New Yorkers Can Get Their Tintype Portraits Taken At Soho Pop-Up

SOHO, NY — A photographer has developed a pop-up tintype studio in Soho where New Yorkers can get their portraits taken in a process that was widely used in the late nineteenth century.

Last week, music photographer Justin Borucki, 42, began day-long camp outs in front of the Morrison Hotel Gallery on Prince Street between Greene and Wooster streets where he shoots, develops and creates 5-by-6.5 inch plate tintype portraits that capture an unedited side of New Yorkers.

"I want them to experience the magic that I experience when I develop a plate," said Borucki, who lives in New Egypt, New Jersey with his wife and five children. "I just love the handmade nature of it. The detail, the history — I just kind of fell in love with it. I want others to enjoy it too."

Borucki, who is in the midst of a tintype street photography project to captures old New York, uses the wet plate tintype process, which involves sensitizing an aluminum plate with a chemical called collodion. Next the plate is placed into a silver bath — this is what makes the plate light sensitive. By this point the plate is in the darkroom, or Borucki's "darkbox," which he made from scratch.

After the plate is loaded into the camera the photo is taken, then goes through a series of chemical baths to be developed, fixed and finally varnished after it is dried. The whole process takes 10 minutes to develop the photograph and another hour or so to be dried and varnished, explained Borucki. He makes the chemicals by hand in his laboratory on his New Jersey farm.

Borucki charges $50 for a tintype portrait and if you can't swing by later in the day for the photograph, Borucki will mail it to your door.

He has taken nearly two dozen plate photos on Prince Street in the pair of day-long sessions he has done so far, including a dog named Rambo, who was surprisingly still for his portrait.

His subjects appreciate the patience and attention to detail that goes into crafting a plate.

"It's something completely unedited," said Shimmy Ohana, 43, a former Crown Heights resident who is visiting from London and stopped by to pose with a friend. "We're living in such a digital age. It's important to stick to tradition too."

Follow Justin Borucki on Instagram for updates on his next Soho pop-up.

Photos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch