Silver and Light

Monday 27 August, 2012

Before photography could see its modern day SLR avatar, it existed in some very elementary methods, one of them being the collodion process. A rather inconvenient form used in the 1850s, it required the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within the span of about fifteen minutes. This required the use of a portable darkroom, and was only suited for landscape photography where minutes-long exposure times were tolerable.

Now, photographer Ian Ruhter has set about using the collodion process in new and astounding ways. Since the images must be developed while the plate is wet, he’s discovered an interesting way to make photographs. Unsatisfied with digital cameras and the general homogeneity of photography in general, Ruhter dedicated himself to this historical method, by converting a delivery truck into a giant camera. Making images on the run, he drives around the U.S. photographing and interviewing a diverse range of people for what he calls The American Dream project. ‘Silver and Light’ is a short documentary about his trials, journeys and endeavours to this end.