New York, NY
Jo B
Ruby Ambrotype, Wet-Plate Collodion on Black Glass
Image size: 8 x 10 inches
$3,500 framed
To Purchase Contact 23 Sandy Gallery
www.michaelmazzeo.com
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A portrait session is an intimate event, a collaboration between the artist and subject, during which a trusting relationship is established, thoughts are exchanged, and an image is conceived. Whether elaborately dressed or completely unadorned, the subjects of my photographs maintain a sense of dignity, grace, and empowerment. By constructing these images in a classical manner, and with judicial use of costume, light and gesture, I reinforce these attributes.
Though there is, in portraiture, a certain expectation of authenticity, the characters in these photographs are subversive in nature, occupying a space between a real and fabricated identity. My concerns lie in our perception and portrayal of beauty, race, gender, and power. I find inspiration in sources as diverse as Renaissance portraiture, Civil War era tintypes and fashion imagery.
I work in the Wet-Plate Collodion process, a labor-intensive, mid-19th century photographic method which requires me to work slowly and deliberately, carefully deciding when to commit an image to the sensitized glass.
In any one session, I expose only a handful of plates, each one yielding an Ambrotype, a unique, positive image on dark, stained-glass.
Wet-plate photography, though difficult to master, affords me the opportunity to experience photography as did the inventors and early practitioners of the medium - with little outside intervention, a degree of uncertainty, and a tolerance for imperfection, in the process and in my own abilities.Artist Biography
Michael Mazzeo is a photographer, and educator and gallerist based in New York City.
A self-taught photographer, Michael has maintained a studio in New York City since 1990, shooting assignments for advertising and editorial clients as well as commissioned portraits. In recent years, he has focused his attention on historic photographic practices, particularly the Wet-Plate Collodion process. His wet-plate portraits have been shown in a number of group exhibitions, most recently “Sun Pictures to Megapixels” at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Michael has maintained a diverse teaching career, serving on the faculty of Parsons School for Design, New Jersey City University and currently, The School at ICP . He also leads workshops in wet-plate collodion photography and historic processes at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Peter’s Valley Craft Education Center, and at his Manhattan studio.All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.
