About Me
My Work
What I love about the wet plate collodion process is the unique, handcrafted nature of each image, and its direct link to both photographer and subject. Coated, sensitised, and developed by hand, each image is one-of-one and reflects the practitioner's care, experience, and patience. In addition to the close relationship between image and imagemaker, I'm also drawn to the immediate physical presence of the object -- its depth, heft, and delicacy make it unlike handling a film negative or even a print.
I prefer to work in the field, typically shooting out of the back of my vehicle using various homemade darkrooms. This is often solitary work, and being able to work alone in nature with my camera, chemistry, and darkbox is an absorbing and often meditative experience. At the same time, one of the things I love about shooting wet plate is sharing it with others, whether it's offering a portrait to an interested passer-by in nature, or at a busy pop-up event.
Biography
US-born, I've spent most of my adult life overseas, including Thailand, Japan, and Australia, where I naturalised as a citizen in 2019. I currently reside in the Denver, CO area.
My first camera, depending on how you reckon, was either a Kodak disposable or a 1.3 megapixel digital camera. Digital cameras started to become more affordable around the time my interest in photography took off, but within a few years I'd started shooting with film cameras, gravitating towards to increasingly more methodical and less convenient ways of shooting (35mm > medium format > large format).
I'd always wanted to try wet plate collodion but had lacked the living space and stable living situation required to gather all the chemistry needed. I finally started in mid-2021 when I was living in Tasmania, and was instantly hooked. I am eternally grateful to Alex Gard for taking me under his wing and teaching me most of what I know.
