The tintype is a 19th Century photographic
process, in which a photograph is produced on a piece of lacquered iron. The
process, also known as a melainotyope and ferrotype, was popularized in the mid
19th Century as a sort-of first version of the instant photograph. In recent
years, as photographic technology continues to develop in alignment with the
digital age, the tintype and other 19th Century processes have gone through a
resurgence. Since starting The Tintype Studio this past summer, I’ve come to
realize, through its history and social context, that the tintype process is as
relevant today as it ever was, not only as a portrait medium, but also as an
artistic one.
There are inherent characteristics of the tintype
process, which make it a unique and coveted medium. First is that a tintype is
one of a kind. There is no negative produced that can be used to create endless
reproductions of the original. Each plate is used to produce a single image that
gains value beyond the representation of the subject itself and gravitates
toward the actual handheld object. It is also an experience that is alien to
individuals of time, where control, ease, flexibility and economics are
paramount to producing photographs. Where the digital age has allowed for total
manipulation of the photographic medium and ignorance of how it works, the
tintype process allows the sitter to take a step into the physical process
itself, and get a feel for what it was like to have a portrait taken in the 19th
Century.
... The tintype process was first conceived by
Adolphe- Alexandre Martin in 1853, shortly after Fredrick Scott Archer invented
the wet-plate collodion process, and was later patented in the United States and
Great Britain in 1856. Almost identical to the ambrotype, which uses glass
instead of metal, the tintype quickly caught on in America as the photograph for
the masses. It was fast, cheap, mobile and much more durable than other
processes available at the time. A tintype can be coated, sensitized, exposed,
developed, fixed, washed, dried and varnished in less than 10 minutes. This
nearly instant form of photography became accessible at outdoor fairs and
carnivals to those who couldn’t afford to get a photograph taken in a private
studio. The tintype was the most common photographic process until the creation
of the gelatin based processes introduced by Kodak in the late 1880’s.
Process in a nutshell is this: you pour a fluid over a small sheet of metal,
usually aluminum
(the tin of “tintype” is a misnomer). That fluid acts as a
substrate to the light-sensitive silver concoction that’s applied next. In
essence, you’re making your own film, though it’s on metal instead of acetate.
That sensitized piece of metal is then placed in the camera, exposed, and
developed in a process very familiar to anyone with experience in a darkroom
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