CVCC Photographic Technology Students Participate in Tintype Workshop
Catawba Valley Community College Photographic Technology students recently participated in a workshop for tintype photography through a Projects Pool Grants from the United Arts Council of Catawba County.
10/06/2020
Catawba Valley Community College Photographic Technology students recently participated in a workshop for tintype photography through a Projects Pool Grants from the United Arts Council of Catawba County.
The goal of the workshop was for students to learn the historical art form of wet collodion tintype photography — the dominant photographic process of the 1850s that overtook the daguerreotype and reigned for more than a decade until it was supplanted by dry plate collodion emulsions and eventually film.
Joshua White, assistant professor in the Department of Art at Appalachian State University, led the workshop.
Photographic Technology Program Director Clayton Joe Young compares the finished tintype image to a one-of-a-kind painting with the maker’s mark — flaws and all.
“It’s one of the earliest processes in photography — before film was ever invented,” Young said. “The plate has to be hand coated, then shot, and processed before the plate dries. You have a 10-minute window to work in. You need to have a darkroom on site.”
The culmination of this project involved CVCC’s Photographic Technology Program students photographing and interviewing a number of prominent African Americans in Catawba County.
Using a large format camera and dividing up the multi-step process among groups of students, they recreated historical photos of 13 individuals identified by the local NAACP chapter president Jerry McCombs, CVCC’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and Xenophone Lutz — a member of the undefeated Ridgeview High School “Untouchables” 1964 football team.
Eleven CVCC students and two faculty members participated in the workshop, and Young was thrilled with the results.
“We told them what to do, then sat back and watched. They took off with it,” Young said. “It was amazing watching them work. Each student took on different roles, and they did every different stage of it. The students enjoyed it so much they want to do it again.”
A selection of the tintypes are currently on display at the entrance of the Patrick Beaver Library and the commons area outside the Photographic Technology program in the Robert E. Paap Building on the main campus of Catawba Valley Community College.
The project was supported by the United Arts Council of Catawba County through the North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the state of North Carolina.
For more information on the Photographic Technology program at Catawba Valley Community College, please visit the Photographic Technology webpage.
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