WORK > Wet Plate Collodion

Process/Practice
Process/Practice
2022

UPCOMING
Analog Chemical Photography to Digital Video, Proto Animation

Process/Practice is a document of both the artistic endeavor as a practice (something one does) and as a process (something that evolves). Process/Practice is composed of a series of 38 handmade wet plate collodion tintype photographs of a mannequin head which is used both for photographic chemistry experiments and for making test plates prior to portrait sessions with live human subjects. As such, the images portray literal practice (doing things over and over again to either experiment or hone technical prowess), as well as "practice" in the sense of a vocation. Simultaneously, the scanned proto-animated photographic plates (images) document the figurative process of development (of narrowing in on something), and the literal process of the artistic endeavor itself. All of the chemistry involved in the art of wet plate collodion photography was hand-mixed and hand-applied by the artist, Allen Killian-Moore in his Neurodivergent Tintype Studio . The resulting photographic metal plates were then organized, scanned, edited, and post-produced to create the final NFT. So, Process/Practice is not only a document of the artist’s vocation, but also a document of analog physical materials transmogrified into a final digital work. A selection of the physical plates may accompany the final digital proto-animation; material remnants of the process and the practice that preceded their ultimate placement.