The Dry plate
collodion process consists of a glass plate coated with a gelatin emulsion
silver bromide. It can be stored until exposure, and can be brought to the dark
room with no exact time limit. That is why dry plate collodion is more advanced
than wet plate, because with a wet plate the plate has to prepared right before
exposure and developed immediately after. The dry plate was introduced by R.L
Maddox in 1871. The dry plate method was
much easier to transport, and needed less exposure to light then wet plates.
Photojournalism was improved by the dry plate method because
it was much more convenient and the needed equipment was lighter. As professor
Nordell introduced, “As technology progressed photographers were able to move away from using wet plates, so they could have dry plates made in advance which meant it wasn’t as cumbersome to take pictures.” This meant you were able to
freeze motion now unlike the wet plate method. Motion photography was a huge
impact on photojournalism. George
Eastman then developed smaller cameras with roll film, and revolutionized
photography. In 1879 the first dry plate
factory was established.
Digital photographs are taken for granted in today’s
society. For 100 years or so silver based materials were photography in
itself. The dry plate process included about
9 total steps; within those steps are multiple processes. Today all we have to
do is focus in and hit a button, we lost the magical and independent part of
photography in some ways. As Roger Fenton stated in conclusion of his wet plate
collodion process, “The biggest challenge I have is the technical aspects of the process…but when successful it can be very rewarding.” Although dry and wet
plates were more challenging for the photographer than a digital camera would
be, it was almost that these successful photographers were more rewarded to
others as well as to themselves. When I took the digital photograph below it was quick and easy to capture a subject I love.
The digitalization has made photographs of events much
easier to capture and hold on to. An example of the difficulties before digitalization
is explained in an article about Margaret Bourke-White’s extremely successful
career is as follows , “When time finally came to shoot, Bourke-White’s first flashbulb failed. And while the second one worked, she forgot to pull the slide,rendering it blank. She thought it was all over, but luckily, the third attempt was successful. In the end, she came away with an image that became Gandhi’s most enduring representation.” This quote comes from Bourke-White’s experience in India when she was covering impending Indian independence in 1946. She almost missed her opportunity of coverage. In today’s society digital photography has its own difficulties but not nearly as expansive as those before its time. Digital photography issues include blurry pictures, too much contrast, red-eye, off-colors, subject being to far, low resolution, underexposed pictures, and overexposed pictures. But the difference today with common issues of photography is that you can edit a digital photograph. Bourke-White could not edit her mistakes if she forgot to pull the slide or the flashbulb failed she couldn’t edit her picture she just would not have a successful shot. An example of one of today's brilliant photographers is Farzana Wahidy. As Marie Mcgrory writes, "Her photos of daily life range from men selling balloons on the streets to the secret lives of female prostitutes. And Wahidy was not the only one to recognize the need for this type of photography in Afghanistan. She is now part of the recently created Afghan Photography Network." Although the history of photography is greatly appreciated and studied today even digital photographers have great importance in photojournalism. Below is a comparison of my own digital photograph and a historic photograph that used the dry plate collodion process.
Image by: Alyssa Desroches 2016
Image by: Elwin R Sanborn 1904
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