Tin Questions

Here we are at the mid season finale. Tin Questions will be taking a few weeks off after this, so I hope you enjoy this episode where we get to sit down with a wetplate photographer that really enjoys the artifact itself. Coming from an extensive background in handcrafted artwork like drawing, painting and cabinet making, Greg Shea has been putting those talents to good work in his 30+ year role a...

This week on Tin Questions we head to the Bluegrass State, specifically the home of the Louisville slugger to chat with a creative artist that’s had his hands in printmaking, collodion and history. Hands in history, you might ask? I should have said History in Hand. As a representative of trying to make the humble tintype more mainstream, Rudy Salgado of River City Tintype has quite the following...

With October coming up, this is as close as Tin Questions gets to a ghost story. Today we take a look at the life of a Senior Photographer for the Chief Medical Examiner's Office, who happens to have a pretty extensive background in tintype photography. Aside from her previous work of managing New York's Penumbra Foundation Tintype Studio, Jolene Lupo sits down to chat about what it's...

The Romans promised "Bread and Circuses" to keep the populous appeased and entertained. For the Tin Questions audience, we have no bread but plan to keep your interest by visiting the circus. Our next guest lives across the pond in Bristol, England and has led quite the life leading up to being a unique collodion artist. Starting with juggling and also an accomplished ukulele and saw bla...

Well, it’s been a hot minute (or over a year) since we last heard from our guests. But Tin Questions is back and kicking off a new season with a great new wetplate artist episode. Our next guest grew up in the hills and hollers of Appalachia and now resides in Tennessee. Having been a photographer of most of her life and getting her BFA in Photography, Kelsey Dillow had heard about the wetplate pr...

In this season's summer bonus episode, you may be surprised to hear that the lowly vintage ferrotype plate still receives some academic and scientific research, 150+ years after its introduction. My guest, Dr. Corina Rogge, is the Director of Conservation at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas and has went where few have dared to go in the research of the tintype. Cory has written multiple...

You may have heard the historical announcement "One if by land, two if by sea". Before Paul Revere made his midnight ride through the country side, he crafted with silver. My next photographic duo, based in Revere, Massachusetts, are also artists of silver, but use it to capture light. Maureen Feeley and Dave Caramello were looking for something to keep them occupied during the pandemic...

We're heading to the home town of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in this episode to talk about mixing collodion and vinyl records. Experimental collodion artist Greg Martin has been shooting for years and constantly pushing the boundaries of the art with new mediums and trying out the funkiest lens you've probably never thought of. Listen in as we chat about all things collodion, taking or...

In this episode, we get to check in with another tintypist who, along with her trusty travel companion Rosemary, decided to spend more time on the open road capturing not only the beauty of nature but portraits of those she meets along the way. Developing a love for analog photography in high school, Megan Karson added the wetplate collodion process to her film photography work and continues to us...

After having his photo taken by John Coffer during a Civil War reenactment event, my next guest decided that being a vintage photographer may be more exciting, or at least less strenuous, than being a participant. Having some background in wedding photography in the 1980s, Bob Szabo decided a change in his photographic practices was due. While his Civil War styled images are easily mistaken for or...

In this week's episode, we learn that starting down one career path doesn't necessarily mean that's the road you're stuck on. Moving from culinary school to the tattoo shop, tintypist Matthew Stella, decided to give wetplate photography a try when a friend asked him to do "something involving photography" at a tattoo convention. Starting with just the basics, he was able...

Is there a place for collodion in today's world of photography? This week's guest thinks so and decided being a teacher, FAA drone pilot and professional commercial photographer wasn't enough. While familiar with Victorian photography and the works of famous Civil War photographers, Jon Haverstick decided to reach out to modern day wetplaters during the COVID-19 shutdown and developed...

