“The darkroom is a safe space where magic happens...”
“The blue detailing came about through my desire to push the medium, to add color, to manipulate the chemical elements which make up the medium, to explore its possibilities to create visual phenomenon.”
It all started when…
SOULDEGA: Who are you, where are you from and How did your journey with Wet plate/ Collodion photography begin?
IMAGE: I am Angela Jones, Australian born, NYC transplant. The journey began in 2013, I was in my honors year of a fine arts degree in photography in Sydney Australia and I was seeking out more tangibility from the medium.So I drove 10hrs, rented an air bnb, and did a one day workshop with an amazing mentor in victoria and from there turned my bathroom into a darkroom and continued to learn and practise the medium, lots and lots of trial and error! but have loved every minute of it! My parents garage rooftop turned into the neighbourhood daylight studio as I ran to and from my bathroom developing plates of my neighbours.
Then in each home I inhabited the bathroom became my darkroom until I managed to move to New York and secure a studio space, which has become my sanctuary and a really special place filled with years of memories of artistic growth, creation and connections.
SOULDEGA: When did you realize your niche within this particular medium?
IMAGE: My niche within this medium became that, seeking out the melding of the old into the new. Artistic creation really is that repeated continuously throughout time when you think about it. We absorb inspiration from those who went before us and respond to our own unique environments and contexts and we re-emit inspiration in the form of our own individual artistic creations.
My work is very much that, a response to what and who surrounds me at a given moment. So both Brooklyn New York, and the south coast of Australia, inform my work, when I am in either place.
SOULDEGA: We love the blue detailing that you incorporate into your plates while processing. How did you develop this style and are there any specific themes presented with this design?
IMAGE: The blue detailing came about through my desire to push the medium, to add color, to manipulate the chemical elements which make up the medium, to explore its possibilities to create visual phenomenon.
The way in which I went about creating the blue series, which I am still very much in the midst of, was a combination of this desire and a response to the times we have been moving through. In the height of the pandemic, with myself and my medium I began to experiment with self portraiture and chemical manipulations, in the space of deep reflection and questioning that was taking place, as we watched systems crumble and society awaken.
The blue series resembles cellular like blobs, constellations, planetary illusions, looking at ideas and notions of what makes us up as humans and the universe we exist within. The work explores all of these themes as I attempt to capture the essence of who I photograph, for me portrait photography is the documentation of the exchange of two spirits, the energy, the aura of an individual.
The blue series is also an exploration of diving into a universe apart from our own, playing in creative space and the freedoms and reaches of the imagination, to retreat from a damaged society and dystopian reality.
SOULDEGA: What are some of the challenges and rewards when developing your works in the dark room?
IMAGE: The darkroom is a safe space where magic happens, my particular darkroom is a tiny cubicle I built into the corner of my studio. Patience and a love of process is key, as you follow a set of steps in order to achieve an outcome. I enjoy it for both of these reasons, it slows me down to focus on what is at hand. I am present through the medium as it requires attention, and it translates into the images I create.
SOULDEGA: What inspires you to keep this analog medium alive in a digital age?
IMAGE: I am inspired to keep this medium alive because I think we need tangibility in the digital age, no shade to digital but it's important as with any artistic medium to know and understand the roots. Wet plate collodion is the roots of photography, the raw chemical elements broken down. Everytime I coat liquid onto a plate, which I've mixed up myself, from salts and alcohols, and sensitized in silver and then exposed to light and an image appears, my mind is blown. The ability to share all of these steps with the subject is also what adds to the uniqueness of this medium and I think the importance, the ability to engage. It requires investment, time, patience, all things lacking in our modern age, a connection to materials, what we use, how and why, you value it because you've made it with your own hands.
SOULDEGA: Lastly, Are there any Women wet plate artists (past or present) that has motivated you in your practice?
IMAGE: I was inspired by the work of two strong female wet plate collodion artists Julia Margaret Cameron from the 1800s and Sally Mann from the 21st century, each with their own unique approach to capturing a presence through photography. My goal was to learn this beautiful, romantic, haunting medium of photographic process and bring it into the now, through both subject matter and approach to the application of the medium itself.
To keep up with this amazing artist, follow Angela Jones on Instagram:
and visit her website: