In this solo exhibition in the Sunburst Gallery, Ards Arts Centre, Newtonards (2016) the artwork was produced during residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie centre and Cló Ceardlann in Donegal and used the historical wet plate collodion photographic process invented by Frederic Scott Archer in 1851. This processwas used by the photographer Matthew Brady to record the American Civil War, one of the first uses of documentary war photography. It was also the first use of forensic photography in Ireland, when James Glass in ‘The Red Album’ photographed the site of the death of Detective Inspector Martin and documented local people living in extreme poverty in Gweedore, Donegal, in 1889 as part of evidence within the murder trial of 14 local people during the Irish Land Wars.
The medicinal qualities of collodion suspension was thought to have been used to help treat the wounds of soldiers in battle. As a process wet plate collodion photography has an inherent connection with our sense of the physicality of the body and the indexical qualities inherent within silver-based photography.
Portraits evoke quite different qualities in the sitter, at times, images appear to exude an almost inner spiritual light. This exhibition explores how ‘wet plate’ photography connects with our sense of the ‘uncanny’ and perhaps unsettles contemporary expectations of the photographic image.
The medicinal qualities of collodion suspension was thought to have been used to help treat the wounds of soldiers in battle. As a process wet plate collodion photography has an inherent connection with our sense of the physicality of the body and the indexical qualities inherent within silver-based photography.
Portraits evoke quite different qualities in the sitter, at times, images appear to exude an almost inner spiritual light. This exhibition explores how ‘wet plate’ photography connects with our sense of the ‘uncanny’ and perhaps unsettles contemporary expectations of the photographic image.