jenny sampson

Photographer
skaters - tintype series
Biography: Jenny Sampson lives in Berkeley, California and received a B.A. in Psychobiology in 1991 at Pitzer College.  She studied Photography at Pitzer and Pomona College, and with Keith Carter at the Santa Fe Workshops.  Jenny has exhibited her... MORE
Public Story
skaters - tintype series
Copyright jenny sampson 2024
Updated Oct 2010
Topics alumintype, art, bakersfield, berkeley, california, document, documentary, jenny sampson, jenny sampson photography, lake tahoe, long exposure, old process, one of a kind, oregon, pdx, portland, portrait, seattle, skateboard, skateboard park, skateboarder, skater, tahoe, tintype, truckee, unique, washington, wet plate collodion

I was initially drawn to photograph skateboarders sixteen years ago when I rode my bicycle past a makeshift skate park on 5th Avenue in Seattle on my way to and from work.  My attraction to skaters grew from my interest in looking at people in general, and more specifically of skateboarders as a faction of youth but that defied the boundaries of age. 

I began working with wet plate collodion almost three years ago making tintypes, or alumitypes.  Out of this process grew a revived fieriness in me.  Wet plate collodion delivered the ultimate magical process that is photography.  I built a dark box which allows me to travel and work in the field –I am no longer leashed to a darkroom be it proper or jury-rigged out of whatever space has been offered to me.  Working with my hand-made dark box, I wander and make my hand-made, unique tintypes. 

Since I began this project, particular elements have emerged that I either was not expecting, or simply hadn’t occurred to me.  Some of these aspects present themselves throughout the process of making the plates; others surface at the moment the viewer engages with the plates.  Regardless, the results captivate.

My experience going to skate parks, setting up my 4x5 camera and dark box, meeting skateboarders and making plates has been an experience I have grown keen on.  There are times when I feel intimidated –approaching a group of strangers who are intent on doing their thing, skeptical at times of onlookers-- however I approach and introduce myself, or someone spies my camera and the box and there sparks a reciprocal interest.  In fact, many of the skaters I’ve met have never seen anything but a digital camera.  When I make their portrait, they can watch their ghostly face unveil magically on the metal plate as the blue bromides dissipate in the potassium cyanide.  My equipment is “old school;” the plates I make, “sick.” 

The nature of wet plate collodion calls for long exposure times; my subjects must remain perfectly still for about 10 seconds which is easier to do without smiling.  Most people’s learned reflex when sitting in front of a camera is to smile, portraying some sort of artificial moment of photographic happiness.  When I ask my subjects to not smile, there is often a sense of surprise and relief, even the with the subversive skater.  Combine his or her expression with posture and pose and the passive viewer may interpret the portrait to be of the rebellion, the intimidating stereotype.  However, rather than this conventional depiction of skaters, the rendered portrait offers a glimpse into their core beings: pensive, tough, anxious, distracted, innocent, playful.

Following my very first shoot at a skate park with my wet plate dark box, I realized the serendipity of this project: the juxtaposition of merging a 160 year-old photographic process with contemporary culture.  My Skateboarder Portrait Series was finally born.  Currently, I make tintypes at skate parks in California, Oregon and Washington.

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