Portfolio Category - Portrait Awards 2014

In general, my work for the last 6 years has been creating a contemporary expression working with wet plate collodion photography. Working with glass plates and mixing chemicals from scratch, I can work slower, manually and in constant dialogue with the materiality of the image. In my work, I have given an introduction of the term of "Slow Photography". I AM is a project where I worked with the disease of dementia as subject matter. I first started working as a nursing assistant, to learn about the disease and what it is like living with it. I then moved into the nursing home with my wet plate collodion camera and mobile darkroom. During the process working woth this project, and meeting these beautiful people, I learned the importance of creating good moments here and now. What is important is not how we relate to the past or the future, but being present and cherishing the moment - no matter what we have lost. Therefore, I gave the project the title I AM. All images are wet plate collodion on glass (ambrotypes).