram.

“I had a burnout. I thought I was in the wrong place — in the head, and in the soul,” says Hungarian photographer Bálint Pörneczi (@balintporneczi), describing a period working for a newspaper in Budapest. “When you wake up in the morning, you don’t want to shoot the same thing, knowing it will be in the trash the next day. This thing became like a life in a factory.” With that, Bálint started a new life in France, where he delivered newspapers in small villages before finding work again as a photojournalist. On Instagram, he shares a series of street portraits of the people he encounters in his daily life. He cites August Sander, an early 20th century German portraitist, as an inspiration, and describes his surprise to find himself making portraits with an iPhone. “It makes me happy, I enjoy photography as I did in the beginning. I re-found the pleasure, and slowly different doors start to open.”

Photography, france, hungary, Black and White, tintype, portrait, tatoo, User Feature, balint porneczi, instagram,

Photoset

Timeless Analog-Digital Images from @scottirvine57 and @kimmibird

To see more of Scott and Kim’s timeless images combining both old and new techniques, follow @scottirvine57 and @kimmibird on Instagram.

“I still believe that film has a magic to it,” says Scott Irvine (@scottirvine57). Self-described as a latecomer to digital and mobile photography, he still uses vintage analog equipment and maintains a traditional darkroom for professional photographers in Brooklyn, New York.

“Early on, I was frustrated that techniques and styles that had taken me years to learn in a darkroom setting were now available as apps, for everyone. I have since embraced these digital ideas, and incorporated them into my work,” Scott says. “I love the idea of bouncing back and forth between digital and analog mediums. I have experimented with creating negatives from some of my iPhone images, bringing them into the darkroom to print using analog techniques, then back to a digital format like Instagram.”

He shares this visual language with his wife and fellow photographer, Kim Meinelt (@kimmibird). She describes their journey together, “Three months after we met, we traveled to Southeast Asia on a trip that would foreshadow our foray into collaborative photography. Our process places two opposing techniques together with as little resistance as possible.”

Photography, daguerreotype, darkroom, portrait, southeastasia, analog, tintype, Kim Meinelt, Scott Irvine, Instagram,