I practice photography just as it was done in the mid 1800's with true wet-plate collodion photography. Using chemicals, materials, & methods of a bygone era, I create images onto metal and glass plates. I am one of only 3 true wet-platers in Texas and some two dozen in the U.S.
Every aspect of my work is handmade. I mix every chemical and bake every metal plate using standards from 19th century manuals.
The process of taking an image consists of pouring a bromo-iodized collodion onto the plate, immersing into silver nitrate solution, bringing plate from darkbox to camera, exposure, then back to darkbox for development, wash, & fix. Image is then washed in water before dried and finally varnished with varnish made of lavender oil and gum sandarac.