A man with tousled curly hair and a short beard, a paisley bandana knotted at his throat over a dark shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A headshot with a story in it. That is the whole distance between this and a grey backdrop.

Creative Tintype Headshots in Salt Lake City

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.

A young man in a black cowboy hat and a snap-button western shirt, with a moustache and hair curling below the brim. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A smiling young man with a moustache and wavy hair, in a dark collared jacket. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A person in round glasses and a tweed jacket over a turtleneck, their grey hair swept across. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with shoulder-length hair in a white embroidered blouse and a fine chain. Flaws mark the top corner of the plate. Wet plate collodion tintype.

An older man with a grey beard in a heavy knitted cardigan over a printed t-shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with a short dark crop swept to one side, in pearl earrings and a sleeveless buttoned blouse. Wet plate collodion tintype.

An older woman with a short blonde bob, in a soft cowl-necked sweater against a dark ground. Wet plate collodion tintype.

An elderly woman laughing, her white hair loose and curling, in a dark top with beading at the shoulders. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A weathered older man with his hair swept back, in an open-collared shirt over a white t-shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a checked flat cap, with a long tapering beard and a work shirt over a dark tee. He is looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A weathered man in a plaid flannel shirt, half-smiling at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a dark wide-brimmed hat and a canvas work jacket, forearms folded over the back of a chair, looking off to one side. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman in a dark beret and an oversized ribbed sweater, hands drawn up under her chin. She wears rings on both hands. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a tweed flat cap with a long full beard, in a pale collared work shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A bearded man in a ribbed knit beanie and a dark jacket, looking off to one side. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with her hair in two long braids, in an open denim shirt and a small hoop earring. She is looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with long dark hair and a heavy fringe, in a strapless dark top. Her chin is raised and she is looking past the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with long curly hair, a hoop earring and layered pearl necklaces over a white ribbed tank top. He is looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A weathered man in a tweed flat cap and a worn white tee, grey stubble, looking up past the camera. The lettering on the shirt reads backwards, the way a tintype does it. Wet plate collodion.

A man with short greying hair and a salt-and-pepper beard, in an open- collared dark shirt. He is looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A freckled woman in cat-eye glasses, her hair in two small buns with a blunt fringe, in a floral-print sleeveless top. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with tousled curly hair and a short beard, a paisley bandana knotted at his throat over a dark shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a western shirt with large scrolled embroidery and a dark neckerchief. A bright comet streak arcs above his head. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with short swept-back hair and a moustache, in a corduroy jacket over an open white shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with long straight centre-parted hair and a hoop earring, in a black camisole, half-smiling at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with long hair in a backwards patterned cap, wearing clear-framed glasses hung with beaded chains and a camouflage-print sleeveless top. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A young woman with long fair hair and heavy freckles across her face, in a check-printed top. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with his hair cut short and swept back off the forehead, and a full beard, in a dark knit polo. He is half-smiling. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman in aviator sunglasses, her blonde hair cut in a blunt fringe. She wears long drop earrings and a script nameplate necklace. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with wavy fair hair, a beard and a nose ring, in a knitted zip-up hoodie. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with a heavy moustache in a denim work jacket, a cloth knotted at his collar. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A bearded man in heavy round glasses and a corduroy work jacket, a pen clipped to the pocket. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with long straight hair past his shoulders and a dark beard, in a heavy wool overshirt. He is looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a soft mariner's cap and a pale denim jacket over a black tee, short beard. There is a draped curtain behind him. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman in a printed headscarf, a paisley scarf at her shoulders over an open pale shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A young woman with long fair hair and heavy freckles, wearing a drop earring and a bold botanical-print collared shirt. She is half-smiling. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with short hair and stubble, in a white shirt with embroidered panels down the front. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A bald man with a beard and a small earring, in a leather jacket over a dark tee, a chain at his neck. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A freckled woman with her hair pinned loosely up, in denim dungarees over a knit top. There is a tattoo on one arm. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A bearded man in a dark knitted henley, looking level into the lens. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with his arms folded, in an all-over speckled shirt, a ring on one finger and a small ring through his nose. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A person with a cropped fringe in a collared work jacket, looking straight at the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with wavy hair to his shoulders and a heavy chain at the collar. Bloom clouds the edges of the plate. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with a great deal of curly dark hair, in denim overalls and a beaded necklace. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A young man with his dark hair swept up, in a textured knitted sweater. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with a short beard and folded arms in a dark t-shirt, his head tipped slightly. Wet plate collodion tintype.

Natural Light

A family posed with a long-forked chopper under trees by a lake. A man with long dreadlocks at the bars, a small child on the tank, a woman and a girl beside them. Wet plate collodion tintype.

Desert buttes across an open plain, sagebrush in the foreground. The sky is streaked and fogged. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A two-lane road running straight into fog between tall conifers. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with straight hair falling across his forehead and a short beard, in an open plaid shirt over a tee. The ground behind him is pale. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with closely cropped hair and a light beard, in a dark shirt with a bolo tie. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman seated against a brick wall, in a dark shirt worn open over a laced top. She wears a long beaded earring and a pendant necklace, and is looking off to one side. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a straw hat playing a harmonica, cupped in both hands. He is outdoors, in a patterned button-up shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with a blonde fringe in a corduroy jacket, looking up and away from the camera. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A bearded man in a hooded sweatshirt with his arms folded over the back of a chair, a brick wall behind him. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with a short beard resting his clasped hands under his chin, looking off to one side. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman with long hair and freckles in a dark top, looking straight at the camera. She is outdoors, in low light. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man with short fair hair in an open plaid shirt over a dark tee. A brick wall is soft behind him. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A close portrait of a man in a knitted beanie, half-smiling, with large white triangles across the front of his shirt. Wet plate collodion tintype.

Six men standing in a line outside a building whose sign reads GRAND, backwards the way a tintype does it. Made outdoors on one plate. Wet plate collodion.

A freckled man with a moustache and a bleached section at the front of his hair, in a plaid shirt. Dust and spotting are scattered across the whole plate. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A man in a pale bucket hat and a fleece-lined jacket, looking straight at the camera. Heavy fogging and dark pour flaws run around the edges of the plate. Wet plate collodion tintype.

A woman in heavy dark-rimmed glasses, close in the frame, her chin resting on her hand. She is half-smiling. Wet plate collodion tintype.

Ask someone to hold still for ten seconds and watch what happens. Wet plate collodion is roughly a thousand times less sensitive than a modern sensor; in the studio I solve that with strobes, but outdoors on daylight alone there is no solving it — only the sun, whatever it is doing that hour, and an exposure measured in seconds. That constraint is the whole appeal. A ten-second portrait is not a moment caught, it is ten seconds of a person averaged together, and faces go still in a way they never do for a fast shutter. Every location plate means carrying a portable dark box and enough water to wash a plate, working inside the ten or fifteen minutes before the collodion dries. I have made plates in a dust storm in Monument Valley and in wildfire smoke in Yosemite; neither was planned. Bad light is not always bad — smoke is an enormous diffuser, and an overcast sky is the largest softbox available.

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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 keep 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.