Black and white photographic portraits made using 19th century technology
Black and white photographic portraits made using 19th century technology

Video: Black and white photographic portraits made using 19th century technology

Video: Black and white photographic portraits made using 19th century technology
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Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology

Invention wet colloidal process became a key event in the development of photography. In 1851, the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer proposed this method of shooting, which replaced the daguerreotype. It turns out that today in the world you can find people who, despite the development of ultra-modern digital technologies, prefer to photograph using the method invented by Archer. One of them - Michael Shindler, photographer from San Francisco.

Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology

Michael Schindler is a true enthusiast, he is one of the few adherents of the wet colloidal process, which allows you to get very high quality images. His photo studio is located on Valencia Street in San Francisco, one of the few places in the world where you can take a black and white portrait in the same way as if you happened to live in the 19th century. It is noteworthy that Michael Schindler is not looking for models, he is ready to photograph everyone who comes. Fortunately, the doors of the studio are open to visitors every day. “I don’t choose whom to photograph, I like to exercise, constantly encountering new people, in this case I have the opportunity to learn something interesting about each person,” the author himself comments on his photo project.

Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology

It took Michael Schindler six years to master the wet colloidal process perfectly. This method consists in the fact that a layer of a special solution (collodion) is poured onto a glass plate, when the plate dries up, it is dipped in a solution of potassium iodide, and then in a solution of silver nitrate. In this case, the smallest crystals of silver iodide are formed in the collodion layer, which are then "fixed" by the developer.

Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology
Photographs of Michael Shindler using 19th century technology

Each photo is developed manually, the image is processed immediately after the photo was taken. The entire procedure takes no more than 15 minutes. Each glass plate is unique, it is impossible to replicate these images, this makes the "colloidal" portraits unique. When leaving, each visitor receives his own picture as a souvenir. Michael Schindler's project has been going on for over three years. During this time, he took more than four thousand photographs, the end of the project is scheduled for March 30, 2014.

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