A handmade, 19th-century wet plate process that produces a single, one-of-a-kind portrait on a metal plate. No files, no copies, just an original object made in the moment. Tintypes are the personal art practice of BLINK founder Julian Buitrago.
Tintype photography is one of the oldest forms of photography, and it is still made almost exactly the way it was in the 1800s. Julian hand-pours each plate with wet plate collodion, expose it in the camera, and develop it on the spot while you watch the image rise out of the metal. The result is a rich, silvery portrait with a depth and presence that digital cannot copy, and because it is a chemical process on a single plate, no two are ever alike.
This is alternative process photography at its most direct: a real, physical portrait you can hold, hang, and keep for a lifetime. It is also where much of the craft behind BLINK comes from. The patience, the attention to light, and the care for the person in front of the camera carry straight into every headshot we make.
Julian is the founder and lead photographer of BLINK Photo Co. Alongside the company’s headshot and event work, he keeps a fine art practice rooted in analog process: large format, medium format, and wet plate collodion. He favors decisions made in camera over post-processing, and treats each plate as a finished object rather than a starting point.
His tintypes, the Found on Street series, and his other personal projects live on his own site, along with information on prints, exhibitions, and commissions.
Visit julianbuitrago.com →
A tintype is a photograph made with the wet plate collodion process, created directly on a thin metal plate. It is a real, physical object rather than a digital file, made by hand and developed on the spot. Each one is a single original, so no two are ever exactly alike.
BLINK is not offering tintype sittings right now. Tintypes are Julian’s personal art practice. For his current work, prints, exhibitions, and commission inquiries, visit julianbuitrago.com.