St. Gabriel, Louisiana 9 - 2000

Deborah Luster made this portrait in St. Gabriel, Louisiana using the tintype process. Look at this photographic plate! It's got this eerie, silvered quality, all achieved with darkroom chemistry. I can almost smell the acid and hear the clink of glass. I wonder about the sitter, who's probably not a professional model, but someone the artist knows, maybe someone from the town itself. I wonder what they were thinking as they sat for this portrait. Did they know how timeless and melancholic the image would look? The light seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. You know, photography, like painting, is an ongoing experiment. It's about embracing the unknown, letting the image emerge, and honoring the quiet conversation between the artist, the subject, and the medium itself.