Photography alumni works with Netflix on House of Guinness

BA (Hons) Photography alumnus Adam French, was commissioned by Netflix to make a tintype photograph for drama series House of Guinness.

Adam specialises in historical and traditional silver-based photography using period photographic equipment.

Adam had previously worked with Netflix on the show Bodies, consulting on historical cameras, photography processes and darkroom work. Following on from this, he was approached by the same team to work on House of Guinness to produce a wet plate collodion, a chemical photography process from the 1850 to 1870s.

Here Adam explains the process:

“Wet plate collodion is a process invented by Fredrick Scott Archer in the early 1850s. It involves pouring a salted collodion, a mixture of guncotton, alcohol, ether and various metal salts onto a substrate.

Ferrotypes, or more commonly known, tintypes were made on japanned iron plates, and now anodised aluminium. Wet collodion positives and collodion negatives were made on meticulously cleaned and degreased glass. The plates are sensitised in pure silver nitrate to make light sensitive silver halides form in the collodion before exposing the plate in a camera. In the darkroom you throw developer over the plate and develop by eye and lastly the image is fixed and is light safe.

All of this has to be done while the plate is still wet, hence the name, so you have to bring a darkroom with you and enough water to fully wash the plate of all chemistry when you are making these plates.”

Because of the nature of the process, Adam was required to bring his darkroom and chemistry equipment to make a plate on set and to be filmed in the process.