Collodion & Dry Plate Photography
I photograph extensively in wet plate collodion and dry plate processes with 100+ year old cameras and lenses. I prefer these processes because they provide me a unique connection to the early history of photography and require extensive darkroom work… far removed from technology. Wet plate collodion, one of the earliest photography processes, requires a portable darkroom to coat, sensitize, expose, and develop a glass or metal plate while it remains wet. This process demands precision, and patience. The resulting images have remarkable detail, tonal richness, and distinctive “imperfections.” Dry plate photography, introduced in the later part of the 19th century, simplified the process by using pre-prepared light-sensitive plates that can be exposed, stored, and developed later in a home studio. This innovation made photography more practical and accessible, allowing photographers greater flexibility in the field. Both wet and dry plate techniques produce images with a depth, texture, and character that differ significantly from modern digital photography. While the popularity of both processes decreased with the production of cellulose film, commercially produced dry plates are available from a handful of contemporary manufacturers.
Mobile Darkroom Build
Marcus Sparling seated on
Roger Fenton's "Photographic Van" 1855
I began working with the wet plate collodion process in 2014. Because the process requires a darkroom in the field, I set out to build a custom, handcrafted mobile darkroom. After being gifted an old utility/boat trailer, I reimagined and rebuilt it into a fully functional, electricity-free workspace complete with a sink, safelight windows, drying rack, storage, and a closed-water system operated by a foot-pedal-activated siphon.
The mobile darkroom allows me to create wet plate collodion photographs and experiment with alternative photographic processes in locations that would otherwise be inaccessible. It also serves as a platform for onsite workshops, demonstrations, and pop-up events, bringing this historic photographic process directly to communities and audiences.
Since completing the build, I have traveled extensively with the trailer, journeying as far as Rochester, New York, from my home base in Houston, Texas. A map mounted on the front of the trailer chronicles its travels, with a growing list of states (thirteen and counting) that it has visited or passed through.
Like the photographic process itself, the darkroom is never truly finished. More than a decade after its original construction, I continue to reimagine, rebuild, update, and refine the trailer, improving its functionality and design with each new journey.
The video below documents the original build and the ongoing evolution of the mobile darkroom.