The Wet Plate Collodion Process
© Will Dunniway
In this two-day workshop, students will learn how to apply the wet plate collodion process in a contemporary setting. The class will feature two days of hands-on training in the making of ambrotypes (glass image), ferrotypes (tintypes), and glass plate negatives. With Will Dunniway serving as the guide, students will learn the step-by-step process of mixing, pouring, exposing and the development of plates poured with wet collodion. Participants will use a period 1860 field camera with 1860-70 lenses and, with Will’s instruction, learn how to adapt newer ‘view’ type cameras with wet plate backs. In the end, each student will gain a working knowledge of the collodion process (not its historical interpretation) and will make and take home a self-portrait tintype/ambrotype.
The newest edition of Will’s manual, Making the Wet Collodion Plate in 16 Steps, is included along with all materials and equipment. Both days, Saturday and Sunday, will take place at Will’s home studio and darkroom located in Corona, California.
Will Dunniway (www.dunniway.com) or (www.collodion-artist.com) has pursued the avocation of artist/photographer for over 40 years. A student of American History, he came into contact with the wet plate collodion process while re-enacting the 125th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1988. There he met collodion experts John Coffer and Claude Levet and, under their tutelage, began studying the process in earnest. In the 14 years that followed, Dunniway has become an expert in this historic collodion photographic process. For the past five years he has taught the process at the college level and various historical institutions including the State of California. On one occasion he produced red class Ambrotypes of Winona Ryder and other props for movie director Francis Ford Coppola’s production of “Dracula.” He currently lives in the old orange growing town of Corona with his wife, Frances.
