WetPlate Collodion Home PageHistory the Wet Collodion Process:
1851 was a time of great invention and social reform, the Wet Collodion photographic process (often refered to as the wet plate process) being one such invention. Great Britain was almost self sufficient in food production being the most powerful commercial and industrial nation in the world, having the largest Navy and empire. Queen Victoria had been on the throne since 1837 had married Albert who took the lead on the Great Exhibition of 1851, which exhibited photographs taken using the first permanent photographic processes; the Talbotype and Daguerreotype both being patented in England in 1839. In 1851 Fredrick Scott Archer announced his Wet Collodion process, he did not patent it and it was used extensively for over two decades. The process demands that glass plates are scrupulously cleaned, sensitised in a special tank, loaded into a dark side and exposed for several seconds whilst still wet. The film has to be developed and fixed immediately after exposure and may be varnished after drying. For those wishing to learn moe about the process feel free to email me: denzil@bathsphoto.co.uk
The process was almost lost in England; Londoner Sean MacKenna www.samackenna.co.uk/wetplate/samackenna.html rediscovered the long-lost methodology of Wet Collodion process in the late 1990’s, he adopted a process used by Colonel H Stuart Wortley in the 1870’s. Denzil who was brought up in a family photographic business using large plate cameras and photographic chemical, is currently using this process adopted by Sean along with just a few other practitioners of the Wet Collodion process in the United Kingdom. The process is currently being used World wide by both discerning arts and photographers for its artistic and unique qualities.
Julia Margaret Cameron was a very perceptive photographer practicing wet collodion photography the1860’s she used dramatic lighting and dark backgrounds, often in the style of Rembrandt, to produce expressive and vigorous images. Often expressing a mood of languor or desire. Limiting the depth of field and softening outlines adding to the artistic merit whilst a desirable tonal range demonstrated technical ability. It is her work what Denzil aims to emulate; the photograph taken below was taken by Julia of her niece.