Posted By Suzanne Carvlin on March 16, 2009

Haunting, captivating, beautiful.

Three words to describe the work of photographer Jody Ake.

I found Jody last week on the Offbeat Bride. I immediately fell in love with his work. I could not stop staring at his images. His bridal portraits are gorgeous. It isn’t just the process Jody uses, either. But, that alone deserves a mention.

Jody uses a very distinctive process called collodion.

In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer discovered that collodion could be used as an alternative to albumen on glass plates. This process was not only less grainy, it also reduced the exposure time when making the image. Therefore, you would have less blurring as your subject tried desperately to not blink, not move, and basically not breathe.

The last time I saw a photographer use this process, I was looking at an image taken during the American Civil War. It was of a dead soldier laying in a ditch fully clothed in his heavy wool uniform. You could feel yourself choking on the hot dust. Not easy to forget. My neighbor also has photos of her ancestors taken with this very process. (Yes, I am a bit jealous.)

While the collodion process has been around for awhile, it is not very common to see it used in modern portraiture. The process is very involved and, according to the wiki (pedia, that is), includes the following steps:

• Clean the glass plate (extremely well)
• Flow the glass plate with “salted” (iodide/bromide) collodion
• Immerse the plate in a silver nitrate bath (for 3-5 minutes)
• Expose the plate (can range from less than a second to several minutes)
• Develop the plate (using an ferrous sulfate based developer)
• Fix the plate (with potassium cyanide or sodium thiosulfate)

Sounds easy? Right. Maybe with some dedication and practice, say, like, the 11 years Jody has been doing this. Jody hand mixes all of the chemicals used in each exposure. There is something alluring about something so tactile. Total mess. Total stink. Total love.

It is Jody’s capture of his subjects that really gets my attention. His photographs really go against the trend of photojournalism and action shots in photography. They are posed, calculated and controlled. Yet they capture a slice of time; a shifting expression captured in just a moment.


Maybe it is the eyes. His subjects’ eyes just pierce you. It is a rare thing to see an intentionally posed photograph where the subject is attempting to capture your soul and you find it succeeding.

To have your own soul captured, click on over to Jody’s website: www.jodyake.com.

You’ll be glad that you did. Even your stolen soul will thank you.

Jody holds a BFA from the College of Santa Fe and BFA from the University of Oregon. He currently lives and works in New York.

You can contact Jody at:
jody@jodyake.com

or visit his website at:
www.jodyake.com

Category: Wedding Planning
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