The Alchemist's Studio: How Your Portrait is Made
Step inside our Cooke Town studio to witness the 1850s wet plate collodion process. It is a slow, tactile, and completely handmade experience.
The portrait session begins here, with you in the studio and me behind the large format camera. We work together to find the right pose and lighting before I capture the image on a chemically prepared plate.
Here I am making adjustments to the portable wet plate collodion setup. Every part of this process, from the camera to the dark box, has been carefully crafted to create authentic, 19th-century style photographs.
Inside the portable darkroom box, where the glass plate is sensitized just moments before the photograph is taken. This step must be done in complete darkness, relying entirely on touch.
After the plate is developed, it needs to be varnished to protect the delicate silver image. I apply the varnish by hand with a soft brush, which is the final step in preserving your portrait for generations.
The studio environment is designed to be relaxed and creative. This short clip shows a subject during a wet plate session, bathed in the atmospheric blue light we sometimes use for effect.
Working under the red safelight of the darkroom is a meditative process. This is where I make Van Dyke brown prints, carefully exposing the paper to create rich, warm-toned images.
Inspecting newly developed film negatives on a light table. Each frame holds a story, and this is a crucial step in selecting the best images to print in the darkroom.
This video offers a glimpse into the entire black and white film photography process, from looking through the viewfinder of a medium format camera to seeing the final print.
An artist at one of our workshops, learning to coat paper with light-sensitive emulsion for cyanotype printing. We believe in sharing these historic techniques with our community.
Precision is key when mixing chemicals for alternative photography processes. Here, a workshop participant carefully measures ingredients for a gum bichromate print.
About The Alchemist's Studio: How Your Portrait is Made
When you come in for a wet plate collodion session, it is not just a photo shoot. It is a 45-minute process where I pour chemicals by hand onto a glass or metal plate right in front of you. You will need to hold your pose for a few seconds, and you get to watch as your image physically emerges in the developer, turning from a negative into a silver-rich positive right there in the darkroom.
This is photography as a craft, not a digital file. Using a vintage large-format bellows camera and the 1850s wet plate collodion process, we capture your portrait on a 4x5 inch glass ambrotype or metal tintype. It is inherently unpredictable because the chemicals interact differently every time, creating unique marks and textures that a modern digital camera simply cannot replicate. Because of this, no two plates are identical.
Every session is a quiet collaboration. We spend time on the light and the pose, and you get to witness the alchemy of the darkroom as the image appears. We finish the piece by hand-varnishing the plate with Sandarac or Lavender oil to ensure it lasts for generations. If you are looking for a portrait that you can actually hold and pass down, this is it. It is deliberate, it is tangible, and it is a complete break from the rush of daily life in Bengaluru.
Kānike Studio
For us, Kanike is a gift—a space where we celebrate the messy, beautiful reality of analog techniques. I love the quiet focus of the darkroom, and I invite you to slow down and create something truly tangible with me.
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