Photographer makes sweet, stop-motion video out of tintypes (VIDEO)

 

 

It's hard to imagine a more painstaking process than making a stop-motion movie, especially if you're doing it with analog film and not digital. And it's hard to imagine an analog process more exacting and slow than tintype photography. It's a difficult process that requires some rather potent chemicals, and a significant time investment. But combining both into a tintype stop motion film? That's what art photographer Antonio Martinez did with his short film Near the Egress.

Martinez recorded a circus performance by shooting 16 rolls of 35mm black-and-white film, each of which were then printed onto a 4x5 tintype. That's over 800 tintype prints that were then scanned, and assembled into the haunting short film. Martinez started the project in 2005, and it took him 5 years to fully complete. Talking to lensculture, he said he "created this video to serve as a desired childhood memory of the circus, but through the mind of an adult."

It's a combination of two very complex and time consuming techniques, and they combine to create an otherworldly effect that's remarkable. For a look at the incredible art that some other people are doing with tintype processing, we recommend having a look at the work of Harry Taylor, or David Emit.

(via BoingBoing)