Traditional Photographic Techniques

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Photography's first decades produced a remarkable range of processes, each with a look of its own. The daguerreotype (1839) is a unique, mirror-like image on silvered copper that flips between positive and negative as it is tilted. Salt prints have soft, matt browns sunk into the paper; albumen prints, dominant from the 1850s to the 1890s, add a glossy layer of egg white and sharper detail. Wet collodion gave crisp glass negatives, and on thin iron sheets it made the cheap tintypes of the American Civil War era.

Platinum prints, popular around 1900, have long, velvety grey scales that Frederick H. Evans used for cathedral interiors, and Pictorialists such as Robert Demachy brushed gum bichromate for painterly effects. Many photographers return to these methods deliberately; Sally Mann has used wet-plate collodion since the 1990s, embracing its streaks and flaws. Look for pour marks, plate corners and hand-coated borders.