Many of you have asked about my turn-of-the-century “mug shot”. It was done by a long time French photographer friend, Nicolas Lambert. He owns several wet plate cameras built between 1870 and 1890. The one he used for my shot was build by the French camera company “Demaria Frères” and the registration plate notes “fabriqué en 1890” (made in 1890).

Wet plate photography is a 19th Century technique … one-of-a-kind handcrafted images on a glass or aluminium support, using original cameras made from 1861 till 1905 … that creates unique images on a glass or aluminium support, using original cameras and lenses. Nicolas’s studio is entirely dedicated to analog photography, knowledge preservation and transmission – one of the very few studios in Europe that does this. Because of this unique process it should come as no surprise he receives hundreds of special commissions from all the fashion houses.

What is very cool is he invites you into the darkroom after the photo session to witness the incredibly delicate process (the wrong dose of chemicals, or a slip of the glass plate and the photo is ruined) so you get the full experience, from the actual photo to the initial preparation of the wet plate to the final development of it. At the end, you receive the original plate and a light digital file of your pictures. It is also possible to order fine art paper prints on very fine art paper, glued on aluminum. The result is gorgeous.