Tin Man: breathing new life into photos with an old-fashioned process

Almost all of the photographs on Joseph Wyman Brown's website are of faces, people staring directly out of the frame in a way that is at once striking and slightly unnerving. He makes his photos using wet plate tintype, a process that hasn't been widely used for nearly a century, and which produces contrast and detail not found in today's digital photography. The photographer's involvement in the artistic process of tintype is obvious: look closely around the ragged edges of each image and you can see his fingerprints etched into the emulsion.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Brown said in an interview that the biggest thing with wet plate is they have to stare. The process of making a tintype is one of the things that makes the art form so special.

A tintype picture can be created by dipping a metal plate into chemicals, loading it into a camera, and then using different chemicals to develop an image onto the plate. Like the Civil War-era photographers who traveled around in covered wagons making tintype images, Brown makes his way from town to town and sets up his mobile studio at coffee shops and other places where people can come to have their pictures taken. He was in Tennessee recently and we caught up with him.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

It might seem odd that people would line up for a tintype in the age of photo sharing. His way of working wouldn't be familiar to most photographers today.

You can see the sense of artistry when you see a picture in person. Even as someone who has shot a lot of Polaroids and rolls of film holds a piece of metal with an image captured on it and permanently lacquers it into place is almost shocking. I could see what the camera was seeing when I looked at the metal plate. The effect was even stronger when Brown brought out some of the tintypes that he had collected.

• A selection of tintypes Brown has taken. Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
• Some 19th-century tintypes Brown has collected. Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Any photographer can take a few minutes to get to know the person they are shooting, and Brown does. Someone walks in front of the camera and they are like, "So this is only one shot, right?" Slow photography like tintype requires constant attention for what can seem like an eternity in the age of instant gratification.

There are positives and negatives to Brown's approach. He was taking a portrait of her and her husband when he got the devastating news. He said that they sat in their grief for several minutes while facing a camera after they wanted to take a picture.

Brown said capturing someone laughing or breaking into tears isn't really possible due to the long exposure times.

Brown isn't the only one keeping the tradition alive. He learned the process from Brown. He was the president of the photo club at the time, and he couldn't believe it when he saw the tintype.

I reached out to him about the photo club. It was like, holy shit, when I was there. He wondered how he could be here every other day. The guy is kind. I could be if he needed me or wanted me to be at the studio. I never asked any questions. I watched him do the process at the studio. Brown took his first tintype picture on June 29th of last year, and he remembers the exact date.

John Coffer has been teaching people about the tintype process for decades at his camp in New York. A few contemporary photographers have used the process to take pictures of things like celebrities and war, and there is an educational nonprofit in New York that has a tintype studio.

Tintype is one of the older art forms that is still being created. After its decline in the early 2000s, 35mm or medium format film has begun to make a comeback, and some photographers are starting to use it. The experience of waiting a day before you can see the pictures you have taken is recreated in some apps. Polaroid and other instant films can be found in stores like Best Buy and Walmart, as well as at Fujifilm's stores.

Some people choose the old ways because they dislike new tech or think it is less than before. During his deployment in Iraq, Brown took pictures with a DSLR and turned into The Guy with the Camera.

• A collection of photographs on the wall of Brown’s van, including one from his deployment in Iraq. Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
• The lens Brown uses on his main camera. He says the serial number seems to date it back to 1879. Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

He recently did his first digital shoot in years and said he doesn't want to do the same thing over and over. He wants to change things up as an artist, whether that is shooting digital, changing how he lights his tintypes, or even starting a podcast.

He says there is a double-edged sword when it comes to tintypes. There is at least some level of reproducibility with many types of photography. You can use a 35mm negative to make prints from digital images. You can copy a tintype. It feels like I don't have anything to show for all my work, even though I can capture an image of it.

Brown says he always tries to improve his images. Even though Brown doesn't think he will ever really master the process of tintype photography, he says he doesn't want to move.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Brown does not completely abandon modern photography. He has a side project where he takes several one-second video clips every day of the year, then compiles them together to form a kind of story video that he can show his grandma. He used an 8mm film camera last year. The project cost around $1,700 between buying and developing it.

There is something compelling about someone giving up the convenience of modern tech and still creating something amazing. Brown said that he shared the best representation of the tintype. I want people to know that this is a process from the 1800s. It is not perfect.

Maybe that imperfection is one of the things that keeps people experimenting with the old ways. Digital creation can make things more accessible and convenient for everyone. The fingerprints along the side of the frame are important to see the blurred edges and mistakes.