Albert James, "Dino," Transylvania, Louisiana 1999

Deborah Luster made this tintype, "Albert James, "Dino," Transylvania, Louisiana," without a specific date. The colour palette in this piece is quite limited, almost monochromatic, giving it a timeless, historical feel. There's something raw and immediate about tintypes, isn't there? You can almost feel the artist in the darkroom, playing with light and chemicals to coax an image onto the metal plate. The surface has this beautiful, almost golden sheen, and the dark background makes Dino pop out. And look at that smoke! It's like a fleeting thought, caught in a moment. You can see the texture in the smoke; wisps caught in time. It reminds me a little of the portraits by Chuck Close, actually, in the sense that both artists are interested in capturing a kind of hyper-realism through process. But where Close is all about control and precision, Luster seems to embrace the unpredictable nature of the tintype process. It's not about perfection, it's about capturing a moment, a feeling, a presence. And in that, there's a lot of beauty.