Tintype photography is what the cool kids would call vintage.
For photographer, artist and college instructor Sean Peeler, it’s where art, history and the natural world collide.
“I've always been an extremely visual person,” Peeler said. “I think the people that know me the best know that the thing that I enjoy the most is being outside and looking just deeply, looking at natural spaces.
“I tell people it's like a Victorian Polaroid, in the sense that you create an image on location, and you immediately have a print after chemical processing, and it's very hands-on and requires the portable darkroom and all the chemistry.”- Sean Peeler, photograher
The Butte College instructor, who currently resides in Chico, is carving out a niche in the modern art landscape by focusing on tintype, one of photography’s oldest processes.
A tintype is a unique, one-of-a-kind photograph. This photo is created on a thin sheet of iron that has been coated with black lacquer, resulting in a unique effect where the typical light and dark areas are reversed.
As the first easily accessible form of photography, tintypes achieved their greatest popularity during the 1860s.
“I tell people it's like a Victorian Polaroid, in the sense that you create an image on location, and you immediately have a print after chemical processing, and it's very hands-on and requires the portable darkroom and all the chemistry,” Peeler said.
The art of snapping Polaroids of the nineteenth century
Peeler has been operating his own tintype mobile studio. He’s been making tintype photographs since 2013.
“It was an extension of just being interested in film, dark room, antique processes, and my interest in photography and portraiture is working outdoors with natural light in the landscape,” Peeler said.
Peeler says much of the tintype photography visible across online platforms and social media consists of studio work. This style is executed indoors, utilizing artificial lighting and typically a simple white background. Peeler style differs.
Although his initial interest in tintype photography began with indoor instruction, his desire to work outdoors led him to develop the mobile studio.
“I want to be outside. I want to be in the grass. I want to be next to trees, near water, where I make portraits,” Peeler said, “and so the mobile tintype studio is really just in part, a necessity to achieve my creative vision,” Peeler said.
The intricate process requires a portable darkroom, hand-poured chemical solutions, and other specific tools. His setup allows him to capture the outdoors with all the necessary equipment.
“The first portraits I ever made were in Bidwell Park, and I've been revisiting the same five locations in Bidwell Park for the last 12 or 13 years with the tintype material,” Peeler said.
Influences and young beginnings
Peeler’s passion for art and photography has been constant throughout his life.
The primary focus of his portrait work is discovering settings and landscapes to position his subjects, crafting scenes where individuals are intimately integrated into a natural environment.
His interest in both stems from the influence of his artist father and nature-loving mother.
“I asked for a film camera at a young age, and just started making photographs of the landscape around me, and also my family and friends in the landscape around me, and then went through the traditional track of high school photography and painting,” Peeler said.
“The ability to take my visual mind, my obsession with sight and looking, and to create something that stimulates me visually and spiritually, to create something that is inspiring to my visual mind, is ultimately really rewarding and meaningful.”- Sean Peeler, photographer
He received his Master of Fine Arts in Photography from San Jose State University in 2019. He continues to pass down his knowledge of photography at Chico State, Butte College andCabrillo College in Aptos.
“The ability to take my visual mind, my obsession with sight and looking, and to create something that stimulates me visually and spiritually, to create something that is inspiring to my visual mind, is ultimately really rewarding and meaningful,” Peeler said.
Striking a pose
Becoming a subject for a tintype photograph might be challenging for some due to the long exposure time. The subject must remain perfectly still, like a statue, for approximately five seconds, which often requires adjustment.
“It doesn't sound like a lot of time, but that first moment of standing or sitting still for five seconds without moving and being aware of your body as a still subject is probably the part that takes some getting used to,” Peeler said.
He notes that any text or graphics on clothing will appear mirrored in the final tintype because light reflects differently in a large-format camera. For this reason, graphic t-shirts are usually discouraged.
“As a material that was invented in the 1850s, the aesthetic of a tintype is so unlike and so unique in the world of photography,” Peeler said. “You can't recreate the aesthetic of a tintype with a digital photo in Photoshop.”