I recently started work on an interesting project pertaining some interesting WWII history. This first step in the process took me to a foundry about an hour from home where I met Charles—a man of many hats in the metal shop. I’ll go into more detail down the road, but for now, here are a couple of portraits of him I grabbed the other day.
The Breakup Cookie / Emily Hall
Some of my favorite humans around, Emily and Roscoe Hall and their kiddos Ruby and Eli.
Last year Emily started slinging her cookies by the dozen (@thebreakupcookie) and the people love it.
(You may have had a fresh one at Church Street Coffee & Books—she was their first baker and bringer of the legendary recipe.)
(You may also have seen Roscoe on Season 18 of Bravo’s Top Chef)
Mandy Lamb, Nashville, Tennessee
I’ve been busy lately (thankfully) and haven’t gotten to update this space in a while. While going through the archive of a previous long-term project, I have been finding some lovely out-takes and light tests, including this one of my friend and talented designer, Mandy Lamb. I had the privilege to work with her when she was still in Birmingham and grabbed this light test of her up in Nashville for a shoot at the Cumberland River Greenway. At the time, it was just getting started and had a new organization taking care of the Shelby Bottom Nature Park. Years later, my sister would end up living within walking distance of this beautiful place.
Jim Lafferty, Washington D.C. April, 2021
I had a project up in D.C. recently and was able to bring in my dear friend Jim Lafferty to help out. It was an intense project and having Jim by my side was invaluable. See Jim’s incredible work here.
Jon Brock, February 2021
We had the great pleasure to photograph Jon Brock on wet plate this weekend. A lovely man and the father of local legend Glenny Brock. Easily one of my favorite plates we have made and I’m thankful for him not getting a haircut or shaving his beard during the pandemic.
Photograph ©Rashod Taylor / National Geographic, used with permission
Rashod Taylor's National Geographic story dropped today.
I traveled to Georgia last year to help out Rashod Taylor with a wet-plate project he was working on for National Geographic. That story dropped today* (here’s the link) and I wanted to share some of it.
We spent the week all over the state photographing his family members who are part of the military in some way, making tintypes as a means of engaging the complexities of Black military service.
I helped out and shot some behind the scenes for NatGeo which should be on their stories soon.
*I’m writing this the day it posted, but am publishing this after the embargo time, just for the record.
Photograph ©Rashod Taylor / National Geographic, used with permission
Photograph ©Rashod Taylor / National Geographic, used with permission
Photograph ©Rashod Taylor / National Geographic, used with permission
Here are a few snaps from the week in Georgia.
Rashod and his cousin Valerie Lewis visit the grave or her grandfather, Sgt Lecky Taylor, at the Marietta National Cemetery.
Rashod organizing chemistry at his aunt and uncle’s home in Griffith, Georgia.
This is maybe 80% of the gear we needed to cram into this van. If you look closely, Rashod is in there waving.
Couldn’t resist talking this shot of my shadow at the Marietta National Cemetery.
This is a favorite moment in Griffith. We were photographing Rashod’s Uncle Ernest “Unc” Lewis and I ended up using an 8x10 dark slide as a flag gaffed to a c-stand arm. Truly a #shittyrigs moment.
Staff Sergeant Vanessa Lewis Williams shows me where “regulation” is for her hat, in preparation for a plate Rashod was about to make.
Rashod shows family the plate in the fixer.
Once again, check out the story here.
Found an old test plate
Rediscovered this old test plate of me from some portraits we made a while back.
Mardi Gras reflection
Lots of us are going to miss Mardi Gras again this year but it’s cool to see them doing Yardi Gras in New Orleans and Mobile. Creative solution. As much as I don’t like crowd, this is one event during which I love to be immersed in the culture and traditions.
Here are some scenes from a couple of years ago.
Balch & Bingham / Jonathan Hoffman
More work for Balch & Bingham.
This is Jonathan Hoffman—lawyer, dad, and accomplished music composer. He’s had his work selected multiple times from nationwide competitions held by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.
Always one to be working, he was legitimately composing while we were shooting.
Balch & Bingham / Irving Jones
A while back I photographed some folks at Balch & Bingham as part of a recruitment campaign and I just noticed they’ve started using the images.
This is Irving Jones. Attorney, golfer, road trip enthusiast, and former counterintelligence agent.
Oh, and super nice guy.
William, December 2020
William, December 2020
Chef John Hall
I photographed my buddy Chef John Hall a while back and I gotta say, I love this dude. He makes killer food and is one of the nicest guy’s meet.
After working in a bunch of the top restaurants in New York (and starting to sling pizza out of his apartment) he came back to Birmingham and started my favorite pizza joint in town, Post Office Pies.
Speaking of his time in New York, he was recently on David Chang’s Podcast. Interesting listen for some in-industry conversations.
Larkin Martin for Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Here’s a recent portrait for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance of northern Alabama farmer Larkin Martin of Martin Farms up in Courtland, Ala., where they grow corn, soy, cotton, and wheat.
Larkin was a lovely host and even let us take a ride on a cotton combine which was way cooler than I expected it to be.
Who says business portraits have to be boring?
Dr. Orr brought the good stuff on a recent shoot for a orthopedic center.
