Hans Jonssons photographic van– pop-up studio with wet plate photography 6-8/9

LOCATION: Outdoors. between Tyghuset & Exercishallen. DATE: 6/9 12.00-16.00 7/9 kl 12.00-18.00 8/9 12.00-17.00 MAP

During the festival’s opening weekend, you have the opportunity to be photographed using the wet plate technique by photographer Hans Jonsson and get a unique portrait of yourself to take home.
Wet plate collodion or wet plate photography is an old photographic technique that began to be used in the middle of the 19th century. The technique involves preparing glass or aluminum plates instead of film, ambrotypes or tintypes. Exposure and development must take place before the plate has dried.

Wet plate photography is a craft that contains several different steps, each of which demands both time and patience. Hans mixes his own chemicals from scratch, makes his own emulsion and cuts his own plates. The cameras are large and the lenses are old, late nineteenth century are the best.

When photographing on aluminum or glass plates, each image becomes an original, each plate is completely unique and it retains its subject for ages. It is photography approaching painting. Portraits taken using wet plate become something very special. The exposure time is long and something special seems to happen with people’s expressions when the time is long.

Although the photography requires some preparation, the process itself is not particularly time-consuming. It takes about ten minutes from preparation of the plate until you can see the image and fixing can take place in daylight. Someone has described wet plate as an antique form of polarid. Finally, the plate must be rinsed and varnished.