Civil War era photo developing and why its popular today

Capturing images during the Civil War era was very difficult and repetitive. In order for early photographers to capture images they used a process called the “wet-plate collodion.” In this process a chemical collodion mixture is poured on a glass plate and then dipped in a silver nitrate solution. What made this process so troublesome was that the pate had to be put into a camera and took up to 30 seconds to capture an image. To make it worse the image had to be developed as soon as possible before the plate dried up or else the image would be distorted. According to this article written by Andy Wright and Reyhan Harmanci, Photographers stopped using this technique for centuries until a photographer named David Bornfriend made it popular again. He would photographer modern soldiers with this process and compares it to the civil war era photos. Now wet-plate collodion pictures started to pop up almost everywhere. According to the article even Louis Vuitton was making advertisements using this process. There are many reasons as to why wet-plate collodion pictures became so popular again. Ms. Sampson who was a student of Mr. Bornfriend said that “it evokes a grandeur usually reserved for long-dead celebrities or soldiers, which have to do with the steady, elongated gaze subjects, had to hold.” She also said that it gives photographers the pleasure of alchemy which to her s the part of the photographic experience. I agree with Ms. Sampson that wet-plate collodion pictures shows the real essence of a person because when they have to hold a pose or facial expression for a certain period of time their personality starts to show after a while. You get to capture the natural gaze that today’s modern cameras are too fast to notice. I also believe that even though developing these kinds of photos can be a real bother, they give a sense of creation and accomplishment that can cause any photographer to have more pride in their work.