©Brett Harkness Photography
We are…
Michele Selway -Managing Director & Historical Photographer.
Alex- Mannion- Jones- Story teller, Entertainer and Film Producer.
Dieter Wadeson –Story Teller, Pyrotechnician and Entertainer and Science Educator.
We produce unique photographs on tin plates, based in a transportable darkroom on a trike, using a 19th Century process called Wet Plate Collodion.
Tintype Tricycle
After 5 years of touring the trailer to many many many festivals, a pandemic and two children we decided it was time to sell the trailer and work on an idea we have had for some time.
The latest evolution has seen the darkroom moving from a large cumbersome trailer to a wonderfully transportable tricycle. The tricycle now features as part of a unique immersive experience.
Tin Type Trike is a collaboration with Dieter Wadeson, showcasing his spectacular performance on the evolution of flash photography, expect loud bangs, bright lights and a lot of smoke, whilst demonstrating and making an authentic Victorian Wet Plate Collodion print to a live audience.
To make a booking or for further inquiries please go to the contact page.
Our Story
Tin Type Trailer
Michele Selway and Alex Mannion-Jones, together have a background that covers photography, theatre, film-making and fine art.
In the summer of 2014 they launched the project: The Tin Type Trailer, a traveling Victorian darkroom.
Michele has been perfecting the Wet Plate Collodion process (the main method of photography between 1850 and 1871) for 10 years years and was enthusiastic to share her expertise with a wider audience. Teaming up with the showmanship of her partner Alex they traveled to any event, location or educational space to engage the public in the history of photography and the magic of this traditional 19th century process.
Wet Plate Collodion was the main method of photography between 1851 and around 1870. It involves flowing a sticky substance called collodion over either a piece of tin or glass, which is then sensitised in silver nitrate. The plate is then exposed, developed, fixed and then protected with a lavender varnish. It has to be damp all the way through the process otherwise it loses it’s sensitivity. As the plates are made on tin or glass they are unique: there is no negative. This process engages the public in the history of photography and the process of development; we allow the public to view the magic in our dark room, as the image appears on the tin from negative to positive.
Tin Type Trailer,Originally Produced at #TheForge in association with Wild Rumpus.
To make a booking or for further inquiries please go to the contact page.