Icons #001 (Wet Plate Collodion) Air Fear of God 1

Title: Fear of God Air

Series number: 001

Process: Wet plate collodion (tintype)

Date: Feb 2020

Edition: 1/1

Size: 9x12cm 

Wet plate collodion is an early photographic technique invented in 1851. The process involves adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a metal plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate is immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide.

The plate, still wet, is exposed in the camera. It is then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and is fixed with a strong solution of sodium thiosulfate, turning the plate from a negative into a positive.

The plate is then varnished.

Tintype photographs are of archival quality, and like most early photographic techniques, will never fade and last for hundreds of years. Unlike modern day photo prints that deteriorate in sunlight.