Wet Plate Portrait Sessions (Auckland Heritage Festival)

Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 October
Between 9.30am-4pm
The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead
Price: $150 - bookings essential
This event is part of Auckland Heritage Festival 2023

The wet plate collodion process is a 19th-century method of development that predates film photography. Each image is hand-crafted, producing an original direct-positive image on a sheet of aluminium plate. Participating in a tintype session and seeing the alchemic process as images appear on the plate is captivating; an experience that few people now have the opportunity to witness. In this session, you will pose for your portrait and have the chance to see the developing process alongside photographer, Adrian Cook. Plates will be posted to clients once varnished & cured, a week or so after the session. A complimentary digital file will be sent in the days following. Limited to two persons per plate.

About Adrian Cook:
Adrian Cook is an award-winning portrait and documentary photographer and has worked for major advertising agencies and magazines worldwide for the last 25 years.

Using equipment and techniques developed in the 1850s, the photographic plates are individually coated and sensitized in the darkroom before being exposed and developed while wet. Once fixed, washed and dried they are coated in a gum sandarac varnish that preserves and protects them for generations.