Meet Hunter Helmstaedter | Traveling tintype photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hunter Helmstaedter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hunter, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My current occupation “wetplate photographer” aka “tintype photographer” is a direct reaction from being laid off in 2020. I had a great job and like so many people the rug was ripped out from under me. Wetplates were at that time more of a passion project reserved for weekends and days off. I didn’t look at it as a business. Today they are my career and sole source of income. I noticed folks enjoy watching the process. Modern digital has us saturated in artificial photographs. With the wet plate collodion process you experience a memorable and historic way of making pictures that, at least for now, can’t be replicated by a computer. My business is a result of adapting to a digital market by going back to analog roots of portraiture. Not just film but actually making photographs on glass and metal plates with homemade chemistry just as they did in the 19th century Victorian era. Many of the early wet platers in the 1850s and 1860s travelled the country making portraits by hand. Some had creative ways of moving their business around such as covered horse drawn wagons, houseboats turned floating gallery/studios, and even a traveling circus tent complete with darkroom and shooting space. Over 170 years later I am attempting to make a living in the same spirit of the early itinerant tintypists.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The collodion wet plate process is a 170 year old method wherein a glass or metal plate is coated in liquified cotton, bathed in silver nitrate, placed in a camera, exposed and developed instantaneously revealing a permanent photograph. It is one of the oldest way of making pictures and the quality still stands out for its superb quality, resolution, and permanence. When the collodion (liquid cotton) is poured on a piece of glass the result is referred to as an ambrotype photograph. When it is prepared on a sheet of metal it is referred to as a tintype. What sets my brand apart is offering a wide variety of both ambrotypes and tintypes in a plethora of sizes and styles. Most notably is the water glass ambrotype portraits. Water glass is a thick handmade glass that is stretched while it cools resulting in wavy texture appearing like the surface of water. Wetplates are already rare and using uncommon glass adds a level of luxury to finished product.my favorite is the water glass mirror for its unique brilliance.

It is not easy to do this craft. Especially to make a living exclusively making Wetplates. It is labor intensive, expensive, and at times even dangerous. Traveling with a mobile laboratory, darkroom, and studio lighting equipment is the first of many phisical challenges. Beyond that the real challenge is making folks aware we exist, to bring the studio to them, and to collaborate with other businesses who host our traveling production. I owe most of that success to my fiancé and partner Ming. She works endlessly producing partnerships who allow us to set up in their place of business for pop-up portrait events.

What the world needs to know about us is we break the matrix with a blast from the past. Experience a portrait made by hand from scratch. The tangible result lasts forever and is beautiful, but the memory of the experience is the most valuable part of all.

What the world needs to know about us is we break the matrix with a blast from the past. Experience a portrait made by hand from scratch. The tangible result lasts forever and is beautiful, but the memory of the experience is the most valuable part of all.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This question is tough because I don’t live in Houston, I live in a converted schoolbus on the road full-time, but when I come to town for my portrait events I always get a 7 course beef meal at one of the Viet restaurants on Bellaire Blvd. wish I could recommend more but I am always busy working when I’m in town. I haven’t taken the time to fully explore.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to my collodion papa Mark Sink and his lovely wife Kristen Sink. Both are extraordinary artists of the highest caliber and were the ones who turned me onto this method of photography. Without them I wouldn’t ever have experienced a wet plate portrait and if it wasn’t for their encouragement I may never have tried it myself.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanderingwetplates?igsh=aWdlMWxxZXFzMWd5&utm_source=qr