Joni Sternbach
Joni Sternbach at her Brooklyn studio, by Charles Hahn
Joni Sternbach is photographer who specializes in the painstaking process of tintype photography. Joni was born in the Yonkers, New York and holds an MA in photography from the New York University/International Center of Photography and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. She has taught photography at NYU and currently teaches at the Penumbra Foundation.
Through the window of a view box camera, Joni Sternbach has formed a love and a passion for the challenging wet plate process of photography. She has spent much of her professional life photographing surfers on the beaches around the world including Australia, England, California, New York, and Rhode Island. In doing so, she has endured many challenges and difficulties that wet plate imposes upon a photographer.
Joni has authored several books including Surfboard, Surf Site Tintype, and Surfland.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Brooklyn, New York
11:00 am
Cheri, my assistant, and I arrived at Joni’s studio in Brooklyn after a 40-minute Uber ride from our hotel in the Gramercy district of Manhattan. With four bags of camera equipment, we approach an older white building which resembles a revived warehouse.
I pushed the button to the right of the door and Joni’s voice came over the intercom with instructions to find her studio.
Joni greeted us at the studio door and we exchanged pleasantries. Joni has a pleasant voice and a calming demeaner. She is an attractive lady of 71 years of age, with short, light, almost white hair. She wore a pair of Zyl-framed glasses that she frequently removed before I photographed her.
Her studio is spacious. It is a large, open room with many windows allowing soft light to bounce off its white walls which created a kind of artistic aesthetic. Tables were uncluttered, and a few had large, antique view cameras sitting on them looking as if they were ageless trophies from the early 1900s.
Joni started her photography career shooting film, but after discovering the wet-plate process, she took a workshop given by John Coffer in 1999. John Coffer is considered a pioneer in the revival of the wet plate process invented by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. The process was valued for the high level of detail and clarity it allowed. It was used by Mathew Brady whose Civil War era photographs are iconic images found across American museums today.
At the Start
At the beginning of your interest in photography, who were some of the photographers you admired?
In the early days there was Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and Gary Winograd. Those were the people whose work I loved. Later on, I became more aware of Lee Friedlander and Bill Cunningham.
Wet plate really changed me in 1999 as the idea of making a unique object as a photograph was very appealing to me because it was all about multiples. Here was an opportunity to have an object which you could hold in your hands and had so much appeal. On glass or metal or whatever. That’s kind of what changed things for me and then I started looking into.
As a youth, when did you start getting interested in photography and when did it click into your brain that photography was your passion?
I was a fine arts major at the School of the Arts, and they required that I take a photography class. I really enjoyed it the first year, so I took it again the second year. By the third year, I transferred to the photo department. That’s when I became passionate about it, and I was like twenty years old. That’s where I’ve been ever since – with photography.
From there I got my first job working at Sotheby’s’. Got my second job working as a professional printer. I went back to grad school and then started teaching photography. I’ve always been interested in alternative processes and taught it at NYU. When I had the opportunity to learn wet plate, I did that. Wet plate was much harder thing. Not a lot of people were doing it and I didn’t really have a place to do it. You need outdoor, dedicated space so you don’t contaminate your whole life.
From there I got my first job working at Sotheby’s. Got my second job working as a professional printer. I went back to grad school and then started teaching photography. I’ve always been interested in alternative processes and taught it at NYU. When I had the opportunity to learn wet plate, I did that. Wet plate was a much harder thing. Not a lot of people were doing it, and I didn’t really have a place to do it. You need outdoor, dedicated space so you don’t contaminate your whole life.
Wet plate or tintype imaging is a very difficult process to follow. It requires an incredible amount of dedication, but the rewards are detailed images that can be easily identifiable from today’s digital world.
The Wet Plate Process
According to www.britannica.com/technology/wet-collodion: “The process involved adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate was immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide. The plate, still wet, was exposed in the camera. It was then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and was fixed with a strong solution of sodium thiosulfate, for which potassium cyanide was later substituted. Immediate developing and fixing were necessary because, after the collodion film had dried, it became waterproof and the reagent solutions could not penetrate it.”
Later, a plate of tin was substituted for glass and the process was called a tintype.
One mistake or mis-step in the process can alter or even ruin the tintype photograph. Some modern-day, wet plate photographers believe some mistakes can be good ones and add a certain aesthetic to the image.
John Coffer still conducts his Camp Tintype workshops in the town of Dundee, located in the Finger Lakes district of New York state.
Joni's photo of Miss Moss
As I look through your book, Surf Site Tin Type, your photographs are wonderful with a lot of hard work on your part. How did wet plate photography start for you?
I first learned wet plate from John Coffer. We went up there (Dundee, New York) in 1999. I had no idea what I was doing when I went up there. It was quite an experience. It’s very hard to remember all the steps from one time to the next if you’re not doing it regularly. It needs to be ingrained into your brain. At first, I was doing it once every few months because I didn’t know what I was doing and I was terrified of the chemicals. But once you get into the groove and you have yourself well set-up, it flows much better.
Joni’s photo of Ed
Your project has taken you to Australia, England, California, New York, and Rhode Island?
Yeah, and since then I’ve gone to other places as well.
Have you had any issues with equipment as far as packaging it up and securing it for the long travel?
Not issues. You cannot take the chemistry with you wherever you go. You can only go to where you can get the chemistry. Or, from someone who is living there has figured out how to get the chemistry. That was what I was up against when I was in Uruguay and Australia. You need to connect with the right people, and it can be much easier to connect with the right people through social media.
I’m sure you had everything well set up before you left home.
