A tintype is a very honest photograph. It is created by hand
at the precise time that the photograph is taken. And a tintype portrait contains qualities that no other photographic portrait
can quite match.
The tintype is unique just like its subject and as an object it shares both time and space with the person whose image is recorded on it.
The image on a tintype is reversed left to right. We only know ourselves as images in a mirror, reversed left to right. So the subject sees themself as he or she is used to. Not as the rest of the world views them.
You can’t retouch a tintype so the image is there wrinkles, spots, marks and all. The beautiful black and white tones of the image are captured by an infinite number of molecules of silver – 10,000 in the equivalent of a pixel.
And this honest image will last forever too, as tintypes are the most archivally permanent form of photography.
