Chrome Island: 19th Century Work: Tintype Portraits

Iceman

Presented here are a selection of nineteenth century occupational tintype photographs from my collection. They all depict people dressed for work and accompanied by the tools of their trade, from Canada and the U.S.A, 1870-1900. The originals are small, measuring just 2.5 x 3.5 inches or smaller.

Due to their cheap cost and easy availability tintypes could be considered the most democratic form of nineteenth century portraiture. Most economic levels of society, from ditch diggers to doctors, could present themselves in pictures for just a few pennies. However, it is conspicuous that the workforce depicted in the genre of occupational portraits consisted mainly of men. Although tintypes were available to just about everyone, access to varied employment clearly was not.

Like all early forms of photography, tintypes did not use negatives to produce a final image. Each picture was produced in the camera on a small piece of sheet metal covered in photo-emulsion. The image was singular and multiples were impossible. You may notice that text appears backwards in some of the images. This is exactly how the camera projected the image onto the metal plate, backwards and upside down.

You may also a notice that people don't smile much in the photographs. This can partly be attributed to the fact that once the camera shutter opened with its first click, people had to stay totally still for a minute or more, until the shutter clicked close again. The lenses and photo-emulsion of the era required lengthy exposure times to absorb enough light. The light was also all natural, with no electric spotlights, floodlights, or flashes.

Photographers used various props to help people stay still and suppress any fidgeting that would blur their picture during the lengthy exposures. One particularly medieval looking prop was the metal head clamp. Though it was carefully concealed behind people's heads, it is still detectable in many images. Look to the floor behind their feet, where the adjustable floor stand supporting the head clamp is visible. In this way, subjects were pinned within their scene like a butterfly on display, staring at the camera's dark glassy eye.

(click images to enlarge)