- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS".

In our featured segment, we head to Gardnerville to meet photographer, Rie Lundee.

This artist loves photographing landscapes, animals, people, and capturing the heart of the American West.

In order to capture a person's character, Lundee focuses primarily on tintype photography, by using fascinating techniques that date back to the late 1800s.

(instrumental music) - A tintype is an archival piece of photography that is handcrafted and handmade.

Every single one is a one-off and will live hundreds of years.

My name's Rielynn Lundee, and I specialize big time in 1800s tintypes.

(playful music) I'm starting from a blank metal plate, and I'm mixing my own chemicals that are all reacting together, creating a light sensitive piece of metal.

And then when I use it on my large format camera, that light is hitting that plate and exposing it.

I develop it, I fix it.

So I'm doing a big process by hand.

I'm using the same methods, the same recipes that they did back in the turn of the century as well.

I was born in South Lake Tahoe.

I grew up in the Carson Valley.

I was creative drawing on the pavement with chalk or using markers, and I loved sketching and exploring and always thinking outside of the box with something that did come natural.

Even though I had no idea in a million years, I would be stepping into the world of tintypes.

My studio is located in downtown Gardnerville, and the building I'm in is actually the historic diamond cutting school.

There's a lot of cinder block, a lot of vaulted ceilings, a lot of windows.

They really catered this building back in the day for diamond cutting education.

It's a privilege to be in a historic building, doing a historic process.

The camera I do work with most is my large format.

It's a Chamonix camera.

It's a beautiful piece, piece of artwork in itself.

It's a 10 by 10, so it can handle up to a 10 by 10 plate.

I can go down to a five by seven, even a four by five.

And the lenses that I acquire, a lot of them are time period.

So those are different in terms of the camera itself.

(playful music) The very, very first step is connecting with my subject as they come in.

Before I even put my hand on a tintype yet, I like to have some conversation, get to know somebody that's coming in, which is such a different experience for somebody in this day and age that we just not conversational anymore.

So people that come in, I want to connect with them, and I want to build that trust.

As I'm placing my subject, I'm doing a lot of lighting work.

I'm doing a lot of setup light by light by light, turning them off and on.

I have to just test the power that's coming out of them.

I get my subject all set up and I'm like, "Okay, now you get to hang out for a little bit."

And this is where I get to prep the plate.

Back in the late 1800s, they would use iron like thin sheets of iron.

I am using more or less aluminum.

(gentle music) I will take some collodion.

I describe collodion as liquid film.

The ingredients in that vary, but the recipes are from the late 1800s.

All of its components that are gonna react to the light and all of the chemistry are in that bottle.

I pour that collodion on the plate and I go corner to corner to corner and drain it off to where I almost have a skin on that plate of collodion, just a sheer sheen to get that nice, even beautiful pour on that plate is what the base of that photograph is gonna be landing on.

(ethereal music) So I get that plate ready and I take it to my dark room and I've got a tank full of silver nitrate.

I put it in that silver nitrate for a few minutes, about 3 1/2 minutes.

And that silver nitrate is reacting to the collodion and it's creating how lights, and it's having a chemical reaction to make it light sensitive.

(ethereal music) Once I hear my timer go off, I know it's done soaking, I'll head into the dark room with the door closed.

'cause I have to be careful now not to let that plate see light.

I have a plate holder for my large format camera, and I will put that plate in the plate holder in the dark room.

So when I close that up, it's light tight.

(ethereal music) I'll find focus.

My subject's eyes.

I'll make sure everything at that point is kinda lined up, and I'll swap out my viewfinder on the back of the camera for my plate holder.

So you do just a swap.

Perfect, and here we go.

I fire that flash.

Yes.

And that's what hits that plate in the moment and exposes it.

(ethereal music) I take that plate holder outta the back of the camera and take it back into the dark room and pull the plate out.

So now I have an exposed plate and I hand develop it.

You need to be pretty steady and sweep it well on that plate.

Keep it on that plate, and really oscillate it.

So there's a technique to putting developer on a plate.

'Cause you'll see every wave, every line, every hesitation mark, depending on how it's applied, which can also yield some really beautiful interpretive things.

If things kinda go wrong, so to speak, sometimes, they end up being really right in the end of the day.

You know, just looking through the lens of 1800s.

I submerge it in water to stop that development so it doesn't push the developer too far.

(playful music) Basically looks like a negative at that point.

(playful music) Second to the last step is basically fixing it, which is a highly diluted form of potassium cyanide.

And it yields just beautiful punchy blacks.

Kind of a golden tone in some of these.

It has that little antique tone that I really love.

(playful music) That's the point that I call the person over to watch, because it's magical.

It goes from a negative to a positive right in front of your eyes, and you get to see yourself emerge on the plate.

(ethereal music) The final process is varnishing.

My varnish is glorious to smell.

It's tree sap, lavender oil, and 190 proof alcohol.

The tree sap is the sheen that basically bakes on the plate.

I wave it over a flame and I heat that plate up and the alcohol evaporates off the plate.

So it leaves this beautiful lavender tree sap smell in the room too.

And that lavender oil just helps it not to crack.

(playful music) I think there's something about this that has longevity and tangibility and history that it feels an honor to be a part of in this valley that no one else is doing here.

It makes me slow down as well.

I have to slow down.

I have to be methodical.

I have to really think things through.

And it's not something that you can, you know, just on a whim, do.

And so I think I really enjoy that aspect of when someone's really moved by it and they see almost their soul in a different way in this 'cause it does bring out each human in such a different way.

I think that is something that's very alluring and kind of addictive in this process too, is pushing into that.

And I absolutely love it.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

Meg and Dillard Myers.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Chris and Parky May.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

(jazz music)