I did have one trip abroad which was a disaster, partly because of the chemicals, but I’m not really sure exactly what went wrong. Troubleshooting is hard, especially in another language. That was much earlier in my career.
Swirling Bokeh Effect
As I look through your book, I come across a few wet plate images that displays some interesting swirling bokeh (the effect of a soft out-of-focus background).
Joni’s photo of Dave showing a swirling bokeh
I used a Petzval lens for those. Normally I cannot use a Petzval lens because I use a lens for the shutter.
There’s a lot that goes on with making a portrait, especially on the beach with subjects who are constantly in motion. I only pulled out the Petzval for certain pictures. Usually, I just work with the normal lens.
The Petzval lens does not have the capability of a short shutter speed to stop motion. Therefore, the photographer would take the lens cap off, count in seconds, and replace the lens cap. The shutter speeds are very slow, and consequently there is more chance of subjects moving creating motion artifacts which are not usually desired.
Photographing Joni at her studio, photo by Cheri Swanson
The photographs need to be totally developed while the plate was still wet which allowed you roughly 15 minutes after the collodion was poured on the plate. The best developing temperature is 68 degrees. But you also had other issues to deal with as like wind and the sand. What were some of the issues that were difficult for you using a portable darkroom box on the beach?
The wind was the biggest issue. I didn’t really work in the hottest heat. I did in Australia. I pretty much made sure I had shade covering me. You don’t want the dark box being slammed by the sun. I’d say the biggest issue was the sand. The dark box is on the table and I’m sitting on something to develop it. Sand shouldn’t get in the dark box, but one time I did have a big wind come in and lifted my dark box up and take the silver tank and toss the whole thing on the sand. But I learned from that experience, and I made sure I didn’t put the opening part of the dark box into the wind. I just became a lot more cautious about the weather.
After a plate was shot, developed, and dried, it would need to be varnished. The varnish would protect the image on the plate from UV light, which would fade out the image through time. What was your process of varnishing the plates?
I didn’t varnish the plates in the field. I carried them back with me to my studio and I varnished them there.
Joni Sternbach at her Brooklyn studio, by Charles Hahn
What was the process of setting up your subjects to be photographed?
I’m not a surfer, so I’m not really that hip to some of the possess. I had to learn to what hip ways the surfers held their boards, how they were comfortable while I shot the picture or while I coated the plate, the whole thing. It was a big learning experience and a big collaboration to be honest. At first, I tried to direct them, and then I realized I was better off letting them direct me (Joni laughs) and we learned from each other. Sometimes I had people lined up, and during that time I could see how they were just hanging out. I was trying to pay attention to them even though I was working with someone else. In a sense, that was an influence as to how their picture was taken.
Having the camera set up with the dark box in the back attracted the surfers. It was a conversation starter and it was a community builder. I never thought my work would build a community, but it did seem to.
Joni and Jimmy, photo credit: Eric Taubman
The Mermaids
On page 55 of Surf Site Tin Type, there is a photograph entitled The Mers where there is a couple lying on the beach with mermaid tails on their legs. Can you talk about this couple and how the photo came to be?
Joni’s The Mers photo
I was in Australia when the people who were hosting me asked, ‘who do you want to photograph?’ I asked, ‘who is there? - totally spoken by a non-surfer (Joni laughs).’
How about a mermaid?’ ‘There’s a mermaid? What does that mean?’ ‘She is somebody who has mermaid tails, she teaches young girls to swim like mermaids.’
I was in Australia when the people who were hosting me asked, ‘Who do you want to photograph?’ I asked, ‘Who is there? - totally spoken by a non-surfer,’ (Joni laughs).
‘How about a mermaid?’ ‘There’s a mermaid? What does that mean?’ ‘She is somebody who has mermaid tails. She teaches young girls to swim like mermaids.’
mermaid swimming thing, but you know it’s Australia, it’s not the United States. She has a separate life as a mermaid.
First, I photographed her by herself, and then I photographed her with her partner. They posed the picture. I did not know how to pose them (Joni laughs). They already knew how to pose. She was just a gorgeous, wonderful woman, and she works for (musician) Jack Johnson when he goes on tour. They are just lovely people, and I didn’t know anything about this mermaid swimming thing, but you know it’s Australia; it’s not the United States. She has a separate life as a mermaid.
When you travel, do you mostly shoot 8” x 10” plates?
Yes, when I travel, I shoot 8” x 10” plates. I have shot larger plates, but when I shoot more locally. I haven’t traveled with larger plates at this point.
Typically, what is your camera of choice?
I have a studio camera in my studio which I use. But when I travel, I take the Deardorf camera because it comes in a rolling case and it folds up. I use different cameras for different things.
I don’t have a size I love to shoot in. I gear my film around a project that I’m interested in doing and what camera and what film and what output do I want to keep this project in. So, first I conceptualize the project, and then I work accordingly. I do shoot landscapes. I shoot them in 4” x 5”, 5” x 7”, and 8” x 10”. It depends on what the project is and how far I’m traveling. I don’t travel with an 8” x 10” for landscapes; I usually shoot with a 4” x 5”, or even a 35mm Leica in black and white film. It really depends on what the story is. I first learned photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where we photographed on the street. Those are my roots.
I did a body of work in platinum in an attempt to get the tonal range that everyone is after. I did work of the study of the human figure and motion but with more of a feminist bend on it. I was interested in how you can look at my process and be influenced by it and sort of make new things that remind you of the past that are not old or very contemporary.
Currently Joni Sternbach’s books can be found on amazon.com. Or, check her out at jonisternbach.com.
