"Fortune Revealed" — Wet Plate Collodion Photographs
- Jun 25
- 1 min read
In May 2017, I took part in a group exhibition alongside fellow members of Coletivo Imagineiro, a collective founded by Roger Sassaki and dedicated to the study and practice of historic photographic processes. For this exhibition, we chose to work with the ambrotype, a nineteenth-century photographic process that produces unique images on glass, rich in materiality, time, and imperfection.
Working with the ambrotype is an exercise in slowing down. Each photograph demands presence, precision, and a willingness to embrace unpredictability. The entire process is carried out by hand—from the chemical preparation of the glass plate to the moment the image emerges during development—transforming photography into an almost ritualistic experience.
The video below offers a glimpse into the exhibition and the work of the collective, revealing not only the finished images but also the intimate relationship between technique, time, and memory that defines these early photographic processes.
The exhibition was organized as part of the celebrations for World Photography Day, bringing together eleven invited artists to create new works based on a shared concept. For this edition, each participant drew a fortune cookie and received a different phrase as the starting point for their work. From this initial gesture, every artist developed a personal interpretation using the ambrotype as the primary photographic process.
Alongside the exhibition, the project included a public program featuring lectures, live demonstrations, and workshops dedicated to historic photographic processes. The exhibition took place at Casa Ranzini, a protected historic building in the Liberdade district of São Paulo, Brazil.
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