Photographer of the week: Robert Go

Robert Go is a Melbourne-based photographer who specialises in wet-plate collodion photography, a major form of photography that was popular between the 1850s and 1880s. A collodionist makes his own film base on pieces of metal or glass, and uses a large-format view camera to take his pictures. A single photograph might take up to twenty minutes to handcraft, and the results of the process are one-of-a-kind images that can last for hundreds of years – longer that your hard drive will.

Robert grew up in the US, but has lived and worked as a journalist and photographer in five different countries over the past 15 years. He is one of the photographers bringing back the technique into popular practice in Australia. If digital photography offers technology and gadgetry, Robert tells us wet-plate collodion demands a little bit of magic and alchemy.

Robert accepts private commissions at the studio or on location, and can perform the wet-plate experience on the sidelines of other events, such as weddings. In addition to collodion, Robert also maintains a small digital practice, focusing on portraiture and assignment-based photography.

You can see more of Robert’s work here:
www.eversleystudio.com
www.robert-go.com