|
Friday, April 10 at 6 PM
Come downtown, grab a bite, & hear Greg's talk.
Artist's Talk
Artist Greg Shea will be at the Custom House Friday, April 11 to discuss his new exhibition, Lasting Light: Contemporary Tintypes by Greg Shea, and to expound on the process he used to create these portraits.
Originally planned for February, due to ice & snow the talk was rescheduled.
| | |
Saturday, April 11, 10am-5pm
Tintype Portraits by Greg Shea
Book your session today
Appointments available from 10 AM to 4:30 PM.
The previous two days of portrait sessions sold out!
Have a portrait made of yourself, your family, your partner, or just the two of you together—an unforgettable memento. Each tintype is entirely handmade and one of a kind, and with proper care can last for hundreds of years.
Greg and his portable photo studio will be at the Custom House on April 11 from 10 am to 5 pm. If you would like to schedule a 20-minute session, please sign up at https://events.humanitix.com/a-tintype-portrait-for-you. Costumes optional. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the museum.
| | |
The Process: The tintype photographs on display were created using the historic wet plate collodion process, developed in 1851 by English sculptor and inventor Frederick Scott Archer.
A specially formulated liquid collodion is carefully poured onto a black lacquered metal plate. The coated plate is quickly taken into a darkroom to be submerged into a solution of silver nitrate. This solution makes the plate photo sensitive (able to create an image when exposed to light). The photographer is then free to exit the darkroom, to compose the intended shot with the model, object, or view, making any necessary adjustments to the camera while the plate sensitizes.
After several minutes have elapsed, the plate is removed from the silver nitrate, drained and inserted into a specially designed plate holder. The light-safe holder is brought out of the darkroom to be inserted into the camera, once final focusing has taken place. The camera lens is capped, then the dark slide is removed from the plate holder. An exposure is made by uncapping then recapping the lens, or triggering a shutter, allowing light to enter the camera, thus exposing the plate. Exposures can vary from a fraction of a second, to several seconds or minutes, depending on the amount of available light. The dark slide is replaced into the holder, before it can be removed from the camera and taken back into the darkroom. The plate inside can now be developed. This all needs to be done while the plate is still wet from the silver bath, hence the term 'wet plate collodion'.
In the darkroom, the plate is removed from its holder, then developed with a combination on chemicals. Development is stopped after fifteen seconds by rinsing the plate with fresh water. Following this rinse, the plate is safe to be brought out into the light. The resulting image on the plate appears as a negative until it is put into a bath of fixing solution, which converts the image from a negative to a positive within a minute or so. After the image has been fully 'fixed' it must be rinsed in running water for thirty minutes, before being set aside to air dry. Finally, the plate must be very carefully coated with a special varnish, to preserve and protect the fragile layer of silver which has been deposited, creating the image.
Each tintype photograph is completely hand-made, and unique. Properly taken care of, these special photographs will last hundreds of years. There are no negatives or prints made from the tintype process. A similar process can be used to make images on glass, called ambrotypes, which can be used as negatives for making prints, or made to appear as positive images when made on colored glass, or viewed against a dark surface. --from Greg Shea's website
| | |
Greg Shea is an award-winning artist, craftsman,and museum professional, whose work spans drawing and painting, contemporary tintype photography, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, and fine woodworking, among many other disciplines.
For nearly thirty years, Greg has worked at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT, where he is the Senior Museum Preparator. This has allowed him to utilize many of his skills and talents, constantly fueling his interests in the visual arts, art history, natural history, design and fabrication, conservation, engineering, restoration, and collecting. As Senior Preparator, he has been responsible for the safe handling and attractive display of countless objects, including priceless paintings and sculptures, works on paper, rare books, and other artifacts ranging from Catherine the Great's crown jewels, to Charles Darwin's collection of pigeon skulls. He is also responsible for most of the object mount making, and fabrication related to exhibitions.
| | Have you been in the SHOP lately? | | |
nlmaritimesociety.org
The CUSTOM HOUSE MARITIME MUSEUM is open
Thurs. 1 to 5 PM, Fri., 1 to 5 PM,
Sat. 10 AM to 5 PM, Sun. 1 to 5 PM.
150 Bank Street, New London, Connecticut 06430, USA
| | | | |
