May is a month we wait for with anticipation at The Rooms at Evergreen. The sun starts to gain some warmth and that translates to making plates for another season at the Cradle of Photography in British North America. On May 31, we celebrate the 183rd anniversary of the first announcement of a “Photogenic Drawing” having been made in Halifax, the first such in British North America.
May is also the month when Wet Plate Collodion photographers from around the world celebrate the introduction of the process by Frederic Scott Archer in 1851. On the first Saturday of the month practitioners of the process pay homage to Archer by making and sharing their results.
Totally by coincidence the first Friday in May of this year was special in its own right. The globally recognized photo historian Alan Griffiths, of Luminous-Lint, dropped by to spend the afternoon on the grounds of Dartmouth Heritage Museum. Accompanying him was local photo historian Jeff Ward of The Early Light Project.
Mikayla Halliday: self portrait and first ambrotype
Ryerson University post-grad student Mikayla Halliday, who is in town working on her thesis, was at The Rooms for a short tutorial on making ambrotypes. It only seemed natural Mikayla be tasked with the portrait session, and what fun it was.
