American photographer Joni Sternbach is well known for Surfland, a series of unique tintype portraits and seascapes along America’s coasts. She also captures abandoned places, the ocean, the sky and other vistas.
Sternbach uses a wet-plate collodion process, introduced in the 1850s.
The 8×10″ aluminum plate is hand-coated and sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate just before being loaded in her 19th-century-style, wooden view camera. Sternbach uses a variety of antique brass and modern lenses. The entire process is done on location, with a portable darkroom.
Part craft and part theatre, the instantaneous wet-plate collodion process allows Sternbach to create one-of-a-kind tintypes that are imbued with a feeling of ambiguity, timelessness and mystery. -Soulcatcher Studio, from her Surfland exhibition.
-In the field, from the series Salt Effect
-Intrepid potash, Salt Effect
-Deer Isle, from the series Abandoned
-Broken Home, from Abandoned
Very retro looking and her methods explain why. Interesting to see someone not just keeping with the old fashioned (now) film, but a technique even further back in time.
I agree. I especially enjoy seeing the results of vintage-style photography, too.
Beautiful, truly a work of art in the way that the artist utilizes the medium of photography.
Agree, it’s stunning photo-art, and she has an unusually artistic eye as well. thanks.