"Too Sweet," Angola, Louisiana 18 - 1999

Deborah Luster made this photograph “Too Sweet, Angola, Louisiana,” without specifying exactly when, but it was made using a wet plate collodion process, creating a tintype—it’s the kind of process used by Mathew Brady during the American Civil War. I look at this image and think about the making. With wet plate collodion, it's a dance—coating, sensitizing, exposing, developing, all before the plate dries! So many steps before you even get to the feeling of the image, its weight and focus, which, in this case, is a man with a wry smile, like he knows something we don’t. I imagine Luster in Angola, in Louisiana, setting up her equipment, the smell of the chemicals, and the conversations with her sitter. What was it like for him to pose? Did he know how serious this process was? Did he trust her? There's something about the way he looks directly at the camera, that makes me feel as though they both collaborated in the making of this image. It feels tender, even brave.