Joni Sternbach - Surfland

Wow, wow, wow, wow!!! I absolutely love these vintage looking photos by Joni Sternbach. They are amazing! Her Surfland series of photography is soooo nice! The super talented Joni Sternbach grew up in NY, graduating from the New York University and International Center of Photography in 1987. She currently teaches wet plate collodion at the ICP between projects and exhibitions.

These photos were actually taken quite recently (2009) but aged through a process called 'tintype' using wet plate collodion. I'm not familiar with this process but having read a little about it now, it sounds like a fairly complex lesson in chemistry (which I failed) and given that she does this outside of a studio is incredible. Apparently this type of photography is more closely associated with images taken during the American Civil War and other happenings from that era onwards (not only in the states).

Joni displays the same natural elements in her other sets: the sky, ocean/sea and decaying architecture. This in turn gives her style a beautiful timeless feel.

Each image is taken on an 8×10 inch one-of-a-kind tintype. The collodion process is instantaneous and processed on location with the aid of a portable darkroom. Many of the first stills taken were of local surf heroes and artists that reside in the Montauk area of New York but most are simply strangers. Lucky ones! Doing their own thing but willing to help out, met on location, up and down Americas east and west coasts. The Surfland Series consists of several hundred photographs and is available in a super sweet hardback book that would look very nice sitting on your coffee table. You want it? I think you do? Go get it!!!