Victorian technique captures town today
James uses ‘wet plate’system for collection
A photographer with childhood connections to Aberfeldy has been trying to capture images of the Highland Perthshire town’s residents using a Victorian ‘wet plate’ technique.
James Millar, who is from rural Leicestershire, had a book of fine art photographs of Aberfeldy published by the town’s Watermill Books last year, with incredible images taken in the depths of winter.
This month he’s been back, determined despite numerous mishaps, to capture the area and its faces using a process called tintype, invented back in the 1850s.
“Winter monochromes rendered in silver wet plate, I knew Perthshire was the place to explore this outdoor, almost instant technique,” said James, who has musician Foy Vance and furniture designer Angus Ross lined up for portraits.
He enthused about documenting Aberfeldy and its environs, having regularly visited his grandparents who had a house on the main street since the war.
“The tintypes are for an exhibition and a book I am hoping to publish this year,” the 42-year-old explained.
“My last book, ‘A Winter Journey’ was published by Watermill Books and I am looking for a publisher for this, my latest artistic endeavour.
“I am currently a week into this project and will be pursing subjects until the end of the month.
“Heather Tyrrell, my wife, is with me. She’s working on the second draft of a book while I do my ‘tin-ty-views’ - there’s a lot of talking involved with this kind of photographic set up.”
The camera, a 12 by 10-inch giant nicknamed ‘Hilda,’ is unwieldy and it’s normal to only get three or so images out of a whole day’s work.
When the PA caught up with James, his tintype project had been far from plain sailing as he’d almost wrecked his car on a slippery slope avoiding an oncoming harvester lorry.
And in the process, spilt two litres of special wet plate developer fluid he was carrying for his mobile darkroom - available only from niche photographic suppliers.
He continued: “With a car stinking of chemicals, I needed more to continue my fieldwork, so was faced with making my own mixture because this kind of developer is very hard to source. There’s a guy in Cambridgeshire who makes it, but that’s about it.
“I got my ingredients in Aberfeldy, but I worry the search may have led to me being on a government anti-terror watch list, as the items were quite suspect sounding.”
James went on to reveal: “I needed de-ionized water, which I picked up from the garage, white vinegar from the Co-op and sulphate of iron, which turned out to be a soil conditioner used for ericaceous plants. I was able to get some of that from Girvan’s hardware.
“Believe it or not, my homemade developer worked.”
Then James had another mishap, putting his hand through the
James Millar photographing furniture designer Angus Ross in Weem Woods
James fixing a photograph in chemicals beside his car delicate glass panel at the back of his wet plate camera.
He added: “I was just setting up ready to go out last Friday, when that happened. I had to sort it and my heart sunk because it wasn’t going to be simple being in Highland Perthshire with this kind of camera breakage.
“Luckily I knew the framer Tyrella Nash in Logierait. She had done exhibition frames for me, so I reckoned she could cut me new glass for the plate.
“She kindly helped cut special glass to size and I was back in business that weekend.”
James has a blog which you can access at https://jamesmillar. exposure.co/a-month-of-tintype