Jim Fiscus is known for his advertising imagery, assignments that leave him little time for personal projects. So when he does find time to pursue a personal photo series, he wants to make it count. The latest example: tintypes, a kind of photograph that is “made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal that is blackened by painting, lacquering, or enamelling and is used as a support for a collodion photographic emulsion.” (Read more about the process here.)
“It’s like recording music on tape instead of digital,” Jim says. And like musicians who opt for analog over digital, Jim was attracted to the tintype process because of the appealing “mistakes” it yields.
Not that Jim, a perfectionist, didn’t try to control the outcome. He and his team spent this past summer “geeking out” in a barn near his home in Athens, Georgia, creating tintype after tintype—200 in all—to learn how the different steps in the process would affect the final image. “We kept a chart with the exact temperatures and duration of exposure that went into each image,” he says. He started by making tintypes of old bottles and flowers and then worked his way up to portraits.
“I got to where we felt we were in control of the outcome—we had learned to make the ‘mistakes’ happen,” Jim says. “Then what you do is you go for it.
“It’s exciting,” he continues. “It’s like opening a birthday present every time. You’re not quite certain what’s in there.”
Here’s a look at some of Jim’s tintype portraits, which are the start of an ongoing series…
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Tintype by Jim Fiscus.
Tintype by Jim Fiscus.
Tintype by Jim Fiscus.
Tintype by Jim Fiscus.
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