Wet Plate Photographer

Wet Plate Collodian looks to be a very labour intense process, if the video by LA based photographer Ian Ruhter is anything to go by. It is great to see an old photography process being kept alive, and better still delivering fantastic results. I especially love the portraits.

The photographer uses 36x24 inch large metal plates to record images. The costs of each Wet Plate photograph are not insignificant - upwards of $500 per shot. Ruhter's has developed a complete self propelled Wet Plate photography system using his van. It's the camera, the darkroom and the transport system for his photography.

Why does he choose to do photography this way? Well an interesting comment by the photographer brings it back to being apart from the crowd. Ian Ruhter says 'everyone around me has the same camera, and has the same signature. I'm going to go out a build a camera that no-one has!" 

He's certainly done that!

A gallery of Ian Ruhter's images can be found at http://ianruhter.tumblr.com/