James Weber

(Robert) | We live at times full of stress, with a chronic lack of free time, and at the same time we enjoy many benefits of technology, of which, digital photography is just one example brought to perfection. What attracted you to the wet plate collodion process, making you leave the comfort of digital and thus complicating your life? 🙂

(James) | I think it’s safe to put all the blame squarely on Sally Mann for getting me into this crazy world of dangerous chemicals and wood cameras. I grew up in the world of film cameras, starting back in 1994, so my love of chemical photography started early on. I have to say that in recent years, where my commercial photography has of course been all digital, I missed processing my own film and printing my work. The turning point for me was when I found Sally Mann’s “What Remains” documentary. I’ve been an admirer of her work for some time. The documentary is wonderfully put together. I think the scene that did it for me was where she’s out working in the field, shooting glass plates, and using her car as the darkroom. At that moment, I had no idea what I was looking at, but the images were incredible and I wanted to know more. That was my first introduction to the wet plate collodion process. After watching that, I was hooked. I had to learn how to make these beautiful images on glass and metal. Thanks for complicating my life, Sally. 🙂

(Robert) | The women are more self-critical and sensitive about their looks, particularly when discussing photography. What are their reactions to wet plate and the fact that there is no post-processing and subsequent “beautification” in Photoshop?

(James) | I’ve been lucky so far on this. I explain to all of my subjects that there is no Photoshop done on the images. Most of them embrace it as being a part of the process. I think in this day and age where everything is glossed over and “perfected” there is a niche for art that is more organic in nature. There’s an honesty to it.

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