Dan
Herrera

2017 W/SW Juried Exhibition Application Portfolio

In the age of megapixels, camera phones, and a perpetual stream of digital images - this portrait series invites the viewer to slow down, and to experience a form of photography when it was in its infancy. When alchemy and craft were used to capture light and shadow, affixing it in permanence. The portfolio submitted for review is a series of cosplayer portraits in the wetplate collodion process.

My work indulges my fascination of science fiction, pop culture, and portraiture within the scope of historical photographic printing methods. I often employ the aesthetics of 19th century printing techniques as a means to absorb the viewer in a narrative both futuristic and nostalgic.

I use an elaborate system combining dioramas, props, and digital post-production, adding gestural effects in the final stages of development. This unique process produces prints that are both rich in content and physical surface quality - blurring the lines between photographic realism and painterly illusion.