Tintypes are a civil war era process of photography where a silver image is formed on an aluminum plate. Each image is hand-made, one of a kind. Subtle changes in the temperature in the air, humidity, flow of the chemicals on the aluminum and technique all impact the final image. Once complete, the plate is rinsed, allowed to dry then covered in varnish to be preserved for well over 150 years.
The process exemplifies Imperfect Authenticity c. 1853
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Imperious 53 became a passion project stemming from a desire to make portraits that were raw, real and one of a kind. I've been a portrait photographer, using mostly digital cameras for over a decade. Even the large format film images I took, were delivered to my subjects as digital files. Tintype allows the final portrait to be tangible, memorable and archival. -JG