Monday, December 5, 2011

Some commissioned work- Gibson Guitar

My good friend Chris Grooms- an English professor at Collin College who also happens to be an amazing guitarist.  He's one of the world's foremost experts in traditional Welsh folk music.

This is one of the prize guitars from his personal collection- one of the last truly hand-made Gibson acoustics from the 1920's.

































Wetplate is not very sensitive to yellow, so the guitar body ends up looking much darker than it did in person, but I love how that made the whole body have the thin outline around it from the edging.


Tintypes record everything backwards, horizontally, so the writing comes out reversed.  The letters are actually mother-of-pearl inlay.  This guitar is beautiful.   It was a pleasure to get the chance to photograph it.

 Chris also snapped a few pictures as things were progressing-


















The general state of my studio.  Note the foamcore softbox!

























Coating collodion on the plate, letting the excess pour back in the bottle

























One of the true magical moments of the process- seeing the image come up in the fix.
 

















Linda and I inspecting the plate in the first wash.




A good way to spend an afternoon.





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