YORK, Pa. — Shoppers at the 717 Vintage Fest this weekend will have the chance to take home an antique memory as well as tons of clothing and knickknacks.
Maurene Cooper, the owner of Vanity Tintype, is bringing tintype photography to the Fest. Tintype is a Victorian-era style of photography.
"It is essentially making a photograph on a piece of metal," Cooper explained. "You could think of it as the elegant grandmother to a polaroid."
She brought her portable darkroom to the FOX43 studio for a sneak peek at her creations.
Cooper began her journey into the craft with the thought that since she had grown up using similar technology, learning a skill like tintype could be an interesting teaching tool.
"I'm in that weird micro-generation, like a very old Millennial but not a GenX-er, where I grew up with analog but the digital switch happened really quickly while I was in college," Cooper said. "So I came of age using cameras like this, using film, but then professionally, I had to switch to digital really quickly because I have had a teaching career."
Cooper says tintype was the second large photographic development of the 19th century. She explained the process:
"The wet-collodion process is an intricate photographic technique invented by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 involving adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion and coating a glass plate with the mixture. From there, the plate is immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide in the darkroom, exposed in the camera, developed and fixed. A modification of the process, in which an underexposed negative was backed with black lacquered metal, known as a tintype, became very popular in the mid-to-late 19th century."
The photos come out in black and white, but Cooper says it does matter what color her subjects wear because different colors turn out differently in photographs.
Tintype has become a popular option for commemorating special occasions with a nod to the past. One occasion that lends itself well to this type of photography is a 10th wedding anniversary—the tin anniversary.
Cooper will offer appointments and walk-ins at the 717 Vintage Fest this weekend. The Fest takes place at New York Wire Works July 22-23 and is open from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday.
FOX43 Morning News anchors Jackie De Tore and Sean Streicher sat down for their own portrait to get the full experience.
