A wet plate photographer makes a film base on a piece of glass or metal using collodion, submerges it in a silver nitrate solution to make it light sensitive, and then exposes the photograph usually in an old style wood bellows camera box and antique brass lens from the 1800’s. The process is called wet plate because during the entire process the chemicals on the plates must remain wet and cannot be allowed to dry.
Inherited from the great grandfather Luigi Melchiori who at the end of the 19th century decided to be a photographer. Her photos, made of glass and metal plates have always aroused a lot of curiosity and wonder in me, as well as the old wooden bellows machine that as a child it was forbidden to touch. The uniqueness of those photos, which have come to the present day, contrasts with current photography, made of digitization and devoid of matter. This is what fascinates me, the magic of seeing an image born under your eyes, made of whites, blacks and shades, a unique and unrepeatable image.
collodion is a sticky and transparent liquid is immersed in a silver nitrate solution when wet, it is ideal for coating surfaces such as glass or aluminum. When a metal plate is coated with collodion, loaded with silver nitrate, exposed and developed, it produces a positive image.
