Home / Photography

Dramatic Tintype Portraits of Contemporary Celebrities

By Pinar Noorata on February 10, 2014

Initially created for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, New York-based photographer Victoria Will's Tintypes series features portraits of numerous celebrities that uses an old technique for film development involving a thin sheet of iron coated with a collodion emulsion. The monochromatic renderings, which are produced through the dated method of film processing (most popular in the mid-to-late 19th century), add a dramatic and aged effect to the contemporary actors.

Each unique portrait in Will's series is, essentially, a one-of-a-kind. The wet-plate tintypes require the photographer to move quickly for each shot. Like in their original practice, centuries ago, Will had to coat her piece of iron with the enamel containing silver halide crystals and expose it while it was still wet. Through this time-sensitive process, the photographer was able to produce images with an underexposed and textured effect that reminds viewers of an age before sound was ever combined with film. These modern-day actors are suddenly transformed into silent era performers.

Above: Mark Ruffalo

Anne Hathaway