Jody Ake ~ Wet Collodion Portraits

Jody Ake creates portraits, nudes, still life and landscape images using the wet collodion processes. Invented in 1851, the method entails coating a glass plate with collodion and exposing the plate while it is still wet. The end results are ambrotypes, appearing on glass in the form of a negative until backed by black velvet, thus rendering the positive image. Ake is one of a handful of contemporary artists who have revived this photographic method, hand-mixing all of the necessary chemicals for each and every exposure.