This amazing weekend workshop gets you hands-on with the beautiful, historical photographic processes tintypes (positives on tin), ambrotypes (positives on glass), and glass plate negatives. Workshop leader Rashod Taylor, who has been working with these wet plate processes for over 20 years, will show you how to create unforgettable images with tintype, ambrotype, and glass plate negatives from start to finish — no prior photography experience required — all are welcome, beginners to advanced!  

During the weekend we will make images with all three processes, both indoors and outdoors, weather permitting, allowing you to experiment with landscape, still life, and portraiture. Along the way, Taylor will share fundamentals about working with 4 x 5 cameras as well as coating the plates, making correct exposures with wet plate, processing the plates, and finally, finishing, varnishing, and storage for archival preservation of your images. We will process plates in Aurora’s renovated darkroom as well as outdoors in a mobile darkroom tent, offering a wide variety of wet plate experiences and plenty of room for experimentation.

All materials and cameras will be provided, but if you would like to bring your own 4 x 5 camera or any other materials to work with, you are welcome to do so.  

This workshop is suitable for all beginners and will also be challenging for more advanced students of photography. Basic darkroom experience is helpful but not required. Artists under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

All images courtesy of Rashod Taylor

Rashod Taylor (b.1985) attended Murray State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in art with a specialization in Fine Art Photography in 2007. Taylor favors traditional and lost format practice of photography silver prints and wet plate collodion process among them. Taylor’s work uses portraiture to address themes of family, race, culture and legacy. The artist’s photographs are a window into the Black American experience. His photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Taylor has taught numerous workshops at Anderson Ranch Art Center. He has presented lectures at Stanford University, George Washington University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Maine Media Workshop + College, Los Angeles Center of Photography, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among other venues. The artist is represented by jdc Fine Art and Obscura Gallery and has been included in group and solo shows, respectively. Editorial clients include National Geographic, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, ProPublica, among others. His work has also been featured in CNN, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Forbes, Hulu, Buzzfeed News, Black & White Magazine, Feature Shoot and Lenscratch. Rashod Taylor lives in Bloomington, IL

This workshop was made possible by a generous grant from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.