Workshop: Wet plate collodion tintype with Jack McLain

‘This intensive one-day workshop will give you an introduction and hands-on experience in the wet collodion photographic process. Using 19th century technology, participants will learn the process of sensitising plates, correct exposure and development. The wet collodion process was developed in the early 1850s by Frederick Scott Archer and can be applied to a variety of substrates. Participants in the workshops will create their own Tintype wet collodion plates on black aluminium and the process of varnishing will also be demonstrated and can be applied.’ Photo Access website.

Main photograph above: 9×7 black glass plate in drying rack. Group photograph from 2024 workshop. Jack McLain.

Jack McLain (b. 1963, Seattle, Washington; lives and works in Australia) is a photographer and artist who explores nature, place, and found beauty utilising a variety of photographic processes and media.

His work in early photographic processes stems from his belief that there is a quantitive difference between a digital and physical manifestation of a photograph. Both are valid, but prints, whatever their origin, are how photographs are best experienced and read.

Photo Access, Canberra. 26 April 2025