The tintype and modern soldiers

Ed Drew’s photographs truly bring a sense of beauty to the viewer. When looking at the slides, one can definitely feel like looking back to the past where tintypes were very common. For Ed, it must be very accomplishing because producing photographs from a tintype negative isn’t easy. Especially since he was stationed out in Afghanistan,where the climate works against you while trying to make a photograph. He must have felt a sense of self-accomplishment when he was able to make tintypes of his fellow unit. As for a revival of this process to be used to document modern warfare, it shouldn’t be on the top of the list. There are modern cameras now that can capture moment within a fraction of a second. With the tintype process, time works against you and so does the environment around you. You’ll have to keep a dark room handy and the people you photograph will have to lay still so the photo comes out clear and crisp. But for photographing events like how Drew did, it can be a fun process to show off. And you get to hold on to a hard copy that you made.