Creative Tintype Headshots
Every headshot looks like every other headshot. That is the problem this solves.
A tintype portrait does not look like it came from a photographer with a grey backdrop and a two-light setup, because it did not. It looks like an object with a history — and in a feed of interchangeable faces, that is the whole job.
I make these for anyone who needs one photograph to stand in for them: a musician's bio picture, an author jacket, a press kit, a tattooer's or a chef's profile, an album cover, a founder's page. Artists, makers and performers are most of who comes through the door, and the plates are better for it.
Your profile picture is the single most-viewed photograph of you that will ever exist, and almost everyone is using a cropped snapshot. A plate made on a 170-year-old process holds a scroll in a way no filter does, and it will not look dated in two years the way a trend-led shoot will.
If your face is part of your work, this does something a phone photo cannot — it looks like it was made, because it was. I photograph a great many musicians; see the Backstage Portraits section of the editorial page for the ongoing festival series. Corporate and team sittings are welcome too, and get the same hour and the same plate as everyone else.
What you get
The physical plate, plus a digital scan sized for wherever you need to use it. The scan is what you upload; the plate is what you keep. A tintype crops perfectly well to a square profile photo, and reads as a photograph rather than a filter at any size.
What to expect
Sessions run 1.5 to 3 hours depending on how many plates you want.
You watch the plate appear — the final stage of development happens in the studio, right in front of you. The darkroom itself stays closed: it is small, and the chemistry is not something to stand next to.
You go home with the actual plate: silver on blackened metal, one of a kind, with no negative.
Every plate is scanned, and the process is filmed. Digital files and video are available as an add-on.
Plates are varnished with a traditional lavender-and-sandarac varnish and are archivally stable for well over a century.