last of the great flying fools

 carrie rivers, richard harpole

I recently got to spend the day at Chad Smith's cabin in House, Mississippi, where he and his family will be moving soon. Chad is a unique photographer, in that his camera of choice is a 60 yr. old Vageeswari, from India. Over the course of the day, Chad shot 5 ambryotypes using the wet collodion method. If you are unfamiliar with ambryotpes, it is the process of shooting an image on a prepared glass plate, and preparing with chemicals. This technique came into use in the United States around the 1850's.  The magic of the process, is that you never know what you will get.  Every photograph is truly a one-of-a-kind piece of art work.  Hopefully Chad will let us come back for another visit.  I'd love to follow him around and document the process from start to finish.  Thanks you for sharing your work, and for an an all around great day!

Chad's friend Harpo, also came out for the day, driving up in his yellow Cadillac Hearse.  I think my friend Carrie described him best...  "musician, whiskey drinker, gun slinger, oh and he drives a yellow hearse".  I'd add amazing story teller.