Travelling Alchemist – SCOTT ANDREWS IS DRIVING THE RENAISSANCE OF WET-PLATE PHOTOGRAPHY

In a world driven by instant gratification, where modern technology allows users to take and post images online within seconds; Scott Andrews is reviving an early 19th-century photographic technique.

Moving away from digital photography, Scott has immersed himself in the timeconsuming art of wet-plate collodion photography – the tintype process – through his business The Travelling Alchemist.

Nine weeks ago, Scott opened a studio and gallery in Queenscliff dedicated to this art form after he fell in love with celebrity photographer Victoria Wills’ wet-plate images, captured at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

“I came across an image when I was on the computer one morning of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and instantly was like, ‘What is that?’. I’d never seen anything like it,” he said.

“I didn’t know what the technique was so my first step was to find out. From that point it changed my life; the quality of that one image, handmade, a once off and it had so much depth – almost haunting.

“I’ve since learnt that the combination of the chemistry and old lenses and cameras means the photographs taken in the studio actually photograph slightly under the first layer of skin.

“It’s UV sensitive, I can shoot someone with a few freckles and then a thousand freckles come through. Just about everyone I’ve photographed, as soon as they get the plate, they have a powerful emotional response to what they look like.”