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| Ed Drew's Afghanistan: the first wet-plate conflict photos in 150 years | Ed Drew's Afghanistan: the first wet-plate conflict photos in 150 years |
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| It must have been a peculiar sight: a US soldier, his hands and clothes pockmarked with black silver nitrate, hunkered beneath the dark-cloth of a 5x4 field camera in a war zone in Afghanistan. Not since the American civil war 150 years ago had a photographer used the wet-plate collodion process in a conflict zone. The images produced by Ed Drew, an aerial gunner, during his three-month stint in Helmand province this year, are as rich and profound as anything created by Mathew Brady, the most renowned photographer of the civil war era, amid collodion's brief popularity. | It must have been a peculiar sight: a US soldier, his hands and clothes pockmarked with black silver nitrate, hunkered beneath the dark-cloth of a 5x4 field camera in a war zone in Afghanistan. Not since the American civil war 150 years ago had a photographer used the wet-plate collodion process in a conflict zone. The images produced by Ed Drew, an aerial gunner, during his three-month stint in Helmand province this year, are as rich and profound as anything created by Mathew Brady, the most renowned photographer of the civil war era, amid collodion's brief popularity. |
| The subjects of Drew's photographs are his comrades. Proud, blithe, stoic, pensive - whatever their mood, their lingering expressions are eerily engaging, the duration of each exposure having rendered them with a ghostly effect. As such, they force the viewer to think anew about individuals who risk themselves at war. | The subjects of Drew's photographs are his comrades. Proud, blithe, stoic, pensive - whatever their mood, their lingering expressions are eerily engaging, the duration of each exposure having rendered them with a ghostly effect. As such, they force the viewer to think anew about individuals who risk themselves at war. |
| "I know all of my subjects well and fly with them on missions, and I felt it essential in telling their story that I connect with them on a close level. No photographic process can achieve this better than wet plate," Drew said. "Initially they were stand-offish and didn't understand it. They saw it as a really long and laborious photo process, but after a while they actually started lining up and booking appointments." | "I know all of my subjects well and fly with them on missions, and I felt it essential in telling their story that I connect with them on a close level. No photographic process can achieve this better than wet plate," Drew said. "Initially they were stand-offish and didn't understand it. They saw it as a really long and laborious photo process, but after a while they actually started lining up and booking appointments." |
| Drew used the same method and chemicals as were used in the civil war. Each plate was coated in a sticky, amber-coloured collodion solution and dropped into a bath of silver nitrate, making it light-sensitive. The plates were then inserted into his old Speed Graphic camera and the photographs taken, usually needing six to 10 seconds for a good exposure, even in the blinding Afghan sunshine, before being swiftly developed and fixed in a makeshift darkroom. The heat and dust of the battlefield, combined with the unpredictable nature of the chemistry, made it particularly taxing, but with patience and practice, Drew had success. The resulting portraits are sometimes soft, sometimes detailed, with flaxen tones and beautiful imperfections throughout. | Drew used the same method and chemicals as were used in the civil war. Each plate was coated in a sticky, amber-coloured collodion solution and dropped into a bath of silver nitrate, making it light-sensitive. The plates were then inserted into his old Speed Graphic camera and the photographs taken, usually needing six to 10 seconds for a good exposure, even in the blinding Afghan sunshine, before being swiftly developed and fixed in a makeshift darkroom. The heat and dust of the battlefield, combined with the unpredictable nature of the chemistry, made it particularly taxing, but with patience and practice, Drew had success. The resulting portraits are sometimes soft, sometimes detailed, with flaxen tones and beautiful imperfections throughout. |
| "It was incredibly difficult, as I only brought my essential chemicals, so any adjustments that had to be made were minimal," he explained. "Worst of all, my plates were immediately drying out as soon as I took them out of the silver bath, so whereas I normally have 10 minutes to make each photo, I was reduced to two. The darkroom was all very improvised. I worked in a large tent on top of smaller rooms built of plywood; essentially it looked like a loft space with a very low ceiling. I wore a red safe-light on my head and wrapped the dark-out curtain around me. To work in this restrictive way was very hard, especially when I had military missions that I had to scramble to." | "It was incredibly difficult, as I only brought my essential chemicals, so any adjustments that had to be made were minimal," he explained. "Worst of all, my plates were immediately drying out as soon as I took them out of the silver bath, so whereas I normally have 10 minutes to make each photo, I was reduced to two. The darkroom was all very improvised. I worked in a large tent on top of smaller rooms built of plywood; essentially it looked like a loft space with a very low ceiling. I wore a red safe-light on my head and wrapped the dark-out curtain around me. To work in this restrictive way was very hard, especially when I had military missions that I had to scramble to." |
| The historical relevance of wet-plate photography fuelled Drew's enthusiasm to create images in such testing circumstances. His work, he says, "is about the metaphors of the process - it alludes to the American past and to mankind's struggle to reconcile war and perfection". | The historical relevance of wet-plate photography fuelled Drew's enthusiasm to create images in such testing circumstances. His work, he says, "is about the metaphors of the process - it alludes to the American past and to mankind's struggle to reconcile war and perfection". |
| Wet-plate was first detailed by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, less than three decades after the dawn of photography, and was known ominously as the "black art", partly on account of the potential perils - death from cyanide explosions and blinding from silver among them. While Brady's revelatory civil war images documented the faces and realities of conflict, Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge produced stunning images of Yosemite National Park by lugging mammoth wet-plate cameras high into the mountains, and Julia Margaret Cameron created ethereal shots which promoted photography as an art form. Production died swiftly, however, as the insatiable desire for photographic innovation saw the emergence of dry-plate technology and collodion emulsion, followed by handheld cameras and film. | Wet-plate was first detailed by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, less than three decades after the dawn of photography, and was known ominously as the "black art", partly on account of the potential perils - death from cyanide explosions and blinding from silver among them. While Brady's revelatory civil war images documented the faces and realities of conflict, Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge produced stunning images of Yosemite National Park by lugging mammoth wet-plate cameras high into the mountains, and Julia Margaret Cameron created ethereal shots which promoted photography as an art form. Production died swiftly, however, as the insatiable desire for photographic innovation saw the emergence of dry-plate technology and collodion emulsion, followed by handheld cameras and film. |
| Wet-plate could easily have remained forgotten in the digital age. But its steady re-emergence suggests an increasing desire among contemporary photographers to engage with the roots of their medium. Sally Mann was arguably the first to enjoy modern commercial success with wet-plate. Her disquieting pictures of rotting corpses (What Remains, 2003) shocked viewers, and the unusual aesthetic of wet-plate was fundamental to their fascination. More recently, Craig J Barber's exhibit Working the Land was nominated for the Discovery award at this year's Rencontres d'Arles photography festival. | |
| "I think people these days are looking for another means of expressing themselves," Drew suggests. "It's a meditative process, which makes a photographer slow down and think about what they are doing. I really feel like the process was specific to what I wanted my photos to evoke, rather than just trying to be different or creative." | "I think people these days are looking for another means of expressing themselves," Drew suggests. "It's a meditative process, which makes a photographer slow down and think about what they are doing. I really feel like the process was specific to what I wanted my photos to evoke, rather than just trying to be different or creative." |