I’ve written before about Quinn Jacobson and Wet Plate Collodion photography, an all but forgotten technique of sensitizing sheets of glass and making exposures on that glass instead of our more modern plastic films. Jacobson practices and teaches this process.
Beginning as a reflection of his early life, the video transitioned to a good introduction of the techniques of wet plate photography. The video then transitioned again into an interview of his portraiture subjects.
These weren’t your ordinary subjects, the pretty people of life. Here his subjects are the people of his home town – people who generally would be considered the underbelly of society – criminals, mentally challenged, the physically and mentally handicapped. The type of people that a photographer generally leaves as soon as the photograph is taken. Here, however, the photographs were followed by interviews. These people were given a chance to tell a bit of their stories, a moving caption for the photographs. There was a sense of the dignity of the subject regardless of the trouble that person has had in life.
If you have a curiosity about old photographic techniques such as wet plate photography or if you’ve ever had the desire to see a subject as more than just the momentary focus of a camera, you might be interested in this two part video. I enjoyed it. I would have loved to have seen more.
