President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, outlaw Billy the Kid and assassin John Wilkes Booth all sat (or stood) for tintype photographs, but so did hundreds of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers before heading off to deadly battlefields.
In his 2023 book, “Lansing and the Civil War,” local historian Matthew VanAcker highlights an advertisement in the August 13, 1862, Lansing State Republican for Lansing photographer Phillip Engelhart that reads, “We presume no one will allow their friends to go to war without exchanging pictures with them before they go. It would be folly to think of it.”
The tintype process was patented in 1856, but the Civil War caused its popularity to skyrocket. Tintypes democratized photography and art portraiture — members of the working class could hold in the palm of their hand a picture of themselves, a friend or a family member. There are numerous accounts of dead Civil War soldiers holding a tintype of a loved one in their hand.
On Civil War battlefields, soldiers would line up for tintypes, taken by traveling photographers who would follow the campaigns in their wagons. After the war, the Wild West provided much fodder for tintype photographers, and their images were often used on wanted posters and as mugshots. Billy the Kid sat for a famous tintype after being captured by his nemesis, Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Several characteristics of tintype photography contributed to its popularity. The images took less time to take and process, they were cheaper to purchase (depending on size, as little as 25 cents), and they were more durable since they were printed on a piece of metal. They were offered in a variety of sizes, with most soldiers choosing one they could hold in the palm of their hand.
Like most photography techniques, the popularity of tintype photography lasted only a few decades, after which it was replaced by carte-de-visite photography and then by Kodak’s “snapshot” photography.
Despite that, itinerant photographers kept the process alive through horse-and-buggy-equipped darkrooms, which they would pull to county fairs. Tintype photographers would also set up seasonally at Coney Island and other beachfront resorts.
Locally, longtime professional photographer and videographer Raymond Holt, who worked for Michigan State University, Lansing Community College and the state of Michigan before retiring in 2018, has helped carry the photographic process into the 21st century, an era when digital photography allows anyone to capture hundreds of images in seconds.
Holt has built a studio and development lab in the basement of his home and, through trial and error, has “perfected” the process for his own enjoyment and profit. He has also outfitted a trailer he uses to do offsite tintype photography. He does commission work and can be reached at solastintype@gmail.com. Examples of his work, beyond the ones accompanying this story, can be found on Instagram at
instagram.com/solas_tintype.
To create a tintype, a plate of metal coated with dark enamel is trimmed to the final size of the photograph. The plate is coated with collodion, a syrupy emulsion of ether and alcohol to which silver nitrate is added. The coated plate is then placed in a holder, which is inserted into the back of a large camera. The subject remains absolutely still for up to 15 seconds in a sunny studio or just a few seconds outside on a sunny day while the photo is taken. The plate is then returned to the holder and developed in a chemical bath to create a one-of-a-kind photograph of the subject. From start to finish, the entire process takes about 15 minutes.
Holt is sometimes still confounded by the process, despite taking tintype photographs for six years.
“Making tintypes is cantankerous and not for the faint of heart,” he said. “Each plate has to be produced on-site and requires a darkroom of some sort wherever you go. The chemistry is sensitive to temperature and humidity, and it’s very easy to accidentally contaminate those chemicals during the process.
“It requires a lot of light, and because the process is more sensitive to the ultraviolet end of the light spectrum, light meters don’t really help,” he continued. “Once that plate is exposed, there are no changes. Every error or miscalculation is etched in silver.”
However, he said the results are worth it for both him and his clients.
“When they watch their image slowly emerge from a cloudy haze, it’s really a ‘wow’ moment, and that experience is something we share,” he said.
He had his own tintype camera custom-made by Arizona-based K.B. Canham Cameras Inc., which specializes in building large-format cameras.
Holt said he was inspired to try tintype photography after seeing a tintype of his great-grandfather. He subsequently enrolled in the prestigious Camp Tintype, run by John Coffer, a master tintype photographer based in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
Coffer is credited with reinvigorating interest in tintype photography. In the early 1980s, while working as a studio photographer for bands and choirs, he visited Detroit’s Greenfield Village and was fascinated by its tintype studio.
“I said to myself, ‘Someday, I’m going to learn how to do that,’” Coffer said. He returned to the village years later, and a curator showed him around. He learned that just before the village was dedicated in 1929, Henry Ford demanded that a tintype studio be built, and he hired Ford Motor Co. employee Charles Tremear to be the photographer. It was a perfect match since Tremear had been an itinerant tintype photographer prior to working at Ford.
Long story short, Coffer followed in Tremear’s footsteps and not only learned the art but went so far as to buy a wagon, outfit it with equipment and travel to Civil War encampments pulled by oxen.
“In the early years, there were only a dozen photographers making tintypes,” Coffer said. He became so well known that a New York City gallery hung his photographs, and The New York Times published several articles about his work and his hermit-like life. It was his notability that enabled him to launch a camp where he teaches others the process of tintype photography. Today, he estimates there are thousands of tintype photographers.
Photos by Raymond Holt
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