Ian Ruhter
Silver and Light
October 16 – November 29, 2014
Valley View, Yosemite
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Mammoth
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Tunnel View, Yosemite
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Half Dome, Yosemite
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
McGee Creek
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Mt. Morrison
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Downtown Los Angeles
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Los Angeles River
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Los Angeles Alley
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
24 x 18
40 x 30
Yosemite Falls
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Tahoe Trees
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Convict Lake
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Aspens
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
24 x 18
40 x 30
Lone Pine
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: SOLD
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
Biker, Los Angeles
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
24 x 18
40 x 30
Elsa
Unique Collodion Wet Plate: please contact the gallery for details
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
24 x 18
40 x 30
Levi Brown
Signed and Editioned Archival Pigment Prints, Ed. 30
18 x 24
30 x 40
How the West Was Won, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
24 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
My Darling Clementine, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
27 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
24 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
Stagecoach, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
24 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
John Ford, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
24 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print:
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
The Searchers, Monument Valley, 2014
Unique Collodion Wet Plate
24 x 35 inches
Signed verso
Archival Pigment Print
Combined Edition of 30 Prints
18 x 24 inches
30 x 40 inches
Ian Ruhter had been working as a successful commercial and sports photographer when he first discovered the wet plate collodion process. The nineteenth century photographic process involves pouring a liquid mixture of iodides, bromides, and a solution called collodion over a glass or aluminum plate. The plate is then bathed in silver nitrate, making it light-sensitive. The plate must then be quickly exposed and developed in just a few minutes, before the collodion dries and loses sensitivity. The process is expensive, laborious, and extremely unpredictable as temperature and moisture affect the chemicals greatly and can entirely alter the developing process, ruining a wet plate. But the results of this labor intensive process are undeniable-- a completely unique and incredibly detailed image, with rich layers of silver suspended in emulsion producing a three dimensional effect. Because the process is produced and controlled entirely by hand, each plate is inherently unique, with the chemicals’ process leaving irregular and impossible to reproduce beautiful ghostly shadows, halos, and ripples in each plate.