Let's mix this batch up - engineer dad + a creative background in music, painting, film photography + love of the old and vintage items + a chance trip to a Gettysburg tintype studio. What comes out of this mixture is Chicago based photographer Jennifer Froula Weber. Listen in as we talk about her dreamy wetplate collodion images, her creative process and how Berber the bear became her first s...

In ages long past, before the dawn of the smartphone and the instant image, a different kind of magic unfolded. Photographers embarked on quests with cumbersome contraptions of brass and glass. They wrestled with this strange alchemy, capturing the fleeting moments of a world yet unfrozen. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. We didn't quite make it to that place with...

In this week's episode, we get to talk to a relative newcomer in the collodion world that's already making a name for herself. Currently residing in Fargo, North Dakota, Kary Janousek wanted to learn more about the process after seeing it first hand for a set of promotional images for her other business - vintage hat repair and sales. Kary shares more on her millinery work and how a love o...

Growing up, I was fascinated by folk tales about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and other characters from American history. In this season 3 opener, I finally tracked down the Johnny Appleseed of wetplate, John Coffer. Making an 11,000 mile journey across the United State in a horse drawn wagon, John made his way town to town, figuring out the collodion process in the mid 1970's and capturing authent...

Has it really been this long? I know, I said a bonus episode was coming in a few weeks after the last episode. But something special like this needed to marinate for a little while. While this episode includes a who's who in collodion, it's really about the life and influence of one California man named Will Dunniway. I've collected some of his closest friends, family and students to i...

In this season's finale of Tin Questions, I get to sit down with a chemist turned wetplater turned wetplate chemical supplier, Brian Cuyler. Starting out in collodion at the beginning of the recent renaissance period, Brian used his background in chemistry to investigate some of the historical recipes that we all use and tweak them to produce collodions specialized for different situations. Se...

We all had to start somewhere and I thought it would be good to hear from somebody new in this episode of Tin Questions. I met Andrew Pignatelli recently while another traveling tintypist was passing through a local brewery. With little background in photography and even less in collodion, Drew became intrigued by seeing the wetplate work of others online and decided to start Golden Tintype, based...

Have you ever had a subject that seemed too big to capture in a way that accurately showed the scale and majesty of how it truly exists? My next guest had a big dream that started with a chance finding of a 1907 ultra large format camera - weighing in at 70kg and 2 meters long, this "baby" camera was just what was needed to kickstart a dream project, pulling a well known videographer int...

Inspiration comes in many forms. Sometimes it's a guy making an 11,000 mile journey across the US in a horse drawn wagon taking tintypes. Originally from England, Texas transplant Adrian Whipp learned about John Coffer's trip and decided he wanted to do the same, minus Brownie the horse. Looking for a career change, Adrian decided to put together a mobile tintype studio that he could take...

It was once said that "all roads lead to Rome". If you were to ever to trace your genealogy in the learning of wetplate collodion, it is very likely that these roots wind their way back to New York state. This week's episode is a little different than most in that I have not one, but two guests that share their experience and learnings with others all over the globe. France Scully Os...

I recently went camping and got ate up by mosquitos. My next guest, Austrian wetplate photographer Markus Hofstätter, lives in a town known for these pesky insects. Not only is Markus a well known European photographer, he is also a great resource to the wetplate community, sharing his knowledge, doing equipment reviews and similar to "Tin Questions", conducting the occasional interview....

This week's guest is a fellow wetplater that has shared her portraits with millions of viewers on TV. Currently working as a Director of Photography for Paramount+, Sarah Coulter pitched an idea to capture the cast of the hit show "Yellowstone" using the wetplate process. After these successful images, she then turned her camera towards getting period accurate images of the cast for...

We're not talking about ruby slippers on Tin Questions, but we might have a word about ruby bellows. In this episode, I'm chatting with Dallas-Fort Worth photographer Sheena Dorton who is making a name for herself in the world of tintype. Sheena is one of the first guests on the show that was recommended by listeners that I talk to. Not only is she shooting photos at her Texas studio &quot...