In its early days, photography involved a laborious chemical process. But, there’s no doubt that it forever changed how we see and depict the world around us. Fortunately, many wet collodion plates and the process itself survived to this day, serving as poignant reminders of how far we’ve come. Paris-based photographer and weird lens collector Mathieu Stern shows us some great examples in the glass plate portraits he recently bought.
The Victorian glass plate portraits he said, were shot in the UK in 1910. So, he did what many of us will most likely do to satisfy his curiosity about photography from this period. He spent hours browsing and studying the David Knights-Whittome Glass Plate Negative collection. His interesting observation was spot on: pets make portraits fun!
The digitized glass plate portraits are fascinating on their own. But, it’s not surprising that Stern decided to restore and colorize the images as well. Many people who get curious about life back then also wonder about what the scenes would look like in color. So, as he said, it’s great that new technologies can help us get a vision of the past.
Have you also found some wet collodion photos like these beautiful glass plate portraits? Share them with us in the comments below, or in our group discussions if you’re already part of the Photofocus Community!
