• Home
  • Photo Gallery
    • Fine Art
      • Locked in Silver
      • Masks
      • The Serendipitous Nature of Evolution
      • Wet plate nudes
      • Phytographica
      • Torsos
    • Projects
      • Anorexia Nervosa
      • Beef
      • Life at Home
      • Myth, Magic and Medicine
      • Open Studios 2017
      • Sirens
      • Through the Glass Darkly
  • Books and Articles
  • CV
  • Limited Edition Prints
  • Contact me

Ray Spence Photography

Photo Gallery > Fine Art > Locked in Silver

Locked in Silver

This work combines two of my loves - photography and plants. As a biologist and teacher I have always been attracted to the beauty and form of plants. As a photogra-pher I have tried to capture this using a Victorian photographic process known as Wet Plate Collodion. This process was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer but had been largely replaced by dry plate photography in the 1880's. The process has seen a resurgence in the past 20 years or so and I find it ideal for the images I want to pro-duce. Each image is created by hand coating a piece of glass with collodion (a mixtureof cotton, ether and alcohol and iodides), which is then sensitised in silver nitrate solu-tion. When still wet, the glass plate is inserted into a large format camera and a single exposure lasting up to a minute is made. On development the image appears as a silver image on glass - usually known as an Ambrotype. Ambrotype in Greek translates as immortal impression. Each image is unique and the original glass plates once varnished will last for centuries.Due to Covid-19, I have like most people been in lockdown, so it has been an ideal op-portunity to produce this work at home using plants from my own garden.
Acer leaves . small

Acer leaves . small

buddlea small

buddlea small

cabbage small

cabbage small

Calla lilies  small

Calla lilies small

Calla Lilies small

Calla Lilies small

Calla lily

Calla lily

Camelia small

Camelia small

Chrysanthemums small

Chrysanthemums small

dahlia small

dahlia small

Eryngium

Eryngium

Hosta  small

Hosta small

Hydrangeas small

Hydrangeas small

lilacs  small

lilacs small

Love in the mist small

Love in the mist small

nasturtium small

nasturtium small

orchid small

orchid small

Parsnips small

Parsnips small

peace lily small

peace lily small

Rhubarb small

Rhubarb small

tulip 18b small

tulip 18b small

Tulip small

Tulip small

tulips small

tulips small

Powered by Clikpic
Next
Previous