Wet plate photography usually now refers to Ambrotype or Tintype plates – but essentially, for me, wet plate is used to create a negative on glass. I returned to using this technique ten years ago in 2014 when I found the cost of large format negatives had gone through the roof.

Most analogue photographic materials are disappearing, and those which are still made are very expensive and not to the same quality I was used to: Agfa Brovira – Amidol – Kodachrome – Cibachrome Panatomic X – all gone. What is left is getting scarce and expensive – all will eventually vanish perhaps, but none of this existed in 1860 and some wonderful work was done so I decided to learn how to cope as the pioneers did and to use these techniques when necessary.

Tintypes today are not traditional bitumen coated tinplate, but anodised aluminium – this is also getting expensive – so I work with glass which are Ambrotypes if the silver image is “thin” or negatives if it is the correct density. Wet plate work is mostly orthochromatic. I am experimenting with dyes to increase spectral sensitivity, but this is rather on the back-burner at present.

 

There is no reason why any wet plate negative or positive should look “damaged” or covered with “artefacts” – however, the fashion is often to show poor workmanship or mistakes as part of the process and to be aesthetically pleasing. So be it – I was asked by a gallery in Sete to produce some traditional ambrotypes – they only sold the ones which, in my opinion, were rejects – I was happy to take the money.