Rashod Taylor
I spent last week on assignment with Rashod Taylor in rural Georgia for National Geographic. Rashod was working on his “My America” wet plate series and I was along for support. I took a couple of plates along the way including this portrait of Rashod. Follow along with his work here.
Stephanie on the water
We took a moment to see my dad and his wife a while back—first time since about a year ago.
One of our activities was to take a ride on a pontoon boat and I understand a bit more the appeal of such an outing. The more time I spend at the lake overall the more I get people embracing life on the water, but I bet part of the appeal to me is that we’ve been going during off-peak times when there are less people around. Quiet lake time seems optimal for me.
Mia Owens for The Washington Post
In today’s Washington Post there is a story about Mia Owens’ new fellowship at the White House Historical Association, where she will research the history of slavery in the White House. The fellowship was created in partnership with American University’s Antiracist Research & Policy Center as a means of addressing racism and inequity in America using history as an educational tool. Thanks to Mark Miller for the assignment.
20x20 Camera Build
Over the last year I’ve been supported by the Alabama State Council for the Arts’ inaugural Gay Burke Memorial Fellowship in Photographic Arts.
The fellowship has allowed, in part, me and Jared Ragland to continue working on our project, Where You Come From Is Gone, which explores the representation of memory and absence through a series of wet-plate collodion tintype photographs documenting sites of Native American habitation and removal across the American South.
I’ve also been designing and building an ultra large format 20x20” field camera, and this blog post will serve as the holding ground for build updates.
I’ve researched a camera build of this scale for years, off and on, and have drawn my initial plan in SketchUp, with the goal of having my friends at Alabama Sawyer cut out the parts on their CNC, for the prototype at least. The prototype is made of plywood but the final build will be made of some cherry that’s been saved by my dad from his dad.
Here’s an overview of the camera as animated in SketchUp. It’s a rough sketch, but you get the point.
After the design was completed, I set out to make the ground glass. Several hours of hand-grinding with 5 micron grit (3300 grit sandpaper equivalent) turned into my first homemade proper ground glass. The best I’ve done before this is sandpaper on plexiglass, so this is a big upgrade.
Soon the prototype build should be done and we can continue our wet plate work at a much larger scale.
Here are some progress photos. I’ll update as things progress.
Nearly finished
Done and in the ground glass frame
First pieces, freshly cut at Alabama Sawyer
Lens dry fit. Using a Wollensak Verito Soft Focus ƒ4 18” lens that’s in really terrible shape. But it doesn’t matter too much since this will be used with wet plate work, which is SUPER slow.
Dry fit for dark slide.
Glue up is still in process. Hoping to have a rough build in a couple of weeks. I’ve got the bellows (ordered from CustomBellows.co.uk, because I’d still be fretting over the materials, I’m confident) ready for glue up onto their small frame for mounting in the standards. That’s gonna be a trip.
Chamfering countersinks for the front standard screws
Rough-in of front standard
More to come as this project continues.
Finally, years later, I have made myself continue this project. I was delayed for a long time by either space constraints, work or life schedule, or ennui. I have actually mounted the front standard for real, and am attempting to get this thing finished up. I have maybe a month of usage out of the garage and I’m hoping to get things thing together in that time and start shooting in earnest as soon as possible.
Rough in for the front standard mount / guide.
Imperfectly chamfered U channel affixed to internal (moving) rail. The wood bit on the right will slide forward and back for the front standard movement. Fine focus will be achieved with a worm gear (designed for a 3D printer).
Just when I started rolling on the camera again two things happened. I ran out of room again, and I saw the video below.
Photographer Richard Pence built an 11x14 field camera using lots of off-the-shelf parts, the most obvious and brilliant of them being Arca Swiss rails and mounts.
I am flabbergasted by its simplicity and compact design. The camera is really, really cool. And I’m pissed I didn’t think about my build with easy-to-buy stuff on my mind. I found cameras I thought looked nice and actually buildable for someone with limited woodworking skills. So it’s all custom, handmade parts.
My point is, now, thanks to Richard, I am at a crossroads. Do I fall into the sunk cost fallacy and complete the build I’ve started, or do I abandon the pieces I don’t need and attempt to build a 20x20 version of something similar to this new design.
I’ve got some pondering to do.
Helen, a new restaurant from Rob and Emily McDaniel
I had the great privilege to photograph an image library for the newly opened restaurant, Helen. I’ve long been a fan of Rob McDaniel’s food—from his time at SpringHouse or cooking with Jones Valley Teaching Farm—and I’m excited that this new venture, named for Rob’s grandmother, has come to Birmingham. Everything I’ve gotten to taste has been wonderful and I am proud and impressed with them pushing through to open safely during a global pandemic. Welcome to town, you all!
Jerimiah Smith, 2018
This year, I’ve been working on a new camera build as part of the Alabama State Council for the Arts’ inaugural Gay Burke Memorial Fellowship in Photographic Arts. I’m sure the build will have its own blog post once the camera is done, but in the meantime I’ve been thinking a lot about wet plate and I’m getting excited to shoot more soon.
This is a portrait of photographer Jerimiah Smith, taken on New Year’s Eve 2018. Jerimiah is also an avid analogue photo nerd like me and you can find his work here and here.